Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/115

 proved of the utmost value to H. H. in voicing the desires of our distant Colonies.

In 1884, H. H. wrote to the Governor of Mauritius on the subject of a duplicate cable to Australia via the Cape. Sir James Anderson, Managing Director of the Eastern Telegraph Company, had declared that the weather was so bad between the Cape, Mauritius, and Australia that it must always be next to impossible to effect repairs. It was proved that the contention of the Telegraph Company was ill-founded, and the outcome of H. H.'s letter was that the Council of Government voted a subsidy for a term of years and resolved that he should be asked to represent the Colony at an International Telegraph Conference which was to be held at Berlin in June, 1886. The cable from Natal to Australia, touching at Mauritius, was completed fifteen years later.

H. H. greatly valued a beautiful old French cruet set which bore the following inscription:

The mustard-pot belonging to the set was stolen by a dishonest servant, and all efforts to trace it proved unavailing. After a lapse of twelve years H. H. received a letter from the manager of a foundry, saying that a cup bearing his name had been brought in with some other old silver to be melted down. H. H. at once bought it back and the complete set is now in the possession of his son, Herbert Henniker Heaton, Assistant-Colonial Secretary of Mauritius.

A vote of sympathy was extended by the Council of the Government of Mauritius when the news of the death of H. H. reached the Colony. F