ARRIVAL OF THE R.M.S.S. SIERRA

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 59, 10 March 1903, Page 2

ARRIVAL OF THE R.M.S.S. SIERRA

WITH

THE ENGLISH MAIL (VIA SAN FRANCISCO.)

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

LONDON,, February 6.

Having regard to the sequel to the King's "slight indisposition" prior to the postponement of the Coronation, it wa3 not surprising that a thrill of anxiety should have been felt when on Monday evening last the news leaked out that His Majesty had, on physicians' advice, decided to abandon his proposed visit to the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, and remain at Windsor. Happily, there was no cause for alarm. The King, who had been suffering with a slight cold, unwisely, perhaps, determin_d°to play the part assigned to him in the ceremony of inaugurating that day a new avemie of elms on the Datchet-1-oad. A piercing wind prevailed, and a touch of frost was in the air, and the King, accompanied by his son and Prince Eddie, travelled to the scene in a closed carriage, but he was, of course, obliged to remain in the open whilst the planting ceremony was performed in turn by himself, the Prince-of Wales and the young Prince. When the last-nam-ed took the spade the Mayor of Windsor held the sapling in position whilst the little prince prepared to throw the earth about the roots. Tie commenced to shovel in vigorous style, but his efforts were ill-directed, and instead of the mould going into the hole prepared for the tree most of it, at first, smothered the Mayor's boots. The King chuckled, and remarked, "Be careful, Eddie, you are trying to plant the Mayor." Tlie ceremony occupied perhaps half an hour, and during it those present remarked upon His Majesty s .ood humour and apparent health. Later in the day, however, the Kin* developed symptoms of influenza. and Sir Francis Laking forbade his Royal patient to take the Tisk of the journey to Chatsworth. Of course the news gave rise to speculation, and rumours of a renewal of the King's appendicital trouble, but we have the assurance of Sir Fraficis Laking that His Majesty is only suffering from an ail: ment common to thousands of his subjects iv this treacherous month of February, namely, a feverish cold without any complications.

Amongst those who have passed the first examination of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in Practical Pharmacy is the name of Mr J. Armstrong, of the University of New Zealand, and of University College, London.

Mr S. Weetman, Christchureh, who reached England last June, is now going down to Devonshire after spending Borne time travelling about in Scotland and elsewhere.

Mr C. Nicholas, junr., a son of Mr Nicholas, formerly of Naseby, is now in London introducing to the trade an apparatus for a new indoor game, "table cricket," which he has patented in Great Britain and the colonies.

In last week's list of those who have become Licentiates of the Royal College of Physicians are the following NewZealand gentlemen: Messrs R.Donald,P. Gow and G. T. O'Neill, all ex-students tof Otago University.

At a meeting of the Southern Committee of the Amateur Athletic Association on January 30th the appeal of Mr F. M. Spindle for requalification was held over pending consultation with the New Zealand A.A.A.

The Anglican Bishop of Wellington (Dr. F. Wallis), who was a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, officiated on Wednesday last at the burial service of the master of that Cillege, Dr. Ferrers. Following an ancient custom, the body of the master was borne round the College court and then through the old and famous Gate of Honour, where the "Nunc dimittis" was sung. The body was then taken away to be cremated to-day at the new Crematorium at Golder's Green, on the north side of London.

Dr. Wallis has quite a long list of engagements for February, the chief of which I will record, as they have been fulfilled. For nearly the whole of March Dr. Wallis will be living inthe Bishop of Salisbury's rooms, iv the old Lollard's Tower, at Lambeth Palace, on the south Bank of the Thames.

Dr. Eugene O'Neil, of Dunedin, who has already graduated in New Zealand, has now passed all his examinations here and become an M.R.C.S. (England) and L.R.C.P. (London).

The Union Steamship Company of New Zealand have just added to their fleet by purchase the s.s. Scarisbrick, 3500' tons gross register, which will be i-enamed the Kakapo. This vessel, which is 2-58 feet in length, is destined for the company's coal trade. The Union Company have also just placed an order with Messrs Denny Brothers, Dumbarton, for a sister passenger ship to the Moeraki. This vessel will be .'368 feetlong by 47 feet by 33 feet, and will be of 2500 tons. »

A. the general meeting of the Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust Company, on 30th January, the chairman said that out of about 230 various investments they had only about a dozen .were in default. One was the New Zealand Midland Railway. If the debenture holders of that concern had only known the way in which they were likely to be treated they would not have invested sixpence in the concern. He regretted to inform the meeting that he did not think they would get back ten per cent, of their mcmey, but fortunately their holding was not a large one.

