PERSONAL AND GENERAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

Lake County Press, Issue 974, 8 August 1901, Page 7

PERSONAL AND GENERAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

[From the Evening Star’s Correspondent. June 21. Sir James Prendergast. who arrived on Saturday by the Etruria, has commenced Kis judicial career in this country as he helm his legal career —by eating dinners. At ae Colonial Club’s dinner —at which, be it whispered, he looked rather bored —he had as his neighbor Mr Justice Hodges, of Victoria. As Sir James’s name did not appear upon the table plan, it was some time before the Victorian jurist was aware that he had a learned brother alongside of him, and the reognition when it took place was amusing. At the New Zealand dinner the following night Sir James was evidently more at home, and had as his neighbors Lord Onslow and Mr Cadman. The illness which kept Sir John Hall away from the New. Zealand dinner is bronchitis, fortunately not of a severe character. He is at present at Croydon, and will do well to keep in doors as long as this winter in summer continues. I was glad to see Mr W. S. Robison sufficiently recovered from his gout to be present at lie dinner. Although he wore his arm in a sling, the genial bank manager, who was close to his son-in-law, seemed thoroughly to enjoy the meeting with many old companions. Mr W. Dymock had also kept the gout fiend at bay for the evening, and was in excellent form. The “ generous name of Cook ” and the genial glow of New Zealand hospitality seem to have sent Mr Philip Mennell away in a good humor with all the world in general, and New Zealand in particular. He is complimentary to all concerned, from Mr H. C. Cameron, “ who marshals his forces with the skill of a born general,” to Mr Reeves, whom he thus paragraphs : “ He. could hold his own with the first score of public men in the Empire. In matters of vital politics or those concerning the daily lives and essential interests of the people, it may be doubted whether any member of the Imperial Cabinet could hold a candle to him. He is also an admirable speaker and a literary man of considerable parts. If ever the day should come when the amelioration of the condition of the people of this country should assert its superiority to office-seeking and mere party interests, a man of Mr Reeves’s calibre might play an important part in the politics of Great as well as Greater Britain. When I visited New Zealand ten years ago Mr Reeves was just initiating the labor policy which, it was roundly asserted, would hamper every trade and ruin every industry. The result has shown that not the extinction but the extension of his policy is now demanded. Australia is imitating or adopting it in various directions, .and even slow-moving Britain will some day or other profit by the legislation which Mr Reeves was instrumental in inserting on the New Zealand Statute Book.” Sir Richard Nicholson, the septuagenarian, who laid out the town of Dunedin, and assisted to lay out th*e town of Wanganui, was to have' Keen present at the reunion of New Zealanders, but although his name figures on the table plan he did not put in an appearance, the chilly weather possibly accounting for his absence also. The veteran pioneer who was surveying in the colony in the forties was charged with the late Earl of Shrewsbury's claim to the earldom and the estates annexed to the title, and established it in 1869. He is now, I understand, Lord Salisbury’s confidential legal adviser. Dr Grace was another absentee from the dinner. His health, also, has not been satisfactory during his sojourn in Kent. Sir Walter Buller, on the other hand, looked as fit as if the sword of Damocles had never been suspended over his head. He has taken a furnished house at Richmond, and later on will, with Miss Buller, move into rooms in the Palace at Hampton Court. Mr Mennell recalls the “ pointers ” Lord Onslow gave him in Christchurch in 1891 ns to the potentialities of Mr Seddon as a politician and of New Zealand as a place of settlement:—“Mr Seddon was at the moment holding only a minor position in the Ballance Administration, but Lord Onslow predicted that he would ultimately become Premier. and with the responsibilities of office would develop into . a statesman of high calibre. As regards New Zealand itself, he, an English landed proprietor and typical Conservative, defined it as ‘ the Paradise of the small man.’ If he makes no greater mistake? in his career as an Imperial politician, he is not likely to lack in the quality of prescience.” It is distinctly pleasant to see ourselves as others gee us—after dinner. The New Zealand contingents in South Africa were represented at the New Zealand dinner by three “ gentlemen in khaki.” Messrs H. G. Heywood, James Poynter, and James Gardner, who bore with veteran fortitude the volley of applause that greeted them when Lord Onslow conveyed his thanks to them for their services. Mr Gardner, who hails from Canterbury, was invalided home with a bad ear. A severe cold led to the bursting of a discharge, which pierced the drum of the ear, so that Mr Gardner 'was as deaf as a post when he landed five weeks ago. Thanks to the care of Dr Field, his hearing has wonderfullv improved, and in a month’s time he hopes to be out of the doctor’s hands. If he could not hear, he has at least been able to see to some purpose, arid has explored the south coast pretty thoroughly, taken a look at Paris, witnessed the troop■;rig of the colors, and last week attended an agricultural show at Colchester, uhich, entre nous, be didn’t consider a patch on the Canterbury one, either in quality or up-to-dateness. ‘ Everything seemed sacrificed to getting the beasts into a superlative and, aS it appeared to him, exaggerated condition. Mr Heathcote Williams (Napier) is spending a .good deal of his time in the Law Courts, and watching how the English Judges administer justice. He was greatly struck with the Chief Justice and Mr Justice Darling. Mrs W. Parsons (Wellington) and her two daughters will return to the colony at the end of the year, as Tfrs Parsons finds the English winter too trying. It is uncertain whether Miss Phoebe Parsons will remain in London or accompany them. Mr J. H. Loughnan was just in time for the dinner, having not long since arrived from Italy, where he, in company with many other New Zealanders, wintered in Rome. There is quite a colony of New Zealanders in Rome now, and Macaulay’s New Zealander seems much more likely to gaze on the ruins of that city from a bridge over the Tiber than to view the ruins of London from London Bridge. Messrs C. V. and A. N. Houghton (Auckland) have not ret formulated their plans, hut. will in all probability visit the Glasgow Exhibition and the beauty spots in Scotland and the North of England. September secs them sail for home. .Mrs Arnot (Masterlon) has done a heap • j sightseeing in three weeks, in which Mine she has travelled through France, seen the I ons (alive and dead) of London, touched .at Southsea, ..and run through the Isle of Wight. Her headquarters are “ Tho Whart,” Meltsbam, Wiltshire.

A pleasant little Australian and New Zealand federation took place last Wednesday, when Mr Philip Myers, son of Mr Judah Myers (Wellington)' was married to Miss Eleanor Cantor, the second daughter of Mr Coleman Cantor, formerly of the firm of Myers and Cantor, of Sydney, and now of 125 Sutherland avenue. Maida Vale. The marriage took place at the residence of the bride’s parents. After a short honeymoon at Tunbridge Wells, Mr and Mrs Myers leave by the Campania on the 29th for America, catching the New Zealand boat at ’Frisco on the Ist August. Mr and Mrs W. M. Kirkcaldy have spent a very busy month in London, making the Salisbury Hotel their headquarters, and visiting a large number of friends. Mr Kirkcaldy goes North on actuarial business in a few days, and will spend a fortnight in visiting Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. He has been to some actuarial and statistical gatherings, combining business with pleasure. They will be here until the autumn. Mr Duncan Clerk, one of the New Zealand team of bowlers, who is over here with his wife and two children to see how the climate suits them with a view to settling in the Old Country permanently, has struck a very bad sample in the shape of an Arctic snap with snow in tho middle of summer in Glasgow. Notwithstanding, he contemplates locating himself on this side for eighteen months or so. after which he will seek the sunshine of the Antipodes for a while. Mr and Mrs Alfred Peters are in the land of saffron and pasties—Cornwall, to witwhich Mr Peters has not seen for a quarter of a century. He is staying at Perranwell, and means towards the end of the year to enlighten the Cornishmen on New Zealand by means of lectures and limelights. Before