ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1151, 23 March 1894, Page 29

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

From Our Special Correspondent, London, February 2. The current number of Sketch contains a picture of the sterlinglsilver shields which the Lawes Chemical Manure Company are offering to farmers of the South Island of New Zealand. The first prize will be open to holders of between 400 and 1000 acres, and the second to those who farm from 100 to 100 acres. 'The centres of the shields contain an emblematical figure of Agriculture surrounded by an ornamental border sustaining Elizabethan shields with heads of sheep and oxen, farming produce and implements. Lord Stanmore's speech against the Government on the Employers' Liability Bill has aroused the bitter wrath of the'Radical organs, which are saying all the nasty things they can think of concerning the erstwhile Sir Arthur Cordon. One of the unkindest cuts is to the effect that His exExcellency was such a. direful failure as a. Colonial Governor that Mr Gladstone had twice to postpone the offer of the peerage, which was only given in redemption of a pledge made to the late Lord Aberdeen. ,\£—Many old identities in New Zealand will regret to hear of the sudden death of Mr " Manukau " Jones (who must not be eonfounded with Mr Joseph " Mokau " Jones), who dropped dead whilst on his way to the city on Wednesday afternoon. The deceased was well-known in the Thames district, and was associated with many mining enterprises there and elsewhere in the Colony, lie came Home some years ago, and since his arrival had taken a hand in the promotion of many colonial mining speculations some bad, some good, and many indifferent. None suspected him of bad health, but it seems that for some years his heart had given him a great deal of trouble. An inquest will probably bo. held to ascertain the exact cause of his death. °£-I happened upon Mr 11. R. Hunt, of Auckland, the other day in the city. He had nothing very definite to report regarding the progress of affairs in connection with the mining speculation he is endeavouring to promote here. For the last ten months ho has been waiting for the report of the expert who was sent to New Zealand to examine the property by a wellknown financial and engineering firm. This gentleman is expected Home next week, and if his full report turns out as favourable as the preliminary one he sent to London some months ago, no doubt the company will be floated speedily, though the present is not a very happy time to call upon the public, to take up shares in a New Zealand mining concern. Nobody takes Mr Arthur Clayden seriously, and consequently the lecture on " Colonial Liberalism" at the National Liberal Club last Tuesday evening was only moderately attended. Mr Clayton dilated glowingly on the go-ahead legislation of the various Australias, particularly New Zealand. He found the secret of the Radical legislation of the Antipodean colonies in the antecedents of the colonists. They were chiefly descendants of the hardpressed Britons —small farmers, tradesfolk, and agricultural labourers—and the remembrance of their former social disabilities had led them to receive with avidity the Radical teachings of the colonies as to the causes of such evils. Hence the earlywresting- of reforms, which the old home had still before them only as a distant hope. For a couple of decades the leading- measures of the Newcastle programme had been enjoyed by all, or nearly all, of the seven Australasian colonies. Payment of members, triennial Parliaments, local option, free secular State schools, universal disestablishment, and a close approximation to universal suffrage, had been enjoyed by them so long as to be regarded as mere matters of course, and the vast advantages that had accrued from the democratic rule made the hesitancy of old world politicians as to their adoption appear somewhat incomprehensible. These primary reforms, however, were but stop-ping-stones to more drastic and fundamental ones. . . . Mr Henry George's epoch - creating- book, " 2 > rog-ress and Poverty," was an eye-opener for the colonists, and some of the leading statesmen having embraced his views, a land reform propaganda spread thorn throughout the colonies, with the result of the semi-revolu-tionary legislation, of which we have heard so much during the last three or four years. From the Hull Eastern Morning News I clip the following, which lias reference to Mrs Yates'promotion to Mayoral dignity : " Advocates of woman's suffrage will observe with appreciation that New Zealand, where advanced opinions on the duty of women prevail, is the most prosperous of our Antipodean Colonies." An old Nottingham resident writes to the local Daily Guardian on the subject of New Zealand, in which Colony he is

now " settling down to colonial life." Like most new chums he has plenty of faults to find with the country of his adoption, lie naturally finds things very different, to what they are in England. His first plaint is that "Social Democracy is on the ascendant," and that there is " a craze for new laws on every conceivable subject." Apparently you get all the laws you want passed, but don't enforce the majority of them. The writer avers that if the betting: law was enforced three-quarters of your waste population would become bankrupt! What a shockingly bad lot you must be ! Mr " B." (I wish these growlers woidd identify themselves more) says he hasn't; been in the Colony long enough to share, in New Zealand pride and vain-glory, and he confesses that he would dearly like to wipe out nearly all the laws on which colonists do pride themselves most. Your " newspapers are made up of advertisements (especially of quack medicines), reports of races, local news of little interest, and 12 or 1"> lines of condensed cablegrams." Fancy an editor condensing a cable! The usual process pursued is to make art much of each message as possible. Then Mr " 15." gives one point to the Colony. You manage your elections much better than we do in the Old Country. Hug thin fact to your bosoms, for it is the only redeeming point the writer can put forward. He next touches upon Prohibition, but, alas! finds that in spite of all orders thero is much drunkenness in the Colony, and when your local option party have got their way he is afraid that you will (as the song says) "go on boose more than ever." Even at the present time, he says, " New Zealanders are not conspicuous for their temperance : in fact, you must ' shout ' pretty frequently for whisky to be in the fashion." Ho knocks oil the head most conclusively the prevalent idea that living is pretty cheap in the Colony in this sentence : —" Almost any labourer can earn 10s per day in this happy land; but we must consider that-Is would buy more in England." An old Devonshire lad, writing from Ascot Vale, Victoria, to the Western Daily News, warns intending emigrants against Victoria, and counsels them to betake themselves to New Zealand (preferably to the Canterbury district), the future of which Colony ho seems to think promises infinitely better than any portion of Australia.

I'm glad to see Jno. R. Rogers perking up a bit and advertising the new conrc opera, " Wapping Old Stairs," at tlua Vaudeville in quite his ancient style. To give him his due, "yours merrily" does know how to advertise, though I fear ho won't be able to persuade the public to patronise this venture. But wo shall so i. Author and composer are both new to town. After seeing G. W. Anson's broken-down, bibulous actor in " The Old Jew," Mr Haro —still far from well gave up all idea of attempting himself to play Eecles in the pending revival of " Caste " and engaged your late visitor. Anson has certainly not gone off during his long stay at the Antipodes. It was no easy job to pick up his just position on the metropolitan stage after such a lengthy absence, but Mr Anson has done it. As first lowcomedian at the Garrickhe will indeed hold rather a superior position to the one he had at the Adelphi when he left England,