ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1107, 19 May 1893, Page 31

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

SPECIAL TO NEW_ZEALAND MAIL PER BRINDISI MAIL. (prom our special correspondent.) McKERROW v. McKERROW. London, March 24. It is seldom an Anglo-Colonial divorce affords the court as much amusement as McKerrow v. McKerrow, in which Mrs Mary Anne McEvoy, wife of Mr Thomas McEvoy, of Melbourne, is one of the four interveners, and which has been occupying Sir Francis Jeune and a special jury for some days. The peculiarity of the trial lay in the fact that the petitioner, Rachael McKerrow, a voluble Jewess with a large nose and an alert, capable manner, conducted her own case. She was not, she informed the judge, anxious for notoriety, but she could not afford counsel. The respondent, Mr Robert McKerrow, might have sat to Dickens for Mr Mantalini, both as regards appearance and charaoter. .

The story the petitioner told with much vivacity and gesticulation, and at great length, ran thus:

She nipt her ' naughty Robert' first at the boardinghouse, Barkston House, South Ken sington, which her mother, Mrs Lotinga, managed. He oame there in 1887 /Jubilee year) when they had a number of Australian visitors in the house, and made himself very popular. McKerrow gave out he was a colonial merchant and wealthy. All the ladies found the good-looking scamp, like Mr Mantalini, ' demnition fascinating,' and he could, his wife admits, have had any of them. He chose Miss Lotinga. The pair were not united many days before the shrewd Jewess found she had undertaken a pretty handful. McKerrow had neither means, nor income, nor brainß. Hia sole possessions were debts.

In June and August, 1888, she stated that respondent shook her violently and hurt her while they were at the Healtheries Exhibition. She there met an American cousin, who kissed her. She introduced her cousin to Mr McKerrow. He was very abrupt, and left her. Subsequently he shook her, swore at her, and said he would teach her not to let other men kiss her. Afterwards Mr McKerrow expressed his sorrow; he apologised to her, and allowed her to accept a diamond and eupphire ring from her cousin

as a weddiDg present. She noxt detailed the circumstances of an illness Bhe had shortly after her marriage, and which necessitated her having to call in Dr Gillis. During their honeymoon the respondent left her for come time.

Sir F. Jeune: Why ?—I don't know, my lord. He told me he had been to see a horse.

Continuing, she said Mr McKerrow wished her to borrow £IOO of her mother. She refused, and then she found out respondent was not a person of fortune, but, on the contrary, that he was heavily in debt, and she (petitioner) became a journalist in order that she might pay off his debt. Respondent was always in embarrassed circumstances. Ho afterwards obtained a situation as manager to a firm in Cannon street, at £SOO a year, which was the biggest income he ever had, although he made a settlement of £6OO on her at her marriage. In June, 1882, they lived at Blaekheath in a house which she furnished. Subsequently they went to Brighton and put up at a' boardinghouse there. McKerrow there told her ho had left his situation, and that all the money he had was £125. They left Brighton and came to London. She, seeing that something must be done, took a lodging-house at Queen's gate, and bore she found he had been into the room ot a widow lady. She went to Margate, and here .she saw he had walked about with a lady of elastic morals, which he said was no great harm. The next unpleasantness they had was about a oervant named Mary, whom she overheard calling Mr McKerrow a ' toff.' With regard to Mrs Gray she said that lady once, while at the theatre, said to her, ' 1 envy you your good-, looking husband,' which she (petitioner) did not think much of at tlje time. Shortly after that she (petitioner) looked towards the stage, and turning suddenly saw Mrs Gray'B hand on Mr McKerrow'B knee. Subsequently ho told her Mrs Gray had offered bim £SOOO to go to Paris with her. She (petitioner) said she did not think she had so much money, when McKerrow said she had, and that she had shown him her bank-book. He afterwards said Mrs Gray was a ' bad lot.' At Brighton Mr McKerrow went about in a bathchair, although he was well able to walk about. She thought he exaggerated the state of his health. She had asked Miss Shepherd why her brother did not come and smoke a cigar with Mr McKerrow, to which she replied that she and her brother were not good friends. She (petitioner) then looked towards Mr McKerrow, and he ' coloured up-'

