PERSONAL AND GENERAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

Evening Star, Issue 10931, 13 May 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

PERSONAL AND GENERAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

{Fnoit Our Speciax Correspondent.]

.. LONDON, April 8. The Agent-General has, I am glad to say, recovered sufficiently from his attack of influenza to bo able to spend his Easter holidays in France. Mrs R. T. Weedon is slowly recovering from ft severe illness. Miss Weedon intends spending a couple of years at Cheltenham College, in order to complete her course of study as a kindergarten instructress. Mr James A. Frostick, of Christchurch, who is over for a short visit on business, returns to New Zealand via America in June. As to his doings he is reticent. They can, ho considers have “no possible interest” for anybody.’ How refreshing to meet with such prhnroseliko modesty in these blatant, pushing-, fin de sieole times. According to the society papers, “ a marriage has been arranged and will shortly take place’” between Kathleen, daughter of the late Mr Charles George Barclay and Mrs Barclay of Inchdura, North Berwick, and Mr Jo«’c»h Gould, of Christchurch.

Mr A. Stewart Macgregor, the distinguished agricultural scientist, whose advice has been sought upon dairy farming by tho New Zealand Government on several occasions has been appointed British Consul at Stockholm. - r • • P Colonial Electric Tramways Company .Limited, formed for the purpose of acquiring ami working tramways in Auckland and ether mties of New Zealand, was registered on March mn Mr Morse - The capital is ~150,000 m £lO shares, and the subscribers are nil associated with the British Electric traction Company, either as directors or as lending officials. I understand that, penditw vlo>elopmpnts In regard to the negotiations for tne substitution of electricity for horse-powcv on the present Auckland tramway system, the •Capital is not being called up, the B.E.T. Ccmpany in the meantime conducting all the necessary arrangements. At a meeting of the Executive Committee Ol the British Empire League, held on Thursday, the 6th inst., with Sir Robert Herbert in (he chair, a vote of condolence was unanimously passed with Lady Yogel and family in the teTcavenlent they have sustained by tho death of the late Sir Julius Yogel, who was a member of tho Council of the League. Tuesday, the 25th inst., is fixed for tho marriage of Lady Dorothy Boyle, tho youngest daughter of the Earl and Countess of Glasgow -o L ho ¥? n- Ga thomo Onthornc-Hardy, of the Ruffs, eldest son of Lord Medway, and grandson of the Earl of Cranbrook. The wcdcliii" will take place at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane ■street, but will be a quiet one, owing to the recent death of the bride’s brother, tie Hon. Edward Boyle. No invitations will be issued so that only the near relatives of the two fumihes will be present at tho ceremony. Mr Arthur D. Nathan, who came Home early in February for the purpose of seeing his son Harold installed at Harrow School, and Las been spending the last few weeks doing the bounds of his friends and relatives in C o Old Country, left London the other day for Liverpool to catch the Canard steamer Umbria for New York. From that city he will proceed oy way of the Canadian-Pacific Railway to Vancouver, where he will join the Aorangi for Brisbane. After spending a few days m f'e •Queensland capital, Mr Nathan will journey on • a Auckland via Sydney. Captain and Mrs’ Rose, with their daughters are at present staying at Montreux, m Switzerland, after spending a week in Naples Kiid a delightful three weeks “ doing Romo.” v rom the latter place Captain Rose! took a brief trip to London to fetch his eldest daughter Who lias latterly been in very poor health’. •Menmvhile, Mrs Rose, with her daughters Alice and Nolle, visited Pisa and Genoa, and, arriving at Montreux, were joined bv Op’ tain and Miss Rose. From Montreux the party will proceed to Berne, Interlaken, Grindwald, and, after a tour in the Rhine Valiev wffl make their way to Paris. They will stay m the rrcnch capital till the middle of May. ■and Lieu come to London for tho season. Obtain Rose docs not expect to turn his face New •Aenlandwards for tho space of throe years, nnd during that time will be constantly on tho move. After the London season he goes to Scotland with his younger daughters for a spell. Miss Rose has already benefited considerably in health by Her trip to Switzerland, but is still far from strong. On Tuesday Inst Mr Alexander Wylie SclanBers, han of Mr Alexander Sclamlers, of New Zealand, entered into the estate matrimonial Margaret Hill Rowat, third daughter 01 Mr William Rowat, of Paisley. Tho liannv pair were united at St. Margaret’s, Pnislev by the Rev. gangster Andeson, of the Free Sherwood Church, assisted by the Rev. Paterson in the presence of a large gathering of relatives and friends.

