ABOUT PEOPLE. NOTES FROM LONDON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 107, 2 November 1909, Page 2

ABOUT PEOPLE. NOTES FROM LONDON.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 24th September. Mr. L. J. Watkins, of Palmerston North, who has been in England for four years, leaves for New Zealand on I the 30th, and expects to arrive in the Dominion about the middle of November. Mr. Watkins has been engaged in his art studies at the Camden School, the Royal Academy, the Royal College of Art, and the Polytechnic, and has been successful in obtaining the South Kensington Art Master's certificate, besides securing tho bronze medal fov modelling (the second highest award in the class), and others for designing and other branches of art. During the last eighteen months he has been employed by the London County Council, latterly in chargb of one of tho evening art classes in North London. , A few weeks ago, after having accepted an appointment as director of the Feilding Tech nical School, he has 'received notice of his appointment as art instructor at the largest evening school of art under the London County Council. This he was obliged, under the circumstances, to decline, but he continues teaching up to the eve of his departure. 'Amongst this week's visitor* to the New Zealand Pavilion at the' White City were the following : — Mrs. Colbeck (Palmerston North), W. A. -Buchanan, J. A. Carr, W. L. Harrison, Mr. and Mrs. C. G. Hodgson and Miss Hodgson, Mrs. S. Hargreaves, Miss H. Flower, of Auckland ; A. A Ambridge, New Plymouth; R. Frederickson, J. VV. Bray, J. J. Boyd, Miss Brandon, Wellington ; F. A. Eustace, Whangarei ; A. Brooker, Timaru ; Mr. W. A. and ]\iiss Boecroft, Havelock, Hawkesßay; Mrs. Burners, Remuera ; C. Lawso.i, Misses and Mr. A. Kirkland ; Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Muir, Dunedin; W. Stewart, Balclutha ; H. C. Edwards and D. O. Thomas, Napier ; G. Thornton, Hawkes Bay ; H. S. Gascoyne Beard, Masterton ; John Studholme, Coldstream, Canterbury. The callers at the High Commissioner's office during the week included :—: — Mrs. Alice M. Iredale and Mr. Tom Iredale, Christchurch ; Mr. W. H. Rule and Miss Rule, Ashburton ; Mr. E. Chrisp and T. M. Chvisp, Gisborne ; Miss Kempthorne, Nelson; L. Harrison, Christchurch; Olive M. Crickin, Auckland; P. P. Wardell, Christchurch :,E. L. Morgan, Wellington ; C. J. ROdd, Christchurch; M. W. Wood, Wellington; W. H. G. Watson, Mr and Mrs. Clegg, Christchurch. Mr. James Thorn, who contested the late election for Sydenham as a Socialist, has been in England for about two months, and has long since entered the fray here. He is lecturing two or three times every week under the auspices of the Independent Labour Party. Mr. E. W. Spencer, the engineer of the Blackwater, Progress, and Consolidated Goldfields Mines, is at present on a holiday in London. Owing to his arrival the annual meetings of these companies were postponed until this week, so that the shareholders might have an opportunity of meeting Mr. Spencer, who attended the meetings and gave the latest information in regard to the mines. Miss Jennie Orr, of Wellington, is now staying with New Zealand friends in Wimbledon. She is home on a twelve months' holiday, and has already seen a good part of England. Miss Orr hopes to spend the, winter in Ireland, and will leave for New Zealand in April next. Miss L. Pulsford, the Wellington contralto, who has been in England prosecuting her musical studies for some months, has just returned- to the city from a summer engagement at one of the seaside resorts. The House dinner of the Atlantic Union was held last evening, when some useful impressions of England were given by oversea visitors. The Hon. Dr. M'Call, the newly-appointed AgentGeneral for Tasmania, is impressed both favourably and unfavourably with the Old Land : favourably in regard to the police, 'the beauty of the country, the unbounded hospitality, the excellent dinners, and the almost perfect universities ; unfavourably as to women's affection for leddy bears and dogs, stone-throwing by suffragettes, smoking by ladies, the poverty in the wealthiest of countries, and the weather. Mr. S. N. Ziman, the Rhodes Scholar from New Zealand, says he is particularly struck by the enormous influence exercised by women in English politics. ' Probably," he added, "if they had the power they would use it but little. In the Colonies they do not make use of it." Mr. Ziman is also impressed by the gulf between the rich and the poor, the unsociability of travelling companions, and the great loneliness of the visitor. "In England," he remarked, "politics seem to permeate even your universities." Mr. C. N. Worsley, the New Zealand artist, has, been accorded the honour of election as a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. There were only eight vacancies to be filled. Mr. Alan M'Dougall, the Rhodes Scholar, has practically decided that he will be a» student at New College. He went up for responsion this week, and will enter upon the year's work on the 7th October. At present he is enjoying the English country in Kent.