PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 253, 23 October 1905, Page 3

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, September 15,

ileet-street is in mourning for the loss of one of the most genial of the many oenifll Irishmen who have contributed to jts mirth and to the gaiety of nations generally. I refer to Mr. Robert Jasper jTartin, J-P- who was known throughout the English-speaking world as the writer of those highly popular ditties "Ballyhooly," "KiJlaioe/ , "Mulvaney's Dog," and other humorous Irish songs ■ffMch have found places in the programmes of music-halls and smoking concerts all ° ver tae "world during the past 20.years. "Ballyhooly" Martin was a regular contributor of verse comic and otherwise to that shameless sporting jonrnal, "The Pink 'Un," and to its colons lie contributed a variety of those excellent storyettes which are a feature of that sportive sheet. Maybe "Ballyfcpoly's" tales were not always "quite iie proper thing," but they were invariably well spiced with genuine hujnpur. , His death at the age of 60—he looked % good ten years younger—removes one of the best known personalities connected with Fleet-street. Tall, finely built snd handsome, with all the wit and humour of his race and an unusual share of high spirits, he had the knack of making and keeping friends among all sorts and conditions of men. And he was one of the best story-tellers to be found in the length and breadth of the Kingdom, ftace to his ashes. ' Dr. Walter Thomas, lion, secretary of the Christchureli Bowling Club, arrived ill London last Monday after a short tour in the' North of England, and is now: hard at work endeavouring to interest Metropolitan bowlers in the little mission he is endeavouring to carry. out as a member of the Sports Committee of the forthcoming exhibition at Christchureli. Following close upon the heels : of Mr. L. Alexander, of the W;AJ3.A., Dr. Thomas will no doubt find quite as warm a welcome from .Southern bowlers as the West Australian, who, like him, desired to get together a team of bowlers to undertake an Antipodean tour. The seed sown by Mr. Alexander may prove very useful to Dr. Thomas, who will, however, I fancy, experience some difficulty in getting together a really representative British team to undertake the journey to New Zealand, in spite of the glowing pictures of colonial hospitality painted by your recent visitor, Mr. Stephen Fortescue, and who will, I am sure, render Dr. • Thomas every assistance in his power. L. 0. S. Poidevin, the Anglo-Aus-tralian cricketer, is at present on a visit to Chateau d'Oex, in Switzerland, ■where he won the lawn tennis challenge cup on Saturday with the greatest of ease, defeating C. Gouldesborough in the fomlby 6—l, G—2, and G—2. He came through an entry of 15 players without the loss of a single set. He had no intention of playing at all on his arrival, and when asked how he ought to be 1 handicapped, replied: "I have no idea low to do it; I may say that practically Ihaven't played the game for over four jears." He then borrowed a racquet torn the nearest bystander, went in, and • won the cup. : 4 Mr. Frederic Harrison, now sole director of the Haymarket Theatre, traTelled.extensively in early manhood, and amongst the most striking mementoes of his wanderings are some fragments ol the famous Pink and White Terraces, destroyed in the great Tarawera eruption of 1887. These relics of a vanished wontier are carefully preserved in a richlyinlaid cabinet, surmounted by a .fine specimen of the New Zealand kea, which fell to Mr. Harrison's gun during his eojpurn. at the Antipodes. A graceful tribute to the memory of the late Mr C. E- S. Gillies -appears in "Niblick's' golfing notes in the current ."Sporting and Dramatic News." "It is with infinite regret,' says the writer, "that I notice the death of that well known golfer, Mr C. E. S. Gillies. Jie was one of the pioneera of golf in New Zealand, and in course of time became «hampiou of Australasia. Educated at •Caius College, Cambridge, he proved dearly that he vrps by no meana a ono•game man, by making his mark both »n'a .boat and on the football field. Although not endowed with any great Physique, Mr Gillies was a most cap■ahle golfer, having a beautifully true |nd easy swing, and he had a wonderknack of rising to the occasion. ?e was 'never done with.' and no mat■W r how hadly things might be going, -\«' Gillies never dreamt of giving up a match until his opponent had actual,l? passed the post. His tenacity of purpose, indeed, always made him a dangerous opponent." ■'& you are a Seventh Day Adventist, the best place to live, from the point of,view of worldly expediency, is New «aland. So I gatheV from the ex- : Penenee of Mr David Nield, of Wel- ■ tagton, who has just returned to London after spending some nine years in "toe Australasian colonies. Mr Nield ;*as formerly connected with the Seventh Day Adventist Mission, as their s«p missionary, in London Docks. "On Pusmess and conscientious grounds," from the mission, and eswohshed a church, named the Church at Hollowa y.- in 1890- ---. Une day he made 'a momentous disV iF'« " Oa discoverin g"> says Air frf «! "*k' a t a day was dropped out V*. the reckoning of days during the Toyage from 'Frisco to Auckland, witholVl^ iWe ° r Divine authority, 1 couth!!i t> that by the sun ' s rule acrosS .*°e pacific Ocean, without man's intert?ption, the Seventh Day Sabbath in r -"ew.Zealand would come on the day «Wed Sunday. The more I studied ■ j d thought upon this subject the more :L Was impressed with the obligation ■S. going to. New Zealand to preach ™ough its length and breadth (which , done) that the so-called Sunday . _ w*s really -Saturday, or the Bible Sab°"V; I ? e . ft London in the year 1896, ana since then I have covered not only rT w Zealand but every State of the holding open-air meetm\ o adv ° ca te the observance of the th! *, - bith on Sunday, and not on "c day caii €d Saturday. Many Jews So v I 6— Day Ad ventists have ac- £, w j e dged their mistake in observing da y instead of the seventh. have taken advantage 'of fw S mistak€ in the count of the days ' Wa V Week, ' and have g° ne to New ticniarr One man I may raentii,n parJn oi-S c ■' ost one da y ever 7 week keep the Sabbath, in addi*ith U nda y- So °i€ years ago he, •jjf ws family, removed to New ZeaM 4 he i H bow able to observe

