ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 168, 15 July 1916, Page 14

ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

The late Lord Vernon had a collection i <rf china cats. Under hie •will Hieto be kept intact. Prince Albert has been promoted from acting sub-lieutenant to sub-lieutenant in the Navy. Mrs. Edith Wharton, the American novelist who devoted herself to acts of , charity in the French cause, has been made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Sir C. C. Wakefield, Lord Mayor of : I London, remarked at the Belgrave HosI pital for Children, Clapham Road: "If I ' had my life to live over again, I would ' reconsecrate it to work among little , children." ! Sir William H. Stephenson, "father" of the Newcastle City Council, after receiving an address on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, handed to the , Mayor a cheque for £2,000 for local , charities. Mr. Henry Neville Gladstone will shortly occupy Hawarden Castle, which, ■ -with the surrounding policies, has passed into his possession for life. The Hawarden estates have devolved on Lieut. A. C. Gladstone, eldest eon of Rev. Stephen • Gladstone. , General Sir lan Hamilton has been i personally decorated by General Jofire . with the Cross of the Legion of Honour ■ before a division of the battle-stained , heroes at Verdun. ; Lord Rosebery, who since the begin- : ning of the war has turned Dalmeny, ■ his beautiful place in Midlothian, into a ■ I war hospital, has taken a furnished I 1 house in Edinburgh. He always gets ' through a great deal of useful work J when in Scotland, and among other pubi lie appearances he unveiled a memorial 'i at Leith to the soldiers who were killed iin the Gretna disaster, most of whum are buried there. Mary Duchess of Hamilton is one of those who have responded to the request of the Board of Agriculture that all who . can help to increase the food supply , should endeavour to do so in every pos- ! sible way. The Duchess goes in for in- , i tensive poultry farming, and has been [! most successful in her experiments. Of t | course, the initial expense is a drawback s in the case of those who cannot afford •! to spend a certain amount on the neces- , sary plant. Those who have lately seen the Prince i of Wales say that His Royal Highness iis cultivating a moustache. If so, he • ! would be the first Prince of Wales to si wear that hirsute ornament unaccom--11 panied by a beard or whiskers. His ! the late King, had a small i moustache as a young man, but wore •' eide-whiskers with it, as was the fashion • of the day, until he let his beard grow. .. His present Majesty as a young naval officer always wore a beard. Lord Northcliffe has" only one complaint to make of Mr. Lloyd George, but it is a serious one" (says "London Opinion"). "I can bring him to the fence every time," he says dolefully, if you read between the'liaed, ''but I can't make him jump." The Little Welsh Wizard—a change this from the Little Welsh Attorney of Compulsory Insurance days—prefers to see others take the ; fence; for example, Sir Edward Carson and Colonel Churchill. Their experience justifies his discretion. King George, Queen 'Mary, Queen , Alexandra, Mary, the Princess .' Royal and her two daughters, Princess Victoria, Princess Christian, Princess ,; Victoria of Sohleswig-Holstein, and Prin- ! cess Alexander of Teck attended a special ' service in memory of the late King j Edward, in the Royal Albert Chapel, Windsor, on May 6. "Special hymns and anthems were rendered by the choir of St. George's Chapel, and at ttie close of I the service their Majesties, with Queen i I Alexandra and other members of the ,' Royal Family, descended into the Mortu- ! ary Chapel and laid floral tributes on I King Edward's tomb. There is in Sydney a newsboy who proudly puffs out his chest whenever Kitchener's name is mentioned. He I was selling papers on the railway sta- ' I tion on one occasion, m 1910, -when j Kitchener was there. "Here y'are!" he yelled. "Sun-Noose!! All about Kitch-——" He pulled up abruptly. He ■ had unconsciously got through the ■ crowd, and was within a few feet of the War Lord himself. "Ooh crumbs, there's 'is bloomin' nibs 'isself!" he muttered, as he backed away. Kitchener's quick ears heard him. 'It's all right, my ; boy," he said, -with a smile. "His : j bloomin' nibs isn't going to hurt you!" 1 1 Archdeacon Wilberforce, the grandson ' of the liberator of the slaves, "who died ' J recently, used to tell the story of how jhe escaped from school and saw Blink I Bomiy -win the Derby. Knowing nothj ing about racing, he and his friends dej cided that a horse with such a name 1 ■ must win, so each deposited a pound ■witt a bookmaker. "BHnk Bonny," i said the Archdeacon, "ran as no other ■ I horse-bad ran before, and won at twenty 1 ; to one; ibut the bookmaker who 'had our j money must have run a good deal I faster." "Great Thoughts" for May contains a ' character sketch of Mr. Bonar Law, The writer seye: "There will be enough of crisis before us for years to come to ( prevent any return to the angry internal strife from which tie war delivered ■us. Mr. Bonar Law feels this. To ■him the days when he -was searching his vocabulary for hard and bitter words about opponents (whom he really always respected) seems ages ago. His one thought at the moment is to get <m with this business of killing international war. When that is over, n 0 statesman who is not a fool will want to plunge into a party war. And, whatever Mr. Bonar Lsvr is r ke is not a fool." Lady'Towrahead, who is a woman of striking appearance, notable for her Konmey style of dressing, has written several film<pl»ys, and one play here, "The Novice," was produced at Maidenhead Town Hall. She has also published a book of poems, to the character of wniah the following extracts beaT , testimony;— "Leojft flWfc jwm may. t **c mtrry unfi cny—■ Friends who are grreet— t* prosperity's day. In times of adversity i Flee away." "O mm*. O ScsOi. O allent-floTrin- team men end women straggling ft* the ; IljjD»; °' e jtSjJr , * ,r ■ o " wa Bnd o'erwhelmlnc