Colonial Affairs ia London

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6296, 17 February 1892, Page 4

Colonial Affairs ia London

MILBOURKK, Feb. s.— When the P. and 0. Co.'b steamer Victoria reached Adelaide, Sir Graham Berry stated, in reply to a press representative, that he did not think the quarrel between the Queensland Government and the Bank of England would have a prejudicial effect in connection with the floating of loans on the London market by other Australian colonies ; neither did he think that the articles appearing in the English reviews would have a damaging effect on the colonies. Referring to the position of Agent-General, he expressed his belief that the present custom of the colonies of only doing part of their business through the Agent-General and part through the Governor detracted from the importance of the position of the Agents-General. He said he was in favor of Australian federation, but did not believe there was any life left in the project for Imperial federation. With regard to his re-entry into political life in Victoria, Sir Graham Berry said — " It has been asserted that I am out of touch with the affairs of the colony, but I may state that I have made a point of reading all the leading daily papers of Melbourne regularly, ami think I shall soon be able to demonstrate how much truth there is in the assertion. So far as I am aware, there is no English opinion on the question of whether the colonies shall in future have the right of selecting their own Governors, it having never been considered in any other than colonial circles."

The Victorian Education Department is wrestling with the question whether teachers can be permitted to give religious instruction in their own homes when the houses are the property of the State.

The recent invention at Arbon, Switzerland, of a new steam machine for making embroideries threatens to revolutionise the most important manufacturig interests of the Swiss Republic. Eastern Switzerland, with St. Gall as a centre, for 100 years has been headquarters of the embroidery industry of the world.

Mr Seymour Lucas, one of the victimß of the great railway accident in Spain, will probably, it is said, be lame for life. His leg has been broken in two places, and will be two inches shorter than the other one. The artist's claim against the Railway Company is for £10,000. It is stated that the railway authorities recognise the justice of a claim, and the only question is what is to be the amount of damages. Emperor William has ordered a new throne to be constructed, of which the frame and decorations are to be of pure cold, while the coverings and draperies will be of the richest purple velvet. The old throne of the Kings of Prussia was broken up after Jena, for the sake of the precious metals with which it was adorned, and since that period their majesties have possessed only a couple of state chairs. His Imperial Majesty should consider the words of Napoleon : "A throne is nothing but a seat of wood covered with drapery. All depends on the man who sits on it."

The United States Government are adding several fast cruisers to their navy. One of these, the Pirate, of 7600 tons burden, will be able to steam to »San Francisco on the coal in her bunkers with which she left New York. Secretary Tracey, of the United States Navy department, thus refers to the Pirate: — "She has only one purpose, that of menace to the commerce of any great commercial nation, should any such ever become a foe. lam responsible for these two vessels. I have sacrificed their offensive and defensive powers to speed and coal endurance. No captain worthy to command either of them would think of engaginging a warship on the high sea, but they will be strong enough to attack any steam vessel built for trading purposes that might be armed in time of war. The Pirate, for example, could be sent into the English Channel and could stay there four weeks without recoaling. She could keep away from ironclad vessels sent in search of her, and she could destroy every ship that put to sea or returned to that friendly havon. I designed her witli the single purpose to have a ship that could do what no other vessel can do. She will be rapid enough to overhaul any merchantman. Ido not mean by this that she would always be able to run down and capture a vessel like the City of Paris, because in a rough sea it is quite possible that the steamer would outsail her, but in an average sea the Pirate can spurt for six or eight hours faster than the fleetest transatlantic liner."

Women in the United States appear to he on the high road towards supplanting men as "drummers," or commercial travellers. A number of the largest New York and Chicago houses engaged in the coffee, the shoe, the dry goods, the canned goods, and the silk trades hare replaced all their male commercial travellers by bright and attractive female drummers. The marvellous increase of business that has been brought about by this change is leading other houses to adopt the same innovation, and for once the irrepressible Yankee travelling salesman seems disconcerted and dismayed, for lie realises that his chances are poor when brought into competition with a pretty lady "drummer," whose personal fascinations seem to endow her wares with an attraction that those in his possession can never hope to attain. She has so many more means of ingratiating herself and her samples in the eyes of the merchant and dealer, that she is able to book 20 times as many orders as her sorely discomfited male competitor. The Evening Post having been dubbed a "Tory" organ, in the course of a reply, says : — "lf we are a Tory, it is because we have been consistent in principles which were once justly regarded as truly Liberal, have declined to abandon them at the call of expediency, or to suit interested office-seekers or political coteries terming themselves Parties, and haA'e absolutely declined to inarch through Coventry with a ragged regiment of political adventurers who have really deserted their colors for their own advantage, and are preying on the passions of a gullible public, to the serious injury of the true interests of the people of New Zealand. If we are no longer in accord with those who so recently proclaimed us Liberals it is because they have departed from and abandoned the principles the profession of which led us to give them support in the belief, which we still hold firmly as ever, that those principles, if given effect to in legislation and administration, would be conducive to the progress of the colony and the prosperity and happiness of its people of all classes. If to be unswervingly opposed to a levelling down process, to all fads and faddists, and to setting class against class be opposed to Liberalism, then indeed we are no Liberal, and trust we never shall be."