the Bible Sabbath, the same day. as *«. kept in England as the sun brings it to Jsew Zealand, to earn twice aslkaich j money, and lire in a much more comfortable way. There are reported tobe 1364 persons who observe Saturday m England as the Sabbath of the ford. There are 29 churches, 18 ministers, and 17 on trial, 28 Bible workers, and 190 canvassers, a U at work spreading the fact that Saturday is the day to be kept in England. They have also a circulation of 21,000 copies weekly of their paper, 3000 papers sold every Sunday in London. They also report 00 students in their college, who are being trained to enter into the , work 1 trust that some at least of these persons may see the advantage of taking up New Zealand as a place of residence; for there the true Bible Sabbath can be kept on the day called Sunday without interfering much with their business calling or profession." Mr Nield left Wellington last January and travelled via Australia, Canada, and the United States, holding many meetings en route. He landed in Liverpool on June 29th, and reached London last Monday, with the intention of conducting a mission in the metropolis, and visiting Cornwall and Pans before setting sail for New Zealand by the Athenie on November 16. Mr Nield combines business with his mission work. He has secured various agencies on his journey, and intends to exhibit on behalf of an English manufacturing firm at the Christchurch Exhibition next year. Mr Nield informs mc that "quite a number of people" are going to accompany him back to New Zealand, and that there are many more who would like to go. Mr P. W. Robertson, of Wellington, the New Zealand Rhodes scholar of 1905, arrived by the Suez route on Monday last, in company Tvith two of the Australian Rhodes scholars—Mr P. Halse Rogers (New South Wales) and Mr Norman Leslie (Queensland). Mr Robertson enters at Trinity College, Oxford, at the end of the vacation. Mr Spencer Hancox, of Wellington, has just completed a tour through the South of England and the Continent. Mr Hancox intends to reside in London. Mrs H. R, Richmond and daughters, of Wellington, have just returned to London from spending a summer in Belgium. Mrs Richmond and Miss R. Richmond sail for New 'Zealand on October 19th by the lonic, Miss B. kicnmond remaining in England for the present to continue her musical studies. I see by the "British Australasian" that Mr Thomas Trowell, a young Wellingtonian, who came Home recently to study music, has wop a prize for 'cello playing at the public examination of the Royal Conservatorium of Brussels. He is- the first student for twenty years to win a> prize at the age of 17, and he i 3 believed to be the first Englishman, as he is certainly the first colonial, to win the distinction. Mr C. W. Halse, of Petone, arrived here on August 21, after spending some time in America. After a stay of several weeks in some of the Pacific coast cities, travelling as far north as British Columbia, Mr. Halse'went on to New York by way of Chicago, Canada and Niagara. The beat in New York soon drove him out, and he took ship for Plymouth by the Kaiser Wilheim 11. The Pacific Coast struck him as jeing even more prosperous than New Zealand, but in political, commercial and social life he considers the colony to be far ahead. Mr R. Sandilands, of Dunedin, has returned to London after having spent a most enjoyable fortnight on the Continent, principally in Paris and its environs. He intends staying for;'ten days in London, then travelling by the Midland route to Scotland, visiting Sheffield and the "Burns Country" on his way to his native town of Musselburgh, wliere he is engaged to speak before the Liberal Association on New Zealand and its legislation. He has also been asked to speak at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and some other towns on temperance reform. Mr Sandilands was present one day this week at an interesting religious service held in an old chapel in Crane Court, a by-way off Fleet-street, by the Scottish Corporation, a body which for the past 300 years has been supporting needy and deserving Scots in London. Pensions are paid monthly, ranging from 12/ Cto £2 10/ per month, and the society distributes about £7000 a year in this way amonst some 300 aged pensioners. The religious service in the chapel takes • place on pension day, once a month; and is attended by all the pensioners. Apparently this old-established society, thanks to various endowments and subscriptions from all over the world, i-s doing on a/small scale what the Old Age' Pensions Act accomplishes on a larger scale in New Zealand. Mr Sandilands was interested to learn that some of the subscriptions to *he funds came all the way from New Zealand. Callers at the High Commissioner's offices this week:—Mr Chas. i\ Wallis (Wellington), Mr G. C. Glenn (Hawera), Mr Chas. McGrath (Wellington), Miss Frances E. G. Homerton (New Plymouth), Mr Davis Nield (Wellington), Mr W. Seymour (Christehurch), Mr G. H. Dixon (Wellington),! Mr Hector A. d'Anquier (Bunny thorpe), Rev. J. E. Honnywell (Greymouth), Mr Jas. Mahen (Dunedin), Mr Thos. Pepper (Hastings), Mr Wm. Cheer (Elsthorpe), Mr and Mrs M. Kreissig (Wellington), Mr Neville George (Auckland), Mr E. A. Thomson (Dunedin), Mr Samuel L Puckridge (Wanganui), Mr Thos. Price (Wanganui), Mr W. R- Hursthouse (Nelson), Mr J. F. Hursthouse (Christchurch), Mr L. F. Hursthouse (Wellington), Miss Jessie C. MeKellar (New Plymouth), Mr P. W. Robertson (Wellington), Msss Beatrice Bjtehmond (Wellington), Messrs J. P. and A. E. Crawford (Christchurch), Mr Chas. Halse (Petone), Mr Wm.: Davidge (Hamilton), Mr and Mrs A. M. Georgetti (Wanganui), Mr David Nield .