PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 72

PERSONAL NOTES.

— M. Raymond Poincare, the new French Minister of Finance, began life, like bo n any French statesmen, as a journalist. He was celebrated for the gloomy severity of bw demeanour, and his specialty was to write a resume of the proceedings at

the Law Courts. Already a barrister with a small practice, ho gradually became a ■ barrister with a large practice, and suc- • oeeded by degrees to the position occupied by Waldeck-Rous^fau. He shin-ec most conapicuously in big- comn)«rcial oases, and is ' computed to hare lately been earning an income of fJSOOO a year. — The Duke of Wellington, who hae just been celebrating his fifty-seventh birthday, is also Prince of Waterloo in the Netherlands. He i«, moreover, Duko of Ciudad Eodrigo and a Grandee of the First Class in Spain, and Duke of Vifctoria, Marquess 1 of Torres Vedras, and Count of Yimiera in Portugal. Besides hk dukedom and other title* in the peerage of Ihe United i Kingdom, ihe Duke is Earl of Mornington i and Viscount Wellesley of Dangan Castle 'iv the peerage of Ireland. The Duke is j not unlike his famous grandfather in point of personal appearance. • — The iip-w Lord Bessborough is a busi- ' ness man. As chairman of the Gordon ' Hotels and an active member of the Charity j Organisation Society, he shows himself I about ts unlike the gilded ari6tccrat of 1 fiction as it is possible to imagine. His 1 wifo is equally practical-minded. "Viscountefis Duncannon" is the name that ! appears in large letters over the doorway of a 6hop in Bond street, devoted to the sale of articles of handicraft, all of Irish make The Gerryhill cottage industry • owes its success to the Countess's patronage, aJid its popularity is a monument to her capacity as a manager. — A "grand old cleric" i« the Rev Angus Bethune. tho Vicar of Seaham. A son of a Scotch clergyman, he was born four ' yeare before the battle of Waterloo, and 1 is 10-day working his parieh single-handed? Throughout his long clerical career— it goes j back 65 yea-rs^ — ho has never had a curate, ' and yet he has managed to combine the ! widest of local interests with strenuous ' parochial work. He has long been a county , magistrate, and to-day he is the chairman of the Sraham Harbour Sessions: ! — Sir John Denison-Pender is one of the pioneers of submarine telegraphy. While tlit Prinae and Princess of Wales were on their colonial tour Sir John made it possible for communication to be maintained between their Royal Highnesses and their , home. Every day the Prince and Princeee wrote a message to their children. It was flashed across the seas by the Pender

cables. What we owe to the Pender family few of i.s have realised (says the London Evening. News). Their fiiet' cable to America lasted- only a month,- but hi that time its use saved the War Office £50,000. During the South African war Sir JoJin and his brother arranged for cheaper cable rates for wounded officers.

— Seldom has President Roosevelt received a more notable visitor at' the White House than Mr Henry K. Rogers, tho master brain of the Standard Oil Company, who had a prolonged audience with him. Fifty years ago Mr- Rogers was a newsboy selling papers for a, living in the streets of I?ew Bedford, Massachusetts. To-day he is a millionaire a dozen times over, controls 22 companies wholly or partly, and was quite recently described by an opponent, Mr T. W. Lawson, the Boston "Copper King," as "the strongest, most acute, and most persuasive human being that in the 35 years of my life I have ever encountered."

— Lord Loreburn has received' an unusually large number of applications for "silk" during- the few montfce he- has occupied the Woolsack. A brilliant young advocate, who was called to the- Bar less than sesveli years ago, is stated- to beamong lite ambitious juniors who seek to join the ranks of his- Sfajesfcy'e counsel. Aparfc from^ Mr Benjamin and Sir Edward Carson, both of* wKom had gained distinction in other forensic \sph'eres when they joined the English Bar, Mr S. T. Evans, K\Cl, MIP., who had" been at th« Bar only nine years an& a^half, when tfce 'honour "of ."silk" was conferred upon him, at present holds the 1 record for rapid promotion to the "fronb row." liord Alverstone and Mr Haldane, whom Mr- Evans beats by a few months, were each 10- years afc the Bar before they became K.Cs: —An amusing story is told 1 of Board Ampthill, the late Governor- of' Madra*, j who has jnst returned to Hondon on* the conclusion of & most successful- term of office. On one octa»«ion, soon' alter his arrival in the Presidency, he *as\ paying an official visit to a certain town wKioh shall be nameless, and the local' officials, thinking to do him an honour, laid down a sumptuous carpet oh tHe- platform in front of his saloon. As those- who ar« familiar with Downing street are' aware. Lord Ampthill is a man of' colossal proportions, and his surprise may b© better imagined- than described when, on stepping from his carriage, he found tliot tire carpet beneath his- feet contained, not olily a number of elephants worked- in embroidery, , but, in addition, the rather pertinent salutation, '"Good morning, Jumbo !" — Sir W. fife Robson, X.C, NT.P. (writes "Jehu Junior" in Vanity Fair); though admirable as an advocate, is still more sucoee&ful as an eSeetioneerer. 'Sis speeches in tho House of Commons are apt to be too subtler when not too sententious; but on the platform his resources of quip and quirk, his ready wit and command of , political shifts and expedients serve him well. He was born in 1852, and his' father was a Newcastle- man. Be was educated at Dr John Cbllhigwpod Btfuoe's school in that town, afterwards going up to Cahis College, Cambridge, where he won his first in the Moral Science Tripos. In '80 le wze colled to the Bar. He became a Queen's Counsel in '92, and a bencher of t the Inner Ifemple in '99. In the tnean- ' while he had entered political life, for in '85 he was elected for Bow and Bromley. Ten years later he took a wise step in, I seeking- the suffrages of the county of his birth. South Shields returned Kirn by the narrow majority of 133. Bat they liked their man, and the majority swelled to 3298 in 1900 and to 6286 at the last election. Sir William is a dandy amongst lawyers, who, as a class, do no€ direct their attention to tfie efcudy of roen."s fashions. He wears light spats* in winter, and his oculars' are as high as th^y 1 a-re immaculate. His white waietooats have been much admired. Since a« shaved off ■his side whiskers he looks still brisker, while his- moustache lendfl him an air of determination. Yet h« is a kmd'Kearted man, and frequent smiles redress the severity of his- aspect.' He once refused a- £10,000 brief — in tho colonies^ — and thereby established for himself' a legal record. He is a ouriosity amongr leading advocates, in that he has never written a law book. He has made a reputation 'n . the conduct of trade union caees which is ! likoly to advance him in the future, and ' has "certainly served him well, electorally, in the past.

— Perth .Town Council has decided to experiment in the matter of halfpenny fares on tho tramways.