PERSONAL AND GENERAL NOTES FROM LONDON

Lake County Press, Issue 980, 19 September 1901, Page 2

PERSONAL AND GENERAL NOTES FROM LONDON

[From the DrxKDiN Eve.vi.ng Star.]

August 2. •' My general impression of American manufacture- is that they arc deteriorating ?n quality, owing to the manufacturers giving so much attention to the output of quantity and to cheapness." In view of the continual comparison between English and American workmanship, especially in engineering matters, this opinion of Mr J. L. Scott, of Christchurch, an expert, after ii month sojourn in the United States, deceives cnref-il consideration in the colony. In chatting over bis American experiences and impressions Mr Scott was careful to explain that there were notable exceptions, but that the above statement summarised :he general impression that had been left in his mind. For instance, he said "the steel frame work that they are putting into their buildings is as cheap as can be. They are not building for centuries, as in England." Electric traction and electric power specially occupied Mr Scott's attention. He came to the conclusion that the overhead trolley system was the almost universal form of electric traction in America, and that that was the system for Christchurch to adopt. At tin same time, he said he saw nothing in America to compare in completeness and finish with the cars on the Shepperd'o Bush to Kew lines. One of the chief features of the Buffalo Exposition was the simultaneous switching on of all the electric lights all over the buildings and grounds. Mr Scott had praise for the buildings, but thought it a poor collection of exhibits. He will shortly have a chance of comparing it with the Glasgow Exhibition, to which he goes in a few days. At Niagara he inspected several of the pow:;r houses, and found that the conversion of water power there into electricity was jus; on the lines that would have to be adopted in the harnessing of the Waimakariri. Although the Niagara Falls

