PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 26, 31 January 1910, Page 4

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(Prom Oar Special Correspondent} I LONDON, December 24. I New Zealand is to have "two di* I tinguished visitors early in the New I Year, the Ea-rl of Orford and Sir Reginald \ I Beauchamp, who leave London by the '/ I P. and O. Malwa on December 31st, mnd I go straight -through to Auckland, ' I Sir Reginald William Proctor Beutchamp is noted both as a eoldier and a traveller. He was present at the figW> ing in the Shipka Pass wrth the Turks/ | and has travelled widely in China, Japan, ' India and, Burmah. He married in. 1880, Lady Violet' Jocelyn, daughter of the oth Earl of Roden. "I have no plans," he tells mc, "but . shall probably stay in New Zealand until the end of. April, and intend te do a little fishing." Lord Orford is the fifth Earl, and is « "Walpole, therefore it goes without saying that' his ancestors were very distinguished; one was a noted Ministef under George L, and the 4th Earl wa» an M.P., but was famous as a man of letters. The present holder of the title is,the son of the late Hon. Fred. Walpol^ Lord Orford held the position of pf« vate secretary to the Commissioner te E. Roumelia in 1878, to the same ia Egypt in 1886, and was attached.to ft* Earl of Rosslyn Mission for the. marriag* of King Alphonso XII., of Spain. The Hon. W. Hall-Jones ia nikiag very favourable progress at Folkestone towards recovery, and it is fully expected that he will.be able to resume bis post of High Commissioner of Xew Zealand in -the course of next: month.. He comes back to London next week. Acting as a commission for the Cbngre* gatfional Union of New Zealand; the; directors of the Colonial Missionary Society have appointed the Rev. William Tanner as first minister of tie new! church at Waipu, and the Rev. Ernest A. Bridger to the Mount Roskill group ot associated churches in connection with Mount' Eden, Auckland. Both 1 gentlemen sail on January 20 by the Rimu-

The sight-playing prize (pianoforte) at the Royal Academy of Music has been awarded to Arthur Alexander, of Dunr Miss Francis R Osburne-Lilly, who i» Auckland born, has had her first book accepted by Messrs. L. J. Dra»e. Ltd., wha will publish it under the author's penname of Curwen Bell. It will be a

story of New Zealand lifeL Miss Osburne-Lilly is »' niece of . the late Mr. G. B. Lilly, pie time editor of t!ic "South-Eastern Star," Mt. Gambier, and on the literary staff of the "Otago Daily Times," and other papers. Another uncle was the iate Mr. Richajrd Osburne, of the "Warcambool Gazette,"