ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11057, 8 May 1899, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

[from our own correspondent.] London - . March 30. OLD AGE PENSIONS. A DULL pamphlet has been issued, containing an address on old age pensions, delivered before the Insurance and Actuarial Society, at Glasgow, by Mr. G. C. King, the actuary of the London Assurance Corporation. As was to be expected. New Zealand comes in for a share of attention, and it is pointed out that under the Colony's Act" it will be to a man's disadvantage to save any money beyond £50, because, unless he can secure more 'than 63 per cent, on his investments, the pension will pay him better. And it will be to his disadvantage to earn more than i-OT » year, because for every pound above that amount he must sacrifice a pound of pension." In Mr. King's opinion the Act is likely to prove a very dangerous experiment, and'to have an almost certain effect of acting detrimentally to wages, while tho enormous amount of minute inquiry necessitated will be costly and probably inefficient. At the National Liberal Club, on Friday night, there was an interesting discussion on old age pensions, the ground of the debate being really whether the time was ripe in Great Britain for a practical experiment Mr Reeves, who took part, said the great question to be first decided was "what was wanted." He thought a universal scheme hardly practicable. THE S.S. CHINA. Mr. Crawford, the second officer of the fi s China, has been exonerated from all blame in reference to the stranding of Ins vessel at Perim a year ago, the decision or the local court who censured him being reversed. Judgment was delivered on Saturday last, in "tho Admiralty Court, by bir Francis Jeune. The decision was concurred in bv the Trinity Masters. It will be remembered the Hoard of Trade ordered tho rehearing on the ground that they were not satisfied that justice bad been done by the tribunal at the Aden inquiry, inasmuch as severe censure had been passed upon Mr. Crawford, the second supernumerary officer, for not impressing upon the captain that lie thought an improper course had been set, this censure having been passed upon Mr. Crawford without his having had an opportunity of being heard. The Aden tribunal suspended the captain's certificate for six months, but there was no question about this part of the finding. The Court now held that the master was solely in fault for the stranding, for setting and keeping an improper course, and that there was no excuse for his conduct, but with regard to Mr. Crawford, the vourt acquitted him altogether of any blame. As the master's certificate had been already dealt with, and he had suffered the loss of his certificate for six months, the Court made no further order. Each party to the rehearing must pay its own costs.

In the opinion of the Westminster Gazette, the judgment in the s.s. China ease establishes a precedent of the utmost importance to mariners. Mr. Crawford " fulfilled his duty by reporting to the captain that the ship was out of her position, and it would have been inconsistent with discipline if he had gone further. The judgment is a sound one, for the subordinate officer having no power to take command out of his captain's hands ought not to be exposed to censure when he has carried nut his duty byputting facts before his superior officer." A. AND N.Z. MORTGAGE COMPANY.

In their report for the year 1898. to be presented to the annual meeting to be held in London on April 10, the directors of the Australian and New Zealand Mortgage Company (Limited) state that there is a balance to the- debit of profit and loss account ot £4749. £4500 has been transferred to the credit of this account from the reserve fund, making, with a balance of £297 brought forward from last account, £4797 to meet the deficiency above alluded to, and allowing £49 to be carried forward. While iu most districts of Australia pood rains have been reported, it is feared that portions of New South Wales and Queensland still suffer from the drought which has so long prevailed. THE AUSTRALIAN CRICKET TEAM.

Referring to the coming visit of tlio Australian cricket team, a good deal of comment is being excited by the extraordinary pains bestowed upon its selection. " Colonial cricket this season lias been exceptionally keen and interesting, and in the well-fought, evenly-balanced matches between the colonies, genuine talent has had every opportunity of asserting itself," says one writer. "The result is now on its way to England in the shape of 14 representatives of the cricket of Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia. None of the other colonies has been thought worthy to contribute a player. And. seeing tlio ridiculous ease with which New Zealand—the strongest of them—has been reentry beaten in Sydney and Melbourne, this is not surprising."

NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING COMPANY'S SAILING FLEET. New Zealand waters will know no moro the sailing craft of the New Zealand Shipping Company, for it has been determined to adhere to steam vessels only. As a. result of this decision on the part of the company the sailing ships flying their house flag have been got rid of one by one. Now the last three of the fleet, the Turakina, Opawa, and Waitangi. at present on their homeward voyage, have been sold. The last to go was the Waitangi, (lie purchasers being a Norwegian firm. Is there not something appropriate and poetic in the fact that the last of the fleet, so well-known in the harbours ot "The Long White Cloud," should have borne such a name. THE MAILS. It was not until Saturday morning that the post office here woke up to the fact that there could be no Vancouver mail. Apparently the officials imagined that as long as the Canadian Pacific Railway Company carried the New Zealand mails to Vancouver it would be all right. By Saturday morning, however, they were convinced thejr were wrong, and notices were issued that owing to " the packets having ceased to run to New Zealand, the mails would not be sent via Vancouver." This was small comfort to those who had lost the Suez mail the previous evening, owing to the blundering at St. Martin's Le Grand.