The evidence that the Melbourne lady. Mrs McEvoy, had succumbed to the fascinations of Don Juan McKerrow, proved of the slightest, as even Mrs McKerrow admitted. That her husband was a liar of the first water and claimed to'have received amatory favours of one kind or another from every woman they had ever known, she readily allowed. What, however, she could not understand was why Mrs McEvoy should knock softly at her husband's door late at night when she supposed witness away in London. Also, why should she look disconcerted when tho wife and not the husband opened the door, and be unable to give an intelligible explanation of why she came there.

Mrs MacEvoy, for her part, explained that the interest she took in the McKerrows had been merely mildly friendly; in fact, her chief aim was lo reconcile husband and wife, who made all around them uncomfortable by persistent quarreling. She stated that she was perfectly aware Mrs McKerrow had just arrived at Brighton when she knocked at the bedroom door. She wanted to borrow a book, but the apparition of Mrs McKerrow in a furious passion, without any seeming cause, amazed and confused her for a moment.

In .cross-examination the petitioner confessed that she would never seriously have suspected Mrs McEvoy if her husband had not included her name in the list of ladies whose characters he was willing to sacrifice if she (his wife) would not make Miss Shepherd a party to the suit. Miss Shepherd was an heiress, and when divorced McKerrow proposed tendering her tho remains of his 'blighted name and battered heart.' Yesterday the case against Mrs McEvoy was dismissed, the Judge expressing the opinion thero was not a shadow of evidence against her.

HONOURS FOR DR CHURCHILL JULIUS.

The conferring of the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity on the Rev. Churchill Julius, Bishop of Christchureh, N,Z., by Oxford University, took place yesterday at a special convocation held for the purpose. The Provost of Queen's presided, and there was a crowded attendance of Dons and undergraduates anxious to see Professor Virchow, whom the 'Varsity created Doctor of Civil Law at the same time. Though the. star of the colonial Bishop was naturally somewhat dimmed by the luminosity of the colossal scientific magnate, he met with a hearty recep. lion. The Regius Professor of Divinity made the claims of Doctor Julius to honour at their hands clear to tho large audience, and there was more applause, in which Dr Virchow, who speaks ■ English perfectly,. cordially joined. RUMOURS. The rumour to the effect that Sir George Grey was about to receive the dignity of a Peerage on account of services rendered to the Empire, must have been of entirely colonial manufacture, for it has had no currency on this side. Commenting on this matter the Evening News says that the suggested title, 'Lord Parnell,' belongs by right to Mr Cecil Rhodes, in that the South African politician showed a much more active interest in Parnellism than tho G.O.M. of New Zealand. Mr Rhodes, you may remember, handed over a cheque for £IO,OOO to the Parnellite party. Another rumour, the origin of which appears to be very vague, is the one current in* colonial circles here • to the effect that the French Senate contemplate impusing maximum duties oh all Australasian 'goods entering tho ports of the Republic. True or

