South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), Monday 29 October 1888, page 6


ANGLO-COLONIAL G03SIP. .:

[From oar own Correspondent]

London, September 28.

1 had a visit last night from Mr. Warbrick, the captain of tha New Zealand football team, who have arrived safely ia thia country by the Cuzco. This morning

me team naa tneir nrat practice on ine Richmond Athletic Ground in preparation for their primary encounter with Surrey. I aaked Mr. Warbrick if the team had any football en board ship. ' Yea,' said he, 'but onJy daring the first part of the voyage, for we soon lost all our footballs overboard,' and so it ia easily understood that the team are very much out of practice. Being out of practice at thia time of the year is no great disadvantage, for the English football season had hardly begun, Mr. Warbrick said that- the team had had a very pleasant voyage over here. Some of them landed at Port Said at 2 in the morning, when the town was all alight and attiring for the sake of the cool hours. At Naples they stajed a. day, and notwithstanding the filthiness of the town enjoyed its' ba&utiful and architectural attractions. About fifty matches are intended to be played. After six months in England the team will sail for Australia, where they will play a second series of matches before returning to New Zealand. Several of the residents in Richmond, where the team will stay for the first fortnight of their. English, sojourn, have, put their boats- 'at the disposal Qf the team, and are doing everything possible to make the visit a pleasant one.

The Hon. John Colton is in much better health and ia enjoying his stay at llfracomba very much. Mr. W. Crooks, of Port Adelaide, has received a report from Messrs. Richard Baker & Co., Mincing-lane, upon the specimens of mica which he has brought over. The report ia a written one and highly favourable. One of the firm, who waa engaged upon the. mica mines of Carolina, America, further says that he never saw such splendid . specimens taken just off the Burface j and the firm generally recommend that the deposit be immediately opened and the produce shipped to market, where they aay a ready sale is certain. I hear that Lady Bowen, who with her two daughters were involved in the Dijon Railway accident, was ac the time returning to England from taking the waters at Aix-lea-Bains. How narrow their escape waa from a fearful and sudden death is shown by the fact that the sleeping carriage in which they were was the first that was not thrown over the embankment by the collision. Sir George Bowen was not with his family at the time of the accident, as he had gone on a visit to tha Grande Chartreuse, and on a tour in Switzerland. Mr. Frederick Lamond, the young pianoforte recitalist, is still thinking^of an early visit to the colonieB, and is now in communication, I hear, with the wellknown Mr. Smythe. The death of Mrs. Hall, widow of the Hon. George Hall,, and one of the earliest settlers in South Australia, took place last week at St. Leonards-on-Sea. The deceased lady resided until recently at Notting Hill, and was greatly respected. I waa under a misapprehension whoa I wrote recently that during the enquiry , into the corrupt practices ' of the chief officials of the Board of Works, it came out that the Royal Colonial Institute had to pay nearly £400 to 'square' the officials. The fact is that the individual from whom the property was bought did make such payments, bet his action was entirely unknown to and uusauctlo'ned by any one connected with the Institute. There is no doubt that the terms of his Bale to the Council of the Institute did recoup this gentleman for his ' preeents' to the Board' of Works, but on the other hand the Council are i in poaseEsion of a property almost annually increasing in value. Colonists who know Northumberland-avenue will remember at how gteat a distance it is situated from the present river bed, but at the time of the digging out of the foundations of the Institute there were unmistakable evidences that at one time the river had covered the site, or had closely approximated to it, for there was discovered a portion of an old barge resting upon a limestone bed. In addition to this antediluvian curiosity there were found some Roman coins, a portion of an ancient wooden conduit, as well as some tobacco pipes, belonging to a remote date of the smoking period. Most of these things had to be handed over to the Board of Works authorities, for whom no kind of coin, or nothing too dirty, seems to come amiss. The session of the Royal Colonial Institute resumes on November 13, when a paper will be read at the. Whitehall Roams, preceded by a dinner. Eight meetings have been arranged for, and I gather that an Australian papar, one upon a Canadian subject, and a third upon a South African matter will be forthcoming.. The Council intend also to pursue the idea of getting wellknown people connected with the colonies to read papers upon special subjects. Meetings of this kind were held last session, and attracted large audiences and were lengthily reported by the papers, so that they came before the general public. The apples which were sent over in the Arcadia under the auspices of the Central Agricultural Bureau have turned out a failure, a large proportion of them being rotten, and the rest having 'a curious taste.' They were offered for sale by Messrs. Keeling & Hunt, and a bid of Is. was made, «nd they were subsequently knocked down for. 2s. a case. With reference to the recent orange trial Me3sra. Keeling & Hunt tell me that during September and October good coloured oranges ought to fetch on an average 103. a case, giving a very handsome profit to the sender, bub they must come over in large quantities or eke the big buyers

