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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8588, 7 August 1899, Page 4

The London correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, describing the New Zealand dinner in London, snys :— The third annual New Zealand dinner on Tuesday last was rim on frugal lines, tickets being 25s each, instead of two guineas, and the locale of the Hotel Cecil was exchanged for that of the Cafe Monico. The result was moat unsatisfactory, dinner and wines being second-rate, and service : dilatory. This is what invariably happens when committees attempt the economical. Furthermore, the room or hall was hot, and the proceedings prodigiously lengthy. In the absence of Lord (Jlasjjow, who is ill, the Agent-General (Mr Reeves) presided, and as usual made some nmnsing and felicitous little speeches. He is iv master of the art of pttst-nnvmliitl oratory ; in fact, barring Lord Rosebery, I don't know anyone who can talk neat nothings better. The same cannot, unfortunately, be said for the New Zealand Minister of Lands, Mr MeKenzie, who is now in London. The Hon. 'Jock' speedily revealed himself in the character of our old friend the New Zcalander who has ' come over to settle the frozen meat and produce trades.' I have known dozens such. They begin by clamoring loudly, demanding this and expecting that. But after a few weeks' investigation their tails come down marvellously, and they begin to realise that men like Sir Montague Nelson may not impossibly know their own business.