ANGLO-COLONIAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XII, 19 March 1904, Page 56

ANGLO-COLONIAL GOSSIP.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) BOOMED NEW ZEALAND. I have read with interest in a New Zealand paper some remarks made by a gentleman who had just returned from a visit to England. One of the things which had impressed him most was the large amount of attention paid to New Zealand by the newspapers, and consequently by the public, in the Old Conntry. This is not. perhaps, the impression usually formed by the casual visitor from New Zealand, but it is, nevertheless, perfectly correct, and I was glad to see it given publicity. Mr Seddon, I fancy, is responsible for the widely-spread notion that New Zealand is neglected by the English papers, although the fact that his own name is a household word in this country should have long since convinced him to the contrary. The visitor from the colony is very apt to come to the same conclusion if on opening a London paper he fails to find any reference to his far-off home. Such a one forgets, in the first place, that New Zealand is not the whole Empire, and in the second place, that the paper he is reading is not the only one in the United Kingdom, nor even the only one in London! If he would go to the Agent-General’s office and inspect the telegrams, paragraphs and articles referring to New Zealand which are clipped daily from papers published in all parts of the kingdom, he would alter his opinion. Not a day passes without adding its quota to the collection. Personally, as a New Zealander, and one whose business it is to keep an eye on references to the colony. I have been astonished at the prominence given in the English journals to our remote corner of the Empire. Air Seddon provides the London papers with much food for editorial comment, eulogistic and otherwise; but in addition to “iSeddonisms,” they are constantly printing paragraphs dealing with New Zealand affairs, with the resources of the colony, its scenic wonders, the conditions of life at the Antipodes, and so forth. Provincial papers copy these paragraphs from the metropolitan papers, and from each other, and so the name and fame of the colony spreads throughout the press of the whole kingdom, now filtering through in humble three-line paragraphs, now standing boldly forth in all the dignity of headlines and leaded columns. And all this, be it remembered, in addition to the advertisements which the New Zealand Government is constantly inserting in the English papers. The truth of the matter is that New Zealand is about the best advertised colony in the British Empire; so much so that representatives of other colonial States in London are not a little jealous of the prominence which she receives. PROPOSED IMPERIAL COUNCIL, Following up the Prime Minister, the new Secretary of State for the Colonies, who was the guest of the Canada Club last evening, pleaded in his after-dimer speech for the formation of an Imperial Council. All who had taken interest in the subject of the unification of the Empire, said Mr Lyttelton, knew’ how much argument and wise counsel and thought had been spent with the object of obtaining a permanent council, consisting in part of members of the United Kingdom and in part of members of the great colonial States. There seemed to him to be two obstacles. One had been the difficulty which colonial States found jn sparing their leading statesmen to be permanent members of such a council, and another was that these statesmen. themselves being members of democratic communities, felt that they might lose touch with their own citizens if they dwelt long apart from them in. comparatively speaking, a distant land. It seemed to him that the experiment which had been made, and the precedent which had been set of bringing into a council of the great importance of the Council of Imperial Defence, the Canadian Minister of War, and the Council of Imperial Defeat ■ the ( inadian Minister of War, ai.J taking him into consultation on a particular matter at a particular time, enable,! a hope to be formed that in the future more colonial staesmen might be brought over here and taken into consultation from time to time, and thus give us the advantage of their special knowledge npon points upon which they had a particular and special interest, bpeaking for him-

self, it seemed possible to extend that principle to the foreign affairs of colonial States, and that, when a matter came up here for negotiation or discussion, in which one of the colonies’ States was specially interested, it might l>e well that one of the leading men of that colony should come over for a time and give us Iris advice and counsel on that subject, and so, at any rate, form a germ of that council which some day, they hoped, as the Empire grew even greater in importance and extent, might be a permanent and lasting institution. THE QUEEN VICTORIAN MEMORIAL. In the jpurse of a lecture last Monday on Modern British Sculpture at the London Institution. Mr. M. H. Spielman gave some. interesting informaion regarding the Queen Victorian Memorial. He had, he said, persuaded Mr. Brock to allow him to have a photograph taken for the purposes of this lecture, showing what the central feature of the memorial was going to be. No one but Mr. Brock’s intimate friends, and but very few of them, had seen it so far, and uo strangers at all. The photograph having been thrown upon the screen, the lecturer said it had been taken from the great model, which was now approaching completion. The artist, as a precaution against eventualities such as the world has had bitter experience of, in case Fate should intervene to prevent him from finishing his work, was first completing his models for the whole undei iug before he began a single touch at the actual work itself. The central portion of the whole scheme was the monument on which rested the figure of the Queen herself. This model was 7ft 6in high, so that, as the scale was one-tenth, the monument from the base to the tip of the Victory's wing would be not less than 75ft; and the figure of the Queen as she sat would l>e 13ft high. The idea was—the great Queen amid the personification of her personal qualities which made her great. She sat in her robes of State —the only statue, he believed, in which the seated Queen wore her robes from the shoulders. At the right was a group of three figures representing Justice. On the left was Truth. At the back a beautiful vigorous group representing Maternity—that was to say, the Queen’s own motherhood. from which she did not flinch. Above her was the eagle of empire, and above, again. Courage on the right and Constancy on the left, qualities which, with the rest, brought the triumph of Victory; and Victory surmounted, crowned, and dominated, as it were, the whole structure of her virtues. Around the base were four ships’ prows, fighting ships and merchant ships alternately, denoting the sea power and the commerce of Britain. The whole monument would be of Carnra marble up to the three top figures, which would be bronze gilt. He need say nothing of the great platform, 70ft wide, of the fountains and all the sculptures, the bas-reliefs, and the whole superb architectural plan, devised by Mr. Aston Webb, R.A.. in consultation with the sculptor. He thought that Mr. Brock had judged soundly in deciding to follow traditional lines for this great work, for this was not the occasion to make

experiments or to run risks by striking out in new directions. Although the general idea was based on tradition, the work was not only personal to the sculptor, but thoroughly modem in treatment, and it could not be doubted that the complete work would be the crowning triumph of Mr. Brock’s career.

“MISSIONARIES, LIMITED.” c To aid in the material, moral and spiritual uplifting of the natives of New Guinea ” is the praiseworthy object of the - Papuan Native Industries, Ltd.” This company is being floated in London with a captial of £50,000 by the Rev. F. A). \\ alker, whose desire is not to exploit the natives but to “ stimulate efforts for their own improvement through the cultivation of marketable products, and by other industrial pursuits,” by acquiring “ small estates of from two to three hundred acres each, at some ten or twelve pjlaces along the coast, and so form a number of trading centres, which will be ‘object lessons’ in practical Christianity to the natives.” The primary aim of the company is not profit. but at the same time Mr. Walker nnd asvnrfntes appear to view with equanimity the possibility that they may in a few years' time be in a position to

pay a dividend on their capital. This dividend, however, must not exceed five per cent.; any profits over and above that “ will go for the benefit of the natives.” The manner in which the surplus profits (if any) are to be applied is only thus vaguely indicated. Possibly pianos and cricketing implements will absorb some portion, for Mr. Walker says We want to raise the natives in every way—spiritually, commercially and socially. In reference to the latter we aim at teaching music and by way of physical recreation we have started to teach them cricket, and some of them are showing considerable proficiency in the game.”

Judging from the results attending the introduction of cricket among the Fijians, the fact that the Papuans have already “ caught the flavour ” of our national summer game is not altogether in favour of the “ Papuan Native Industries, Ltd.,” becoming a success.