ABOUT PEOPLE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 18, 20 July 1907, Page 9

ABOUT PEOPLE.

» NOTES AND REfVJIMISCEMCES. Sir Eldon Gorst, who has succeeded Lord Cromer as Britain's Consul-General at Cairo, is a person whose future New Zealanders should watch with especial interest. He is the sou of Sir John Gorst, who recently represented Great Britain at the Cbristchurch Exhibition, and who was so intimately connected with the early history of New Zealand. Sir Eldon Gorst received the honour of knighthood in 1902, and he has many foreign decorations. including the Grand Cordon of the Order of Medjidie and the Grand Cordon of the Order of Osmanieh. He is very familiar with Egyptian affairs, for he was in the Diplomatic fcjervico from away back in 18b5, Director of the Taxes to the Egyptian Government in 18S0, Undersecretary of Stato for Finance m 1892, Advisor to the Minister of tho Interior in 1894, and Financial Advisor to the Egyptian Government from 1898 to IW4. He is under tho middlo height, is slight of build, of fail" complexion, and obliged to have constant recourse to pince-nez, which gives him a slightly foreign appearance. Sir Eldon was married only a year or two ago to Miss Evelyn Rudd, a daughter of a South African magnate. Lady Gorst is a charming woman, and takes 'the keenest interest in her husband's career. As she is a very considerable heiress, she should be able to fulfil all the social obligations of her new position. The Countoss of Dudley, who is so conspicuous a figure in the social life of London, is well known among her immodiate associates as the "Quaker Countess," because of the great interest which, from a child, she has always taken in philanthropic movements. Many a London East-end concert-room has echoed to the sound of her beautiful voice. She has also worked hard on behalf of the women's employment question, and has associated herself in a thoroughly practical manner with the Central Bureau for the Employment of Woman, which is run in connection with the National Union of Women Workers. Whilst her husband was Viceroy of Ireland, she played a distinguished part in stimulating tho sluggish industries oi Erin. The Countess was in Jamacia during the recent fearsome times of the great earthquake. j 1 A very pretty story is told of the i Duchess of Westminster, the wife of one of England's wealthiest men. She was born a member of the well-known Cornwallis-West family, and made an | impressive figure in society beforo she attained her present position. The story tells us how her marriage with the Duke was the ontcome of a love match mado when they were children together. As children, they played at weddings, on one occasion, to relieve the tedium of a, wet dayi The parson was the Duchess's sister, now Princess Henry oi Pless, arrayed in a tablecloth for a surplice, the butler did duty as clerk, and two of the Duke's little sisters worn the bridesmaids. The bride, of course, was the present Duchess. Coming events certainly cast their shadows before on that occasion. Dr. John Clifford, who occupies to-day so conspicuous a. position as one of London's most famous preachers, owes his success entirely to his own unflagging zeal and. industry. His parents wero working people, and he re- | ceived but a very scant share of education at the village school. , Telling fho story of his early days, Tie said : "I began life in a laco factory when 1 »vaa cloven years old, and 1 may say that I know the laco trade from top to bottom — at least, as it was fifty years ago. I worked as an ordinary hand at first, as in thn.se days the factory laws were in their infancy, and the conditions of labour exceedingly onerous. The hours were ternoly long, and I have worked all night again and again when a boy." Tha recently knighted playwright, Sir W. S v . Gilbert, tolls an amusing story a bout* the coachman of one of his neighI hours. A .visitor to Harrow was being driven past the celebrated man's house, and tho stranger enquiied who resided there. "Well, I don't know," replied tho coachman, "but I believe ho is a retired humourist!" Dr. W. G. Grace, the G.O.M. of the cricketing world, reached his fiftyninth birthday last Thursday — and still plays the game for his county. Sir Henry A. Blake, G.C.M.G., who j is retiring from the Governorship of Ceylon, is an Irishman with a fine | record as a self-made man. He began life as a cadet in the^ Royal Irish Constabulary, and worked his way up to be resident magistrate. During his career as a police officer in Ireland his life was often in peril, and it is said that his wife used to accompany him on his trips about the country armed with a loaded revo'ver. In 1884 he whs appointed Governor of the Bahamas, afterwards going to Newfoundi land and Jamaica. Leaving Jamaica, I he became Governor of Hongkong, and in 1903 he succeeded Sir West Ridgeway as Governor of Ceylon. Sir Henry is "extremely musical, and he has also written a good deal for various magazines. The oldest prelate in the Roman j Catholic Church in Australasia is Archbishop Murphy, of Hobart, who has just celebrated his ninety-third birthday. "The Glen o' Weeping" is one of the latest works of fiction which is being read in Wellington. Tho author, Miss Marjoric Bowen, is one of thoso authors to whom fame has come at a bound. To have produced, at 20 years of age, three successful novels, of which one has reached its tenth edition, is a feat which fow writers have accomplished ; but Miss Bowen has done it. Miss Bowcn has made history her hobby, ivnd it is from books alone that she gets her local- colour. Macaulay's "History of England," for instance, she found invaluable when writing her latest book. Hor real name is Gabriclle Campbell.

The average farm boy (euys a country paper) littlo realises his opportunities. This is " an age of agricultural development. The dawn of a new era is upon us. end the new era is agriculture in its widest and broadest ieii6e. Fanning has become a scionce, and its doors are open wide to the best talent of the country. Agriculture offers tUo greatest field for young men of brains. There is i;o business that compares with it in fiuancial importance, or that offers to young men better opportunities for advancement, healthy occupation, and contentment. If the young men could rcaliso the openings that aie offered wo are sure moro of them would prepare themselves 'for agricultural work. Tho country not only needs more agricultural teachers, investigators, managers of farms, etc., but it needs an increased number of intelligent md painstaking farmers. It needs theory combined witu prnetje-e. In short, it needs more up- , plied agricukuraJ science.