ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 300, 16 December 1905, Page 9

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(EToni Our Special Correspondent.)

';•;;' LONDON, November 3. §1 PERSONAL AND GENTORAL.

: ; The Hon. W. P. Reeves-, High Cpmmisytfoner of New Zealand, on . Monday .-'evening presided over an interesting 'lecture on New Zealand, given at the Criterion Restaurant before the members of tbe Glamorgan Society by Mr H. ■Woodward. Mr Reeves, in opening the 'proceedings, said lie was afraid that people in this country held the viewthat the products of that colony were confined to footballers and frozen meat, but he could assure them that its con- . tribution to the wealth of the Empire yas of a far more varied character.

i The Colonial Secretary, Mr Lyttelton, attended a recent Mayoral banquet at Warwick, and, referring to tho connection of his family with New Zealand, s aid while he would like to make a tour of all the colonies, be must delay this' for a more convenient season. He fear-ed-that on colonial questions facts were distorted, and he asked for the indul.gence of his constituents and the public in forming a judgment on his conduct as Colonial Secretary. It was very difficult, indeed, he said, to form an accurate judgment on problems that were solved many thousands of miles away. It was wrong to adopt a partisan view of such on account of the injury that might be done to the Empire.

The "Times" devotes half a coMma to an obituary notice of the late Captain F. W. Hutton, Curator of the Christchnrch. Museum, who died on October 27th on Ms way back to New Zealand from thi3 country, wMch he had been re-visiting for the first time after an absence of 40 years. Capt. Hutton'slast paper, written during Ms recent stay in England, was a short discussion entitled "What is Life?" printed in the current number of the 'Tlibbert Journal," wherein he defended the assertion of Sir Oliver Lodge that "life is sometMng immaterial, and itself fundamental, something wMch uses collocations of matter in order to display itself amid material surroundings, but is otherwise essentially independent of them."

Mr Thomas Kingston, who was in Jfew Zealand with the Crane-Power Company, will accompany Mrs Langtry on her forthcoming South African tour as leading man. The company leaves London to-morrow.

Mr Frederick Mooro, the New Zealand pianist, gave a successful recital at the Aeolian Hall last _*uesday evening. His programme included Beethoven'Sonata in D Minor, pieces by Chopin, Bach and Wieniawski, and a composition of Ms own, entitled "Elfenreigen."

Miss Amy Castles will make her reappearance in London at the Queen's Hall on November 21, at Mr Albert Spalding's violin recital, to which the Queen's Hall Orchestra will be the only other contributor.

Mile. .Dolores reappeared in London last Saturday, singing' at the' Queen's Hall ballad concert'with all her accustomed charm and finish to a very appreciative audience.

The New Zealand element in the Guy's Rugby football team is not so strong this year as it has been in the three seasons preceding. On Saturday, when the Royal Engineers oipposel the medicos at Honor Oak, only P. McEvedy and L. B. Stringer—both playing at three-quarters—represent-ed New Zealand in the Guy's team. Yet they very -materially assisted the students to -\Vin a hard .match by 22 points to six, McEvedy scaring three tries and converting one, and Stringer crossing tbe Engineers' line once. They were therefore responsible for 14 out of the 22 points Guy's picked up that day.

The death is announced of Mr George Robert Stephenson, who as consulting engineer for the province of Canterbury constructed the first railway in that province from Lyttelton ,to Christchurch. Mr Stephenson was a nephew of the famous George Stephenson, with whom and his son, Robert Stephenson, he was associated as one of the pioneers of the railway system. Pot many yeasr he was at the head of the engine works established by his relatives at Newcastle. He began his career by assisting the underground surveyors and working in the shops of the Pendleton Colliery, and in 1837 "was placed by George Stephenson on the engineering staff of the Manchester and Leeds railway In 1843 he was appointed to superintend the construction of portions of the South-Eastern railway, and was afterwards engineer-in-chief, or in conjunction with others, of the Waterloo and the Ambergate and Rowsley, the Grantham and Boston, the Northampton and Market Harborough, the East London, the Danish Government railways, and many other undertakings. He was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in the years 1876 and 1877, and was a member of: many other scientific societies. His death took place on the 26th inst. at Cheltenham. Mr Stephenson was in his 87th year.

Professor Copeland, whose death was announced last Friday, began his career on a sheep farm in Australia, and ended it as Astronomer Royal of Scotland. It was during his Australian days that he commenced the study of the science in which he was destined to become famous. He took a leading part in the German Arctic Expedition of 1870, and shared in tbe privations consequent on the ships being lost in the ice.

As a. much misrepresented man, the ''World" sympathises humorously with the Kaiser. His speech last week, it informs us, had no political significance, but was of a sporting character, William's references to "pdwder dry,.sword keen, eyes on the goal, muscles taut obviously meaning that is expecting a visit from the New Zealand, footballers. •' ' . •"'.'•"

Licenses "to practise physic- were granted to Messrs, A, E. Baron (London Hospital) and W. W." Moore, both of New Zealand, at the ordinary quarterly eomitia of the Royal. College of Physicians of London, held last Thursday.

on «£*¥ I IT **** k/tt* *ew bookon the Australian cricketers* recent' t^-V^ .**' ! **W ; I*vETte?_t, _* J iece °, f - sa class distinction observed'oh ' English ground between the professiol and the pnggisb" the custom of makin- the professional enter the cricket-field"by a different gate from.that used by the If v** _* not *** '<&. to play with each other on the ground" he urges, "surely it is not to walk to the wicket with one another." The contention is unanswerable. And when you remember how few* of the so-called •amateurs" are such in reality,, the attempt to keep up the old snobbish distinction seems .more than ever stupid and ridiculous. .

There.is an.amusing anecdote of Bishop belwyn m a volume of biography pubished this week—"Mrs. Brookfield and ? e , I ! a C i_ <^ c - The late Ganon Brookfield tom the story in a letter to his wife: The new Bishop of New Zealand, in a farewell and pathetic interview with Ms mother, after Ms appointment, was thus addressed by her in such sequence as sobs and tears would permit: ''I suppose they will eat you, my dear —I try to think otherwise, but I suppose they. will. Well, we must leave it m the hands of Providence. But if they do, mind, dear, and disagree with them."

In an obituary notice of the late Mr. James Mclndoe, of Dunedin, and formerly of. Rothesay, the "Rothesay Journal* says that while ho rioubt changed surroundings greatly modified his views on that subject', he was, before leaving Rothesay,'a most rigid Sabbatarian. "This aspect may have been induced by his" boyhood's minister, Rev. Dr. Mac Lea, who, in the Parish Church of Rothesay, would give- out a lon« Psalm to be sung, sufficiently lorte to allow him to slip out of the pulpit and down High-street to see that no people were about who ought to be at church. Mr. Mclndoe, when in the Town Couii cil here, proposed that the pump wells, which were at that time the only source of Rothesay's water supply, should be padlocked on the Lord's Day, and simi larly he wanted the CbapelMll to be shut off by gates from pedestrianinm during the-sacred hours."