ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. [From Our London Correspondent.]

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 129, 21 November 1885, Page 4

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. [From Our London Correspondent.]

London, October 8. The excitement of the coming General Election is beginning to make itself felt all over the country. Next week Mr Gladstone goes to Midlothian, and then the campaign will commence in earnest. Even the shrewdest judges of political feeling and public opinion confess themselves utterly at a loss to say what, under the extended franchise, the result will be. The Radical oracles of the National Liberal Club reckon on a party maj©rity of 40, giving the Irish vote wholesale to the Conservatives. The Whigs, on the other hand, shake their heads and prophesy disaster. In their case the wish is probably father to the thought. Moderate liberals would moet certainly prefer the Tories retaining power to the country being handed over to the tender mercies of Mr Chamberlain. And Mr Chamberlain will be all powerful should Mr Gladstone return to office. In the last Liberal Cabinet there were a majority of Whigs and a few Radicals. In the next there will be a majority of Radicals and r. few Whigs. If Sir Julius Vogel had stayed in England, this would have been his opportunity to try and enter the Imperial Parliament. The recent interchange of courtesies between the colonies and the mother country has favourably disposed constituencies to Anglo-Australasian candidates. At Canterbury, for example, Mr Henniker-Heaton can always bring in references to the New South Wales contingent in his speeches with effect. Sir Samuel Wilson, too, finds the local yeomen take more interest in his colonial possessions than they ever did before. At one of the county public meetings the other day a burly Buckinghamshire farm-labourer, about for the first time to exercise his privileges as an elector, bawled out, " Wa'at aboot assisted emigration ? Will'fc get Goovm'nt t'help poor folk to Australie ?" Sir William Me Arthur has very little chance of becoming member for West Newington, and is getting himself much disliked there. The seat is a safe one for the other Liberal candidate if Sir William would withdraw, but the result of the split in the party will probably be a Conservative victory. Captain Selwyn is almost certain to be returned for his division of Cambridgeshire. He seems to be exceedingly popular there. Other Anglo - Colonial candidates may present themselves during the next few weeks.

Nelson Bros.' New Refrigerating Stores. A large company of gentlemen interested either directly or indirectly in the New Zealand meat trade, assembled, at the invitation of Mr E. M. Nelson (managing director of Nelson Bros., Limited), on Friday last, to inspect the extensive new refrigerating stores of the Company at Cannon-street Wharf. These stores have been erected under the superintendence of Mr A. S. Haslam, of the Haelam Foundry Company, and occupy the western half of the twelve arches supporting Cannon-street Station, between Upper Thames-street and the river. There are at present nine chambers situated on either side of a twelve feet wide passage, down whioh runs a line of rails from the river frontage to Thamesstreet. The refrigerators have capacity for about 23,000 carcases, but they can begreatly extended whenever required. The machinery consists of two Haslam dry-air refrigerators of 60 h.p., delivering air at 60 degrees to

80 degrees below zero, and oiroulating ] 96,000 feet of air per hour. The water for < cooling purposes is taken direot from the 1 river into a large subsidising tank. In- 1 sulated lighters capable of carrying about : 800 to 900 carcases convey the meat from the vessel to the wharf, whbre it is landed under the oover of a railway aroh, protected alike from aun or vain, put into tram cars, and. conveyed to the refrigerating chambers, in whioh a temperature of about 21 degrees is maintained. The entire vaults are illuminated by the electric light. It was stated that the Company had stored close upon 100,000 sheep, 4,000 lambs, and 8,500 legs of mutton since January Ist. They receive regular supplies of 8,000 to 10,000 carcases a month, as well as occasional smaller parcels from their own works at Napier. A butcher's shop at Cannon-street Station retails the Company's frozen mutton, and does a fair business. After the inspection the visitors adjourned to the Cannon-street Hotel, where a capital lunch was spread, sundry joints of New Zealand mutton playing a prominent part in the menu. Toasts of courso followed tho meal, but as the proceedings were strictly private, I mustn't betray confidence. Suffice it to say the guests having lunched, wisely and well inclined to see the future of the meat trade through roseate spectacles, invoked special blessings on Nelson Bros. (Limited). Among those present I noticed Sir Francis Truscott, Hon. R. Russell, Mr F. Nelson, Col. Martiudale (Manager of London and St. Kathorino Docks), Mr E. H. Bailey (Manager of Eaat and West India Docks), Messrs Coster find Strickland of the New Zealand Shipping Company, and Mr Parke, of Shaw, Savill's.

