A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 107, 7 May 1909, Page 8

A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR.

"This is the first time I have crossed the line," replied Dr. Hodgkin, D.C.L., Litt. D., a visitor from England, who is staying in Wellington for a few days, to a Post representative to-day. Accompanied by three of his family, Dr. Hodgkin is making a tour of the Dominion and the colonies, and the ostensible object of his visit is the meeting of members of the Society of Friends, in. the Southern Hemisphere, of which the doctqr is aleo a member. After having visited Australia, spent a month in Hobart, and a month in New Zealand, so far, Dr. Hodgkin is eulogistic of the colonies and their attractions. He has had' a most delightful j journey, and is enthusiastic concerning ! Australasia as a tourist resort. During his stay in Wellington, there is to be a conference of Quakers, beginning tomorrow nigh*,, and concluding on Wednesday next. Matters of momenta to the Society of Friends are to be discussed at this conference, at which, also, Dr. Hodgkin will deliver two or three lectures. As one of the oldest Fellows of the University of London, Dr. Hodgkia takes a great deal of interest in ed\icational matters, both at Home and elsewhere. He believes that the recent decision come to at Oxford to eliminate Greek as a pass subject was, on the whole, quite just and right. There was little or no profit, he said, in compulsory Greek, which has to be' crammed up for the examinations, which he considered an inevitable evil; but he advocated research as a means of stimulating a great deal of healthy interest in the classics. Dr. Hodgkin mentioned that the excavations in Crete, conducted by Mr. Arthur Evans, had revolutionised the interest in things attic. ■Aa to cabmen and cab fares, and the trend of Labour legislation in New Zealand, Dr. Hodgkin is content to maintain a discreet silence. •Dx. -Hodgkin is well-known as the author of "Italy and Her Invaders," a treatise in eight volumes dealing practically with the fall of the Roman Empire ■from the fifth to the ninth centuries. iHe has also compiled the first volume of a political history of England (published by Longman's), dealing with national affairs down to the Norman Conquest.

Further particulars are to hand with reference to the death of Mr. William Auchinachie, who was killed on the railway near Palmerston North yesterday. The main facts were reported in The Post last evening ; ,but it seems that Mr. Auchinachie, who is an old resident of Palmerston North, was walking on the line engrossed in thought, and that he did not hear the train nor the three sharp blasts of the warning whistle. The engine was on him before he realised it in time to get out of the way. He was knocked down and terribly injured. Dr. Boyd, of Wellington, happened to be on the train which was coming from New Plymouth. He saw the body, which had been thrown under a row of standing trucks, and pronounced life to be extinct. The late Mr. Auchinachie came from the north of Scotland, and he had lived at Kaikoura and Rangiora for many years before going to 'Palmerston 'North. He was a great sufferer from rheumatism. ' At a meeting held at Lower Hutt under the auspices of the local branch of the Single-Tax League, an address was delivered by Mr. Edward T. Evaus in support of the proposal of the Wellington and District Labour Representation Committee to endeavour to make the committee representative of every class of wage-earners, mental and manual, ma4e and female. The speaker submitted to the meeting a manifesto which, he said, was endorsed by wageearners of all shades of political opin,ion, and which would shortly be brought before a Labour Conference in Wellington for rejection or adoption. On the motion of Mr. J. King, seconded by Mr. R. Goss, and supported by Mr. P. Robertson and Mr. 0. Winnie, the manifesto was unanimously adopted. It was also unanimously resolved, on the motion of Mr. P. Robertson, seconded by Mr. Geo. Maule, and supported by Mr. P. Maroney, sen., that the Labour Conference shortly to be held in Wellington be urged to adopt the manifesto. New sails for the barque Weathersfield have arrived from Dunedin, and are now being bent. The best of the vessel's original sails are undergoing repair in the company's Victoria-street yard. The Weathersfield is expected to said for Fiji about Wednesday. Members of Reehabite Tents are invited to spend Monday evening next with tho Pioneer Lodge in Rechabite Chambers, i Muinerfi-fttreefct ,