LONDON LETTER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5426, 29 November 1895, Page 2

LONDON LETTER.

♦ ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES. [FKOM OUB OWN COERKBPONDBNT. | London, Oct. 19. SIB GEOEGE OBEY* The best bit of news I have heard for a long time is that Mrs and Mies George have started for England with the intention of nursing and generally looking after Sir George Grey. Tne sooner they arrive the better. When we called two days ago the G.O.M. seemed physically in a most unsatisfactory state. The first touch of cold had brought on a renewal of his bronchitis, and his attendants were at their witß* end in the endeavour to get him to eat something. Naturally he was terribly weak, and found it altuoßt impossible to even make an attempt at rising, as with Old World courtesy he always insists on doing when a visitor enters or leaves the room. The reassuring feature of Sir George's condition was his mental liveliness and good spirits. The prospect of seeing Mrs and Miss George again had evidently cheered him up tremendously, and he chatted more of the present than wpa usual with him. Of course the subject of the statue and the other compliments paid the right honourable gentleman in the colony cropped up, but Sir George resolutely declined to look his gift horses . in the mouth. Whatever had been done was right. I gathered that he had read pretty well every word in the New Zealand papers about the Auckland meeting and the proceedings in Parliament, and that the prominent part taken in the statue business by the fair sex had especially pleased and flattered him. NEW ZEALAND 'CHABEBS. Mr .Arthur Yates, who iB supervising the preparation of the New Zealand 'chasers for the coming campaign, has the reputation of being one of the shrewdest, moat experienced and long-headed of men playing "the great game" in England. He knows just the form that is required to win a Liverpool or a Grand Military, and may be relied on to turn the capacitieß of the colonial horses to the best possible advantage. Mr Gollan shows he knows what he is about by securing such a coadjutor. Generally, when sportsmen come from the State? and Australia, they are too clever for anything, and try to instruct their English rivals instead of learning from them. That is apt to come expensive. Even Joe Thompson discovered this, and he oat his eye-teeth a good many years ago. A TKE BIBLE PROSPECT. The this end of the wedge which will presently open the doors of Imperial Parliament to the " Advanced Woman" has been inserted at ike National Liberal Club. To the unconcealed horror of old fogies like the writer women are to be admitted to the club-house dinners, and at the first of these cock-and-hen repasts on Nov. 18 Earl Carrintfton will preside. I confess my blood runs cold at the viata which the new departure opens up. Hitherto the club has been a sanctuary to which our hen-pecked males (Jould fearlessly fly. But in the future our dear ones — our, under these circumstances, too dear ones — very evidently mean to be with us even in the club smoking-room, and to help us to enjoy a quiet, game of billiards, pool or whist. Tea will become de rigeur and alooholic beverages bad form, strident females in the up-to-date " knickers" will dominate conversation, and as few women possess any sense of humour, we Bhall give up laughing. .; It is a sad prospect. Mention of. the National Liberal Club reminds me 'that Mr F. T. Hutton, the librarian of that institution, leaves to-day on a health trip through Australia and New Zealand. Besides being a scholar and litterateur of high standing, Mr Hutton is a prominent Roman Catholic and the author of the biography of " Cardinal Manning." MISCELLANEOUS. The Globe doeß not like the Fair Bent Bill, and remarks thereon that it does not seem to oocur to the promoters of these "confiscation schemes" that they are doing their best to deter capitalists from investing their money in colonial land. The Financial News warmly commends the formation of a New Zealand Chamber of Mines, which, if properly worked; should, it says, produce beneficial results to the industry and to the investor alike. PERSONAL. According to The Capitalist, that " dear old gentleman," Mr Thomaß Salt, who left for New Zealand in the lonic last week, has taken the trip at "great per* aonal inconvenience," but " entertains a profound conviction of the justice of the cause in which he is engaged, and looks forward with entire confidence to bringing Home the good news of ' Peace with honour.' " His clients— the shareholders and debenture-holders of the New Zealand Midland Eailway— have not, I am afraid, quite so much confidence in either the strength of their case, or in Mr Thomas Salt. "Peace with honour" will not satisfy them ; they want peace with damages against the Government— the Government which has co "terribly robbed" them. ' " Mr G. Chater Miles, formerly of Christchurch, looked in at the New Zealand' Press Agency last Saturday. Since leaving New Zealand he has been something of a rolling stone, and has visited various parts of North and South America. He is now interested in the live cattle and sheep trade with the Argentine, and considers New Zealand has no chance of competing • with South America in this direction. I Mr Edmund Donat, who has joined the . Board of the, Shaw, Savill and Albion! Company, Limited, in place of the Bight - Hon C. T. Bitchie (obliged to resign when ! he; became President of the Board- of Trade), is the chairman and managing director of Dalgety and Co. i Mr T. Harrison Davis still lies in his bed at Princes. Mansions, but is now quite { out of danger, and progressing bo favour- 1 ably towards complete convalescence that { his doctor allows -him to receive business . letters and telegrams ad lib., also callers, but these are "kept within bounds by Mrs Davis, who has recovered sufficiently from I her recent illness to resume her place as ■ nurse in chief. Her husband, even if he J continues to mend at his present pace, will probably not be fit to re-enter the | arena of mining and finanoe for some [ time to come. Mr Davia's illness took him by the heels at a most unfortunate period— -just, indeed, when his own personal energy and supervision were most required by the various companies in which he is interested, both those already floated and those in process of incubation. ' His illness, I know, has coat him some thousands. . . i I hear that Mr Bawei, who is staying at Ilfracombe, pending the arrival of suitable lecture weather, still hopes that he will be able to " make both ends meet," and with a little to spare, out of the benighted Britisher by-and-by. Well, as I have said before, "hope" is a good thing in its way, and confidence in oneself is a prime necessity to adventurous folk like Bawei, But neither article will pay railway fares and boarding bills, and with the " free lecture " craze rampant in the Old Country— almoat every parson and squireen in uhe provinces seems to think he has a special mission to educate his poorer neighbours by means of the platform — I , am much afraid Bawei will soon find he I has to spend a pound to earn ten shillings.