they return next February, Mr and Mrs Peters mean to perambulate Yorkshire, the lake district, Wales, and other beauty spots in the old land, likewise to take a little jaunt on the Continent. One of the main objects of the journey to England of Mrs W. B. Edwards and her youngest daughter was that Mrs Edwards might see. something of her daughter (Mrs Bicknell) and of her brother. Mr E. T. Sayers. Scarcely had she arrived when the latter trekked with Mr George Edwards’s musical comedy company to South Africa. At the end of this month Mr and Mrs A. C. Bicknell flit also for Australia, where Mr Bicknell has considerable mining interests. On 27th June Mrs and Miss Edwards go to Dublin to stay with Mr Edmund I). Edwards. and to see him take his B.A. degree. Mr Edwards seems a glutton for work, as he pursued his arts and medical studies simultaneously, and this year he is trying to do two years’ work in one, so as to qualify in November and make up for the time he spent in South Africa, whither he went with Lord Iveagh’s Irish hospital under Sir William Thompson as one of Dr Stoker’s assistants. Mr Edwards was the only unqualified medico taken from Dublin, and what Dr Stoker thought of him can be gathered from the, doctor’s speech when entertained bv the Irish Constabulary on their return. “ To Mr Edwards,” he said, “ I am personally indebted for the great service he rendered me as my special assistant. Mr Edwards is a worthy representative of the Co’.onv of New Zealand, which may well be proud of her son.” Mr Edwards has been offered a post as house surgeon in one of the London hospitals when he qualifies, and hopes while in London to take his F.R.C.S. It may be of interest to quote that part of Dr Stoker’s speech relating to Mr Bur-dett-Coutts’s charges, as it bears out the position we have always taken up, that those charges were well founded. Dr Stoker said : “ The condition of things as described at Bloemfontein is an actual fact. I saw it. How far this condition of things was preventible and how far they were remediable is a matter of opinion, and it is to this point the discussion should he confined. But this is certain, that the first effect of Mr Burdett-Coutts’s letters was to produce the most marvellous change in the condition and administration of the hospitals.” Mr Frank Hyains has just completed a couple of handsome cups, to be competed for this month. One, which is being given by a private donor as a special prize for the reserve champion hunter at the Richmond horse show, is a plain silver cup and cover urn, shaped in old English style, with Monteith handles. The other, which is to be competed for by three-year-olds and upwards at the Hurst Park races, on the 29th, is a solid gold statuette of Queen Victoria (valued at 200 guineas), standing on a black marble pedestal. A certain Antipodean interest, attaches to the statuette, which is a miniature copy of the statue by Sir Edgar Boehm erected opposite Hyde Park, in Sydney, and unveiled by Lady Carrington in 1888. The statuette was the work of Priora, an Italian artist, resident in Sydney, and was intended for presentation to Lady Carrington as a memento of the interest taken by her as lady president of the Women’s Industry Exhibition held in Sydney in 1888. Lord Carrington’s position, however, as the Queen's representative prevented either himself or his wife from accepting any gift. Mr Albert Hyams, who is acting as his brother’s representative here during the latter’s stay in New Zealand, nearly lost the number of his mess from congestion of tho lungs a fortnight ago, but happily pulled round, and after a week’s holiday hopes to resume his work in Bond street. The Rev. H. T. Purchas (Christchurch), who landed a month ago after a fairly comfortable voyage in the Runic, and who for several months was hors do combat with a bad throat, Las, under Dr Lindo Ferguson’s advice, been taking lessons in voice production, in order to prevent a recurrence of his throat trouble. The result of his course of treatment has been satisfactory and bis throat seems quite right again. Mr Purchas has been staying at Church Farm, Cheani, .Surrey, and next week goes to relatives in • Herefordshire. The date of his departure will probably be September. Captain St. Leger Montgomery Moore, R.A., has taken his passage to New Zealand in the Wakanui, sailing on the 18th July. Captain Reginald Moorchouse, R.N.R., will take out one of the Government’s new submarine miners in place of Captain Attwood, who is prevented by ill-heallb. Mr S. J. Kennedy is on a. few months’ visit to his parents at Coleraine. Mr George Sim, after an absence of nineteen years at the Antipodes, has returned to his native land for a few months holiday, and is staying with his brother, Mr Thomas Sim, West Cults Farm, Aberdeen. Mr C. J. F. Allen (Christchurch), after ten days’ sight-seeing in the Metropolis, goes north to the Glasgow Exhibition, visiting Worcester. Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Blackburn, and Liverpool en route, after a run round Scotland he will spend some little time in Belfast. Mr Montague Onnsby (Christchurch), during his three months’ stay, lias been up in Yorkshire and Northumberland, and after a brief visit to London is now at Doddington, Wooler, Northumberland, once more. In a fortnight’s time he is going over to Ireland to see Iris relations, and on Iris return will most likely take a tour in Scotland. Early in October he will set. out bv one of tho Orient boats on bis return to the colony. Mr A. N. Fell, the smartest of the Scottish internationals at football, materially

assisted Edinburgh University to win in hollow fashion the inter-’varsity sports annually contested by the students at Glasgow,' Edinburgh, and Aberdeen Universities by capturing the mile race. Fell won fairly' easily from a feHow-student named Cam, in 4min 42isec— not ;i very smart performance at the distance, perhaps, but “good enough to go on with.” Edinburgh won the sports by 18£ points to the 4 points of Glasgow, and Aberdeen s 4j points. Last Tuesday's ‘ Gazette ’ announces that Sergeant-major C. C. Eyre, of the Fifth New Zealand Contingent, has been appointed to a lieutenancy in the 10th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry, with the temporary rank of lieutenant in the army. Mr Fred. W. Best (Auckland), who came over by the Whakatane, and who is living at Dulwich, intends to spend some four years in England, with the object of gaining practical experience in gun-making. A marriage which will interest many people in your City, has only just been announced, though it took place as far back as May 20. The contracting parties were Miss Lily Titheradge (the eldest daughter of colonial playgoers’ old favorite, George o' that ilk) and Mr Edward Herrick Knowles, a young Sydney-sider. who is mastering the gentle art of medicine and surgery at Edinburgh University. The honeymoon was spent at Lake Windermere and the surrounding district, and last week Mr and Mrs Knowles returned to London to stay with Mr and Mrs Titheradge at Cavendish road, St. John’s Wood. It is their intention to take a trip to Sydney after Mr Knowles gains his degree. At the time of her marriage Miss Titheradge was touring with Mr George Edwardes’s ‘ San Toy’ Company as one of the six little wives, but now that she has become, the one little wife of Mr Knowles the stage will know her no more. Miss Charlotte Yonge, whose estate has been valued ot £12,915 gross, by her will bequeathed to her executors the copyright of ‘The Daisy Chain’ in trust for sale, and the proceeds of sale are to be in trust for the mission to the Melanesian Islands. She bequeathed her collections of shells and dried flowers, and her books on botany and conchology, to St. Mary’s College. Winchester; but her niece, Helen Emma Yonge, is to retain tho collections during her pleasure, and to her, also, the testatrix bequeathed her jewellery and personal effects, tho furniture of Eldeidield, and her manuscripts and books. Her nephew, Alan David Yonge, who was named as a residuary legatee, died in South Africa. Among the necessaries gathered together for the Duke’s voyage was a case of choice cigars, worth considerably over £IOO. They were by some mischance sent off to Gibraltar too late to catch the Ophir, and H.M.’s ship Majestic brought them home again to Portsmouth. The case was handed over to the London and Brighton Railway Company for transport to Loudon, but in tho course of its journey vanished into thin air. Detectives were set to work, and last week-end unearthed some of the contents of the case at a. house in Walworth, and to-day a couple of apparently respectable citizens of that parish are awaiting trial for thieving the case. The Rev. R. Lovett, M.A., author of the life of James Gilmour, the Mongolian missionary, has undertaken to compile a biography of the late