THE CALLIOPE DOCK. Recently the Morning Post published an article on " naval finance," in which no mention was made ol the Calliope Dock at Auckland. Mr. David Satow, of Paignton, South Devon, who was present at the opening ot the dock, and saw it being built from its commencement, has rectified the. omission by not only calling attention to it, but by giving the main details of the work, and in recounting the Admiralty proposals in regard to it be has made the advantages of°the dock perhaps more apparent than if the writer of the original article bad dealt with it, FLIGHTLESS BIRDS. New Zealand scientists will doubtless receive with pleasure the ninth volume of "The Cambridge Natural Historv" series, for in this Mr, A. H. Evans gives'a general survey of the birds of the world, and deals most interestingly with the form of bird-life known as " wingless." One reviewer, bowever, rhinks " flightless" the better word since all these birds "possess rudimentary wings, though these are useless for flying, and, in the case of the kiwi, are invisible. In this group are reckoned the moa, once a native of New Zealand, but long ago i9fl na S'S antic rd wuicl) stood about "ft high, and the tepyornis, wlise bones are round in Madagascar." THE MUTUAL LIFE ASSOCIATION. „,. Under , Insurance Notes the Financial iimes of to-day has the tollowing: _" In he Chronicle' of the Mutual Life Association of Australasia we see a prominent paragraph recording that on the death of a New Zealand policy-holder the directors at once paid the sum assured direct to the widow, without requiring her to gc to the expense of securing probate of he. husband's will, which, however, she had to do before she could get i title to some land of which he died possessed. This is avowedly given as an illustration of the superior advantages of life assurance and of the liberality of this office in particular If thiswere the usual practice of the association we would not object to the publication of it, although we would seriously doubt the wisdom of its action; but wi do not believe that it is tho usual practice, and, therefore, the notice is so misleading that it should not be sent out in an official paper. If laxity of the kind were common the society would soon be involved in a maze of litigation. If it was an exceptional case, due to special knowledge of the circumstances, it should not Lflve ken used as an, ttdvertisemeat; to,

awaken general hopes of such treatment. he association is so good that it may claim support on its real merits, without dragging in krelevcnt and delusive recommendations. MISCELLANEOUS. One effect of New Zealand's name having been kept to continuously to the front of late bis been the inundation of the AgencyGeneral with the requests for information respecting the colony. Some of the wouldbe emigrants appear to be marvellous men. For instance, one wrote yesterday: lam an all-round man; can keep books; milk a, cow; can manage a printing office or plough a field; ran lecture or edit a paper; but am anxiju'J for a country life. Ihero should be scope for that man here. In the Manchester Guardian notes on the expansion in the output of gold from New Zealand is one quoted from the New Zeai\x;i Herald; also the trade statistics of Auckland. 'Hie Guardian culls also from the HERALD in reference to the Vancouver mail change, and opines that Queensland s desire to secure the sen-ice may possibly, to some extent, be due to the hope of finding an increased market for her sugar in Canada. "Very strongly traded is the Daily Telegraph's description of an article which appeared in the Nkw Zealand Herald of February 17 on the Compulsory Arbitration Act. Application has been made- to the Stock Exchange Committee to appoint a special day for and grant a quotation for New Zealand £1,000,000 loan 3 per cent, scrip and stock. Among a number of changes brought about by tho new education code for this country is one which may affect teachers from New Zealand. A new grade is to be introduced by the limited admission of university graduates into training colleges. Tho door is opened moreover not only to graduates of English but also of colonial universities, "so that national education now becomes Imperial." In thus emphasising the change the Saturday Review warmly commends it. On Saturday on the Stock Exchange, in spite of the day being an unusually quiet one—it was the'first day of the mining carrv-ovei, the boat race, was on, and the nineteen day account had only just run its course—colonial l.wns held well. Amongst tho last colonial issues the Cape loan rose J to I premium, the Natal loan .[ to 3 premium, while tho ikw South Australian, Victoria, and New Zealand loans each put on {. Yesterday's Financial Times contained a petty full digest of the report of the chairman of the Lyttclton Harbour Hoard, preser.ted at the annual meeting on February 2, this being given as an explanation of why tho charges at the port must bo increased.

Among tho Slock Exchange notices appear the following:—The Stock Exchange Committee have appointed special settling days as under : Wednesday, April 12 : Anglo-Continental Gold Syndicate—Further issue of 49.133 £1 ordinary shares, fullypaid, Nos. 190.856 to 239.988. Progress Mines of New Zealrnd—7s.ooo £1 shares, fullv paid. Nos. 1 to 50.000 and 250.001 to 275,000. and 200,000 vendors' £1 shares, fully-paid. Nos. 50.001 to 250.000.