LONDON.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1868, 3 February 1892, Page 5

LONDON.

(From the Dunedin 'Evening Star's' London Correspondent. J

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

London, December 11, The Agent-General and Mrs Perceval arrived in London on Saturday last by the Viotoria, and have taken up their residence pro tern, at the private hotel in De Vere Gardens, South Kensington, where Bishop Selwyn is staying, and which is much affected by " smart " New Zealand visitors. Mr Peroeval looked in at Westminster Chambers on Monday, and made the acquaintance of Mr Kennaway and the staff, but did not take over the office till Thursday, I called in the afternoon, and had a few minutes chat, but could not stay long, as there were other pressmen waiting. First impressions incline most people I have talked to to cordially approve of the new Agent-General. He seems to possess plenty of savais and the eminently requisite, faonlty for a man in his position of saying the right thing to the right person. Moreover, having been in England before, Mr Perceval's perspectives are all right. He doesn't raise smiles (like another Agent I could name) by talking as if New^faland were the major portion of the universe, or mouthing about " the great colony which 1 have the honor to represent." His speech at the Colonial Institute on Tuesday evening (of which more presently) was as remarkable for its modesty and good taste as for it* sound common sense. Mr Perceval, I may mention, received an invitation on the spot to read a paper at the Institute sometime this session on New Zealand, but declined to commit himself. The subject (as he remarked to me) is rather a " large order." THE AGENT-GENERAL'S DEBUT. The feature of the Colonial Institute meeting on Tuesday evening was the successful debut of the new Agent-General for New Zealand, Mr W. B. Perceval, who (under particularly trying circumstances) made the speech of the evening. Most of the Coloiiial Institute " bigwigs" were away doing honor to Sir Graham Berry at the St. George's Club, consequently the platform was less smartly peopled than usual, but the attendance of ordinary Fellows and Anglo-Aus-tralians was exceptionally large — in fact, the spacious rooms were crowded. Sir Charles Nicholson occupied the chair, supported by Sir H. Barkly, Sir Fred Young, Sir Malcolm Fraser, Sir George Chesney, Sir F. Bevan Edwards, Mr Samuel Deering, Mr Perceval, and Mr Kennaway. The chairman opened the proceedings with a mumbling speech of outrageous length. The audience listened sympathetically to his blundering bat well - meant reference to the loss the Institute had sustained by the death of Sir Arthur Blyth, and even permitted him to ramble on to the subject of the paper Sir Edward Braddon was about to deliver without remonstrance. When, however, after ten minutes of semi-audible twaddle the portly baronet showed no signs of pulling up, the audience grew restive. Coughs, applause, and finally cries of " Time !"-rent the air. But all to no purpose. Mistaking the applause, apparently, for encouragement, the old gentleman ambled equably along, and it was not till Mr O'Halloran in despair had clutched at his coat tails and dragged him forcibly into a Beat that this exSpeaker's flow of husky fusty verbosity could be checked. Sir Edward Braddon then proceeded to vindicate Australasia, and (as somebody elegantly put it) "spiflicate" Mr Christie Murray and Mr Fortescue. With the last-named gentleman he was (thanks chiefly to Mr Howard Willoughby, whose paper he quoted) completely successful, The only thing (as I think Sir Malcolm Fraser asked later) is: Are we politic in answering nonentities like Fortescue at all? Does Australasia require vindicating from the slanders of the casual globe-trotter ? If the colonists themselves had not "squirmed "' under Mr Fortescue's blundering criticisms, is it likely the rest of the world would have paid any . attention thereto? I trow not. Premier Playford, of South Australia, set the ball rolling with his cablegram denying something or another Mr Fortesque had said. I reckon that that wire was worth quite L2O to the astute young gentleman. The fact that the Premier of South Australia felt constrained to deny his charges gave Fortesque an importance he would never otherwise have possessed. You have heard this before, but I repeat it because it was the burden of more than one speech at the Colonial Institute on Tuesday evening. I send you Sir Edwards's paper, but I Bcaraely think you will care to publish it entire, as it contains nothing particularly new or particularly original, mr peeceval's speech. Sir Malcolm Fraser opened the discussion on Sir E. Braddon's paper with some rather conventional remarks I do not think I need trouble you with. He was followed by Mr Perceval, who met with a very cordial reception when it began to dawn on the audience that the youthful-looking speaker was Sir F. D. Bell's successor. His speech was such a success that I have been to some trouble to obtain a verbatim report for you. Mr Perceval said : Our excellent chairman haß unexpectedly called upon me to say a few words by way of comment on the very able paper to which we have just listened. Unlike the last speaker, or rather like him in one respect, I am an absentee, but I am an absentee on very short duration, for I have been in London on the present occasion for three days only. (At this point the audience recognised the new Agent- General x for New Zealand and welcomed him.) I quite agree that absenteeism is one of the worst evils the Australias suffer from, and the colony I have the honor to represent thinks bo too, for during the last session of Parliament a small additional tax was imposed by way of warning to absentees. — (Laughter.) Owing to my having arrived so recently, I regret to Bay, or in one sense I rather congratulate myself on the fact, that I am not so well upas many of you no doubt are on the subject of what Sir E. Braddon has called these " atrabilious and unwarrantable attacks on Australasian manners, morab, and money." Nevertheless, when I got up I felt inclined to hang down my head. I am a colonist born and bred in New Zealand, and for the most part educated there ; and I felt I really ought almoßt to apologise to you, and explain that I am not a drunkard, that I do not blaspheme and that I am not more disloyal than any other citizen of this Empire. — (Laughter.) Attacks of this sort are received in the colonies with the scorn they deserve. — (Heat, hear.) But Ido not think it does to ignore them here. Unfortunately people all over the world are very easily gulled, and no doubt the attacks that have been made have had some effect on the British mind. I think, therefore, the colonies owe a great debt of gratitude to Sir Edward Braddon for his vindication, and I look upon it as an indication of the trend of public opinion that the Agent-General of one the colonies (the smallest of the Austral* asian group) should stand up in defence of Australasia as a whole. It shows, I say, the way public opinion is trending ; that we recognise that the interest of one colony is the interest of all ; and that in all parts of the Empire we should join hand in hand to defend any particular part which is attacked. —(Applause.) Absurd persons talk of the Australasian colonies collapsing, but there is no more fear of such a catastrophe coming about than there is of the British Empire