Rev. James Chalmers for the Religious Tract Society, and I am asked to mention that Mr Lovett will be grateful if correspondents of Mr Chalmers in the colonies will allow him to see and make such extracts as seem desirable from letters which they may have received from him. Mr Lovett desires such letters to be sent to him at 56 Paternoster Row, London, E.C. He will, of course, take every care of them, and see that they are returned to their owners in due course. Speaking at a general meeting of the Women’s Liberal Unionist Association on Wednesday, Mrs Henry Fawcett expressed her gratification that the first of the colonies which came to our assistance in South Africa and which gave the greatest number of soldiers in proportion to its population was New Zealand, the first colony to adopt the principle of Women’s Suffrage. This splendid example of New Zealand’s loyalty should supply the answer to those who feared that the granting of the franchise to women would weaken the national feeling of duty and responsibility to the country and the Empire. It is a pity that Colonel Edward Gorton was not saved from his friends, on whose persuasion he has written and published his booklet ‘Some Home Truths re the Maori War, '63 to ’69, on the West Coast of New Zealand.’ The book adds nothing of importance to our knowledge of the history of that war. All that it does is to rake up certain petty quarrels from the oblivion in which they had been buried, to show that Colonel Gorton was a disciplinarian and a misunderstood man, and to declare that Sir George Grey was a liar, and that his unwarrantable interference was to blame for many unsatisfactory movements during the war for which Sir Duncan Cameron and Sir Trevor Chute and the Imperial troops were unjustly blamed. Now that both Sir Duncan Cameron and Sir George Grey are dead, Colonel Gorton publishes private correspondence that passed in 1886 between Sir Duncan and himself with reference to the Kaifake and Wereroa incidents. Sir Duncan himself expressed a desire that his letter should not be published,, and Colonel Gorton would haven done well to comply with his wishes. ‘ Another Woman’s Territory ’ is now in its second edition. “ Alien,” says the critic in the ‘Daily News’ holds a creditable place in the steadily-increasing ranks of the Australian novelists. Her work, he thinks, is lacking in lightness of touch, and she has somehow failed to vitalise the chief actors in the drama. There is artistic suggestion, however, in the figure of tho old Cornish woman who had all her life confounded “ fickshun ” with the matter of fact, and lived, in a dream-world of her own. Mr Julian Corbett, whose books on naval men and matters are such excellent reading, wrote a while ago to the Admiralty suggesting that a new first class battleship then building should be christened Drake. A. formal intimation that his letter had been received was followed, after, a decent interval, by a dignified reply, expressing the Admiralty’s regret at not being able to carry out Mr Corbett’s suggestion, and explaining that it would be contrary to all precedent to name a first class battleship after a bird. A correspondent writes to ‘The Times’ from Napier to express the consternation produced in New Zealand by statements that tlie menace to our commerce by foreign competition is mainly hypothetical. tie refers to the superior enterprise and industry of foreign firms, and declares that “ in packing, careful attention to minute requirements of particular markets, and a thousand non-essential details ” the foreigner is assiduously ousting the Britisher from markets where he has a distinct advantage in language, coinage, weights, and the strong tie of kinship. The American cast-iron small goods have beaten the British made articles out of these markets by their comparative cheapness. The American paints his article, and makes it quite presentable for the purpose required ; the British manufacturer, following cast-iron tradition, subjects the article to a finishing process which adds greatly to the cost, and "gets left,” Tho New Zealander cou-

eludes by asking if the Colonial Office cannot see its way to appoint men in the nature of advisers or promoters of British interests in the colonies. Is it not a splendid opportunity for some patriotic journals to combine in sending out a commission to inquire into the reason of our by no means hypothetical subsidence in things commercial?