PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 132, 1 December 1904, Page 5

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

— «. — . (From Our Own Correspondent.) 29tk October. Mr. E. H. Pope (Wellington) has readied England on his homeward journey to New Zealand; he has been in America pursuing his dental studies, and has recently successfully obtained his degree as Doctor of Dental Surgery. Since completing his studies, Mr. Pope has been visiting various cities and points of interest in Canada, and the Bulled States, including the St. Louis Exhibition. While in St. Louis, Mr. Pope attended the proceedings of the International Dental Convention, at which as many as 1600 dentists from all countries in the civilised world were present; the proceedings at the conference exemplified the wonderful strides that have been made in the dental profession within the last ten years, mainly through the efforts of the American people. Mr. Allison Smith, formerly Chief Mechanical Engineer of the New Zealand Government .Railways, has at last decided to accept an offer, which has been made to him thrice lately, to proceed to the Gold Coast as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Government Railways there, and to undertake the complete organisation of their locomotive system, rolling stock, work-shops, etc. Mr. Allison Smith will hold office directly under the Imperial Colonial Office, to which alone he will be responsible, and I understand that he will be entrusted with unusually full powers and discretion as regards his future operations. Mr, Allison Smith expects to sail for the Gold Coast in the course of next month. At the end of his first year of office he will receive five months' furlough, and the same subsequently each year. Mrs. Allison Smith and her daughter will remain, in England for the present, at any rate, as it is feared that they would find the Gold Coast climate too trying. Professor R. J. Scott (Christchurch), who has been on the Continent for some weeks past, is still abroad, and I have just received a letter from him from Wiesbaden. But he expects to be in London early in November. He tells me that he has been greatly surprised to find what extraordinary progress has been made in Germany as regards engineering matters during the past five years. "The Most Rev. Dr. Redwood, Archbishop of the Catholic Church in New Zealand, has been for some time touring in Ireland," says a London paper, "where he has received a chara'ftteris'tically warm welcome. He is accompanied in all his travels with a rare companion for an aichbishop — a violin. A very expensive musical instrument it is, and Dr. Redwood has charmed many a select audience of ecclesiastics with his playing, which is said to be delightful." Mr. Gordon G. Brown (Wellington) has arrived in London after an exceedingly pleasant, thought uneventful, voyogy from New Zealand. He has come to this country with the intention of taking up a course of study in connection with photo-engraving , at the present time the duration of his stay is indefinite. Mr. and Mrs. P. Stevens (Wellington) have returned to London after a lengthened tour of England and Ireland, during ] which -they experienced on the one hand perfect weather and on the other invariable and ino^t gratifying kindness and hospitality. Originally they had planned to remain in England through the coming winter, but on reconsideration they have decided to leave before the winter shall have fully set in. Mr. and Mrs. George Hutchison and their family — whose return to London after a lengthened sojourn abroad, chiefly as Osteud, I recently chronicled — are staying for a time at 1, Lexham Gardens, S.W., but purpose removing into a flat shortly, where Mrs. Hutchison and her daughters will reside. Mr. Hutchison intends leaving for South Africa next week on an expedition of business. He is npt yet certain what will be the duration of Iks absence from the Mother Country. / The King reproduces a photograph of the British Football Team taken during the Parliamentary reception at Wellington ; also in a later issue a photograph of the New Zealand representatives. Mr. George Giddens, who is playing Captain Barley at the New Theatre while Mr. Cyril Maude is taking a. holiday, returned a few -necks back from an extensive colonial tour — his first. He thinks that the drama-loving colonial emulates London first-nighters' feats of campstool endurance in another way. Of this Mr. Giddens had a notable instance. "One night — it was in New Zealand" — he said, "I was playing Mr. Bloodgood in 'Are You a Mason?' Just before the curtain rose my business manager came on the btage. 'Must have a chair,' he said; there's a farmer come to the box office. He's ridden forty-five miles to see the piece, and he's plastered with mud from head to foot. Wants a five-shilling seat, and they're telling him he can't sit on one in his present state if he pays five pounds.' It is needless to cay (continued • Mr. Giddens) that though, a 'property'

