ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4684, 30 June 1893, Page 2

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

[FKOM OTJB LONDON COKBBSPONDKNT.]| r Losdon, May 13. PERSONAL AND GENEBAL. ■ The clever young pianist, Mr Ralph Stuart, who iB now giving a series of j chamber concerts at the Steinway Hall, _ must be known to many New Zealandera, 2 for he spent tbe beßt part of eight years in the Colony, and acted as accompanist to ] the famous quartet of which Madame • Melba waa the soprano. The criticß are . at one in considering Mr Stuart a pianist c of exceeding "promise," but lacking exb perience. He is, unfortunately, afflicted t with persistant ill-healtb, which has pursued him since he graduated in Ger- > many in 1880. His lengthy stay in New , Zealand was made solely on account of his health, and though life in the Colonies ' benefited him greatly, Mr Stuart is Btill - far from robust. He talks of revisiting , Australasia during the ensuing winter ' season. Possibly, like Herr Paderewski, Mr Stuart will find things numberless [ cropping up to interfere with the carrying out of his project. He of the " long hair," by the way, is now seriously ill in America, ; and fears are entertained for his life. Bishop Selwyn occupied the pulpit of . the Chapel Boyal, St James' Palace, last Sunday. He took for his text Psalm cxiii., 5-7. A friend of mine, who has sampled the pulpit eloquence of nearly every preacher of note within the metroplitan radius, and has sat under divines of all j shades of religion in the Provinces, writes j me thus of the late Bishop of Melanesia's i effort — " I was greatly struck by the sim- j plicity of the missionary Bishop in the midst of his gorgeous surroundings. Hia sermon was by no means eloquent, but was ; clear, forcible and full of anecdote and j illustration. * * * Altogether it was j a simple, earnest, missionary sermon, and j one well worth hearing in theae dayß of i mere lip eloquence." j A. special meeting of the Directorate of , the Blue Spur Company was held on Friday week last for the purpose of welcoming Sir Walter Buller back to this country and to receive his report on tbe condition and prospects of the mine. At this meeting Sir Walter Buller said that, having accomplished for the Company in New Zealand all he bad undertaken, he waa desirous now of retiring from the Board, j At the urgent request of his colleagues, j however, he oonsented to retain his seat > for another year. The annual general meeting of the shareholders takes place towards the end of the present month. Sir Walter, by the way, haß consented to let his name appear as one of the patrons of the Forestry and Gardening Exhibition, j now in progress, at Earl's Court. He has promised to assist the Directors in getting together a display of some of tho New Zealand timbers, useful and ornamental. Mr Cadell, of the Forest Department of India, who has general charge, is taking special interest in this New Zealand I exhibit. "He is a brother of the Captain i Cadell who figured prominently in the 1 Waikato during the Maori war, and was ! afterwards killed during an exploring | expedition in the Gulf of Carpetaria. I : i Mr Olson, of Taranaki, returned to town j ! this week after a brief stay in Scotland. ! ( He tells me he has purchased a couple of ] pedigree Ayrshire cattle, one a two-year- j i 1 old heifer and the other a yearling bull, j ' from the celebrated breeder, Mr Robert i ] i Wallace, of Mauchlane. Theee animals ! are intended for Mr Olson's stud, but he » contemplat s buying both cattle and ; Lincoln and Eoinney Marsh sheep, with a ■ ' view to his next spring sale. Mr Olson j returns north in a few days, and will spend ( ] some time in Glasgow. I find he has j already gleaned some facts with respect to • ' that town's capability of absorbing New Zealand cheese, which coincide Tery well j with the views I have expressed once or j 1 twice. He will prosecute his enquiries . ' further, and having " weighed up Glas- i gow," will afterwards attempt to fathom , the mysteries of Tooley street, and other I London haunts of butter merchants. ].* Mr Thomas Begg, of Dunedin, who haa j been stopping* at Tranter's Hotel, Bar- j hicau, since hia arrivalhome, i?, like Mr • ] Olson, much interested in the dairy pro- 1 duce trade. He bus o:cupied a great part „ of his time in looking into new inventions J ! for butler and cheese-making purposes, ' ( but up to the present has come acros'i nothing particularly new. He goes to I Scotland next week for a fortnight or so, ' and will then remain in London till July