j are 167 ft in height, he found the fall actually utilised was ;i. irood deal less, and that . the proposed fall of 90ft for the Christchurch scheme would be ample. At Detroit Mr Scott made a study of stoves, but in this branch of manufacture, at all events, came to the conclusion that in the j colony you are as far advanced as the ! Yankees. His experience of America was S completed by a heat wave in New York, i which abundantly satisfied him that in this i respect yellow journalism had a. Washingj ton-like veracity. One hot day a- row of , thermometers in an optician's shop regisj tered 114deg in the shade, and Mr Scott | saw dozens of dead horses. At night he • was reduced to sleeping in puris natiiral- ! ibus. or "even less than that." The trusts [ and the strike against the steel combination formed a- general topic of conversation ! among those of all classes with whom Mr ; Scott came into contact. The conditions of labor he considered very different from those prevailing in England, as neither employers nor men appealed to be afraid of i one" another, but either side was quite pre- ; pared to light if it thought there was a ' possible advantage to be gained. He prei dieted a great industrial upheaval before j very long. Both the working and middle i classes are strongly opposed to the wealthy i trusts and their policy of keeping up the ' price in America while sacrificing the goods in Europe. The papers and the people j seemed rather to sympathise with the > strikers, and to maintain that some part ' of the tremendous profits should he distri- | buted among the men. Mr Scott found j considerable' knowledge displayed of New ! Zealand and her labor laws, and great interest in their working. Mr Carpenter's | series of articles in the Buffalo papers had i been widely read. Mr Scott's headquarters ; are in Derby, where he has friends. The I end of September is the date fixed for his 1 departure. Mr R. Tristram Harper (of Canterbury) ' was one of the Imperial Yeomen presented j with medals by the King last week. In honor of Sir George Grey's exceptional ! services to the Empire, the ride that a deI cade shall elapse after a celebrity's death j before his portrait is hung in the National J Portrait Gallery has been relaxed. Pro- ' fessor Herkomer's sympathetic portrait of I the Old Man eloquent is now on view at j the Gallery. I wrote you some months ago of the ex- ! pi riments which Sir Tollemache Sinclair, I of Thurso Castle. Caithness, was making | himself, and encouraging his tenants to i make, with seed oats. He distributed | New Zealand and Ross-shire seeds among i his tenants, and samples of the oats grown from them and also from Caithness seeds ! have been on exhibition. The Caithness I v Courier,' after an inspection, observes that I the New Zealand and Ross-shire (especially j the former) oats are much superior to the I Caithness. Sir Tollemache himself tells ' the Caithness people that " a quarter of I New Zealand oats has been made' into meal I at Halkirk, and some of those who have I tasted it consider that it. is as superior in j flavor to Caithness meal as barley meal is to here meal."' This from the land of " burgoo." Mr Joseph Page, town clerk of Wellingi ton. who has been travelling with -Mrs I Page in the country, is empowered, with I two other Wellington gentlemen, to select ! an engineer to convert, the existing horse i tram system info an electrical one, and to make certain extensions. Two or three applications are under consideration, but while Mr Page is in London one of his colleagues is away in Scotland, and another in Sussex, so that a final selection I cannot be made for about three weeks. I j fancy there would have been a larger number of applicants had the information available for intending candidates been fuller. Mr James Howie (of Duuedin) has left on his return journey to the colony. Mrs Howie is studying steadily with Sir Santley, who thinks well of her prospects of ultimate success. The 'London Gazette' announces that Lieutenants S. H. W. Crawford. A. B. Rose, and R. M'Dowell Williams, from the Sixth New Zealand Contingent, are to he | second lieutenants in the Norfolk Regiment, the Manchester Regiment, and the York and Lancaster Regiment respectively. 1 trust the usual sequel will not follow." I)r J. P. Frengley, M.D.. B.Ch.. Royal University, Ireland, Dublin, and King's College, London, has been granted by the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons a diploma in public health. .Mr B. J. Dudley, University of Cambridge and Westminster Hospital, was at a meeting of the Royal College of Physicians last Thursday granted a licence to practise physic. Mr A. 11. Chapman, who is al Home combating incredulity and vested interests in connection with his patent process for iJefroftinp frozen meat, can boast of having made iM least on,- convert, for Ilie 'Meat Trades Journal.' which al lir-t viewed the New Zisilander's air-wight bag scheme through a thick pane <>l judicious scepticism, cainc out this wcr.k with tile following: " \V<: had a further opportunity last wee), of inspecting mcua which had been treated by the Chapman dry thawing process, and arc hound to say that ilie two

(rozeii liind«|iiartcrs submitted to us wen in .plendid condition dry. bright, and turn The fact that these bin dipiai tei ;• leadily made from <ld to 6d per ■•lone more point

conclusively to (ho commercial value of the system."

" The King's approval of Mr Arthur M. Myers as Consul of Liberia at Auckland has been gazetted. Sir David Barbour and many other students of the financial problems set by the war have warned us that we cannot expect to place any considerable part of the debt wc have incurred in painting the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal pink on the maps on the shoulders of those colonies. Your ex-Governor, Lord Onslow, holds a different opinion, for at the meeting of the British Empire League, held in Manchester a few days ago, he expressed the view that the Transvaal would be able to relieve us of £50,000.000 of the expenditure. For such relief wc shall be truly thankful, but before we feel like sharing Lord Onslow's faith we should much like to know the foundations of his belief. Tn the central hall of the County School at Aberystwyth a meeting w<is held a few days ago to bid farewell to Mr J. H. Howell. 8.A., B.Sc, the new science master in Auckland Grammar School, prior to his departure for the colony. After valedictory speeches from the head-master and other colleagues, David Jones, a senior pupil, read an address, and Lizzie Jones, senior girl of the school, in a neat little speech, made a presentation to Mr Howell from the staff and scholars of a hand camera, and stanii. and some excellent pictures of the County School and groups. Reference was made' to the work done by Mr Howell in connection with the workmen's club in the Progress Hall. He sails about the middle of August. Coventry was the scene of another presentation to a. pilgrim bound for your shores. Mr Walter Arch, president of the Hilliields Philanthropic Society. The officers of the society, of which Mr Arch is flying buttress, presented him with a silver snuff-box, suitably engraved, and an illuminated list of past'and present officers of the society, and his wife with a lady's companion. News has just been received in London of the marriage at Penanga, on June 6, of Miss Kmilv Louisa Whitaker, fifth daughter of the 'late Sir Frederick Whitaker. K.C.M.G.. to Mr Henry James Noel Walker, eldest son of Sir Edward Noel Walker, Lieutenant-Governor and Colonial Secretary of Ceylon.

