ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1751, 27 September 1905, Page 2

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, August. 11. UNIVERSAL PENNY POSTAGE. Tlie apostle of penny postage, Mr Henniker Heaton, M.P., is to the fore again with an appeal which, he hopes, will reach “ every friend of reform, every man of position and influence in the King’s dominions.” It is intended, he says, to form a league for the establishment of universal penny postage, so that any inhabitant of our planet, white, black, or yellow, may he enabled for the sum of one penny to communicate with any other, at the lowest possible rate and the highest attainable speed. ~ “ The hour has struck,” says the penny postage champion, “ for this grand, yet simple, assertion of the brotherhood of nations; of a change which threatens no interest, and benefits all mankind. Since 1898, when Imperial penny postage was introduced, our outward mails have nearly doubled. Every Friday some 250,000 British letters pass through France and Italy for India, Hongkong, and Australasia—--12,000 miles. The postage on each of these letters is Id. By the same , boat a few British letters are carried for residents in Calais—twenty-one miles, and on these letters the. postage is 2fd! By what perverse ingenuity can such a distinction be justified? Or why should a letter to New York cost and another in the same bag be. carried through that city and one thousand miles into Canada for Id? That the moment for action lias arrived is indicated by the fact that my friend. Sir J. G. Ward, Postmaster-General of New Zealand, is to move a resolution for universal penny postage in the Postal Union Congress at Rome next year. It cannot be too soon or too clearly shown that this doughty lieformer is speaking with the public opinion , of the Mother Country behind him.” IMPERIAL UNITY. The advocates of Imperial organisation, for whom Sir Frederick Pollock has been acting as spokesman—a body including representative men of all sides in politics, and holding various opinions on the fiscal controversy —have taken another step forward. Hitherto no attempt has been made to enlist the support of any persons beyond those who were themselves contributing to the discussion of a somewhat technical subject. Now that the proposals have stood the test of criticism both here and in the colonies, there is justification for inviting the support of those who desire to see Imperial unity more firmly established. and who approve generally of the plan. Sir F. Pollock, accompanied by Mi* Geoffrey Drage and Mr Pitt Kennedy, is about to make a visit of inquiry to Canada with a view to obtaining further material. Tlie results will bo" in the first instance, for the use of those with whom Sir F. Pollock has hitherto been working. They will also Ik* at the service of the King’s advisers

for the time being, and, so far as practicable, of all persons who. may be seriously interested in the subjects. “ There is good reason to think,” says Mr Pitt Kennedy, “that, whenever an advance is made in tlie direction of greater Imperial unity, if will he on some such lines as have been indicated by Sir Frederick Pollock.” These proposals are, briefly, for (1) an advisory Imperial Council, to be formed on the basis of the existing colonial conferences; (2) a permanent secretarial office attached to the president of the Imperial Council, to acquire and systematise information material to- the common concerns of tlie Empire for the use of the Cabinet and.the colonies; and (3) a permanent Imperial Commission, whose members could represent all such branches of knowledge and research, outside those matters pertaining exclusively to any department., as would he profitable in Imperial affairs. H.M.S. NEW ZEALAND. The New Zealand school children’s gifts to H.M.S. New Zealand, consisting of a silver-mounted gunnery shield and a ship’s bell, were formally accepted by Captain Paul Bush, on behalf of the ship’s company, after tlie inspection of the battleship by Admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont on the eve of her departure from Plymouth to join the Atlantic squadron. Admiral Beaumont expressed his pleasure at having been requested by Captain Bush to remain for the ceremony. Having lately returned from the Australian station, he was able to assure the ship’s company of the sincere interest which, was taken in the navy in general by the people of New Zealand, of which these handsome trophies were a practical outcome. That feeling was natural, he said, on the part of the colonists, as the navy rendered great assistance to them in 1861, when they were in danger of being expelled from the colony by the Maoris, and he hoped that the ship s company would bear this colonial good feeling "in mind, and do their utmost to make the colonists proud of their namesake ship.

Captain Bush thanked Sir Lewis Beaumont in the name of the ship’s company for his kind remarks, and read a letter from the Earl of Ranfurlv, in which his Lordship expressed his regret in being unable to make the presentation personally, and assured the ship’s company of the deep and sincere interest which was being taken in the ship by tlie colony in general. Captain Bush added that in addition to the gifts which had been subscribed, for by tlie school children of the colony, the colonists had subscribed a considerable, sum of money for investment on behalf of the ship, the interest of which would he used as gunnery prizes. Tlie ship afterwards sailed for Gibraltar to join the Atlantic squadron. DRIED MILK DISPUTE. In the Chancery Division yesterday Mr Justice Kekewicli had before him the matter of Hatmaker v. Imperial Dry Milk Com pany and others. It was an application by the plaintiff, suing on behalf of himself and other shaieholders of the company, for an injunction to restrain the company and the directors from carrying into effect a contract, entered into between the Imperial Dry Milk Company and J. Layton and Company for the purchase of works in New Zealand. .The allegation was that three of the directors of the Imperial Dry Milk Company, named Nathan, who held the controlling interest, were acting in their own interests, and not in those of the company. Under the scheme it was proposed that the Imperial Company should take over for £17,000 a business in New Zealand, in which Messrs Nathan were interested. In these circumstances, the plaintiff wanted the sale contract suspended until an inquiry could he held. Messrs Nathan denied that they were acting only in their own interests. They pointed out that they were the only persons who paid any cash, and, in fact, supplied £20,000 for the working capital of the Imperial Dry Milk Company. His Lordship granted the injunction asked foi*.