ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 32, 8 February 1899, Page 2

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

*■■■ PERSONAL AND GEN'Iv&AL

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LOJsftOJT, December 31, 1898

I regret to have to chronicle the tfeath of Mr Collet DObson Collet, thfe elder brother of Mr Edward Dobson, C.E., of Cbristehureh, at his residence, •Finsbury Park, on the 25th December, at the age of 85 years. Mr Collet had been failing for Some time. Me is described by Mr 6. J. Kolyoake, who was associated with him in Several of He agitations for reform, as 'one of !the most incessant publicists Of this fc<strt«Ty.' He was born in 181S, and ntfas the son of John DobsOn, a merteMtit in the Old Jewry. His mbther ■beiijg a Collet and descended from I>«an Collet, he adopted her surname. Educated, for the bar but finding his mean* insufficient Be took up music instead and became a pupil in the IRdyal Academy of Muftic. He wrote ■fox 'The Musical World,' from which hk Articles were copied into the Times.' After experience in the York Company, in the choral department at Drury Lane, tinder •Macready, and in the Royal Italian opera, extent Garden, he became- a snusical lecturer, chbir director, and teacher of singing. As a member of tM Committe* of the National Political Union, he was appointed to watch the French Revolution in 1848, and Was sent With W. J. Linton to Paris to congratulate the French Republic on the downfall Of I/Ouls DPhilippe. In I*4B be Was Onfe of a staff of repdrter* to watch the police, ■who were watching the people. He jWeftffift secfetAry and moving spirit of thft £eopte's Charter Union, and It ?was on his suggestion that an address ♦Wai sent to Mr Cobden asking him to Snftett the fiepe&l of the Newspaper Stamp in his budget. In 1849 the Ht&t systematic attempts were made to alter the laws relating to the press, jfchat of Sir John FflMlcis for th* repeal ©f the advertisement duty, and that of *ha Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee, which in 1851 became the Society for Repealing the Taxes upon Knowledge. As secretary of this intetitrition and member of the ComMittee of th© Association for the mp«*l di Pa-per Duty, Mir Collet worked Untiringly until his efforts were at last crowned with success. He was, BiyaMr Holyoake, 'the author of the principle of repealing & bad law by enforcing it.' For twenty years too hk -was Sfcfcret&ry of the Committee tfor ti© Abolition of the Travelling rr&x. The history of tht movement ior the complete freedom of the press 5* told in bife 'History of the Repeal of th« Taxee on Knowledge,' whitfi, is being printed in the 'Weekly Times ; and 'Echo.' For twenty years he bAH«& 'Tfie Free Prase »M t)\pldanatic Review,' aad wab for eotfle time »4 the Btaft of 'Vanity Fair,' to which !h6 contributed under the norn de »lo«ie 61 DiplOnfcttiCus. Me leave* a widow, a son who holde to good position in colonial service in C&rus. and three daughters. Miss dara Coittt i« one of the two lady sec^ries in th« Laboti* Department of the Soa*d of Trade, an.acknowledged authority on women's work and ■tufiititoatM reUting thereto, and the ptber. two daughters ar* promiaeot m fcdticitlbftfti circles.

; Mt It. C. MacLaurin, who was recently elected to a Tellbwahip of St. ffbhii's College, Cambridge, has Antiexcd%6t another honour, the Yortte *ri2fe at the University for An esftay on ihfe Katnre and Evidence of Title to tßeal Property.'

Br. Chilton, who is acting at Editu Sburgh a* Resident to Mr Berry while £yr Stevenson Is having his Christmas liOliday, is hard at wofk specialising x>n the eye. The tfnivMfeit? Cdurt and EenstUS Aeade»i<Sus ha*e fflftde Kirn & IRfese&feh Felietv. After the holidays jafft over he means to have a tura with ibis first loVes, the Crustacea.

' Lady ton Haast spent Christmas With Mrs yon Hoehstetten in Berlin. Mt & yon HA4Bt has takefi ft h<mw in Bduth Kdnsington clo^e to hift studio, and eomfe up to London with his y>iU tihOrtly After the New Yea*.

-Mifes Belle Hitching* has made antother Upward step On the dramatic ladder. Safe had only had A fortnight's xeet in London, when she was te-en-sra*ed bt Mr Ben Greet to play the lalprtfes £oppea ift '^he &$* 6I th 6 jGMflft Cftftpany.' She is hard *t work again touring, and Ib, I hear, ifluch adWrefl both for her regal appairanee janfl for her spirited acting. Actors 4r6 said to spend' their holidays in seeing ?plAye, ana Miw Hitching* was no exception to the rule, for in the fortaiight she was ift !L6fld«ft 'resting' sfcß maft&gfed to visit fourteen the*- •****. ■ ■ : : ..■ ■■

The Agent-General and Mrs Reeves %a*e bfete spending thfe **** *oU* & tfiie days with the fdtmtt'k uncle in Hanipshire. They spent ChriStrftss Day in'town. Mr Keeves has arranged to itddtta* a meeting, the date o* watch 1h46 not yet been fixed, at the National liberal Club,' upon the labour aftd fcOcjal policy of New Zealand intt ike yesults attending it.

' Mrs Napier Bell wa* ednAned fto her room ill last week with a bad cold. Miss Elsie Bell went down to iMurlborough last week to a, school concert. She is at present taking softie "drawing lessons from Mr Arthur Baiii(bridge. I hear Mrs Bell and her-daugh-ter intend leaving for Paris early next iyear. .

In Mr Sidney H. Preston's annual *u»»ary of people inquired for la thi« 'Agony' columns of the past year, Bophia Ellise, believed to ha*e gone •to New 2ea.ia.Hd, ife iJi6tlti6tifed as inftuired for by the Court of Chancery.

" Mr J. S. Fairchild, of Wellington, is fe" pjMenger by the Gothic, hftvlag •under&one during1 the past year a course of study at the London Denial the result Of &TR esattlina* *ion which was held a few days before the Gothic started isn Ot yet kno%vn, ■but from the many compliments Mr OFairehild received from some of the leading L&na&n dentists on the skill he has exhibited in the mechanical Jbranch of his profession, it .is safe to predict he will come out Of the ordeal ;with flying colours.

Though in the sere and yellow leaf Donald Dinnie is Still offering to match himself against any man breathing for an all round athletic contest, and he ifi most anxious to put 'my bOy Alf against any of the strong men now in England at genuine ffeats' of strength wita dumbbells.

Tie latter Challenge is particularly directed to Eugene" Sandow, but it is an open question whether in the matter Of mere brute strength, apart from ease arid elegance of execution and trick work, Sandow is the strengest man on earth. There is a young fellow named Morrison, a half-bred Canadian n6w performing in London, who throws about barbells weighing 300lbs and upward with as much ease as Ordinary mortals would half hundred weights!