PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 93, 20 April 1903, Page 5

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

' (From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, March 13.

Mr Kenneth Thomson (Gisborne) has settled in London for the next three years, so as to go through the course of electrical engineering at the; City .and Guilds Central Technical . College at South Kensington. "

Mrs *F. ; W. King,, of , Auckland, and Mise Qifford Cooper are in London, just back : from Oxford, .and are soon off to the Continent,..returning at Easter, .to Devonshire, and leave England about May or June. >Miss .Cooper remains .behjnd-ia England... - *■■• ■. '• t

Miss Lena Raphael,. of Ghristehureh, is leaving for the colony, iwsxt month, after a year's enjoyable . holiday in Europe. , , - -

The protracted dulness in Australasian mining affairs has apparently persuaded a number ;of the "Kangaroo" contingent of the mining market tolook for "corn in Egypt," and - among the directors-of a called the "NUe Valley Block E., Ltd;.,'? I note the name of the Hon. J. B. Whyte. The boards of-the Nile Development Syndicate and the r Egyptian and Soudan: Minerals Company are also leavened- with men who have been intimately associated with Australasian mining affairs.

Among-the members of the Royal Colonial Institute elected at last Tues; day's council meeting I note the names of Messrs John Reid Burt and E. Fondi Wright, of New Zealand.

1 The only arrivals from the colony w,ho have registered their names at the Agent-General's office during the past week ar.e Mr Richard Whittingham, of Gore, who is residing temporarily at Lumsdaie House,. Highbury r New Park; Mr J. -F.. Keene, late : Sergt-Major in the N.ZD.F., who has gone north .to Gateehead-on-Tyne; Mr John Warner, of- Christchurch,. whose temporary quarters are at 183, Old Kent-road; and Mr F. L. Armitage, of Auckland, whose headquarters in London are at 47, Duke-street,. St. James. Among the callers who could not be described as "visitors" was Col. Pearee, erstwhile of Wellington, who.,is now residing- at "Lygarie," Cheltenham, and. appears to find, our peculiar climate- agree very well with his health. ; .--■

. Miss Constance Randall-Johnson, second- daughter of the Jlon. George Randall-Johnson, formerly of Wellingr ton, and now living in the West of Eng : land, is engaged to , Captain Delves Broughton, R.A., and is to be married in October. .. - . -

Miss Bell, artist and sculptor, who was in, Wellington last year and came back to London lately, is engaged to be. married to aMr Lee. -

Geoffrey Sunderland, a son of Mr Sunderland, ■of Gisborne, has passed the Cambridge Local Preliminary held at Petersfield, and got thirii-class honours; his brother Marmaduke passed the Junior Exam, at the same time.

Mr Norman Wliyte (Auckland), formerly on. the Waihi mine, has accepted an, appointment in the Nile Valley Co., near Assouan. , .- -

Mr Charles J. Devlin, Nationalist, was last Monday returned unopposed as member for Galway in-the place of "Colonel" Arthur Lynch. Mr Devlin, who resigned his position as Canadian Immigration Agent in Ireland to accept nomination, declared himself in favour of Galway as a terminal port, for the Canadian mail service. He is Canadian born, and is the second ex-member of the- Dominion Parliament to enter the House of Commons, the first being Mr Edward Blake, who is also attached to the Irish party..-, •>.. -' • .

Miss Annie Taylor Black is going to have a show of- her pictures at- the Con-, tinental Galleries in Bond-street for a fortnight from the-24th.June.- At the present time Miss "Black has pictures ..being exhibited at the Leeds Art Gallery, Oldham Corporation Gallery, and the Glasgow Royal Institute of Fine Arts, and she has been, invited to send pictures for exhibition at- the Municipal Galleries at Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and York. Just - now Miss Black is at work on a portrait, of a boy, the eldest son of a Colonel Macdowell.

~ Miss Christine Smith (Wellington) sails for Colombo by the Orient liner Orita, which sails from London, on the Bth-May. After paying a visit to friends in Ceylon, Miss Smith then goes on to New Zealand.

Mr Botbt, Heaton Rhodes, M.H.E., is still in town, at Bailey's Hotel, but will return "to- New Zealand in time for the opening of the' session. .

Mr Frank A. Maurice, who, was, 1 •understand, associated with the press in New Zealand, has-now blossomed forth in, London as a teacher of music and a tenor vocalist. His latent venture is the organisation of "The-- Maurice Grand Concert" to be given in the small Queen's Hall on April 28th, "under the distinguished patronage" of the Hon. W. P. Reeves and four, other AgentsGeneral. His. talent for the evening includes two of his own piano pupils, sundry vocalists of more or less renown, the Roumanian violinist Weinberger, and, I am sorry to see, one of those inflictions, a child reciter.

The public funeral accorded to the remains of Sir Charles Gavin Duffy in Dublin last Sunday was some sort of reparation for the treatment he received there a quarter of a century ago, ■when he was refused a hearing at the CConnell' ee.n.tenary. banquet. A new generation has arisen during Sir Charles's residence in Australia,, and, his remains were'laid to rest. in, Glaspeyin cemetery, after a public funeral which for impressiveness and cefeniony has not been equalled since; the, body of Charles Stuart Parnell was followed to his last resting place in the same burying ground. It is suggested, by the way, that a monument to Sir Gavan Duffy should be erected in the Phoenix Park, on the spot where-Thomas Davis, Duffy and, John ,Blake Dillon projected- the "Nation." This part of the park contained the Ine elms under whose shade Duffy and his companions discussed their plans, but many of them, unfortunately, hare been levelled by the late gale/

Mr Douglas Gilford Moore, whose family lived for many years at Timaru, [and subsequently in Sydney, is now set- ! tied at Johannesburg as a commission I agent in partnership with a Mr Colborne. Last month Mrs Moore, Who had been very seriously ill for a long while, was gradually recovering. Writing in February-to an old New' Zealand friend Mr Moore strongly advises amining engineer not to r venture thither unless with enough money to spare to keep himself for three months at least at the rate of £12 a month for food and lodging alone. 'Assayers only get about £25 a monthl The secretary of one of the greatest-groups of mines had assured him .that very few mining ap-* pointments were made oh;the spot, but almost all of them in London. This latter statement, I may remark, is. a direct contradiction of what one is told in London. For, as I was saying a week or two ago, one is told on all sides ifi the, City that only the most important appointments for South Africa are made from London,<but all the'lesser onea "on j the spot.-" ; ..;-.: ■ ■ ...- - £} ..\-:i