Mr J. M. Chambers, of Auckland, who ireached London last Christmas Eve, tells tne that lie and his fellow passengers by the Spreckles boat Sierra were greatly pleased with the cleanliness, airiness and general comfort of the ship. he had teen with those, he saw on ibis _.a S ww ihe stateß "Jj»

he says that the electric lighting of the latter is far and away ahead of the former, and the huge gas holders visible outside of every English town are no longer noticeable in

the States. As to American railways he avers they are not nearly so perfectly marked as most of us have been led to believe. It is impossible to run the trains to the times given on the tables, so they lose 17. per cent, of their given times compared with the 3 per cent, of the English trains. Mr Chambers has been going the round of the engineers' shops all over the Midlands. °He found them full of orders, and says that wonderful strides havo been made since he was round ten years a(*o. Many works have doubled their size and trebled their output in that time. Machine tools are thoroughly up-to-date, and in many respects the works are ahead of their American rivals. Mr Chambers sails by the Oceanic on the •25th February, and should reach Auckland on 31st March.

The callers at the. Agency-General nowadays are few—that is, so far as new arrivals" from the colony are concerned. Amonf those who have inscribed their names° in the visitors' book during the last ten days are Mr G. 0. X- Sainsbury aud Mrs G. E. Sainsbury. who are now stavino- with relatives at Corsbam, \v iltshire;°Mr C. E. Mnckesy. of Whangarei, whose Loudon head-quarters arc at 55. Edgeware-road; Mr Douglas Sheppard, of Christchureh, who has gone to Bath on a visit to friends; Mr J- 0. Barnard, erstwhile Inspector of Surveys, who is residing at Hove, near Brighton; and Mr J. Barclay, Auckland, who is. pro tern-, ruralising at Sidcup, in Kent.

The Countess of Stamford aud Warrington, who is lying seriously ill at Bradc-ite Park, near Leicester, is the widow of the seventh Earl of Stamford and Warrington, who died in 1883. With him expired the earldom of Warrington and the barony of De la Mer, but the earldom of Stamford and the barony of Grey aud Groby devolved on a cousin, who" became eighth Earl of Stamford. The eighth Earl died in 1800. and his widow also survives, as Martha. Countess of Stamford, somewhere in Cape Colony. She was bom Martha Solomon, the half-blood daughter of a native African washerwoman, and the Earl, who was an eccentric and a wanderer, married her as his third wife in 1880. After his death she married Mr Picter Pieterse. The present Earl of Stamford is, of course, well, known in the colony, where he resided prior to his succession to the title.

Mr Pegram has finished the marble bust of the late John .Mackenzie, and within the next few days it will be in the packers hands, and should reach the colony by the end of March- I have not had the opportunity of inspecting Mr Pegram's work in marble, but Mr Reeves considers the finished bust an even better likeness than that achieved by the artist in the preliminary clay model. The Agent-General, indeed, is highly pleased with the sculptor's presentment of his old friend, which he described as not only a, good likeness, but an artistic piece of work, a combination not by any means common to statuary.

LONDON, January 30.

The Agent-General for New Zealand has, on behalf of his Government and the other colonies, recently urged the War Office authorities to reconsider their 'decision that particulars of contracts for supply of meat to the.army in. South Africa must be arranged there- He has pointed out that the form for meat contracts for South Africa could not be obtained in the colonies, and, therefore, it was impossible to send tenders for them. The War Oflice replied that such tenders should be made through the agents of colonial firms in South Africa. It is, however, hoped that the full conditions of contract will be made known both in this country and the, colonies, so as to enable intending tenderers to arrange business from their respective countries. It is held in colonial circles here, as well as in the colonies themselves, that it is essential, for the purpose of securing the full amount of real competition, that the conditions of contract and tender forms should be issued in sufficient time to enable companies and others in the colonies to tender direct. The Agent-Gen-eral for New Zealand has expressed a strong hope to the War Office authorities that this will in future be done.

