COLONIAL ITEMS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4561, 6 December 1882, Page 3

COLONIAL ITEMS.

(.Prom the -Burop&wJltyil.) OUK MEAT MAEKET. THE TICHBOBNE CLAIMANT ASAUSL OBIOKETING PBOFIIB. It would appear that the great intorest lelA at Home in the future* of, Borneo,is fuller shared by many colonists in Australasia. News has boen received horo of th^arrival of the Tannadice at Sand&kim harbour five dayß after clearing the Auetiwlian coast,, and from the account of the bland, whici, has been contributed to a contemporary hj Mr 8. O. Green, it would appear to offer e?ery. inducement to the enterprising English colonist. Witha plentiful and eauablerainialli.anaimoat total absence of storms, and a rioh soil, there is undoubtedly every opportunity for the production of varied caops. Indeed,, we Bie told that sugar, tapioca,, pepper, sago, kc, are already grown in small quantities. The Bugar cane Was aeen growing of fine size and quality on the scii almost at the water's edge in the harbour. Mr d» Liasa, the sugar pioneer of Northern Australia, and Mr Baob.se, an engiaesr, travelled with Mr Green from Port Darwin, and, we are told, were so pleased with tba.. appoarance of the country that they deoided to remain, with the intention of taking, up land for a sugar plantation, and starting operations at once. To the sportsman, olso, Borneo offers great attractions— deer 3) buffalo, wild boar, elephants, wild cattle, and the rhinoceros boing found some little distance from the coast and on the banks of- the Eimbatangan river. The Orient steamers keep the London market well. Bupplied with frozen meat. Scarcely had the Garonne shipment been disposed of before the Ohimborazo arrived with 2700 carcases of mutton from Sydney, and 1900 from Melbourne. Great painß had evidently been taken with the dressing and packing of the latter, and when the carcases were taken out ef their covering they looked as clean and freßh as if they had just been killed. Not so, however, with the Sydney consignment. No attempt seems to have heen made to send the primest sheep from tfcat Colony, and in the packing the same mistake seems to have been made as with the mutton which came by the Sorrento. When the sheep were thawed the red ochre or paint, which almost covers the canvas in whioh the caroase is wrapped, penetrated through, to the meat, and when it was offered for sale the mutton was perfeotly red. As a consequence it haß realised very low prices (the average cannot be quoted at higher than sid), and it is not anticipated, since there is still a large quantity of New Zealand mutton in the market, that this rate will be upheld. On the other hand, the Melbourne sheep from the Company's works at Maribyrnong, which are about the averago weight of English sheep, namely, nine stone, and whioh, as we have aaid, have evidently been handled with considerable care, are selling at an average of 6£d per lb, and as there ia a Btrong demand for it at this figure it is anticipated that the average will be increased within the next few days. With regard to the New Zealand sheep ex Mataura, nothing oould possibly be finer tnan the oondition in whioh these have been brought to the market ; but, unfortunately, Borne of the New Zealand farmers, in their endeavour to meet the wants and wishes of the English butcher for meat of the very primest quality, have overstepped the mark, and have aent several fat speoimen», weighing from 130 to ISOlbs each, which have made the New Zealand meat a byword in the market. "It is too fat • much too fat," is the general cry, and while the weights of 801bs to 901ba have realised the exoellent price of 6£d to 7d per lb, tho very fat specimens have had to be disposed of at 41 to 6d. In faot, to quote the words of one in the trade, it would have paid the owners of the sheep far bettor if they had boiled them down for tallow. This meat trade may now bo said to have had a fair trial, and for the future guidance of exporters it may be stated that while lean and fat aheep will not pay to send to the London market, all carcases between 641ba and 841bs, provided every oare and attention haß been bestowed on the dressing and packing, may generally be expected to realise an average price of not lees than sid to 6d per lb. " What have the Australian cricketers made by their tour P " is a queation frequently asked, but one which will never be satisfactorily answered. Striking a probable sum, however, it is believed by one who is likely to know that the net gain at the close of the American matches must have readied £16,500. Tbis would leave a nice little sum for each member of the team, the amount being estimated after deducting all expensea. Boyle, as the best bowler, in addition to his share, takes back with him a splendid diamond ring, the present of a Oolonial gentleman resident in England ; while Murdoch, at the hands of tho Bame gentleman, is the recipient of a gold albert guard es tho bost bat. Several large subscriptions from the country branches of the Tichborne Association having beon forwarded within the last few days to the Bey Philip Gaßt, treasurer of the Tichborne Fund, Messrs Oharles Orton and D. Smith were enabled to leave in the Orient on Oot. 19, for Australia. The objeot of the expedition is to identify the lunatic Cresswell, now in the Paramatta Asylum, near Sydney, with Arthur Orton. Oharles Orton has obtained the certificates of hia father's marriage in 1819, and of his own and his brother Arthur's birth at Wapping in 1822 and 1832 respectively, and has further been supplied by Mr Joseph Eoiford, a member of the New South Wales Legislature, with a numbor of facta collected by that gentleman during the last four years, and aaid to have an important boaring on tho queation of Arthur Orton's identity. The convict Castro is, as yot, unacquainted with the proposed departure of tho expedition, but will bo duly apprised of what is being dono at tho next visit to be paid by hiß friends to the prison in which he is confined. South Auatralian farmors who go in for ostrich breeding should be informed that the bird which can digest tenpenny nails cannot stand tobacco. Tho other day, sayß the Natal Witness, a farmer living near Zuurbron waa Btanding in one of his ostrich camps smoking a meerschaum pipo, when ono of his most valuablo breoding birds camo up and snatched tho pipo from hia mouth and swallowed it. In a very short time tho bird waa dead, haviug been poisoned by the nicotine in the pipo. Tho It orth German Gazette prints a letter from a German business man in New Zealand, who writes to say that on un average each mail bringo him a dozen letters from manufacturing countrymen, bogging him to secure agents for tho ealo of their goods. But that the German buhiuees man is rarely able to do, from the fact that moßt of tho houses there are moro or lesa dependent on English traders, who do not liko to sco German wares introduced. "As long as we do not possosß a largo German firm in" New Zealand," concludes tho Gorman businoss man, " it will be impossible to establish any payiog trado relations between Germany and New Zoaland." Selwyn College, the latest addition to the academic institutions of Cambridge, was inaugurated tho other day, and is in all way a a fitting memorial of the first missionary Bishop of New Zealand. Dr Solwyn wus tho truo typo of what the modorn missionary should be, and it is gratifying to know that tho now collego is to bo mudo it Bpecial training ground for niitsionuries. It may bo remembered by some that in a famous passage of that piece of specious rhetoric — Macaulay's Criticism on Ranko's " Uistory of the Popes " — wo are reminded that whi!o in the nineteenth century tho Papacy has been gradually recovering iis old dominions, Protestantism has gained practically nothing. This is certainly not truo of our missionary enterprises, and that it is not co, is largely due to tho fuct that we huvo men like the late Biehop Selwyn, who adopt, for their motto the noblo maxim, Non nobis solum sed fofo mundo noti.