ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7409, 2 November 1892, Page 2

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

[PROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT .] LONDON, Sept. 16. CITY NOTKB. The alarmiDg rumours of the past fortnight anent the condition of certain Australian and New Zealand houses have so far resulted in nothing, and it seems quite on the cards the threatened firms may now pull through their difficulties. The Orient Company's litigation with the builders of the s.s. Ophir, which has been going on for so long, was ended the day before yesterday by the arbitrators' award. They decided the builders must refund a sum of .£39,986 and pay the huge costs of the litigation. The latter are now being taxed. The decision of the Victorian AgentGeneral to delay his return to the Colony for two months, despite the imperative necessity there is for his presence in Melbourne, has given rise to much speculation and head-shaking; The reason alleged for the delay is Miss Munro's illhealth. The amalgamation between the^usiraKan Mail and the British Australasian will take place at once, Mr Nash and Mr Mennell acting as joint editors of the combined journals. Mr J. Graham Hill returns tohiß old post of cub-editor, and the convenient office, at 31 Fleet street, is to be retained. During the week highly flattering notices of Mr Mennell's " Coming Colony " have appeared in the daily papers, the Pall Mall Gazette, for example, devoting a column, and the Daily Chronicle a column and a half to exploiting its merits. THE VENTILATION OP COOL CHAMBERS. The vexed question of the efficient ventilation of cool chambers for the carriage of dairy produce will soon bo a thing of the past, and consignees will have to find some new cause of complaint against the Shipping Companies. On Wednesday afternoon half-a-dozen Press men, including the present writer, journeyed down to the Victoria Docks, under the guidance of Mr W. B. Perceval, for the purpose of inspecting and having explained to them a new system of ventilation recently adopted by the ownera of the " Shire" line of steamers, and fitted up in the Nairnshire. At the Custom Fouse station we were met by Mr W. B. Walters, of New Zealand, the patentee of the pneumatic churn and other devices used in the dairy produce industry, who convoyed the party to the Nairnshire and acted as showman-in-chief. Mr Walters has been in England for Borne time, and has been studying the question of cool chamber ventilation. He has, moreover, patented a system of ventilation, adapted for Bfaips engaged in the producecarrying trade, which has found favour with the shipowning community. But the method adopted by Messrs Turnbull and Martin is the invention o.f their own superintending engineer, Mr Wotherapoon. Like Mr Walters' arrangement, it is Bimplicity itself, and the wonder is that someone among the dozens of ship engineers employed by the various Compameß did not long ago hit upon a similar idea. It is an accepted fact that dairy produce, particularly cheese, when confined, engendere a large quantity of deleterious gases which, being heavier than even the cold air admitted to cool chambers, Binks at once to the bottom of the chamber and remains there, to the detriment of the cargo, unless provision is made for it j removal. Under the old system the re-

