Personal and General

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 243, 13 October 1902, Page 5

Personal and General

isTOTES.

(From Our London Correspondent.)

LONDON, September 5,

The Rev. H. A. Raynes, Home Superintendent of the jgritish and Foreign .Bible Society,'^ has arranged to visit the society's auxiliaries in # Australia and New Zealand next spring, as a special deputation, in view of the coming- centenary celebrations of the society.

Dr. F. W. W. Dawson (Auckland) returned from Port Elizabeth at the exid of. last month on the expiration of his term of service as civil surgeon attached to the R.A.M.C., and has been appointed House Physician at Westminster Hospital.

The Rev. E. M. Faithfull Davies, curate of Richmond Parish Church, who has been appointed chaplain and organising secretary in New Zealand to the Bishop of Melanesia, w Till leave England nest February.

-Mr G. W. Allsop (Auckland), who has been over for a year, has passed all the architectural examinations for which he has been stud3 Ting, and is now an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He is taking a holiday at Truro. in Cornwall, and after an inspection of the finest examples of ancient and modern architecture .in Germany and Italy, will return to the colony in time to spend Christmas there.

I understand that Lord Hawke's cricket team for New Zealand is likely to include the two professionals Wilson, of Worcestershire, and Hargreave, of Warwickshire, and the following amateurs: Messrs. P. F. Warner, C. J. Burnup, A. M. Millar, J. Stanning. jun..' and W. S. Medlicott. Albert Trott, who will be fulfilling his engagement to the Napier Cricket Club, may play for the team if occasion requires his services.

Tlie Quarterly Communication of the United Grand Lodge of Freemasons of England was held on Wednesday night at Freemasons' Hall, the Earl of Warwick, Deputy Grand Master, presiding. In commemoration of the Coronation the Grand Master, the Duke of Connaught, conferred the honour of Past Grand rank upon brethren connected vith India and the colonies, including the iiight Hon. R. J. Seddofi. New .Zealand; Vice-Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, X.C.8., New South Wales; the lit. Hon. J. W. Hackett, Western Australia, as Past Grand Wardens; and Sir John A. Cockburn, K.C.M.G., South Australia, ajs Past Grand Deacon.

Those who care to rend Bishop Weldon's sermon to the colonial troops in Westminster Abbey, as he spoke it with simple eloquence, will find a verbatim report of it in the September number of the "Nineteenth Century." A perusal of the sermon is worth a journey to the nearest library.

A rumour having reached the Birmingham "Daily Mail" that Mr Chamberlain had provisionally accepted an invitation to visit the colonies, a representative of that journal inquired of the right hon. gentleman as to the truth of/the report. Mr Chamberlain admitted that it was true that he has lately received many invitations from the various colonial representatives who had attended the Coronation. The matter was one which he had had in mind for some years, and he would gladly avail himself of the opportunity if it was possible. But at present oflk-ial duties forbade his absence from home for any protracted period, and consequently he could not say that there was any more likelihood now of his tnking the suggested journey than there had been for the past four or five years.

Mr J. M. Brigham, secretary and treasurer to the Auckland Harbour Board, who has been in negotiation with the Admiralty since his arrival here some three months ago in reference to the equipment of Calliope Dock, has now brought his negotiations to a satisfactory conclusion. He has received official notification that the Admiralty has adopted his proposals, subject to Treasury sanction (which is assured), and the Treasury has submitted the draft agreement, which has been approved by the board's solicitors and Mr Brigham. All details having been settled Mr Brigham left Liverpool last Tuesday on his return journey to the colony via Vancouver.

The Admiralty has agreed^ to increase the subsidy payable to the board from £2950 to £5000 per annum, for a period of thirty years, thus providing interest and sinking fund upon £45,000, the extra amount estimated as necessary to equip thoroughly the dockyard in an efficient and up-to-date manner! The aggregate amount, payable during the iperiod of thirty years, for subsidy •will, be increased from £(>G,500 to £.150,000. The total cost of the works, upon which subsidy will be paid for interest and sinking- fund, is increased from £60,000 to £105,000. It has also been arranged, as part of the agreement, that the Admiralty shall have the use of land between new site for sheer legs and Calliope Dock for coaling station, or such other purposes as the Admiralty may deem most advisable.

On, opening No. 2 hold of the Tyser steamer Niwaru, which arrived from New Zealand on 29th August, it was found that so much water had entered the hold that the vessel had to leave the docks again on Tuesday evening.for sea to throw overboard a 'donsklerable quantity of her cargo of frozen meat, which had been damaged. All the damaged meat was shipped at Wellington. It is supposed thiat'on her homeward voyage the ressel started a plate or collided with some object unnoticed. The cargo is believed to be insured. The extent of the damage has not yet been estimated.

