ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12708, 10 November 1904, Page 7

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

$s\'.p■■>.:■■.■ up ■■■ - "•■ , :"-V '."■'-'-->-' r • ~ [FBOM ova, own coukespokdrntt.] [London, October 8. It is announced that tho directors of the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company have declared an interim dividend foe the hall-year ended Juno 30 on the ordinary shares at the - rate of 5 per cent, per annum. Mr. Hooper, of the Produce Department of.the New Zealand Agency-G-eneralj, has paid another visit to tho west coast ports, in order to inspeot tho discharge of cargo from the 8.8. Buteshire. He found great improvement in many respects.; In connection with : this direct service the Federal Company have necurod the services for a time of Captain Noakes. of the Now Zealand Shipping Company, who will nut future discharges on a mere satisfactory footing. Good business in v tho West is expected next season. On Wednesday tho manual meeting of shareholders in the Now Zealand Slapping Company was held at the London offices of the company, Mr. W. C. Dawes being in the chair. The directors' report showed a net profit of -; £44,394, making, with £10.5/0 brought forward, a total of £54,964. < Th« directors reeornnaendod a dividend 1 for the year of 5 pei cent., and a carry forward of £10,000. They recorded with deep regret the death of Sir Edwyni Dawes and of Mr. A. C. Garrickj the : vacancies thus caused had been .filled up by the appointment of Mr. J. Gould and Mr. Warrington Laing. The report was adopted. Colonel B. M. Dawes, Mr. jxtaolveit'and Mr. Westray were reappointed directors. "Silence once more reigns in the saleroom of the wool exchange," says an Anglocolonial journal. : " The English and Continental buyers have departed for their homes, and will not return again until November 22, for which daw the sixth anid concluding series of the year has been;fixed. . , The Australian and New Zealand squatters and merchants ought to bo well satisfied with the prices realised this year. The first series! opened well, and the market has gained in atrengtlii''ever'since.:'.. With, tho exception of faulty and inferior sorts, merino wool sufi- _.'.-■< tainodthe advaxioe of 5 per coat, with which .: ■' ..:■:. the last series opened, and the finer grades croasbredsh&iio also been keenly competed for at a like Improvement. During the series, 84,000 bales were actually sold, §4,000 bales we* taken for export, and 4000 biles .were purchased on, American account." r ' ■Writing *° * London paper, Mr. Waiter Roid gives the following picture of the sort of reception ■- which awaits a travelling colo- ■:: nist who desires to push business and himwsli in London commercial circles:—"May I shortly set d>wn a rather disappointing experience? I am :■.»:■■ New Zeaiander, and was fairly successful in my own line of work in New Zealand and in Australia also. I was a typewriter salesman ; for on© . thing, while doing other agency work. rl;crossed the ocean, and mad« .ray way through the United State*; and I found that neither in the colonies nor in the States did men shrink a-nd shrivel up the moment I caiied. They ail recognised it as a possible and even natural thing that:a young man with some ambi- : tion to get | ' forrard ' should go globe-trot-ting, ; making his bit hero and his bit there as any job within his competence might offer. . . It never seemed to occur to them that I must Stave embeasled, or done some other dreadful ;ihing or; I should ; not have left my ;native jlisd. But in London it is very different.~il am suspected at • particularly -by of-: iSice boys, whom alone, in many cases, I can ;.: i;ut to see. As an energetic and, I. will claim, a ..--.:.-?: nflaouroeful colonial traveller, I find I can do iilrtle with my time in London, except go to :■-: ■-■:-■..--■ music I halls and hear glorious. songs J about the, Empire's pride in he colonies. And for ■kbit I've no particular taste, nor, indeed, the " " money to spare." Some little time back I was able to inform • you that Messrs. Huddart, Parker, and Co. j Proprietary, Ltd., were having built for them * new steamship, to be called the Wimmera. This vessel has beau constructed at the yards of ■■. Messrs. Oaird and Co., of Greenock, and a most ~ successful trial ,took place at the : end :of last imonth,v when on a ran of< six - ; hours the contract conditions were amply ful—the speed being about one knot in excess. The Wimmera is now in the James Watt Dock, shipping -stores '.. for the voyage to Melbourne, i and; it is expected that she will sail almost immediately for Australia. Tfc? vessel is 34Sft overall, "43ft beam, and of a moulded depth of 30ft lOin to poop deck, with a gross tonnage of about 3100 tons. - : : .Handsome accommodation '' is provided ;: on / upper and poop derfes 170 first-class passengers, and for 100 second-class. ! The firstclass diriing-salodn en the pcop deck line accommodation for '/3 persons, and is neatly finished in polished oak, with carrsd panels. pilasters, etc. The smokingroom: and social ball are both handsomely ' fitted in '} hardwood, with carved enrichments."■•'■: The vessel has also a full cargo outfit for handling a cargo ,i: of ■ about - ?iOOO : tons ;l deadweight, four winches being placed forward and four aft, ; V.. with heavy cargo derricks to each.' A power-:-'.';ful:. windlass is placed oh the forecastle head ■ for working the ship, ; which is jtoered bylatest arrangement of 1: steam steering gear and tolemoter. She is provided with'eightboats, all fitted with patent davits. The Wimmera is neatly rigged as a fore-and-aft schooner. J Among those present at the launch, which took place from the shipbuildine yards of Messrs. Caird, recently, were Captain Cameron (Union Steamship Com- , pany) and Mrs. Cameron, : Captain Livingston (Union Steamship Company]! * and Mrs. " Livingston." ,' About a month ago I sent you some information regarding a company in course of formation to work the New Zealand ironsand . by. a new process, which has undergone some •very successful tests at Sheffield. >. A London technical paper publishes the following statements on the same subject: It is reported that a prospectiw will shortly bo issued by ; tho Colonial Iron and; Coalfields Construction Company for the purpose of utilising the vast accumulations of New Zealand iron-,: ■acid. The company has obtained a conces«on from the Government for this object.'. On the coast of the North Island, New Zea- ■ land, near the River Patea, there exists' a deposit of —principally on the beach i and in certain localities a little distance in-, extending for many miles along the ■eaboard. This, with the exception of an interior or© on the River St. Lawrence, ia said to bo the only workable deposit of its kind. By an electrical process, which obviates the necessity of having to work the iron in a conoerete form, the Colonial Iron and Coalfields Company claims to be able .' : to make pig iron in New Zealand, and import. it into Sheffield at - a price lower than the Swedish article. Many attempts have been made during the past thirty Oi forty years I to make ironsand a commercial commodity, but have failed. The difficulty has been that cf reducing sand to concrete iron, and the * chairman oi the Construction Company now » states that thin has to a large extent been overcome. He also states that the greater portion of the deposits of ironsand is iron, a cubic square yard weighing two tons. The New Zealand Government have offered pood terms to the company, and have increased the.-r original order for 50,000 tons of marketable iron, a suitable for railways, at current' market prices in England, plus the freight, to 75,000 tons. The electrical process which has solved the difficulty of working ironsand can, it is said, with 5900 horse-power, produce some j0 tons per week. Pig iron, under the process, is produced at 28s zd per ton, •ad crucible ingots at about £8 per ton." » -