ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 2, 11 January 1908, Page 31

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

{From Our Special Correspondent.! 1 LONDON, November 29th. MAJOR TREVOR AND THE REAL AUSTRALIAN. Major Philip Trevor, who is travelling in Australia with the M.C.C. team, writes interestingly in the London “ Daily Telegraph ’’ of his first impressions of the Australian people. “ Speaking,” he says, “ as a mere Englishman, who until recently had never visited Australia, but who had for some years done his best to acquaint himself from ordinary sources with the facts and features of the country I say that what I had quite failed to get from printed matter was a glimpse of the : real everyday life of the Australian colonist. Fiction has given us the bush life in more or less lurid form, and the shelves of our libraries groan with statistical returns of exports and imports, but of the everyday life of the colonist, in the big cities especially, I was appallingly ignorant.” Major Trever goes on to say that ho lias looked in vain in Australia for the stage Australiau, the sort of colonial

who has at least one million of money and the handgrip of a gorilla, who lacks an “ h ” and a wife until the last act of the play, who describes himself as a rough diamond and whose friends describe him as one of nature’s gentlemen. Such a character appears to be as mythical as the stage soldier and the stage Irishman. The Major finds Australians very independent and outspoken. “ It is a defensive as opposed to an offensive independence. That remark implies that the Australian, when meeting the Englishman, is looking out for squalls. Nor is the inference unfair. No doubt the less admirable type of travelling Englishman has for a long time past been in the habit of patronising the Colonist. It is, perhaps, but natural that he should do so. .The little boy -who has been bullied when at the bottom of the school too often turns bully himself when he gets to the top of it. This kind of traveling Englishman is of no importance in his own land, and he is at pains to create the idea that he is a person of importance when he lands in Australia. Now, a particular and an admirable trait of the Australian is his dislike of pose. To what extent this English traveller is posing he may not know, but he realises the fact that he is posing, and he is apt to retaliate in consequence with more than his usual bbintness. And that, generally speaking, he is blunt cannot be denied.” On the whole the Major regards this outspokenness as an invigorating tendency. There is, at least, one reason why the Australians’ independence should differ from the independence of the British colonist in most parts of the world. He has always understood the value—whatever it is—of the dignity of labour. No Kaffir or Chinaman works for him, and he accustoms himself in consequence to physical, as well as to mental .self-re-liance. That appeals to Major Trevor as rather an important consideration. There will, in all probability, be a pleasured class in Australia a few years hence—for the line which divides work from play is already a thin one—but there is no leisured class, nor in the Major’s opinion is there any likelihood of there over being one. COLONIAL FRUIT IN LONDON. The Royal Horticultural Society, which has rendered valuable service to the colonial fruit, industry and to, the home consumer by holding periodical exhibitions of colonial-grown produce, has been having a fruit exhibition this week at its hall in Vincent Square, Westminster. As pointed out by Sir Trevor Lawrence, the president, and the Rev. W. Wilks, the secretary of the society, the subsidiary objects which the society have in view, besides the governing motive of helping the colonies aaid making them feel that we are all fellow citizens of one great Empire, are (1) to show the inhabitants of the Mother Country what splendid and varied supplies of fruit our colonies can send, and (2), to enable colonial growers to discover which of their fruits arc best suited for the British markets. The present exhibition is full of interest from.this point of view; and Canada—for the Dominion at this period of the year is the principal exhibition—has every reason to be proud of the specimens-of her produce now displayed at Westminster. A finer collection of apples has never been seen at any of the society’s shows than that sent over by the Governme'nt of British Columbia. It is extensive and varied, and in some respects is equal, if not superior, to the best examples of English fruit shown this year, notwithstanding the fact that it has had to bear the strain of a railway and steamship journey of (5000 miles. If the Canadian apples are not quite up to the English standard in llavour, many sorts are superior in colour and cleaner in skin, and the grading is remarkable.’ British Columbia is fortunate in being singularly free from the injurious insects and plant diseases which work jjreat havoc in other countries, nnd this was a great saving of expense to the grower. As may be seen tit the exhibition, fruit-packing has been brought to a finS art in the province, the methodp used being considered perfect by experts. Careless or dishonest packing »s not tolerated, offenders being severely punished. It is of niterest to note the cost of an orchard in Britah Columbia. The cost of making a 20-acre orchard is variously estimated from £5OO to £7OO, according to the first outlay ort land .and the cost of ioeal labour conditions. Care

and maintenance for five years, or until the orchard begins to bear, would cost about £ 500, less the value of smalt fruits and vegetables planted between the trees and the fifth year’s return of fruit, which in all should pay the original cost of the tree. In the sixth year the orchard should produce £l7O worth of fruit, in the seventh £640, and in the ninth £ll6O, after which it should pay a net annual profit of £25 to £3O per acre—an assured income for life of £5OO to £6OO a year. This estimate is, it is stated, justified by actual experience. Among the other exhibits are fruits from Nova Seotia, West Indies, and the Cape, whence also come jams,, wines and native tea. New Zealand is not represented. THE STEWART DAWSON ’TREASURE HOUSE.” Tile opening of the Stewart Dawson ‘’Treasure House” in Hatton Garden was celebrated on Tuesday with an inaugural luncheon at the Hotel Cecil. The new '‘Treasure House” is an Imposing building of white Portland stone and capacious dimensions, devoted exclusively to the supply at wholesale prices of gems, precious stones, jewellery, gold and silver ware, watches and artistic leather goods. Its proprietor declares that Hatton Garden has not seen within its precincts any edifice at all comparable to this since the days when Queen Elizabeth’s dancing Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton, lived on the site in becoming state and grandeur. The founder, designer and owner of this new London Treasure House is Mr Stewart Dawson. Thirty-five years ago, when a young man, he set up a watch and jewellery business in Liverpool, and by the adoption of ready-money methods, the persistent exercise of an inborn capacity for business generally, and a wise recourse to the powers of publicity, gradually built up a large and profitable business. In ten years’ time he had accumulated capital sufficient for the great Colonial venture for which he had long nursed an ambition, and in IHHI went out to Sydney, where he built an extensive jewellery store, planished it with such a brilliant and valuable stock as had never* before been seen in the capital of New South Wales, and achieved altogether a' notable success. From this master stroke he soon proceeded to further expansions, and it was not many years before he had establishments in every great city in Australasia —Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch. Dunedin —eight separate jewellery centres, all carried on upon the ready-money principles which had served him so well at the outset of his career, and all prosperous. And now, with success upon success standing to his credit, with an unique experience, an ample, capital, and his old and well-tried methods to serve him—he establishes himself in London on a scale and with a purpose that is bound to gain recognition. The three great showrooms of the new Treasure House contain a magnificent collection of jewellery and gold and silver ware. All the best production-points in the world—the gold and silver producing centres, the jewellery manufacturing centres, and the markets for precious stones —contribute to the display; while the artistic arrangement of the rooms, the superb array of fittings and show eases, and the wonder of their contents, constitute an exhibition of surpassing interest as well as of enormous value.