not this rumour has raised a rare • po w-wow' in mercantile Anglo-Colonial circles, and on Wednesday the Agents General met in solemn conclave to discuss the matter. The end of their confab was a cable to Paris asking for information, which, however, is not yet to hand—or, rather, was not last evening. It has been jokingly suggested by some people that if the maximum import scale is placed upon colonial goods it will be done as a sort of reprisal for the decrease in the values of French dairy produce, wine, &c., brought about by Australasian competition in the English markets, and for the unpleasantness of New Zealand's attitude toward France in the matter of New Caledonia. COURTNEY ON THE WARPATH. Mr William Courtney, of Taranaki, is at present up among the canny Scots trying to induce those with a little money to leave the land o' cakes and take up their residence in New Zealand generally, but more particularly in his own locality, which he calls the 'Garden of the Colony.' Lecturing at Dundee last week in the Gilfillan Hah, Mr Courtney had but a thin attendance, in spite of the fact that he had seduced Lord Provost Matthews into presiding at his meeting. At Glasgow on the 14th Mr Courtney had better luck, for ho managed to fill the Gorbals Tabernacle, though his chairman was but a minister, the Rev. John Robertson, to wit. The lecturer received an ovation at the close, but whether this was given in recognition of his abilities as a speaker or in the way of thanks for the very excellent pictorial display accompanying the text is not quite clear. Mr Courtney has still many weeks' work to do north of the Cheviots. ><- MR ARTHUR CLAIDEN. Mr Arthur Clayden, in a characteristic epistle to the Daily News, urges the payment of members of Parliament on the pound a day principle, and points triumphantly to the success of the system in New Zealand. During the last 15 years Mr Clayden has seen none of the evil consequences so freely predicted by its opponents. ' On the contrary the effect has ever been to deepen the sense of responsibility of members to their constituents. It has rendered possible tho entrance of bona fide working men to the House, and the results have been everyway satisfactory. One striking result has been increased attention to labour questions, a more rigid economy iu Government departments, and a more equitable adjustment of the burden of taxa. tion.' THE PEARCE SCANDAL. Sir William George Pearce, M.P., concerning whose all but successful attempt to slip through the Divorce Court unnoticed as plaiu Mr Pearce there has been such a ' to-do,' is a son of Sir William Pearce, tho great Greenock shipbuilder. Sir William, you may remember, had a to-do with the starting of tho New Zealand Shipping Company, and at the time' of his death held an extensive and embarrassing mortgage on their boats, which Mr E. S. Dawes was tho means of releasing. Ho had friends all over the colonies, and I fancy this present baronet may also be known to some of you, as ho lived in Now South Wales for a time. Sir W. G. Pearce is just 31 years of age, and sits with the late Solicitor-General (Sir Edward Clarko), as Tory member for Plymouth. The circumstances of the divorca case in which Sir William is involved are so commonplace and uninteresting that till the position of tho co-respondent leaked out none of the newspapers even reported it. Mr Brigstocke, a worthy tradesman, with a pretty flighty wife, discovered, through a treacherous servant, that his spouse secretly visited a gentleman in the Temple. Furthermore, 'twas found this gentleman presented her with bank-notes. Sir W. G. Pearce, taxed with committing adultery with Mrs Brigstocke, pleaded guilty to gallantries with a lady who occasionally claimed his hospitality, but denied that he knew she was married. Mr Brigstocke undertook to convince him of this fact, without delay. Sir William, thereupon, confided his interests to Mr George Lewis, who managed the case with much discretion, It was undefended, came on at half-past five in tho afternoon, when all but a few ' liner ' reporters were gone, and occupied barely half-an-hour. The co-respondent was spoken of aa ' the man Pearce ;' never as Sir William, though, of course, the full name and title appeared on the depositions, &c, and though the Judge suppositiously knew both prac* tically, there can be no doubt, he was hoodwinked.

Sir Francis Jeune duly pronounced the decree nisi, and, but for one tiresome fussy reporter, with an odiously inquiring mind, Sir William's faux pas would never have come to light. What attracted this inconvenient pressman's attention was the presence of that stormy petrel, Mr George Lewis himself. If the case were as petty as it appeared on the surface why was the king of solicitors hovering about so anxiously ? It might, the liner reflected, be worth while to find out who this Mr Pearce was. George Len-is doesn't usually fritter away his tima over nobodies.

