PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON

Evening Star, Issue 14495, 21 February 1911, Page 3

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON

[Fbom Oou Special Correspondent.] January 3. A letter from Captain Scott, written to a friend just before the 'Term Nova quitted Lyttelton for tho Arctic regions, is pub: fished this week. Captain Scott wrote : —" I am glad at such a time as this to be able to write good reports to my. friends. The expedition flourishes. All preparations have worked out with extraordinary accuracy. We have re-examined, re-counted, re-sorted, re-stowed everything during our stay here, and have found all in good order. More satisfactory still is the spirit of enthusiasm which exists among the members of the expedition. I have never scon it, equalled. Wo ought to do good work with such material, and we start with high hopes.” A successful reception hi honor of Lady Xorthcote (wife of the Governor-General of Australia from 1903-08) was given at the Lyceum Club in Piccadilly on Tuesday afternoon by tho United Empire Club. Among the guests present .were Mrs Napier Bell, ol Xe.w Zealand, in a black coat and skirl and black velvet toque; Mrs Sale and Miss Margaret Sale, of Dunedin, the former in a black silk coat and skirt and black toque, the latter in a coat ami skirt- of mole-colored corduroy velvet. IV large black hat, and s,iiiim>l furs: Lady Stout (Wellington), man'" cloth l.mjin costume trimmed with, did! gold cir-bro;-dory, a violet velvet toque; Miss U-U (Wellington), peacock idue clothye-emcc. a black hat trimmed with while: Mi :- Downie Stewart (Dunedin;, purple 'dot braided coat mid skirt, hhek iiouiM trimmed with heliotrope flowers, and s: i !.- furs. Lady Xorthcote wore a gown <-! grey corduroy velvet slightly trimmed with mauve, and a black velvet, toque with a diamond clasp. Miss Beatrice laPalme, ono of the soloists in the t'oveut Garden season, sang a coupio of songs charmingly. Professor Bickrrlun writes me in op; .• mistic vein: “I am pleased to say i am making most unexpected progress in launching my theory (of the Third Bodyi. in spite of the lethargy of official science.'’ Miss Blanche Butler, the new head mistress of (he Auckland Girls’ Grammar School, will sail for Xcw Zealand iu a week’s time. Meanwhile, she is fully occupied in Liverpool with preparations for departure, and on this score she courteously begged to ho excused from being interviewed. 1 confined my questioning, therefore, to a request for her opinion on games for girls, and on this subject Miss Butler replied thus;—“l am very much in favor of games, but I also am very much of tho opinion that no hard-and-fast rule about games should bo laid down for girls. Each individual case should be considered, and 1 think the parents arc always the best judges in such cases. Eqr myself, I am verv fond of reading, and although I can claim no special prowess at games, I am very fond of tennis, and I think I may lay claim to being- a very good walker.” An ox-steward of the I nion Steam Ship Company of New Zealand. by name Samuel Lyons, was among the witnesses examined in London this week at the inquiry into the loss of the Maratah. Lyons deposed that ho signed on in London for tlm passage out only as steward on the Wavatah. ITo had been twenty years ashore, but- had previously been eleven years in the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand. Once or twice the Waratah had a very heavy list. After leaving the Capo she had a very heavy list for about six hours; then they filled up the water tanks to get her straight. He heard that from the sailors. He was playing cards one day on Xo. 2 hatch willi tho boatswain and two or three others, when she gave a very heavy lurch, and stopped there, over to the starboard side. The boatswain said : “ I wouldn t like to Ijo on this ship in a storm; she would go to the bottom. Iwo or three of the sailors remarked that she was top-heavy. Coming out of Adelaide she gave a most terrific hump, and broke nearly all his crockery. He said : “ She struck a rock then.” Recent callers at the High Commissioner’s Office ;—R. F. M’Ray (Wellington), Lieutenant-colonel A. Banchop, C.M.G. (Wellington), W. H. Hchnoro (Christchurch), J. S. Dc Beer (Dunedin), 11. E. Hart (Dunedin), Mrs Percy Dulaiir (Auckland).