An Austr lian Claimant. An Australian claimant, whose pretensions far outrival those of the renowned "Sir Roger," will shortly appear—backed up by a phalanx of colonial witnesses - as the hero of an almost unpnralloled cause celebre. According to report, a lady has arrived from Sydney in order to proseoute the claims of her son to a titlo which has within quite a recent period, and of course by tho death of the holder, passed with the family property into other hands. The now peer, who is not the son of the deceased, will be asked to surrender to the newcomer, who professes that he is. It i<? declared that the lady will be able to produce a certificate of her marriage with the late peer to prove that h6r son is the lawful issue of that union. The striking fact in this pretension is that allowing the documentary evidence to be unimpeachable, tho marriage must have taken place when the lato peer was about sixteen years of age. " Truth " warmly supports Mr HennikerHeaten's proposal that the British and Australasian Govornmentsshouldunite tolay an alternative cable via the Cape of Good Hope and Mauritius. Besides breaking what Sir labouchere calls the "Cable Ring," it would — should, in event of war, the Mediterranean and Red Sea cable be severed and communication with the Colo nies be cut off—be tooefc important. I hear Mr Michael Davitt may ehortly pay n lecturing tour to your part of the world. He is a most eloquent speaker, and quite the pleasantest and most cultured of the extreme Irish party. His "Prison Diary," now obtainable for Is 6d, is capital reading.

More About the Australian Claimant. The peerage to which the Australian claimant above-mentioned aspires is, I learn, the Earldom of Lonsdale. The late earl was one of the most unspeakable ruffians that ever disgraced the House of Lords. Ho drank, gamblod away a large fortune, ill-treated his beautiful wife, and eventually rotted to death, tormented by a loathsome disease, whilst still quite a young man. Great fears are entertained that there may be considerable foundation for the new claim. When the late carl was quite a boy it was common gossip on the estates that he had crowned an unprecedented number of youthful follies (to call them no coarser name) by marrying one of the housemaids at the castle. The scandal was, however, promptly burked, and the girl disappeared; shipped off, it was said, to Australia. Subsequently his lordship married Lady Gladys Herbert, the most beautiful girl of her day. She soon learnt to hate and despise the wretched man, and he returned her dislike with compound interest, ft is now remembered that when Lord Lonsdale got drunk it was hia common habit to repudiate his marriage and declare Lady Gladys was no more a Countess than any of the numorous "Totties" of his acquaintance. At tho time very little attention was paid to what people took to be the ravings of a tip3y fool, but in the light of recent events such reminiscences attain disagreeable significance. After the late Earfs death tho Countess engaged her?elf in turn to several men, whom she threw over one after another. Report credited her with an unfortunate attachn^enttoher cousin tho Earl of Durham, and it was believed that, had that unfortunate nobleman been able to divorce his imbecile wife, he would have married her. Anyhow, Lady Lons dale took a keen interest in the law proceedings, and it was not till all hope of Lord Durham's obtaining a decree had to be given up that she accepted her present hupband, Earl De Grey the heir to the Marquisate of Ripon, and the greatest matrimonial "catch" of the decade, savo, porhaps, the Duko of Portland. With two powerful families interested in disproving the new claimant's case it will have to be a very strong one indeed to succeed. Even should the facts as stated prove correct, a compromise will probably be come to. A life interest in the Lonsdale property is not-as times go -worth much from a monetary point of view. Besides, the estates were left much embarrassed by the late Earl, the present Earl clearing them out of his wife's purse. All such sums the newcomer would of course have to repay. Then his social position would be most unenviable. The upper ten usually thaw to such persons in time, but even the most lenient would find it difficult to be civil to the offspring of such an utter blackguard as the late Lord Lonsdale, and of an intrigueinft housemaid—more especially as the young peer would be poor and his housemaid mother still "en evidence." On the other hand the Ripon tamily are enormously rich, and would certainly readily part with a fortune rather than have it known as an assured fact that Lady De Grey had been the late Lord Lonsdale's mistress. The present Lonsdale, too, would probably offer liberal terms. Altogether, I shall be surprised if the case comes to trial.

The Indo-Colonial Aquarium. Quite one of the most interesting features of the Indo-Colonial Exhibition next summer will be & magnificent aquarium showing the various fish indigenous to Indian and Australasian waters. All the principal colonial Governments have been communicated with on the subject, and requested to send as many representative collections as they possibly can. Elaborate preparations are being made to receive the fish in a large new aquarium, which will be supplementary to the superb aquarium of British fresh and salt water fish, whioh has been yearly enlarged and improved ever since the Fisheries Exhibition. Taken as a whole, the joint Anglo and colonial aquariums next summer should be incom-

