OUR LETTER FROM HOME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4898, 14 January 1884, Page 3

OUR LETTER FROM HOME.

[From thk " Star's " London CorreePONDENT.] [By Telegraph, viii Auckland.] THE LOVEGROVES— A FRIEND IN NEED. THE MISSING LOCH FYNE. NEW ZEALAND CHEESE AND BUTTER. A TERRIBLE STORM. PERSONAL AND GENERAL GOSSIP. Our London correspondent, writing on Dec. 6, says : — Lovegrove, the Waikato grazier and luckless claimant to the Derwentwater estates, is once more en evidence. He does not now intend returning to Auckland, but wants to raise money enough to carry him and his family to Queensland. The case has been taken up by a young man named Charles Pye, a fellow-passenger of Lovegrove's on the Garonne. This youth tells me our Waikato friend came aboard in Sydney with about .£240, which 'he spent most lavishly. Pye, whose faith in Lovegrove's pretensions appears from first to last to have been illimitable, was promised the lucrative post of factor or land-agent on the Derwentwater estates. His gratitude for the prospective billet was so great, that he felt that he could do anything for the man who had offered it him ; and now the Lovegroves are in low water, he is giving practical proof of his kindly feeling, by enlisting whftt sympathy he can for their hard case. Amongst others Pye applied to Captain Ashby, who offered to pay the family's passages to Brisbane, if Mrs Lovegrove's father (who is well off) would guarantee to reimburse him within a certain time. Mrs Lovegrove's papa declared that he was too poor to advance a cent, whereupon Pye interviewed Sir F. D. Bell, also without success. He now talks of laying the whole case before the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. Messrs Shaw Savill and Co. advertise that the Edwin Fox is for sale by private contract. A brief paragraph in the daily papers of Monday last (Dec. 3) announced the wreck of the ill-fated Triumph, on the' coast of New Zealand. I learn that she was insured by her owners, M'lntyre Bros., of Newcastle, partly in local, and partly in London and Liverpool offices. At the recent meeting of the Belgian Geographical Society, held at Antwerp, Monsieur E. De Harven read a most interesting and instructive paper on the climate, resources, mountains, volcanoes, hot lakes and geysers of New Zealand. He also pointed out the advantages which would accrue to Belgium through the establishment of commercial relations with the Colony. Wolverhampton papers say that the orders for hardware coining direct from New Zealand are larger this winter than they have ever been before. The Loch Fyne, of Glasgow, which sailed from Lyttelton on May 14 last, with a cargo of wheat, and has long been posted as missing, is now finally given up. The underwriters are of opinion that she went down during the terrific gale which Bwept over the Bay of Biscay ahd the English Channel on Sept. 1 and 2, and that the whole of the crew, 40 in number, perished with her. The loss, which amounts to .£35,000, falls principally on London offices. A portion of the chilled cheese which came Home by the Doric has been disposed of by the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Company to Samuel Page and Son, wholesale butternien, whose principal I interviewed yesterday. Mr Page says the cheese, though in first-rate condition, and the best he had ever seen from Australasia, is nevertheless a low-class article, of coarse flavour. It has been selling wholesale at 56s per 1121b, while Cheshire (the English cheese it most resembles) fetches 60s to 64s per 1121b. The Doric's consignments will not be vended retail as New Zealand cheese. In fact, Mr Page thinks it most ■ likely to be bought up by small tradesmen in poor neighbourhoods, who will sell it simply as cheese, at a very low figure. Mr Page added that if the price obtained wholesale is considered satisfactory by Colonial shippers, further consignments will be welcome. Common cheese of strong flavour always commands a market. As regards the butter per Doric, Messrs Page report that it arrived in good condition, or in other words it had not been heated on the voyage. The quality, however? is far from good ; in fact it has a disagreeably stale flavour with it. None of the butter has been sold, but its value is 10s per cwt. The Deva, barque, Captain Pierrepoint, which arrived in dock from the Bluff on the 2nd inst., experienced a fearful hurricane off Cape Horn on Sept. 18, when in lat. 58 S., in the course of which one of the men, a foreigner named Antonio Edwards, was washed overboard. The barque herself got fearfully knocked about, every movable thing being swept into the sea, the cabin skylights stove in, the cabin flooded, the deck-house smashed to pieces, and nearly all the sails blown to rags. The gale lasted 48 hours, and the weather was bitterly cold, freezing the saltwater on the decks, and coating the rigging with icicles. The barometer was down to 28.15. The Northumberland, after being delayed three weeks, was to sail for Auckland this afternoon. The steerage passengers received compensation at the rate of ls 6d per diem for the delay. The Fenstanton (Captain A. Williams) arrived in dock yesterday morning, after a rather long voyage, from Lyttelton. She brings 8750 carcases of mutton, which have so far been discharged in excellent condition, the appearance of the meat being unusually tempting. The freezing chambers were kept at an extraordinarily low temperature, as you may guess when I tell you that the Engineer's returns average at 6degs below zero. Since I saw the British Queen's mutton, I have always been an advocate for low temperature in frozen meat chambers. It is, therefore, gratifying to find the Fenstanton's carcases so good. None of the meat has of course been sold yet, but I shall be disappointed if it does not realise an improved price. The Fenstanton is advertised to leave again for Otago on the 21st. Mr Charles Tucker, a gentleman who has many friends in Canterbury, goes out to Lyttelton, per the Doric. Messrs Charles R. Bidwell, J.P., Henry Gray and Edward Moorhouse, all of New Zealand, have been elected Fellows of the Colonial Institute. The Marquis of Bute and party, who sailed for Melbourne by the Orient on Dec. 26, are expected to visit New Zealand for the purpose of seeing the Hot Lakes. The Marquis is accompanied, as friend and Secretary, by Mr Charles T. Gatty, a brother of Alfred Scott Gatty, the popular song writer, and himself a musician of considerable pretensions. Mr Gatty is a great .authority on old china, and was for some time trustee of the famous Myer collection. The Liverpool dailj' papers of this morning (Dec. 6) print the resolutions of the Intercolonial Conference re New Guinea and the Pacific. On Tuesday the Tele* graph published an effusive leader prophesying the early formation of a new and mighty Republic, to be known to future generations as the United States of Australia ; and giving a brief sketch of the principal features of each of the Colonies. The Spectator of Saturday last, Dec. 1, also contained a liuninous article on ihe Federation question, and it has been discussed at length in the Westminster Review. ■ Tlie Agent-Genei'al informs nie that SOO emigrants will be despatched per tlu? Rangitikei to Auckland on Dec. 14, aind 200 per British Queen to Wellington on Dec. 27. The New Zealand Land Mortgage Company invite application for 200,000 shares of .£1 each (os on application, 5s on allotment, and 10s within three months of notice to be hereafter given). The list closes on Dec. 10. The London Gaiety Company, headed by Edward Terry and the Misses Farren and Gilchrist, visit Australia in 1885.