licensed Victuallers Gazette * contains :iu illustration and a eulogy of Mr J. Charity’s Criterion Hotel, at Napier. Says the‘Sim’; “It is difficult to account epidemic which lias recently affected Wellington. The epidemic was one of sleepwalking, and for a long time scarcely a night •passed, without some somnambulist being disoorered in the public street in a state of deshabille and irresponsibility. _The most curioir thing about it was that all the sufferers were ladies. The epidemic was very severe while it lasted, but it disappeared as suddenly and with apparently as little reason as it arose.” <vr 7 P®ncer Walpole, K.C.8., writing in the Nineteenth Century ’ on old age pensions, says that the fact that an important colony like is eW i.iT ea an “ devised and carried a scheme lor the purpose has strengthened the demand of the reformers, and that there is hardly room doiibt that sooner or later the Ministers of the Crown in England will be required to re<teem the pledges which they have given bv the introduction of some proposal to give effect to them.

a*r M i r C i* -Hampden Wigram has sent ‘ Land and Water a, photo of a basket of fourteen trout ■weighing 711b, caught on the Lower Selftyn’ -near Christchurch.

Amoqt-st the philanthropists yvho have reme leeward to help the poor widows and orphans treated by the Stella disaster are Mrs lanr-trv and Louis De Rorigemout. The hitter offered to lecture on behalf of tire fund. I am ashamed to say that the provincial public have almost entirely falsified my predictions as to the manner in which they would treat this Impudent impostor. If his lectures are not brilliant successes they certainly pay, and he appears to be making a fair income.

I am asked by a medical man to pass on to 'colonial doctors and chemists a warniuo- h'-rco (recently by Colonel Ford, H.M. Chief Inspector ■of Explosives, as to the dangers attendant on ■tiro use of erythol tetranitrate, which substance has lately come into some favor as a substitute for nitro-glycerine as a remedy for angina pectoris. Tetranitrate of i-rythrol is, li seems, possessed of explosive properties of no mean order, and is highly more so, indeed, to percussion than dynamite or guncotton. Two accidents arising from tareless handling of tetranitrate have already been “ filed for reference ” in the Explosive Department of the Home Office. The first c curred at a tabloid factory at Dartford in December, 1897. A chemist was engaged in mixing tetranitrate of erylhrol with finely pov dered lactose in a mortar when an explosion occurred, the results being fatal to the chemist. The second occurred at the end of last year. A small quantity of tetranitrate was inadvertently thrown into a fire, and the ensuing explosion badly injured one person. Mr Richard Chamberlain, whoso death is just announced, was one of the passengers by the Cunard s.s. Campania when I crossed from New York last summer, and presided at a concept; given on board. He struck me as an amiable, unassuming, ineffectual sort of person, whose individuality had been entirely me-ged in brother Joseph’s. As a mater of fact, I believe he always did whatever that great man told him to. In politics he was a self-confessed failure, and after the Colonial Secretary failed to pull him through for Islington against Mr Lough he gave up Parliament. Mr Chamberlain had been ill for some time.

The secretary of the William Black fund writes mo that, as the deceased novelist’s works had and have a large sale in Australia and New Zealand, he may have admirers there who would wish to subscribe something towards the memorial. It will probably take the form of a lifeboat for the west coast of Scotland. Cash may bo sent to the treasurer of the fund, Lord Archibald Campbell, care of Messrs Coutts, 59 Strand, London, E.C. Mr Heaton, M.P., has undertaken to act as umpire in-the chess contest (by cable) between the Universities and the United States. It opens on the 21st inst. Antipodeans will be pleased to bear that Rear-admiral H; C. Kane, C.8., who commanded the Calliope at Apia in the memorable hurricane of March 16 and 17, 1889, when the cruiser made good her effort to steam (on Westport coal, be it remembered) out to sea amid the cheers of the doomed sailors of her American and German consorts, will succeed Rearadmiral Carr in that comfortable berth of Admiral Superintendent at Devonport Dockyard, which becomes vacant during the coming summer.

Recently the Queen’s Commissioner requested the Town Council of Aberdeen to send their head of the Aberdeen Fire Brigade on a visit to the castle in order that an expert's opinion might be obtained as to the _ efficiency of the brigade. Not only was the inspection made, but a false alarm was given in order that the Highland servants might be put through their drill and their efficiency be tested. The result was declared to be most satisfactory,