ANGLO-COLONIAI NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7203, 11 February 1892, Page 2

ANGLO-COLONIAI NOTES.

+. [FROM OCa LONDON CORRESPONDENT.] London, Dec. 25. FERBONAIi AND GENERAL. Mr Gould and Mr Leonard Harpe return to the Colony by the new steamei Buahine, sailing Feb. 14. Mr Duthie, of "Wellington, is spending Christmas in the north of England. Mr Hewett Myiing, who is floating th< Silver Crown Mining Company (o: in company with Mr Dicken erstwhile of Chnstchuroh, has been ill a1 Hastings. He Eeema now, however, i little better, and goes to Liverpool foi Christinas. The Key John Still, who came home in the Kaikoura, haa been mentioned &i Bishop Selwyn's successor, but I hear h« would not accept the appointment, as he does not consider a missionary's work Mb vocation. It is far more probable he will be nominated to the see of Wellington. Mr Herbert Beeves has arrived Home in excellent health and spirits. Mr Page, of the Canterbury Farmers' Co-operative Aceociation, has arrived in London on an important mission connected with dairy produce. Lord Stamford, better known by your readers aa the Rev William Grey, has, I observe, been preaching at several City churcheß. . , , Mrs Harriett Davis, who, with her husband (John Davis), resided in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 1883 to 1887, when they returned to England, obtained, a divorce last Saturday on the usual grounds. Almost from the time of their marriage, in 1883, Davis gave way to drink, and treated her cruelly. Since their return to England he had enlisted in the Hussars, and written that he never meant to return to her. Apropos of Bishop Suter's resignation of the See of Nelson, Truth remarks that the Church people of New Zealand will act wisely if they choose his successor from among their own clerery. Mr Justice Chitty made an order last , week, under the Companies Act, sanctioning the reduction of the capital of the National Bank of New Zealand by writing : >ff 42150,000. The Key Thomas Flavell, who will be mown by repute to most Now Zealanders, s now touring the provinces on behalf of ;he Society for the Propagation of the Sospel. The latest news concerning him tomes from "Warwickshire, where, I gather rom local newspaper reports, he iB not inly enlightening the good folks of the bounty on scriptural matters, but is also ndeavouring to benefit them temporally >y lecturing on the varied advantages of iving in Now Zealand. Mr Flavell's nthusiastic praise of your Colony should trove an efficacious antidote to the detrimental "pßra" which every now and hen get quoted by the provincial papers rom the London financial journal?. Mr David Christie Murray, Mtb L. B. Valford, the novelist, and Miss Helen limmerman have joined the staff of dterary Opinion, and will contribute ? uring the new year. ; The author of the " Scottish Pulpit," Dr Villiam Taylor, has just issued a further olume of his excellent Biblical biographies, allad " Hester the Queen and Euth the neaner." Mr lebitster, the publisher, tells ie that Dr Taylor's works have a remendoua sale in Australia, New Zealand,