Next night, in the Westminster Gazette, the storm burst, the cat being extracted from tho bag with fullest sensational effects in the way of headings. Sir Francis Jeune was furious, and the various minor officials whoassisted in this daring attempt to blind justice will undoubtedly suffer seriously. George Lewis' « frame of mind may be imagined. For once the laugh is not on his side. So far, despite Mr Cook, of the Westminster, has called on the Nonconformist Conscience to be put up and be doing and expel this new black sheep baronet from the fold, the Plymouth electors have made no sign. Sir W. G. Pearce intimates he will not retire unless invited by his committee, who knew the factß, to do so. PERSONAL AND GENERAL. The 'rumour in colonial circles' which attri* butes to the Prince of Wales the intention of visiting the Cape, the Transvaal, and even Mashonaland, may safely bo dismissed a* pure fudge. For H.R.H. to do anything of the sort after declining porsietent and rtw peat'd invitations from the, Australia) woul 4

give mortal offenoe. Besideg, the reasons which prevented his going to Melbourne or Sydney a few years back are equally potent now and apply just as forcibly to South Africa as to Victoria or New South Wales. Hor Majesty is unquestionably no youngor, though, thanks to a quiet, regular life, she keeps wonderfully well. Less than ever, certainly, would the Heir Apparent be permitted to betake himself far away. The yarn probably owes its foundation, like most of such tales, to H.R.H. having dropped a casual remark that he should like to visit South Africa, or something equally vague. Lord Onslow's meat bill pleased no one and has been withdrawn. His lordship and Lady Onslow left for Cannes yesterday, where they willl remain till after Easter. Amongst recent victims to influenza may be mentioned Mr H. B. M. Watson, who, however, is now better and about to leave town for a week at the seaside.