Mr and Mrs Herriek (Christchurch), who spent some time in Sydney during the Royal festivities there, are sight-seeing in London. Their three months' stay will be divided between Southampton, Scotland, (Hid Cornwall.

Mrs and Miss Acton-Adams (Christchurch) made their way to England through Canada in a leisurely fashion, visiting all the show places, while Mr Acton-Adams went off to Japan. After three weeks with relatives in New York they left for England, just in time to escape the heat wave. They found the C.P.R. route quite the pleasantest to travel. Mr ActonAdams has now arrived from Japan, and has decided to take a house at Tunbridge Wells until Christmas. In a year's time he will pay New Zealand a visit, but it is at present" uncertain whether Mrs ActonAdams will accompany him Miss M. A. Chappie is up at Paisley. After seeing some more of Scotland, doing London, and wintering in Devonshire, she takes a little tour on the Continent. Her journey to New Zealand will be broken in South Africa, where she will visit her friends. Altogether she will be away from the colonv fon nine months or a year. The wi'fe of Dr Guthrie Neville Caley die:' Miss Black, of Christchurch) gave birth to a son at Colville House. Ealmg, on Julv 29.

Mr James Arkle iPalinerston South) had a long passage Home in the Tongariro, as the boilers went wrong. It is forty years since, he was in the Old Country. After a, week at Weston Spa with his son. lie will visit Scotland and Ireland, and probably return bv America.

Mr F. M.'Standish (New Plymouth) •* assisting Mr Courtney in his emigration work. He proposes to make a six months' stay on this side. Dr ('. LI. Morice and his wife (of Greymouth) are now on a visit to Aberystwyth, where the doctor's brother, the late Rev. T. R. Morice. resided. The doctor his been away from the Welsh town for fortyfive years.

A Board of the Judicial Committee of the Privv Council, consisting of Lords Macnaghten." Davey. Robertson, and Lindley. heard last Friday the appeal in the case of Tc Teira Te Taea v. Te Roera Tareha from the judgment of the New Zealand Court of Appeal of sth duly. 1898. After bearing Mr Haldane, K.C.. and Mr C. B. Morison for the appellants, their Lordships intimated that they would not trouble t.' e counsel for the respondents, the Hon. lidward Blake. K.C.. Mr G. U. Northcole. and Mr T. W. Lewis (of the New Zealand Bar), bin would consider their judgment. The judgment of the Court of Appeal wdl therefore be upheld.

A Xew Zealand rabbit case was before Mr .lustice Mathew last. week. Messrs Knight, owners of cold stores at Shadwell, sued Messrs Mann, of New Zealand and London, for warehousing crates rf rabbits. The claim was for £212. but the defendants counter-claimed £1,987, alleging thai their goods were damaged by a defect in the store, which claim, and contention Messrs Knight resisted. The contract was that defendants should pay 20s 9d per ton for landing, delivery, ami twenty-eight days' storage, and that plaint iffs should not be responsible for loss or damage of goods stored through maintaining too high or too low a temperature, failure of machinery, or through lire. Tt appears that the rabbits in question were soft, and the point, at issue was where this defect originated. The plaintiffs offered without prejudice (o pay £IOO against a claim made by Messrs Mann on this account, bill this Mas declined. This was apparently a case for compromise, and the Judge endeavored to bring one about, but without success, and the case was adjourned, but I understand the contestants have since come to an amicable settlement.