chair was the only one available, and these were scarce, that farmer didn't have his ninety miles ride in and out for nothing." The colonial young man impresses Mr. Giddens as more earnest than the Britisher, and keener for getting on. The colonial girls he found charming, frank, full of go, less assertive than fair Americans, but more outspoken and unaffected than the English maiden. Mr. Frederick A. Quin (Hawera) and Mr. H. C. Matson (Wellington), who are travelling together, tell me that so far •they have immensely enjoyed their trip, which has been an extensive one. Mr. Allan Thomson, the New Zealand Rhodes scholar, is now hard at work at Oxford. He says he likes the life extremely, every one being most kind. His only complaint — if complaint it can |be called— is that the Oxford hospitality is almost overwhelming. He has been "asked out" so continually that were he to accept all the kind invitations he receives his studies would have to "take a back seat,'^ which naturally, and very properly, he does not deem desirable. He says that all the Rhodes scholars have received a most cordial welcome at Oxford, and the utmost good feeling is shown toward them. Among recent wills proved is that of the late Mr. Thomas Russell, C.M.G. ; its gross value is given at £173,538 5s lid. He bequeathed the sum of £10,000 to the Hospital for Sick Children, Great-Ormond-street, London, as a charge upon his residence, Mormanswood, near Farnham, Surrey, and in certain events he left that residence to the Great Ormondstreet Hospital to be used as a convalescent home. It is officially announced that Engineer Lieutenant P. Wheater has been appointed to the Euralyus for service as coal inspector at Australian and New Zealand mines. I hear that Mr. Stephen Fortescue, the master of the Feltmakers 1 Company and a member of Dr. Grace's International Bowling Team, left England last week for a bowling tour in New Zealand and Australia. At tue Agricultural Hall, on the evening of 6th December, during the Cattle Show Mr. H. C. Cameron is to read a paper on "The Resources of New Zealand, with special reference to the Meat and Dairy Industries." I am told that Mr. Donne, who is representing New Zealand at the St. Louis Exhibition, is expected in London so soon as his duties at the Exhibition shall have ceased. This week the callers at the New Zealand Agency-General have included: — Mr. T. Black, Opatikai; Mr. F. Pudney, Christchurch ,- Mr. Claude B. Welswey, Wellington; Mr. T. Allen, Auckland; Mr. F. A. Quin, Hawera; Mr. H. C. Matson, Wellington; Miss Clarice W. Bain, Christchurch; Mrs. W. Smyth, Christchurch; Mr. G. G. Brown, Wellington; Mr. J. Drake, Wellington; Mr. B. Stevenson, Wellington; Mr. G. F. Powell, Gisborne ; Miss King, Nelson ; Miss Skeet, New Plymouth; Mr. J. Selwyn, Christchurch. Your readers will, I feel sure, be interested to learn that by the OrieutPacific steamer, which leaves London on Friday, the Hon. Huia Onslow leaves for a trip to the land of his birth, in order to visit the Ngatihuia tribe. He will be accompanied by his mother, Lady Onslow, and by his sister, Lady Dorothy Onslow. I learn that the Hon. Huia has recently had two, successive attacks of influenza, and that his doctor will not allow him to return to his studies at Eton this winter. Lord Onslow accordingly thought this a favourable opportunity of fulfilling his promise to the Tribe, made at the Otaki function in 1892, that on growing up the "Anglo-New Zcalander" should revisit the land of his birth. Mr. Seddon has been communicated! with by cable, and no doubt all necessary local arrangements have already been made. His Grace Archbishop Redwood has arrived in London, and is staying at the Home of Notre Dame, Leicester Square, where Bishop Grimes stayed when he was last in this country. I saw His Grace last evening, and I asked him for some account of his movements since he left New Zealand, for transmission to the colony. He replied that he "did not wish to give anything to the press," adding "they" (in New Zealand) "will know all about mo in my letters." I asked) whether he would be preaching or taking part in any public functions while here, and he replied : "No, lam here quite incognito."