On Friday last -the trial trip took place of the N.i£S) Co.'s steamship Vurakina, built on the Tyne. She is .027 tons gross register, is fitted with asxilated chambers for large quanitiea of frozen meat, and has accom-lixlatiori-for all classes of passen?rs. She sails on her maiden voy&on September 11. On October 3 Steamship Company s new oat the Moeraki, launched a few

months ago by Miss Seddon, sails to take up her running in the Austra-lian-New Zealand intercolonial trade. She has been placed under charter to the Bucknall Steamship Company for a portion of her outward trip, and takes some 100 first-class passengers to Capetown.

Some practical joker has been "pulling the leg" of English investors by the insertion in the English press of a statement that the New Zealand Government has offered a bonus for an efficient spark arrester to be attached to locomotive engines. The numerous aspirants for honour and hard cash who wrote out to the colony submitting designs and applying for the bonus are now being disillusioned by a communication to the press that the statement that siich a bonus is being offered is not correct, and that it is therefore useless to send out such applications to New Zealand.

Some half-dozen members of the detachment of the Australian Contingent of about 150 strong just arrived at Shorncliffe from South Africa have made complaints of robbery while on the voyage Home. The men had drawn considerable sums of pay before sailing, aad on the voyage some of them lost large amounts. One trooper was robbed of £40 which he had sewn up in a belt, and another at £30 which he had sewn into a strap in his sleeve, and two more were roibbed in similar fashion. The robberies took place whilst the men were sleeping at night, and unpleasant as ,the assumption is to the men, they believe other soldiers to have been vthe culprits. . As the Australians had chosen to come to England for disbandment, they will be stranded unless the military authorities make some exception in the way of passes to Australia when the men wish to return, the ordinary conditions being that they must pay their own fares.

For a large proportion of colonials, the only way in which to keep their pay is to get rid of it at once— fry going to the first bank they come across after the receipt of their money and despatching a draft to their destination. What with thieves and robbers in South Africa, ready t<> decoy you into drinking and other dens' or into the parks and knock you down and rob you of your all, the temptations of "Crown and Anchor," "'Nap" for half-crowns points and other gambles on board ship, to fay nothing of dishonest comrades, the army of confidence tricksters and rogues of all sorts in London lying in wait for men in khaki or "pompom" suits (as the civilian garb served out to those who taike their discharge in South Africa is termed), and—quite apart from dishonesty—■ the danger summed up by Henley in Ms 'ballade of Villon, tha,t "booze and blowens cop the lot," a colonial after the transformation from the privations of the veldt to the luxuries of modern Babylon has every, possible inducement to go through his money, if some shark has not already saved him the .trouble by., goingl through his pockets. Colonials, even those who have skilfully avoided, ,341 tie ambushes of brother Boer, have to be on the alert against the wiles of the "slim" and extremely plausible swindlers of London. Tile only safe course is to have no, dealings whatever with the stranger who accosts you in the London street, be Le "swell" or "swagger." A widow or a nurse may turn out a wolf in sheep's clothing, a mere decoy, while a casual chat with an agreeable and weli-gToomed young ma.a on the top of a 'thus may—as a barrister found to his cost the other day—result in an attempt to levy blackmail by threats to accuse you of. the vilest ol crimes. For the same reason the solitary and attractive "lady" in a railway carriage i& to Lc shunned like Shaitan. It is these dar.gers that account very largely for tha reserve and reticence of the Londoner, his objection to converse with Ftr:*ngers and his tendency .to scrutinise you very closely befor.; te admits you to his confidence.

A Parliamentary paper was issued yesterday giving a return <.f the military forces in South Africa from 1399 to 1902, and of the reinforcements sent out from the outbreak of the war until the conclusion of peaceThe garrison in South Africa on "August 1, 1899, consisted of 318 officers and 9622 men, and the reinforcements sent to the Cape from the latter date to October 11, 1899 —outbreak of war —numbered 12,546 officers and men, some of these reinforcement? from India not arriving until after the outbreak of host lifles. From October 11, 1599, to the end of July, 1900, the total of all arm-; sent to, and raiseu in South Africa, including the garrison on August I, 1899, was i0,H83 officers and 251.749 men— r, total of 265,132. i! On April 30, J. 901, 82,52« more men had been sent to the front, ai:.i at i the end of 190 i the total number of British troops that had b?en serving at the Cape was 35,267 officers and 373,482 men. From the ;begnming o f tb'cyeir until May 31, 59,653 further reinforcements had 'been sent out, and the. total sent to ana raised, in ■ Smith Africa from August. 1, 1899, to May 31, 1902, including the garrison on the former date, was 17,559 officers (exclusive of staff), and 430,076 men—a total of 448,435. The reinforcements were made up as follows:— Total from Home, 337,219. Total from India, 18,534. Total from the colonies, 30,328. Raised in Soiith Africa, 52,414. The casualty lists show the following figures to May 31 last:— Officers. Men. Killed 518 5,256 Wounded 1851 20,978 - Died of wounds or disease 554 15,615 Disbanded and dis- f charged in 'South Africa 377 6.30S In hospital in South Africa on completion of hostilities.. 291 9,422