PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 140, 14 June 1906, Page 5

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) . LONDON, 4th May. Some little time ago I mentioned that Mr. J. Baillie (lute of Wellington) had removed from his art gallery at Bayswater and had taken other rooms in Baker-street, where he has over since been holding a constant succession of art shows, chiefly of pictures. The Baillie Gallery now is one of the leading centres of art exhibitions in London. Just now his rooms are rilled with the work of "Representative Scottish Artists," all men of standing across the border, but comparatively few of whom nre known to London picture-lovers. Referring to the ex-New Zealander and his present work, a London -art critic remarks : "Mr. John Baillie, the owner of the charming gallery at 54, Baker-street, is a man of courage. It was a bold venture on his part to pitch his tent beyond the radius where art life is suppose to pulse; it is bolder still to back reputations that are still to be made ; but Mr. Baillie, who is ever on the look-out for unknown or lit-tle-known talent, is a man of subtle taste, and has the 'flair' for the good things in art." Contributors to the present exhibition include : — Miss Emily Paterson, Mr. D. Y. Cameron, Mr. Fergusson, Mr. Campbell Mitchell, Mr. P. Mackie, Mr. C. H. Mackie, and Mr. S. J. Peploe. Mr. and Mrs. Mark .Hopson (Inglewood) were also among those who travelled to England by the last trip of the s.s. Orient, which they joined at Sydney. Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Frayliug and their son left London yesterday by the Shaw, Savill, and Albion steamer Athenic, outward bound for the colony. On arrival there, Mr. Fruyiing will take up his new duties as principal of tJite Jubilee Institute for the Blind, at Auckland. Dr. J. 11. Tizard, who lately accepted an appointment under the New Zealand Government Asylums Board, is another passenger by the Athenic. In a recent letter 1 mentioned that the marriage of Mr Percy George Heywood, third son of Mr. J. Barnes Heywood, 1.5.0., of Wellington, New Zealand, was to take place in London, to Miss Eleanor Dora Liddle, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Liddle, of VValberton Park, Arundel, Sussex. This was duly solemnised at St. Puul's Church, Knightsbridge, on the 30th April, the officiating clergy being the Rev. R. A. AustrutherWilkinson, Rector of Mintlesham, Suffolk, assisted by the Rev. Jumes Baden-Powell, Precentor of St. Paul's Church. Mr. Arthur R. Andiew, B.Sc, A.0.5.M., late of the Otago School 'of Mines, who in 1904 gained the 1851 Exhibition scholarship for New Zealand, and who has since then been eigjged in research work at the University ot Birmingham, has been appointed to the post of chief surveyor in the newly established Mineral Survey of the British Central Africa Protectorate. Mr. Andrew leaves England on the 12th May to enter upon his new duties in Africa! Ths draw for the fourteenth annual ladies' golf championship was mude at the_ Hotel Windsor yesterday. '1 he competition has been fixed to take place at Burnham, Somerset, on the 15th,, 16th, 17th, and 18th inst. The entry is representative, with the exception of about four players. One of the most interesting matches in the first round is expected to be that between Miss M. Backhouse, the champion of New Zealand, who is a member of the Uarrogate Club, and Mrs. Robinson (Hunstunton). Mr. George Clutsam, in the course of an interview just pubi.shed, said : — " Please don't call mo ' our only Australian composer.' Somebody did that once, and for about a week after I walked about fooling as if I were a sort of soothing syrup. By the wuy^ I don't know why I aiu always alluded to and described as a Now 'Zealander. I'm not. I was born at Botany Bay. To prevent misunderstanding, you might add that 1 coins 'of poor but honest parents.' I have inherited one of the- adjectives. I am at least poor. Thus lam a Sydneyit© by the force of circumstances over which I had little or no control, but at tho early age of one, I emigrated to j Dunedin. I hadn't much to do with either, now I come- to think of it. I j fancy they took me there because some one said the milk was so wholesome. 1 have never had a ksson in my life A lesson in composition, that is. (I spoil fairly well, excepting when I writ© letters.) Musically, I am a self-taught man. J I have a number of opinions which I am told are quite heterodox and revolutionary, and altogether alarming. Ono of them is that the way so-called 'theory' is taught is wholly wrong. I would much rather talk about other people than about myself. This is my maiden uiterview, and I'm very bashful, and sure to say the wrong thing. I can't Jiyen follow in the approved path with thb fervent manifesto that everything 1 do is for the honour and glory of my native land. As a candid fact, I can honestly say that I should be very sorry if Australia were, in any way proud of the stuff I turn out. My view of tho situation is of tho most sordid and commercial character. I write to sell. Ambitions? I haven't any; I only wank to be let alone. Ideals? _My dear sir, it isn't a matter of ideals, it's a matter of sheer common sense. Art doesn't Pay, ragtime does. I've gone to publishers with pieces that have taken me the best pavt of a year to compose. I couldn't get a fiver for any one of them. I've gone with something that took mo half an hour, and tho cheque ha* taken my breath away! I've been seventeen years in London, nnd the best of my work during that time, the best that is in mo to write — is upstairs, locked away, and there I intend it shall remain!" The Primate of New Zealand, Bishop Nevill, arrived in Liverpool two days ago from Canada, on board tho Allan liner Victorian. His visit, which will ex te.nd over three months, is of a private character. Speaking on the subject of education, Bishop Nevill said that unfortunately New Zealand had a system of secular education which did not satisfy Churchmen -and Roman Catholics. Probably before long they would approach the New South Wales system o* religious education. Tho High Commissioner for New Zealand has returned from Lisbon, where he has been representing tho colony at tho rooent Health Congress. He has secured a great deal of useful information which ho will of course forward direct to the New Zealand Government. Each week now, more people seem to call at the London office of the New Zealand Agency-General, and tho influx of visitors is beginning in earnest. From among the cullers this week I take th© following names:— Mr. W. Miller (Wellington), Miss Fannie E. Anderson (Wellington), Mrs. Pldtts (Port Chalmers) and Miss Platte, Miss Cox (Dunedin), Mr. J. M'Cullaj-h (Auckland), Miss B. E. Bnughan, 'Mr. H. B. Clark (Christchurch), Mr. and Mrs. George MnoMorran (Wellington), Mr. A. Neil (Auckland) and Mrs. Neil, Mr. F. E. Holmes (Christchurch), Mr. Mark Hopson (Inplewood), Mr. nnd Mrs, A. Wylie (Wellington) nnd 'Miss Wylie, Mr. A. G, Glover (Wellington), Mr. T. Turnbull (Wellington), Mr. R. A. Abbott (Auckland), Mr. Clifford Cooper (Auckland), Mr. C. Gray (Gisborne), Mr. D. Hope Johnston (Wellington), Mr. D. Hall (Dunedin), Mr. B. B. Walton (Timaru), Mr. W. J. Priest, Mr. E. Wildman (Wellington), Mr. H. L. Chandler (Dunedin), Mr. J. H. Tripp (South Canterbury), Mr. M. J. Bureh (Morton), Mr. and Mrs. F. G. Dalziel (Wellington), Mr. and Mrs. H. Field (Wellington) and Miss Lucy Field, Miss Matthews (Auckland), Mr. E. B. Rawson (-Wellington),