The negotiations with the War Office anent putting the colonial forces and volunteers on the same footing, re medals, &c, as the regulars and volunteers at Home have so far come to nothing owing to the Agents being unable to agree amongst themselves as to the regulations desirable. It is anticipated, however, this difficulty will soon be got over. The Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, who sail for New York in His Grace's steam yacht, the Spree, in about three weeks, have completed arrangements for an extensive tour round the world. After Beeing some- ■ thing of the States and attending the World's Fair at Chicago, they will rejoin the Spree at San Francisco and proceed to Honolulu. Here the Duke means to spend a month or two investigating the great work amongst the lepers Father Damien inaugurated and ascertaining what is required to put it on a permanently satisfactory basis. From the Sandwich Islands the Bpree will make for Samoa and New Zealand, the West Coast fiords being the point of interest their Graces specially desire to visit in the latter colony. The Homeward route will be by Australia and India. Details are as yet in nubibus, but Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide may safely be put down as ports of call. To the current * British Australasian ' the incorrigible Mr J. F. Hogan contributes an audacious «par' modestly suggesting that Victoria might do worse than utilise the services of tbo newly-elected member for Limerick as Agent General. This is what oomea of a colony sending Home public men like L. L. Smith, Munro, and Fitzgibbon to fill important offices. Any swaggering nobody now thinks himself good enough to represent the ' premier colony.' 'lf a notorious quack-doctor is considered a suitable person to figure as Commissioner for Victoria before Her Majesty at the Imperial Institute,' argues Hogan, M.P., ' why shouldn't I—a dean, respectable "liner" for Star and P.M. (J., and a non-smoker and teetotaller into the bargain—be considered worthy to be Agent General ?' To this query one can only respond ' Ab 1 why ?' The smart English folks to whom Sir George Dibbs was introduced as a typical Antipodean leader, olever, capable, prudent, and well off, read of his. * financial difficulties ' yesterday morning with wrv smiles. So this Australian hero, like the bluff Munro, and the crude Berry, was—as a popular comique warbles—' Only artificial after all.' I suggested that Lord Onslow should add the following olause to his meat bill :—' All Australian " lions " exported for exploitation in London society shall be guaranteed genuine Iby the colony despatching them and bear the brand " Solvent " (in letters at least an inch long) on the calf of each leg, their foreheads, and other prominent portions of their anatomy.' DEPARTURES. . The Shaw, Savill steamer Doric, which left on the 16thinst,hadon board about five score passenger* of all classes, including 30 firsts, 30 second saloons, and 34 steerage. Amongst the first-named are Messrs J. B. Barthrop, Blessig, H. D. Cohen, J. O. Macqueen, Edward Mason, C. H.Penny cook, A. Renshaw, H. P. Rooke, T. Simpson, C. A. Daw, J. M. Stewart. J. H. Strong, J. J. Young, and J. M. de Luleta, Mrs J. H. Beevor, Miss E. H. Birch, Dr and Mrs Burwood, Mr C. E. Cox, Mrs and Miss Cox, Mr E., Mrs and Miss Fitter, Miss B. Green, Mrs Johnson, Miss Lissaman and Mrs Parker. In the second saloon are Messrs W. E. Barker, E. Barker, Walter Barker, F. Barnaby, E. Bartholomew, W. H. Bates, T. G. Cross. W. J. Green,F.Griffiths, B. R. Homan, A. Keogh, L. Lyons, 0. A. lOeville, James Morton, A. B. Schroder, W. MeStay, G. L. Towson, A. Vanderlyn, C. S. Wfeifcie, and Reginald Wilkison, Dr T. J. Parker, Mr and Mrs W. Daw and the two Misses Daw, Mrs Adams, Mr and Mrs P. McLaurin, Mr and Mrs W. MoFarland and Mita and Miss Alice Smith. The Orient Company's Oruba, sailing today, ha* the following for New Zealand : Mjss C. Bale, Mr V. A. Brooke, Mr Carnegie, Messrs E. and G. P. Ellis, Mrs Ellis and Miss Ellis, Mr A. S. Harvey, Mr A. G. Kemp, Mrs 0. H. Lyle, Mir W. Manlea, Dr C. G. Morice, Miss M. Murphy, Miss Mary Palden, Mr F. H. Rodgers, Mr Fred Saunders, Mr G. H. Wood, and Mr and Mrs Hodgson. The Au&tralia. leaving next week, has the following bookings for Ne~w Zealand:—Mr and Mrs McAnsiane, Messrs Swan Parker, J. E. Taylor, J. B. Tomkins, W. H. Bretall, H' N. Bushby, and Miss A. B. Lowrey, Mr i and Mrs J. 8. Brown, and Miss Scot. By the Austral, sailing April 7 :Mr Otto Holston, Mrs M. E. Kensken, Mr T. Manlea, Miss M. Mylchreest, Mr and Mrs North and family, and Miss Wisshaw have already taken passage. Mr W. N. Young goes to Dunedin by the Parra-natta, sailing April 13, and Mrs Barnes and her two daughters and Mrs Thorton and Miss Thorton leave for the colony on April 28 by the Britannia. - Cargo can now be sent to New Zealand per either Shaw, Savill, New Zealand Shipping x Company, or Turnbull, Martin boats, at from 17s 6d to 20s per ton, payable either here or in the colony. Turps can be sent at 3d per gallon, as againßt 5d a few months ago. 'jysers are open to take cargo at from 12s 6J l.Ufo.

