ABOUT PEOPLE.

Evening Star, Issue 14116, 20 July 1909, Page 6

ABOUT PEOPLE.

NOTES FROM SOME. [EaoM Cue Specml Cokebspchsdent.J - LONDON, Jane 11. Amongst the New Zealand visitors to England just now is ■Mr R. HerdmanSmxth, F.S-A-M., director of the School of Art at Canterbury College, Christchurch. Mr HerdmanSmith’s mission to Europe is to-renew bis acquaintance, with the modes of instruction carried on in the leading art schools of the Old' World. He came to England via Monte Video. He was disappointed in not finding •’ any important schools of art. in so fine .a city, as Buenos Ayres. A few private schools are all the means of spreading a taste for art that exist in the Republic. In Rio Janeiro there is a fine municipal school of fine arts, with a staff of. Spanish and Italian professors, and a system similar to the French schools. Mr Herdman-Smith arrived in England on the 19th April, and since then has visited the principal art schools in Leeds (where he was a .member of the staff for eight years), Manchester, and Liverpool. In those cities he finds a great improvement in art instruction. In nis time little but the pictorial arts rc-> ceived attention ; now the applied arts form an important part of the curriculum. In 'Leeds and Liverpool- jewellery, ■ pottery, book decoration, and needlework arc all thoroughly gone into, and ini Manchester interior decoration is made a specialty. During the last fortnight Mr HerdmimSmith has been, in-Baris.. .The .French are thoroughly awake, he says, to-the advantage of a■ systematic course, of . art instruction. There are eight municipal schools of art and craft, one : in each important centre of manufacture,: schools of pottery (near the famous Serves Go.’s works), jewellery, relief crafts, mural decoration, needlework, and bookbinding - exist.'- The New Zealander spent some rime- in the Ecole das Beaux Arts, and saw the students executing compositions for the Prix de Roma. He also visited the Academy Jnlien and the studios of several French artists, including the famous sculptor Rodin. During June he proposes visiting Birmingham, Sheffield, and Bristol. July will be spent in London attending the annual conference of the Society of Art Masters and the exhibition, of the National Art Competition at the Royal College of Art in South Kensington. Later on he intends to visit Germany (Munich, Berlin, Hamburg), Belgium (Antwerp and Brussels), and Holland. He- expects to remain in England until the end of the year, but as yet cannot definitely say, because he has much information to gather for the benefit of his school, and until he. has visited the leading schools and art centres his plans for return are indefinite. Messrs J. C. Gardiner, jun., and C. 13. Gardiner, and Mr W. J. Hebden, of Christchurch, are travelling round the world on pleasure: bent, chiefly. Their trip across Canada and down into the States was necessarily somewhat hurried, and they did not have time to see all they would have liked. The two outstanding features were the train journey across the Bookies and their visit to Niagara Falls, both of which they enjoyed immensely. They expect to arrive back in New Zealand the first week in December. Mr (Shades N. Worsley, a New Zealandartist, who recently arrived in London, is exhibiting a collection of bis water-color drawings of New Zealand scenery at the Modern Gallery, New Bond street, this week. The exhibition is under the patronage of the New Zealand Government. Among the 150 pictures there are views of Mount Cook, Mount Sefton, the Otira Gorge, the Wanganui River, Cape Foulwind, Russell, Bay of Islands, the Franz Josef Glacier (two), Alahinapua Creek, the Southern Alps, Copeland Gorge (all of these being large canvases), Wellington Harbor, Auckland Harbor, Back-horses Fording the Cook River, Lakes Manapouri, Te Anau, and Wakatipu, Milfocd Sound, On the Buller River, Lake Alintara, the Hermitage Farmyard, and Wellington Heads. The number and variety of the pictures show the amount of ground traversed and the many difficulties—and often hardships—to say nothing of the outlay which Mr Worsley had to incur. Many of the scenes, particularly those of the mountain regions, have never been painted before by any'artist. Mr and Mrs John Watt, who left Dunedin on April 6, joined the N.D.L. Zciten at Sydney, en route for London via Suez. After remaining for a few days here, they intend visiting Mr Watt's brother, who resides at Rochdale, Lancashire. IW will then tour Scotland as far as Caithness. They will return to New Zealand via America, and if time permit tbev intend visiting Japan. Their plans, ‘however, depend largely on the state of Mrs Watt’s health, as it is on her account they are travelling. So fur she has benefited by the journey. Mr Arthur M. Myers and Professor J. Macmillan Brown are amongst the latest recruits of the Roval Colonial Institute, having been elected'Pellows at the Council meeting last Tuesday. At Si, Albans Abbey on June 1 Mr Robert Seymour Fannin, son of the, late Air George Fannin, of Napier, was married to AJiss Jane Gertrude Slade, elder daughter of Mr Horace Slade, of Hawthorden. St. Albans. The nuptial knot was tied bv the Dean of St. Albans. A number of New Zealanders were to be seen amongst the interested spectators at the Imperial Press Conference at the Foreign Office this week. The High Commissioner (Air Hall-Jones) was present on the opening day. Sir Robert Stout, the Chief Justice of New Zealand, attended all the sessions, as also did Air A. E. G. Rhodes (Christchurch), Air A. M. Myers, and Mr P. A. Vaile (Auckland), and' Air E. G. Jellicoe (formerlv of Wellington). Mr and Mrs C. R. Smith, of Dunedin, have arrived in London, after spending a very enjoyable period of travel on the Continent, .raring which tliev saw most of the places worth seeing in‘ltaly. Switzerland. -he Valley of the Rhine, and Holland. Air Smith, who is president of the Otago Cricket Association, and takes a. very keen interest in the game, proposes to remain in London until the second test match has been decided at Lord’s. Thereafter he will visit the principal centres of scenic and historic interest in Scotland and Ireland ere leaving these shores for Canada en rovte for New Zealand about th© middle of August. Air A J. Hum, of Wellington, who came to England during Eastertide, accompanied by his wife, sister, and family, expects to remain in these latitudes for some considerable period. He proposes to tour a while in. Ireland and on the Continent, and will sjiend some time in the Channel Islands. Mr A. G. Turner, of Geraldine. • who arrived by th© e.e. Papamu on Easter Sunday, is visiting this country on business. The duration of his stay is uncertain, but possibly will teiminate in six months’ time. The Rev. P. T. P. Everehed, lately vicar of Devonporfc, Auckland, has been" nominated by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the vicarage of South Bersted, Sussex. Among the admissions to holy orders in the various oiooesos of the Ob ur<h oi 1:,,land on Trinity Sunday were Mr Wilfred Gaster Williams, B.A.j of Canterbury College, who concluded bis theological studies at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and has, now been ordained as a priest by the Bishop of Southwark, and Mr Charles Palmer, of St. John’s College, Auckland, who was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of York. The Shaw-Savill liner Corinthic arrived in London this week, bringing a large number of New- Zealand visitors to the Old Country. The Oorinthic was none the worse for the little mishap at Bio do Janeiro. Entering the harbor at Kio Janeiro she grounded on a rock, owing to one of the channel buoys having shifted,. No damage was done, but in barfing the vessel off the steel hawser from the' tog got entangled in the propeller, and it took two days to get it dear again. Among the passengers by the Corinthic were Mr T. H. Hamer, who -had com© to London to take up the duties of audit officer at the High Cbmraissioner’s Office, ' and Air and Airs P. Wood, of Christchurch, who with their two children are on a trip to the Old Country.