tumbling to pieceß.— (Hear, bear.) Do not be led away by statistics. There is nothing more misleading than a comparison of the Btatistios of the old with statistics of the new country. The conditions are not similar, and it is quite impossible to quote statistics and compare one with the other. You would be able to prove almost anything by a comparison o colonial with English statistics, but the figures quoted by Sir Edward Braddon are convincing to my mmd — and I think to any reasonable man— that the wealth of Außtralasia is enormous, and that her resources and her capacity to meet her engagements are well in advance of her requirements.— (Applause.) Reference has been made to my own little colony of New Zealand. We have gone through a troublous time, and I believe troublous times must come now* and again to every colony. You can quite anderstand that the sudden stoppage of the expenditure of borrowed money is a great strain on any colony, but the fact that a colony can prove to the world she can do without borrowed money, that she increases her land settlement and her exports, and that although a certain portion of the population goes she is still able to root on th soil another portion of the population — al 1 this shows that New Zealand is made of stuff which will enable her to keep on the right track, and to meet anything which is presented to. them. You must reflect that the colonies are composed of Englishmen ; that they have all the aspirations of Englishmen and the same spirit as Englishmen, and the qualities which made the British Empire will make the Colonial Empire. We are not drunkards ; we are not blasphemers ; we are not disloyal. I will venture to say there is as much rejoicing to-day in Australia over the announcement of the Duke of Clarence's betrothal as there is in England. — (Applause.) On behalf of my own little colony I beg to thank Sir Edward Braddon for his able vindication of Australasia." Mr Perceval sat down amidst loud and long-continued applause, the New Zealanders present being specially demonstrative. His delivery is quiet but effective. Altogether it was, as I have said, a highly satisfactory and promising debut. » Mr Christie Murray then came to the fore, and spoke with considerable feeling concerning the attacks on himself. His remarks have not been published here ; but, believing you colonists would like to know what Mr Murray has to urge on his own behalf, I obtained a verbatim report with some difficulty. CHRISTIE MOBEAY'S VINDICATION. Owing to the stupid habit which obtains at Colonial Institute gatherings of not identifying speakers as they come forward to claim the attention of the audience, Mr Christie Murray was not recognised by the majority until he had been speaking some little time, and many people mistook the actor- author for the Hon. J. W. Fortescue. Mr Murray said : — " I am in some ways venturing into the lion's den, for I am one of those ' gnat-like ' critics, one of those I ' mosquitoes of the Press,' one of those ' dreadful slanderers of my own blood and race whom Sir Edward Braddon has denounced. I can, however, trust to the fair play of my own people— l can trust «to the fair play of the colonists themselves — while I deal with a few simple facts. lam not going to make a ' high-falutin ' speech. The first allusion your lecturer makes to me is to the effect that I have been dubbed a 'globe trotter,' and that I am hurt by the characterisation as such. I never told him so. I have not been hurt. I never felt hurt. He say b: 'He "did" Australia, that requires years of study, in a few months.' How does the case stand ? I was there nearly two years. Is it fair to say that such a man has not seen something of Australia ? I think not. Sir Edward Braddon has stated that I was engaged in occupations during the greater part of my stay that prevented me having the opportunity of observing the colonies. That was not so. For five monthß out of the twenty- one I waß engaged in the evenings in acting and lecturing. For the remaining sixteen months I had no engagements whatsover except travelling incessantly to and fro in all seven colonies and examining into problems set before me. I did that work faithfully, and, to my belief, well ; and a man who has tried his honest best has a right to defend himself when he is attacked. (Here is a distinct charge. ) In my article in the ' Contemporary ' I said : ' There is no country in which so high a condition of general comfort, so lofty a standard of proved intelligence, and such large and varied means to intellectual excellence exist.' Does Sir Edward Braddon dispute that ? Does that . sound like the statement of an enemy ? Igo on to say : ' There is no country in which these things exist side by side with so much turbulence, so lax a commercial morality, and such overcharged statistics of drunkenness j and crimes of violence.' I will put the matter before you in a nut-shell. You are told not to trust statistics. lam told that Hayter, the Victorian statistician, is wroDg in declaring that .59 gallons per head of population represents the amount of drink consumed in the United Kingdom, and in declaring 1.15 in New South Wales, 1.32 in Victoria, 7.46 in Western Australia, and 1.59 in Queensland, represent the amounts of spirituous liquor consumed in those colonies. All I can say is that the ! figures are in Hayter's book, and are to be ■ found by anybody who chooses to look for ' them. The statements, if inaccurate, ought ' to be remedied, and if they are inaccu- ' rate I claim to have doDe some service to the colonies in calling attention ; to their existence in a work which - ought to be absolutely irrefutable, Sup- : posing them to be inaccurate, I am , here on my defence. Nothing can possibly excuse the man who does anything which ! may separate the dependencies of England from England herself. The man who raises his hand with that hope, or who raises it wantonly not knowing what the result may be, is a traitor to his country and his blood. If I believed I had spoken one untrue word I would withdraw it now with an apology. I am not impeccable, I am not omniscient, but I hold no brief, and I must point out that the statement I made is to be found in the book of the State statistician. Mr Hayter says the, deaths resultaDt on excessive drinking in' Australia are 113, as against 54 in England. That is the highest average in the word, except, I believe, that of Denmark. I have not been able to obtain trustworthy statistics. It is absolutely appalling, Mr Hayter says, that since 1880, as the colonies became more prosperous the an egts for drunkenness have steadily increased. In regard to crimes and offences, Sir Edward Braddon states that the triviality of the charges may be proved by the fact that 54 or 64 per cent, of the convictions were for periods of fifteen days. My charge is this T that in New South Wales the actual crimes of violence for which men have been convicted and imprisoned are four times as many as at Home. (Here Borne very decided expressions of dissent arose from the audience.) Well, convict your Mr Hayller ! Only one question more. Sir Edward Braddon haß had his little joke. He has referred to a statement of mine about blasphemy in Australia, and quoted the words « A teamster in a tight place will shoulder a novice out of duty with a "Let me get at 'em," and will at once begin to curse so horribly that for very shame's sake the dumb creatures in his charge will move.' The italics are Sir Edward Braddon'a, not mine. Now, I will promise this faithfully and solemnly— that I will never in the whole course of my life try a joke on Sir Edward Braddon any more,