parably finer than anything of the kind ever exhibited jbefore. / The first consignments of colonial fibh are expected at South Kensington at the end of the present month. New Zealand and the Iron Trade. I In the course of a particularly interesting i article in the last issue of the ♦ 'Colliery Guardian" on the subjeot there occurs the following passage, whioh seems woith quoting : — " We do not think British ironmasters ought to speculate with too much coufidence upon a prolonged continuance of a New Zealand demand for rails and iron. So long as the population of the colony is limited the bulk of the railway material required in New Zealand will no doubt come from Great Britain or the United States, New Zealand is rich in coal and iron and stone, and being a country of comparatively limited extent, steel and iron will clearly be turned out there as cheaply and readily as in Europe. The only circumstances which will avert this inevitable contingency are, fii-afc, the delivery of rails on the New Zealand market upon relatively cheap terms; and seoondly, the lengthened period which must probably elapse before the New Zealand population will have become aufficently dense to admit of a vigorous prosecution of metallurgical industry. Of course under present circumstances the New Zealand Government will have no difficulty in purchasing rails in England at remarkably cheap rates, and the protectionist system enforced in the New United States, which keeps rails at a slightly higher level than in Europe, is also calculated to clear the way for the products of the British rolling mills, notwithstanding the great distance they have to be carried before they can be brought into use at the antipodes." The great George Augustus, writing to Mr Labouchere from Melbourne on August 26th, says he has made a pot of money in Australia, and hoped to make more in New Zealand, whither he was just setting off, Geneviove Ward "collated" £10,000 during her colonial tour, and Boucicault was doing tremendous business. Then comes the following passage, which will enrage a certain club of journalists in Melbourne not a little : "A small clique in Melbourne, members of a gang of cads, calling themselves a club, enraged at my having been prevented by an attack of bronchitis from dining with them, have been industriously circulating rumours that I couldn't lecture ; that I was inaudible, and that my lectures had been a financial failure. If this libel has by any chance reached London, please contradict it."

The Scottish Australian Investment Company. Mr Charles G. Grainger has retirod from the Secretaryship of the above Company, and from that also of the Scottish Australian Mining Company, both of which ho has held from their formation, and has been elected to the seat at the Board of each Company, vacant by the death of Mr A. L. Elder. Mr F. W. Turner has been appointed Secretary.

The New Educational Appointments. The Agent-General is inviting applications for the two considerable appointments now open in your colony to university men—the professorship of classics and English at Auckland, and the rectorship of the High School for Boys at Otago. For the former, applications will be received up *o the last day of this month (I am told between 50 and 60 applications have already been sent iv), and for the latter up to the 14th of November. The professor, it is announced, will be expected to take up his duties on the Ist of April next, and the rector probably about the same time. The " Educational Time?," in commenting on these "invitations, "say sappointments in the colonies are not reckoned such valuable prizes as they once were, good educational posts at home being more numerous and lucrative than they used to be. "The Nonconformist," in a little paragraph, notes with approval the proviso in the statement of qualifications for the rectorship that " a candidate who is not a clergyman " will be deemed more suitable; it heartily wishes such a disqualifier of clergymen were more commonly known at home.

A Fool and His Money Again. Yesterday there was quite a scene over this resumed money-lending case. The Public Prosecutor had been communicated with, but when the case was called on it was said that the prosecutor himself, the young man Palmer, was now on the high seas, having sailed for Australia on September 30th. The defending counsel asked, therefore, for a dismissal of the summons, upon which the Magistrate grew angry, and said in effect that the whole affair was very fishy and evasive, and as good as implied that the young man had been spirited away. Then ensued a scene as "good as a play." Counsel insisted on making a "statement," and the Magistrate insisted on their sitting down. Friends of the defendants applauded, and the Magistrate, turning angrily round, saw a spectator smile, and said, "Turn that man out!" The end of it was the summons was adjourned sine die.

Tallerman's Affairs, The first meeting of the creditors of the proprietor of the defunct City and Colonial Club was held the other day, and proved unpleasantly stormy. From accounts filed it appears that Mr Tallerman's gross liabilities amount to £17,129, of which £6,301 is expected to rank against the estate for dividend; asserts £3,000, and the deficiency £3,415. The debtor admitted that he had been in business in America, Australia, and New Zealand, and failed in each country. The City and Colonial Club was only started in April last. He attributed his present misfortunes to the non-success of various enterprises for which he" has been held responsible, and other causes. After a long and angry discussion, in which the debtor's conduct was very roughly criticised, a proposal for the payment of 7s 6d in the pound was entertained.

Capitation Foes on Immigrants. A London weekly remarks that the example of Tasmania in placing a prohibitive capitation fee on deaf, dumb, blind, and other undesirable immigrants will not improbably be widely followed. Our colonies (it opines) are getting tired of having all the physical and moral human rubbish England desires to get rid of shunted upon them. The time is coming when immigrants on landing will be called upon to produce certificates duly vised by the Agent-General guaranteeing that they are reputable people— at least neither exthieves, prostitutes, nor drunkards. Now, whenever a trapped rogue of " Tottie" expresses ft desire to repent, he or she is at once shipped off to "begin again " at the Antipodes.

The Indo-Colonial Exhibition. The preparation of a curious exhibit at next year's Exhibition is announced from India. Twenty-two models of soldiers of the native army are being made in Calcutta, for which purpose men have been selected from the various regiments. The figures are to be furnished with arms, accoutrements, and uniforms, which will include those of the most famous corps of cavalry and infantry, and of a set of men that few people have heard of before—the Indian Marine Seamen. Capable officers are super* vising the preparation of the models.