LONDON CHAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13497, 25 May 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

LONDON CHAT.

fcROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, April 12. Wves while wo were revelling in the dcHehti of tKat ' record " Eastertide, /when cloudless and sunny midsummer blazed forth in March, wo -were secretly dreading the reaction, 'which usually follows abnormal anticipations of summer. And our apprehensions have been fully justified. ; The glorious weather continued unbroken throughout Easter week/but the barometer had been steadily falling day by day, and on Friday night a heavy south-west gale • suddenly broke over the country, accompanied by torrents of rain, the last being, ' by tho way, very welcome, as the whole country had been parched by the protracted drought and sudden Easter heat. On Sunday there were copious falls of snow, and all this week the weather has been wintry, two days black fog being specially i ; i; included in London's particular share of the meteorological spree. The spring is almost unprecedented!}- late, and the trees generally '.'::'■: show still but little sign of coming foli- ,' age. Last year they were nearly as forward in January and February. But we all hope tv ; that, as the old madrigal says, "Summer is q s - a-cumen in" the spelling is sixteenth century, not mine! ■ . Hardly yet can the Eastertide influence upon London be said to have fully spent itself. Many people are still away. A good many have come up to town just for some particular festivity, leaving again directly afterward. But next week the "season" will bo in fairly full, swing, and owing to the presence of the colonial Premiers and their wives, it is assured of success, as the entertaining will be exceptionally extensive. V lord cromer's resignation. rf I Unquestionably the historic event of the current week has been the resignation of Lord Cromer —perhaps the greatest of the "; - three "great Pro-Consuls" who have held • ; the leading place in British Empire-making ;' during the present' generation. Great as : V, -was Lord Milner in South Africa, equally : great as was Lord Curzon in India, it is probable that Lord Cromer, although there has been much less of the spectacular and obvious about his work, will figure in history as tho most valuable of the three. It > would be pure surplusage were Ito relate to ' * New Zealand readers the biography of Lord Cromer. Everybody in New Zealand who • knows anything at all about the events of :' the past half-century, is well aware that "■■''..'. Lord Cromer may justly be termed the ■ ' creator of Modern Egypt. Just as Lord Wblseley first, and then Lord Kitchener, were the military, saviours of Egypt, so Lord Cromer worked the salvation of that "distressful country" from the financial - and commercial and practical standpoint and the success of his work has been complete. His resignation 'was announced in J Parliament last "night, by Sir Edward Grey, with genuine emotion; and Mr. Balfour '-' '. commented upon the news with similar feeling. Nor is this at all surprising. Both men were in a position to know-none bet- ■: ter—the enormous value of the services which the great statesman, who was successively Mr. Baring, Sir Evelyn Baring, and Lord Cromer, had rendered to the Empire during a period which only lacked one year of a half-century, and especially dur- , ing ail the troublous times of England's Egyptian, rule. And' there was a pathetic note in Lord Cromer's letter of resignation, which could not fail to touch the hearts and feelings of those with whom he had so long co-operated in a great Imperial, work. "I am thoroughly worn out," said Lord "Cromer in his letter, and in the 67th year of his age, after 49 years of hard public work, he has surely earned., the right of ■' retirement and repose. .. .-. ■■'. ArrRECIATED ON ALL SIDES. ;4llt was remarkable, but at the same time ■ *tiost gratifying, .to, note* the entire A unanimi ; "fty, of both-political sides in appreciating ', -and Tecognisingthe value of the great work, ] so unostentatiously performed by. Lord . Cromer. That "he will receive some distinguished mark of Royal and public favour ' j on his retirement is taken for granted.. Al- . ready he has; climbed more ■' steps in * the social scale than it.is given to most public . men to mount—Knight Commander of the ] Star of India, Grand Cross of St. Michael . ~".,'■' and St. George, Grand ;Cross of the Bath, ; Privy Councillor, Baron, Viscount, and . . Earl form a fairly goodly list of titular hon- ] . ours. It is generally supposed that'a mar- \ quisate will now be conferred upon him, but'* there are not wanting many who consider that Lord Cromer would confer high ' honour upon a dukedom. However, we 1 shall see what we shall see. * , His successor is a New Zealander by ' birth. Sir Eldon Gorst,; who was Lord i . - Cromer's lieutenant, is the son of Sir John : Gorst, of ancient New Zealand fame, and was born in the Waikato district of Auck- . land, _in 1861. He is credited with high j ■abilities and equally high character,' and once again it is gratifying ;to find both ] sides—Conservatives and Radicals alike i enthusiastically concurrent in the conviction that he is absolutely the one man for .the difficult post, and the only man who' -can fitly succeed his 1 ' late '~ chief. It is in- • deed a special stroke of good fortune to the < 'British Empire that it has so eminently ] eligible . a successor available to such an exceptional Pro-Consul as Lord Cromer in ' vlthe direction and virtual command of what 1 is perhaps England's most important outpost on her Imperial high road—her second '. Gibraltar on the route to India. i '.■•■'-- THE FALL IX CONSOLS. \ Controversy still rages over the question , why consols stand so low. Volumes are being talked and written about the melancholy decadence of British credit in the [ money markets of the world. Even to-day, : although the bank rate has dropped from : the 5 per cent, point, at which it has remained for a longer period than at any I other time during the last forty years, con- , Sols keep at 86. And hardly any two people ' seem able to agree about the reason why. i 'But at last a theory has been broached. .-. It reminds me of a little incident which

onoe came under my notice: A scientific - , man was asked by his younger brother, "Why something-or-other— forget what— !/ floes something-or-other." The scientist was momentarily at '.a loss. He could not for . the life of him remember just then, a.nd so I he cut the Gordian knot. "It doesn't!" he said. ..And that is practically how the latest ;- theorist answers the question, "Why are Up consols so disproportionately low?" He £-1 says simply, "They aren't"his argument fi being that at the present rate of interest, 2j per cent., and in view of the numerous competing " gilt-edgers," consols are quite V as high as there is any reason to expect, and quite as high as, in his opinion, they „V - we ever likely to be, except temporarily '- and sporadically. Which is very consoling! -S'rf ■• ' '•'■:?.::: '.- ■ :■■''■'■■'■ &«- .. - .-■■■■