In conclusion, I will say that I tried in my articles to differentiate the classes which are criminal and the classes which are not. I lamented, and I still lament the fact— and I expressed it openly aB one of the causes of Australian dissatisfaction with England — that we send these splendid colonies our most dangerous incapables. I denounce that as a bitter injustice to the colonies. I met there twenty or thirty hopeless blackguards whom I had known over here — Scotchmen and Englishmen sent out by their parents simply because they were wastrels, I know perfectly well that the greater part of the crime committed is not due to the native-born Australians, and for that there is an excellent reaßon — namely, that he is not yet born in sufficient numbers. " The imported adult population is very considerable indeed. This population is often uncultured, ] rough, and blackguardly, and it does a great j deal of mischief. I am, I think, a trained and practised observer. For a year and nine months I went the round of these colonies, and I reported what I saw and know. I have not traduced Australia— l am not an enemy of Australia. It is absurd and maddening to find oneself so characterised. They are a great people, and I believe in them and in the fact that the seed of the British race is going to spring up so fair and broad and vast that even the Mother Country will hardly bear comparison with it. I Bay with all my heart: 'God bless Australia.' I have left there scores of dear friends whoße faces I shall never see again, and my heart and hope is with the country. If I have spoken an unpalatable word or two of truth— and I maintain the words I have spoken are justified — it, has been for Australia's good ; and if, like the fly on iEsop's wheel, I may so presume, I venture to predict that in course of the next few years Australia and I will be very good friends again." DISTRIBUTION OF FROZEN MEAT. About a year ago there was started in London a small company, called the Freetrade Meat Company, Limited, which had for its object the supply of frozen meat under the best conditions by bringing the consumer into direct contact with the importer. To this end shops were opened in various quarters of the metropolis, and in the majority a large and profitable business has been done. The experiment has convinced the directors that once the meat is brought within the reach of consumers in its pristine freshness there is no difficulty in getting rid of it. Encouraged by this experience the company is now taking steps to widen its sphere of trade by means of steamers for coastal depots, and by specially constructed trucks for railway and inland work. To carry out this object it was necessary to make certain alterations in the articles of the company. At a meeting last week the following resolutions were unanimously carried: — "That the capital of the company be increased from LIO.OOO to L 50.000 by creation of 40,000 LI shares. That the name of the company be changed to the ' Freetrade Meat, Produce, and Carrying Company, Limited.'"