ANGLO-NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13938, 21 December 1908, Page 5

ANGLO-NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

[FROM OtTR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, November 13. At a gale of rare postage stamps held here a . few days ago, an old New Zealand green stamp of,the face value of Is realised £13 10s. A*'red New South Wales penny stamp, 1851, was sold for £7 ss, while a perforated 6d Victorian orange of the 186062 issue found a purchaser at £11. FOOTBALL BRIBERY. The prosecution of Edward Croston, coal merchant, of Wigan, for attempting to bribe two New Zealanders (now members of the Wigan Northern Union Football Club) to lose the match against Hunslet on September 12, commenced in the Police Court at Wigan on Thursday last, before a bench of 10 justices, of whom Mr. R. Leyland was chairman. After hearing voluminous evidence, the Bench retired to consider their decision, and returned in 20 minutes to say they were equally divided, so that a new trial would have to be held beforo another Bench of magistrates. When the case came on again two days ago, beforo the different Bench, Croston strenuously denied the charges, but the magistrates unanimously found him guilty, and sent him to prison for two months, with hard labour. SALE OF A BOOK. At a sale of books held by Messrs. Hodgson and Co. last week, a copy of Hooker's " Floral Novas Zealandiae et Tagmania?" (four volumes) was sold for £29 ss. A NEW ZEALAND FLAG. At Hastings (Sussex), on Monday, Alderman Mitchell, the retiring Mayor, unfurled the Union Jack sent by the school children of Hastings, New Zealand. The flag was entrusted for a year to the car© of the St. Mary Castle School. EDWARD GIBBON WAKEFIELD. One of the few survivors of the Wakefield family, Mr. Edward Wakefield, lectured at the Imperial Colonial Club a few nights ago on the prophet of colonisation, Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Mr. Wakefield mentioned, at the conclusion of his address, that the bust of Edward Gibbon Wakefield in the vestibule of the Colonial Office in Downingstreet, bears no resemblance to him. A much better likeness is the life-size portrait, with the bloodhounds and beagle, by Landseer, in the art gallery of the Museum at Christchureh. There is now a movement for erecting a statue to his memory; but his own feeling is that the only monument required already exists in the British Colonial Empire, which, if the principles of the founders are steadfastly adhered to,, will endure for all time, and grow stronger and fairer by the lapse of each succeeding century. CHEAP CABLEGRAMS. Last Tuesday, at the opening meeting of the 41st session of the Royal Colonial Institute, held at the Whitehall Rooms of tho Motropole Hotel, a paper on " Penny-a-Word Telegrams Throughout the Empire was read by Mr. J. Henniker Heaton. He remarked that the cables should be for the people, and not for the monopolists. Sir Joseph Ward, New Zealand's Prime Minister, says: "As one who has at heart the cheapening of communication between the peoples of the world, I extend to you my sincerest wishes for the success of the reform, and I look for the time, at no very i distant date, when I shall receive your weekly shilling telegram of 12 words." He declared that if they united to solve the difficulties this now closed door to cheap intercommunication between all the peoples of the Empire would be thrown wide open to all. Cheap cabling was the key to all the really momentous problems that confronted statesmen an merchants. Mr. Lemieux (Postmaster-General of Canada), in opening the discussion, said the advantages to be won by Mr. Henniker Heaton's proposal were too obvious to need further comment. Mr. Marconi remarked that they might ask whether it would be possible by means of wireless telegraphy to have a reliable service at ono penny a word between England j and Canada. He would answer that this would certainly become possible in time. Mr. Henniker Heaton said that he would like to ask Mr. Marconi whether he was prepared to trasmit messages from shore to shore between the United Kingdom and Canada for one penny per word? Mr. Marconi: Do you mean at once? Mr. Henniker Heaton: Yes. Mr. Mffrooni: I should say yes, providing the Governments concerned, or one of the Governments, will pay for tho working expenses of the stations on both sides of the Atlantic, and also give a comparatively moderate subsidy. Mr. Henniker Heaton: That is exactly the answer I anticipated, and it turns out on that speculation we can carry 3.000,000 words to America for about £25,000, as against £180,000 now given to the cable companies for tho same number of words. Others who took part, in the discussion included: Sir George Doughty, M.P., Sir Charles Bruce, Lord Strathcona, and Mr. G. R. Neilson. The last-named severely criticised Mr. Henniker Heaton's proposals, and asked what was the good, at present, of crying for the moon? Let them devote themselves to the practical and not to the chimerical. Speaking at a meeting of the Eastern Telegraph Company on Wednesday, Sir J. Wolfe Barry said the committee appointed to consider the matter regarded all proposals for a very large reduction in existing rates as quite impracticable. • NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIAN LAND COMPANY. On the 17th inst. the meeting is to be held in Edinburgh of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company; the report ! which is issued by the directors is for the year ended March 31. It is stated that the sum brought forward is £3301, which, with , tho net'profits from working the estates during the year, after charging interest in the debenture debt, amounts to £267,017, making tho balanco at credit of revenue account £270,318. .The directors recommend a dividend on the ordinary stock of seven per cent., find a bonus of five per cent., both free of income tax; to carry to contingency fund £80,000 and to reserve fund £80,000, leaving to be carried forward £4318. In New Zealand, remark the directors, the wool clip, amounting to 24,593 bales, exceeded that of the previous year by 625 bales, this jncrease being mainly due to the inclusion for the first time of the clip from the Marathon run. The net return per bale was £14 14s 2d, which is a reduction of £1 7s lid per bale on the average price Of £16 2s id realised for the two previous years, but 14s 8d per bale in execs?; of the average obtained for tho past 10 years. FEMALE SUFFRAGE IN NEW ZEALAND. '. Mr. P. A. Harrison's contribution to the Westminster Gazette on "Woman Suffrage in New Zealand" is the most entertaining and certainly the most appropriate of the series. Mr. Harris says:—"Except in tho drink problems, it would be difficult to trace the effect of women's votes on New Zealand legislation. The traveller can see nothing.in either tho streets or the homes of tho people to remind him of it woman's suffrage; tho girls are pretty, well dressed, and as womanly as English girls, caring for the same, tilings, showing the same sympathies. Perhaps there is a growing tendency for women to go into factories and offices, but the same movement is going on everywhere, and I can hardly think the suffrage can be blamed for that." EASTERN EXTENSION TELEGRAPH. The 17th half-yearly ordinary general meeting of the Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company was held this week, Sir J. Wolfe Barry, K.C.8., presiding. The chairman noted that tho gross revenue for the half-year amounted, in round numbers, to £290,000 against £304,000 for the corresponding period of 1907, showing, therefore, a decrease of £14,000, duo to the commercial depression that appeared all over the Far East about a year ago, and which unfortunately still prevailed. Even with Australia, where good rains and other favourable conditions have continued, the traffic shows a falling off during the half-year, although they had managed to hold their own fairly well in the keen competition that was still going on with the State-owned British Pacific cable.