— ** t *** , ** , '**** w>>1 * ,> * M,,tT '" >tT -'*'*'**>***-»>t-,*- fl 8, when he sails for America, via which I oonntry he returns to tbe Colony. Of course, he will visit the World's Exposition at Chicago, where the latest faßhit ns in dairying implements will bu found, and tbe results of most exhaustive tests in every direction will be available. Mr and Mrs Schnadhorst and family ' arrived at Plymouth last Saturday by the Maaeiha, and proceeded to London the same evening. The King of the Caucus is understood to havo benefited in health by his tour, and to be full of enthusiasm concerning the Colonies in general and New , Zealand in particular. After seeing a number of political friends, Mr and Mrs Schnadhorst proceeded to Bournemouth, where they mean to stay for the present. I . Mr Gilbert Parker, who haß been revising the proofs of " Mrs Falchion" at Penzance, returns to town tbis week, and will take 1 up his residence at Harpenden. < HON J. W. FOBTESCDE AGAIN, The Hon J. W. Fortescuo iB to the fore again in the new Nineteenth Century, to which he contributes an article that will scarcely increase the very limited reßpect felt for bis utterances in Antipodean circles. During his stay in New Zealand, ; it seems Mr Forteecue noticed that the in- ■ habitants were,under the influence of the climate, slowly but surely diverging from the English type. " New Zealand," he remarks, "ia reckoned to be the moat English place out of England. But the people are none the less undergoing a j rapid process of alteration— are becoming, > J to coin a word, diß-Englished— in respect *M of mental characteristics. As to pureljr^fl physical changes it ib impossible to eay_H anything definite; and yet, after ahort-JB experience one becomes alive to the fact_H tbat there is something in the make and_fl shape of the New Zealander bred and born ,*^H which renders lrm in a great degree dis- "4 tinguiahable from the Briton bred and 1 born, of the same age. Sometimes the difference is indefinable, and indeed, im- i perceptible by any bnt a practised eye. | Sometimes the young New Zenlanderß be- j tray their native origin by that length and 1 Elendernees of form which has gained 1 for young Australians the name of 'cornstalks/ The physical precooity of j these transplanted English is admitted on all hands, and musfe, no doubt, produce its tftVob; but while I Bhould hesitate to asoribe to them physical superiority over . the native English, I should ba still more j loth even to hint of physical inferiority. ; A phyaioal difference which is accentuating itself rapidly is to be found in what is known as the "Colonial twang," in speech. It may be a Bmall point; but , • will anybody explain to me why the 1 j transplanted Englishman makes his J t language sound so hideous to native Eng- ■ lish ears? I can understand the lazy V nasal drawl of the over-heated Barbadian j 1 j but why the nasality of America ? Why, • again, should Australasia have grown to ' speak, with aggravations, the hideous , j cockney dialect (quite ot modern date, \ . judging by Sam Weller) which converts j'a* into a quasi-dipthongic f y'! Why ! should South Australians speak of their , : native country as *B'th 'StrylVP Why, 1 in spite of the efforts of fathers, should j ohildren— English, Scotch, or Irish— all ; tend in New Zealand to use tho same . | abominable corrupt pronunciation ? ! "The weather, again, appears to be rej sponsible for a curious ohange in the , . temperament of the colonist. Distrust of j the weather is deeply rooted in the English < '■ mind, and is very difficult to eradicate i j from it. We remember Marryatt'e 4 quartermaster, when he came back to - j the fogs of the Channel from the West % ; Indieß— ' This is what I calls something t like. None of your d— - blue skier A \ here." But the born and bred New jj j Zealandera have faith in the blue skies cjM i thier oonntry, and enjoy a new sensational j a source of pleasure unknown to their f ore- l| j fathers— a delight in existence for its own 1 j sake. When they lay themselves out for ' pleasure they oau do so without fear that the elements will spoil it; they cease to 1 take it sadly, after the manner of our race, or to gulp it down greedily for fear it ■ should be dashed from their lips, because j they have confidence that tbey can enjoy < it at leisure, and Bip it to the dregs. Life is brighter and happier to them. They ' ceaie to be restless, gloomy and anxious, | and become oheerful and light-hearted, ! more like the southern race 3of Eurg. .. \ ' Already the dominant characteristic in i | New Zealand is a oertain joyous frivolity, j a oheerful assurance that everything mrii either be all right or come right of itseli' \ sooner or later, and that meanwhile i nothing really matters very muoh. There ,>• is no hard winter to bring home to '< people the consequences of extravagance, recklessness, and neglect of work as in England ; and therefore the penalty paid for them is much lighter. Her people will be — as, indeed, thoy already to a great extent are— oheerful, warm-hearted, pleasure - '. loving, and optimistic; exempt from the \ j English melancholy and probably, also lackj ing the English restlessness, earnestness, and, in the north, perhaps, energy. They j will wean themselves from BritiEh i traditions, British < aspirations, British . habits of thought, and evolve sub- _. I stitutes of their own more in har-JH | mony with their environment. Thua^B ; the gulf between them and the <?' d W ■ Country will widen more and more, until .1 | the two become totally alien to eaclr^B ' other in character and feeling. The com-fl| ( bined action of a ' lovely climate ' and &^H i glorious constitution has brought thing^H jto suoh a pass that the Mel-^B bourne unemployed refuse work in_|_f ; the oonntry even at a wage of 'ft'OH a day. I oannot but think myself that tH the Australian climate, by disinclining _H men to hard work, has very greatlyjH favoured the system, or rather theory, 4^^B administration wbich has brought the four*M| Eastern Provinoea almoßt to bankruptcy. "H Town life is apparently so enjoyable for its fl own sake in Australia, that it seemß to ■ deprive men— those who are mißleadingly M called ' the working men * — of all enterprise and ambition."