>. POOE NEW ZEALAND. Aucklanders, I regret to say, have ever had the reputation of being very apt to cry ' stinking fish ' of the Colony, but Mr Robert G. Hawes, of Northcote, may, in vulvar parlance, be said to 'take the cake ' in the matter of abusing the land of his adoption. Presumably as an antidote to the efforts of the Agent-General, Dr Murray Moore, Mr William Courtney and others on behalf of New Zealand, Mr Hawes indites a long and ferocious attack on the Colony and all that is there in to the editor of the Irish Weekly Times. His screed runs to about threequarters of a column, and from beginning to end you can find no word of praise for anything or anybody. God help New Zealand if in her 600,000 odd inhabitants there be many Robert G. Hawes. Here are a few extracts from his statement of 'bare and true facts authenticated further by slips from our local papers.' 'At present,' says he to begin, ' there is no opening out here for strangers unless they have capital, which if they have there is ten chances to one they will loose' (sic:. . . . ' Our laws, made in the interest of banks, syndicates, and lawyers are most harsh and strict, as are our police laws. None must ask for relief of the public, or obtain charity in any form outside police regulations, if so, six months imprisonment is meted out to them by magistrates who are selected for their trading principles and zeal for increasing the revenue by extortionate fines. Our police laws are the most harsh in the world, next to those of the Russian Government. For instance, a poor starving wretch was ruthlessly shot down by a mounted constable, his only offence being stealing a little food—a clear case of brutal murder. The whole affair was hushed up by indefinite promise of enquiry.' (I suppose this refers to the Ponsonby affair, about which a colonist wrote to Truth some months ago.) ' The Government has a tax upon improvements, that is to say, if the unfortunate settler cultivated his land he was charged so much an acre extra taxes, if he painted his his taxes were increased accordingly, every fruit tree he planted was taxed from the time it was planted till it bore fruit, by which time his tree would have cost him all his prospective crop in taxes. To value and collect these taxes the Government used to send round men called valuers, some of the biggest scoundrels the Coltny could produce The instructions from the Government to these was to value at the highest rate possible, and get revenue, .no matter how the poor settler suffered. ... Hundreds of small farms have been sold for country rates._ All the while extravagance is rampant in our governing classes, who have docked the Governor's salary, . . , raised the honorarium of the House of Representatives to £240 . . .for less than three month's work, or play, for either term will do. Our Ministers get £I2OO a year and free house and furniture. Next session it will probable be raised to £ISOO. Our newspapers are by no means independent—almost the whole of them are owned by syndicates or banks, through overdrafts. Their sycophancy is contemptuously prominent, as she wn in their frantic pleading for Government advertisements. Carefully is anything eliminated from their monthly summary to Britain that has not the couleur de rose in the interests of these concerned. . . . That the present Government are trying to put people on the land is quite true, but unfortunately they have no good land left to put people on, in fact are compelled to re-purchase the public estate from the squatters. . . . Our railways are worked in such a manner that the settlers living at a distance dare not send their produce to the towns, for the curious and exorbitant charges swallow up the goods sent, leaving less than nothing for the unfortunate producer. . . . Sooner or later, unless rigid retrenchment is practised, we shall have to either repudiate, or get rid of our expensive administration and become a Crown colony, not an unmixed evil, and will be welcomed by many. Our public officers are quite as corrupt as the French Senate in a small way, Too numerous to mention are the frauds perpetrated by Government officials, by no means undetected, but nnpunished. It is the old tale, none can cast the first stone. . . . This is the way our Government has been conducted, and would be so now but that our Premier is known as a strictly honest man (praise from Hawes is praise indeed), but unfortunately is unable to grapple with their corruption, the growth of nearly three decades of borrowing.' Mr Hawes winds U p : —'The capitalists of Great Britain were fools to be led by the nose to part with their capital to be wasted by men who, until they handled the loans, could not give change to a ten dollar bill. Before the borrowing policy was inaugurated we had a Government economically administered and completely satisfying the people; but, alas! men got into power and destroyed the best Government New Zealand ever saw, and from which we shall never recover, for their nominees still hold the reins of office in the Bhape of 12,000 civil or uncivil servants, for their conceit and bumptiousness is above all bearing, a gigantic family circle related and marrying into each other, headed by the chief taxer, who holds the unfortunate settler in his octopus-like arms and sucks him to death. Such is our colony of new Zealand at present," Ohe jam satis est. I believe Mr Hawes has inflicted similar tirades upon the Home papers aforetime, He is evidently one of the irreconcilable?. In justice to most New Zealanders afflicted with cacoethes scribendi it must be said that they endeavour to show Home folks the brighter side of life in the Colony, and when attacking do so with moderation. To cr*> 'stinking fish' is at all times very foolish, but at the present moment when New Zealand is rapidly rising in the estimation of the British public, such an epistle as the one quoted from is peculiarly aggravating to all having a genuine interest in the Colony.