The Anglican Bishop of Wellington is staying with Colonel Williams (of Williams, Deacon and Co., the bankers), at Bridchead, Dorchester. He was in town yesterday, and called upon the AgentGeneral.

The Earl of Seafield reached England from N.Z., last week, and is at present staying with Georgine Dowager Countess of Seafield. He has got a commission in the Bedfordshire Militia, and goes to Bedford shortly to take up his duty there.

To-day Mr Heinrich yon Haast has left London by the Tongariro on his way back to New Zealand, after spending some years this side of the world. I am sorry indeed to lose so capable and friendly a colleague, for during a. good part of his time here he has done much in these columns to please colonial readers and to increase the appreciation of thoughtful and cultivated writing. Mr con Haast returns to his native country with the _ dded dignities of being a member of the English Bar and a married man. I heartily wish him success in the practice of his profession, which he proposes to continue in New Zealand.

The death of Mr J. A. Ewen, of Messrs. Sargood, Son and Ewen, will have been known all over Australasia even before this letter starts on its journey thither, and an account of his career will already have been given iv hundreds of your papers. The position that he held of late years in the city of London has, however, been so notable that at tha risk of repetition I will mention that in addition to his many directorships and other important commercial posts he had for years been a J.P. for the County of Middlesex and vice-chairman of the City Liberal Club. Burdened as he was with all duties he yet found time to serve on the committee of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, and on the Board of the Colonial Missionary Society.

Mr H. C. Cameron, Produce Commissioner for the New Zealand Government, lectured last Saturday at Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel, and wisely spoke more of farming than of scenery or politics. Those last subjects have both been so overdone by other lecturers that the prevailing imp*"***** of New Zealand, outside pf commercial circles, has long,.

been settling down into a belief that there is nothing much out there but scenery and socialism, and that the squatters and farmers and other old settlers one used to hear of in days gone by are all either dead and forgotten or don't count.

With reference to the forms of tender for Navy supplies for 1904, which forms were posted out last week by all the Agents-General to their respective colonies, the Admiralty has now advised the Agencies that all colonial packers should submit samples at once and appoint agents in London to act for them. The latter suggestion of course means that the Admiralty wants to act here without losing time in attempting to negotiate with principals at a distance.

A case of importance to both consignors and consignees of frozen meat, in which a Sydney merchant was plaintiff and a Smithfield firm defendants, has occupied the greater part of three days in the King's Bench Division. The case was Kidman v. Blofield and Lissenden, and was in the Commercial List before Mr Justice Kennedy, who gave his judgment last Monday evening. The question of public interest was whether amongst London agents for sale of^ frozen meat there was so well established and recognised a practice of having periodical surveys made of the meat in cold store that even if no express stipulation were made a principal might reasonably assume that his agent was having regular surveys made, and hold him answerable for damage on the ground of negligence if he failed to do so. Judgment was for defendants and in consequence consignors of frozen meat to London will now have to tell their agents what surveys they want to be made in addition to the insurance survey and whether they want the results cabled.

Mr C V. Tattersall, chief accountant at* the head office of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency, was last Tuesday presented with a handsome clock and address, subscribed for by his colleagues upon the occasion of his marriage with Miss M. Morley, of "La Hauteur," St. Aubin's, Jersey. Mr Tattersall, who has been in the service of the Loan Company for many years, is persona grata with his fellows on the N.Z.L.M. staff, and is one of those to whom the encomium of "white man" can be truly applied.

The will of the late Mr. J. M. Stobart. a director of the National Bank of New Zealand and several New Zealand mining companies, who died on December 7lh, in his 73rd year, discloses the fact that he had laid up treasure on earth to the extent of over £43.000. By his will he bequeathed to his wife an immediate legacy of £300 and an annuity, to his daughters one hundred and* twenty shares in the National Bank of New Zealand, and he lift his lease of his residence at Wandsworth Common to them as tenants in common. He directed that his yacht and collection of antique silver and coins should be sold as soon as possible, and that, subject to the interest of Mrs Stobart, the income of his residuary estate should be paid in equal shares to his two daughters. He left the ultimate residue of his estate in equal shares to his daughters and further issue-