wont taxe tne trouwe to iook ac mem. The case of Adelaide oranges which is to be sent back to the. colony after standing a voyage home goes by the Ormuz, sailing to-day. - . 1 hear that preliminaries are being arranged for a representative meeting of shippers, brokers, and merchants, to discuss the question of Australian freights. A fund is now being, raised to clear off some debts incurred by Mr. Bradlaugh in tbe cau&e of. his recent legal struggles with Parliament. Among the contributions to. it there has been cabled, through the Union Bank of Australia, the sum of £100. During the farewell dinner to the Australian cricketers I had a - long chat with Captain Angel. He Bays that he has,, according to hia idea, floated the Reedy Creek Gold Mine, having sold privately all the shares except two, and raised In this way a capital of nearly £60,000. Among those who have bought are Mr. Dangac, Mr. Elder, and Mr. Harrold; but, said Captain Angel, meat reproachfully, 'There Is not a single resident South Australian who has helped me in the matter.' I hear from many that Captain Angel has been most indefatigable, and that he has spent hours in conversation with those whom he has desired to take shares. These gentlemen will not be comforted if I make public that Captain Angel has got eleven more mines on hand. The Manager for the Reedy Creek sails aeon. At a near date, also, Captain Angel takes the Torrena out, bat he talks of giving up command afte*.- thi3 next voyage. . , Mr. Dangar, a resident New South Welshman over here, entertained the Australian cricketers at a; farewell dinner last Tuesday. Among the chief guests were, of course, the cricketers, -£ord Harris, Admiral Tryon, General Freemantle, and Sir James Garrick. ' Messrs. McDonnell, Blackham/ and Turner' were honoured with seats at the high table.

Among those1 prealdmg at the head tables was Mr. J. S. O'Halloran, who had ion! his right Mr. Lyons, who has been doing much better at the end of the sea3on. The usual toasts were proposed. Sir Samuel Wilson gave the . military fand. naval good wishea, but it was a picture to see Admiral Tryon's face when tha owner of Hughenden Manor declared: that we could fight two or : three Great Powers with our navy. : Admiral Tryon, on rising - to return thanks for the navy, received quite an ovation. He gave some cricketing reminiscences in the colonies, declaring that though he thought he had got a pretty strong eleven together among hia crew yet he had never' been able, to find a colonial one which he could beat; General Freemantle, who commanded the Guards in the Soudan, responded; -for 'the army, and said that- he was sorry there was not so much fighting there as he could , have wished for the Australians' sake, as 'they seemed so eager for the fray ; but it was sll owing to the conduce of Sir John McNiell, who was well known in New Zealand, who in fifteen minutes killed 1,500 of the men, quite taking the starch out of them. Before he sat down General Freemantle gave expression to the. hope that the time was not far distant when Australian officers would be attached to Indian or home regiments, bo that they might gain some practical knowledge of military affairs. Mr. Dangar, in: proposing the toast of the evening— that of the Australian cricketers — believed that too many matches had been played, and McDonnell admitted, in returning thanks for his brethren, that they had got a ' little sick of the game.' McDonnell spoke also of the fair play which they had received when in England. Lord Harris, who responded for the English cricketers —a- toast which waa proposed by McDonnell— said he hoped that, contrary to rumour, we ahould see another Australian team over bafore long. Sir James Garrick, who proposed the toast of ':The Press,' .was most ; eulogistic, spoke; of it as a great and increasing power in the lend, and that its ranks were being continually recruited by men who would be the pride of any profession. I am told that the real nature of the Illness from which Jones, the Australian cricketer, has been suffering iB smallpox, and .that on one. of the nights when he was sickening for it Turner slept with him in the same bed at the hotel where they were Biaying. Upon, however, it being discovered what was really the. matter with Jones the knowledge was moat carefully kept from Turner, who has escaped scatheless to render such good service to Australian cricket. Mr. Charles Stokes is returning to Adelaide by the Yictoriar Sir Saul Samuel and Sir F. Dilion Bell have i eturned from their visit to Freiburg, where they went over the great works in connection with the refractory ore boainess. The specialist.who went with the Agents is to draw up a report upon the visit, which no doubt will greatly help Sir Sanl in his .selection of a new metallurgist for New South Wales.'

A special meeting of tha Bank, of Australasia is to be held on 'Wednesday, when a lively discussion is expected' to take place. over the zecent grant of money to the family of Mr. Parkes.. It will be pointed out that Mr. Parkes left his family in employment, aa .well as a fortune of £35,000, and that, the grant was made without the knowledge of the shareholders. It will be proposed at the meeting that tbe articles of .association shall be altered in several respects. The medals and diplomas for British exhibitors at Adelaide have at last arrived ; they came by the Cuzco. ? : Mrs. - Mona Caird, whose audacious article on 'Free Marriage' in the a ugiut number of the Westminster Review, has made a great sensation over here, is a South Australian. She is a granddaughter of the late Mr. Hector, for many-years the Manager of the Adelaide Savings Bank, and will be better recognised by South Australians under her maiden name of Miss Alice Alison. Upon the strength of the article the Daily Telegraph invited a correspondence in its columns, which, since its invitation, about six weeks ago, has continued at the average of about three columns a day. It is this discussion and the origin of it which Bishop Morehouse, of Manchester, has recently stigmatized as 'foolish impiety, tending clearly to the unsettiement of opinion, the corruption of women, and national ruin.' The stowaway who waa on board the. Ormuz has been found after search in consequence of a confession made by himEelf to some fellow-passengers. It will be remembered that the stowaway waa suspected of having some hand in the death of a' passenger by the Ormuz, who had been seen in his company after leaving the ship, and was afterwards found dead in a tunnel of the Midland Railway. ? At the Inquest a verdict of accidental death' was brought forward, but since then two Scotchmen have come forward stating that a fellow-passenger told them thai: he had thrown a man out of the railway carriage, and that his ahirfc had been torn in the encounter, and that he had thrown it away. Since McGill's arrest he has bten confronted with the Scotchmen, who picked him out from a crowd of others. McGill denies that he made the statement, but he cannot account satisfactorily for his missiDg shirt, so he Is detained in custody until further enquiries have been made. Captain Lovett, the new Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General of South Australia, will sail for Adelaide in the TVfflniriH* on November 1.