i frigerated sir waa sent first of all into the i meat chamber, and after doing its duty , there, and being robbed of Borne of ita chilliness, was pumped into the cool ■ chambers through trunks entering at the top of the chambers. Thus, though a good L current of air was circulated among the upper tiers of produce, the gases at the i bottom of the chamber remained undisturbed. Moreover, when the aiK was with- ' drawn from the chamber it was taken back : to the refrigerating engines and used over b again, so that after a time the cool : chambers received nothing but vitiated air, and were not ventilated at all in the true . sense of the word. Mr Wotherspoon's method provides for the air coming from 7 the meat chambers to be introduced - to the cool rooinu at both top and i. bottom, thus insuring a good current throughout the chamt^ra, and he provides for ita withdrawal by means 8 of suction also from top and bottom. i The air so taken from the chambers is i, not made uso of a second time, but is ™ expelled into the outer atmosphere. Mr "Walters has expressed himself entirely satisfied with Mr Wotherspoon's system, and B seems to think that it cannot be* much im- - proved upon. Some critics have propounded i the theory that it in wrong to use the g refrigerated air from the meat chambers to I cool the roomß in which dairy produce ib carried, but experts tell me that no harm a can arise from that procedure, though d under the old plan the meat might possibly ? suffer slightly from the effect of the a deleterious gaees caught up in the cheeße , chambers. When the party had inspected to their ! ~ heart's content an adjournment was made •■ to the saloon, where, after Blight f refreshments, a little speech • making 0 was indulged in. Mr Perceval expressed ._ the pleasure it gave him to go over the vessel, 'and complimented the owners on their enterprise. Mr James Caird replied 9 on behalf of the Company, and said that a his firm was always mo3t anxious to encourage the dairy produce trade by every means in its power. He mentioned that the Company had never brought ' Home either meat or produce in bad condition since entering the trade, bat 1 that fact did not in the least interfere r with their endeavours to perfect the carriage arrangements. The Company , was always glad to receive suggestions for c the improvement of its methods, and, 8 depression in trade notwithstanding, was y ever ready to spend money in the perfect--0 ing of its steamers. , HERBERT BLADE'S ELOPEMENT. A strange story is to hand anent Her--1 bert Slade, the New Zealand pugilist 9 whom Jem Mace discovered in the course i, of his Antipodean wanderings and pro* c nonnced a wonder, superior even unto c Tom Sayers. Mace christened his protdgt the Maori chief, and after great " blow " (as Australians would say) arranged a 8 fight with John L. Sullivan. Everybody i. expected, Slade being a veritable giant, i that the combat would be of a prolonged .. and Homeric character. Instead, the big _ man almost at once displayed the heart of y a chicken, and was knocked clean out by c Sullivan in three founds. After this t Slade disappeared into the vortex, and •- wasn't heard of for years. He now turns 0 up as the hero of a highly romantic elopement in Utah. About sixty miles from Salt Lake city 8 stands the little town of Mod a, which is 7 peopled by a wealthy community who sit J under Bishop Seazey. This gcod and a monied man had an only daughter, his j heiress and the apple of bis eye. She was, 1 according to the expansive Yankee re- ■* porter, a " lovely creature with a Bmall, 1 plump figure, tiny hands, large,, dark eyes, 1 and hair of golden brown." Though the s belle of the little Mormon township, Miss 9 Seazey remained single and heart-whole till Herbert Slade gravitated to the town- ' ship and rolled his fine eyes in her direc--1 tion. Then, indeed, the heiress' heart f melted, and she loved passionately, > devotedly, ecstatically. Bishop Seazey t returning unexpectedly one fine day from his episcopal labours discovered the ex- ' pugilist raining fevered kisses on his * daughter's plump cheeks. In profane 1 language and with many oaths the old . Mormon drove Slade from his door, as9ur--3 ing the accursed Gentile and unbeliever he would "lay him out" in the most approved western fashion if he ever saw 3 him courting Miss Seazey again. Then, ' having got rid of the lover, the Bishop ; locked his daughter up. Bnt lotVe laughs (as we all know) at . locksmiths, and some nights later the ' Maori Chief climbed to hi 3 lady's chamber 3 and assisted her to fly with him. The 5 pair managed to effect an eecape from f Utah, and forty-eight hour 3 later were t formally married before a Magistrate. 5 Good. Bishop Seazey started in pursuit next morning but, on learning that his daughter was actually married, gave it up. : and returned to Mona to alter his will. Mr and Mrs Slade made for San Francisco, I and are believed to be en route for New Zealand. If so, they may be with you even before this letter. OTAQO ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY AND SALMON OVA. The remarkable success attending the introduction of trout to New Zealand waters and the failure of salmon are ■ matters which, as you know, have for some time greatly puzzled the Ctago Acclii matißation Society. Large trout, which i from their silver dress and condition ■ had evidently been down to the sea, were at first believed to be salmon, till high ichthyological authorities both in i England and the Colony— pronounced them trout. Eecently the Obago Acclimatisation Society suggested the source of i the mystery might be very simple, i.e., i that by some blunder the ova sent out were i not salmon eggs at all but trout. Fortunately the fish which resulted from these eggs were not all liberated. Some were kept in ponds, and in consequence have degenerated until they have certainly become not unlike trout. To settle the question finally, some of these pond fieh were sent Home from Otago to MrTegetmeier, of the Field, who promptly forwarded them on to the British Museum. Here they were carefully examined and declared to be undoubted salmon, though degenerated. The mystery of the failure of the salmon, consequently, remains dark as ever, though the probability, of course, is that when they go down to the salt water they are gobbled up by your sea fish. Brown trout, it is forcibly pointed out, do not as a rule go to the sea unless short of food in the river, and even in that case their visit is only to the brackish water o£ the estuary. This seems the solution which pleases experts best. MARRIAGE A LA CLAYDBN. Mr Arthur Clay den has not been able to resist joining in the edifying "silly season" discussion on " Why Don't Young Men Marry" which, at present, fills two columns per diem of the Daily News. Mr Clayden's prescription for poor and feckless couples who have married on nothing particular, is— New Zealand. He tells of a young and energetic pair whom he Baw begin life in that Colony on a very small farm and fifty golden sovereigns, They were thrifty and industrious, and in an incredibly short time their four-roomed cottage developed into a charming homestead, surrounded with a well-stocked garden and orchard. The wild scrub all around made way for luxuriant crops, sheep and cowa throve on whilom wastes and in ten years that young couple were well off if not rich. Mr Clayden is ready to "state his Colonial reputation that there are at least half-a-dozen British Colonies where ten thousand young couples might go and repeat this splendid solution of our sooial difficulty." It just occurs to me there might be some difficulty in finding ten couples, let alone ten hundred or ten thousand capable of living as Mr Clayden's mythic # ex-city clerk and wife are picturesquely depicted aa doing. The fate likely, if not certain, to befall the average London clerk or counterjumper, who with a wife, a four-roomed house, and fifty golden sovereigns, commenced farming in New Zealand, mi£ht, I imagine, with accuracy be predicted. Certainly the odds would be a 100 to 1 against his ever being ont of debt let alone attaining a competency.