and America. The reverend gentleman originally served his church in Ayrshire, but afterwards became famous in Liverpool, where he remained until called to the Broadway Chapel, New York, and JB3OOO a year. Harpers, the big American publishers, are elders of Dr Taylor's " kirk " Mr Philip Mennell has returned Home an enthusiastic champion of the Labour parties in all the Australasian Colonies, but especially of Mr Ballanoe and his coworkers in New Zealand. On the eubject of Sir George Grey Mr Mennell is Eimply overwhelming. Amongat our great men in this effete old country we have, he declares, no such wise, benefictnt and, above all, liberal-minded statesman. Marriott Watson ' (a High Tory, as a contributor to the National Observer should be) shakes hif» head sorrowfully, and says Mr Mennell has fallen a victim to Sir George's personal charm. "I have known many such sad casee," he avers, " men who went down to Wellington fully intending to vote against Grey's party, tut who were magnetised by the old man's marvellous personality." " Why not say convinced by arguments?" I ventured. "Because, my dear fellow, his arguments were and are abßurd and irrational, and wouldn't convince anybody." I am thankful it is a correspondent's business to simply chronicle facts without prejudice. All political extremists are hateful to me. I really don't know which type amazes one most, the high old Tory, who can see in Mr Gladstone only a consummate charlatan and trickster, and honeßtly thinks you a fool for being humbugged by the old man's (to bim) transparent devices, or the plain,-spoken " I upeak out Btraight, I do" Kadioal, who disposes of the late Lord Beaconsfield ac a , "dirty theatrical Jew," and will assure , you en his honour that he " holds proofs, t air," of incredible wickedness and cor- ' ruption on the part of the present Govorn--1 ment. When you get together h cauple of , men ventilating opposite views of this > sort, cock-fighting ia nothing to the row , that goes on, and if they do not at least r Eemi-disgust you with politics, nothing will. c The big French packet boat being built i at La Ciotat for the Australian service of 5 the Mesßftgeries Maritimos Company, will [ bo launched in May next. As soon as she |. iB in the water four other similar vesselswill be got on the Btocks, as well as two • cargo boats, for carrying wool from 3 Australia to France. t ' A scheme is in contemplation for ship. a ping Australian flowers and flowering 1 plants to England during the winter months. Loids of roses, magnolias, arum 8 and pitcher lilies, gigantic waratahs, and a c host of others could be shipped. A tem\x peraturo a little above that for " chilled a butter," with attention, would meet the case, it is alleged. I see the journal of the Colonial Institute r warns members and Colonists visiting c England against the ridiculous "Intere national Society oE Literature, Science and a Art," whioh Truth has been so effectively 4 exposing. The Society of Literature,, Science and Art, is really merely a means of supplying a man named c Morgan with guineas. Sir Gilbert Campbell, an impecunious baronet, who has written a number of "shilling shockers" of indifferent merit, posed as Chairman and figure-head. He waa ;t described as " Sir G. Campbell," a device which led the unsuspecting to suppose this must be Sir George Campbell, a man ■t of the highest integrity and business k, capability, whose name in the City ranks y deservedly high. Asked to become Fellowj of a Society presided over by Sir George I Campbell, and numbering apparently all 1 the great names of literature, science and c art on itß roll-call, the unsuspecting it Colonist waa highly flattered, and readily g forwarded Mr Morgan "the nominal t entrance fee of one guinea." At length, however, the supply of guilel€S3 strangers &ud foola ran dry, and " Labby " took up '. Mr Morgan and his Society. It at present y looks as if Mr Morgan would have to disn gorge his " guinea entrance fees " or go to y gaol. Yet another big night at the Savage Club last Saturday evening, when E. J. 6 Goodman (the author of "Too Curious"), y who was for many years Hon. Secretary, b occupied the chair. Goodman'B chief stars y were a troup of Italian mandolin player?, , who delighted us with a selection from ** Faust and the exquisite intermezzo from ° the Cavallcria Rusticana, and Bertram the .8 conjuror. Christie Murray challenged the >, latter, after some pretty card-palming, to y repeat a tricV, with the evident intention j of showing the room how it was done. AlaB ! the only person who got " done " " proved to be the too confident Christie. Bera tram picked cards out of every part of him, 0 and wound up by perplexing the novelist c (and, indeed, everyone else) with a positively fiendish display of manual dexterity. Dividing the cards into t*-o packs, = Bertram gave (say) thirty-one to Christie Murray and twenty-one to Sandow. Each j man counted his pack out (on separate tables), and then pocketed it without Bertram again touching the cardß. The trick was to send ten cards from Murray's pocket to Sandow's. "Hey! presto!" says Bertram, and it ia done. Sandow counts out thirty-one, whereas Murray has now only twenty-one. The beauty of this trick is that from first to last the r conjuror never ecems to touch the cards; r he does not even divide the original pack. Miss C. E. Gordon-Cumming, who will » be known to most of your readers as the authoreßS of "At Home' in Fiji," and to 1 some of them personally, has just issued, f through Messrß Black wood, two handsome , volumes relating to " Two Happy Ye irs iv b Ceylon." The illustrations to the work, i which has been very favourably reviewed, r are extremely effective. What should you say to an incursion of L Russian Jews P No ; the thing is not at ) all beyond the bounds of poesibihty. The ) Eusao-Jewiah Committee Bitting in London s states in its first report that New Zealand i " appears to present a fair field," though i the voyage is terribly costly. During the year 1891 no fewer than . four dukes, eighteen earls and two archbishops have been (as General Booth wonld say) " promoted to glory." The last duke to die was, in some respects, the most important. A Cavendish he wap, the head of one of the noblest and most respected families in Great Britain. Mauy famous names have, from time to time, been dragged in the mire. One has heard cf recreant Bruces, Bentincks, Kubbgllb and Courtneys, bnt ncvor of a disreputable Cavendish. The family record, so far, jat any rate, aa the last few hundred: years are concerned, is stainless and sans reproche. The late Duke was a student of a shy, retiring and somewhat taciturn disposition. He took the highest possible honours at Oxford, and might easily at any time have become a prominent ornament of the House of Lords. But the Duchess' death in early life and Lord Frederick Cavendish's shocking assassination twenty years later, paralysed what little inclination for public life hia Grace ever possessed, and latterly he saw very few visitors outside his own family. Presumably Lord Hartington will now marry, but meanwhile his deceased brother I Lord Edward's eldest son, a promising lad of eighteen, is the heir presumptive to the numerous titles and broad acre 3 of the CaveDdiehea.