ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12532, 20 June 1901, Page 7

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

personal AND" GENERAL. LONDON; May 10. Th* Agssnt-General was the- guest of Mr John A, E_wen, a* the Bank of New Zealand, at the, complimentary dinner given bythe City Liberal Club to Sir Henry F,our- }«* M.P- Mr" Reeves responded together witb. Sir Walter Peace awl the Hon' T. A. Brassey, to, the toast of "the Colonies, psonc«e4 by Lord Monkswell May 7. which, % tha way, j» aty Marking Day, was the eighty-ninth anniversary of Robert- Browning's birth, nd *a* qelebtatad at the Browning segment, ■Walworth, by a Browning contest among the boy* and girt* »* * he toCiil t B °, Sohoola. This ws presided over by ±4ts Reeves, who was accompanied by her jnothe?, Mrs Rohison, and her 3 J s ter > ™ s LasceSw. A dozen boys and girls competed, their task being to write an original essay on the life and work of Robert < Bwrping and to recito one of h(>s poena. The hoy and girl adjudged the, best renters viU have a. free trip to Roseneath., bc?V land a week m tho Browning settlement there, and a visit to th» Glasgow Exhibition. ' Quhe?a number of New Zealand soldiers h»v« arrived in the metropolis, the last few to, to enjoy a brief holiday alter thejr iratar pursuit of De Wet. LieutenwtCoMel Cxcvdock is making the Naval and Military Club in Piccadilly his headquarter* Lieutenant Montgomerie is staying ■Kith, Mr J. Tilley, at Oheyro Court ChelMa, Sergeant Grime* has. gone, to relations in Derbyshire, Corporal Davidson to friends i.n Arbroath, and Trooper. Baoon first to Partfordabire aM then to sontb, Wale*. Sther arrival? from South Africa are Messrs U G. Mansfield and Austin Moss, who are frying at Alan.' TurobnU, J. Lewis Absalom, who is at L?e, and James Poynter. Messrs Grimes end Davidson ' "fraya been vwy pleased by the prompt and , courteous way m which they'have been treated bv the War Office, officials. There Vem no r*d tape* or delay in the, consideration of their claims. They received their £o bonus at once,, and a promise that the W%r Office would pay thei? passage back to New Zealand, they having come iron South Africa «it thwr awn expose. Both fpeak in enthusiastic terms of tho?e firstclass fighting men Plumer and Malign, under whom they did much stern ohasmg fighting. Lieutenant-Colonel Walter .George Orole Wyndhaira, C. 8., has taken, over the command, of the 21st (Impress of India's) Lan- ' cers in Dublin, on his return to England from command of the Imperial representative corps to Australia. In reply to that persistent note of inter-. Togation, Mr Swift M'Neill, Mr Chamberlain* wid, on Tuesday night, *' The?a has been no proposal to increase the salary of the Governor-General of Australia, but a de■patch was addressed to him in November l«fb, askjng him, t» hring before his Ministers the question of providing allowances ion the Governor-General's establishment, and for the expenses of entertainment in addition to the salary of £IO,OOO fixed by the Commonvrtalth Act, No definite jstats,|nent has yet been, received as t» the amount, #i th* allowances for which the Commonwealth Ministers are prepared to ask Parliament. One colonial soldier must have been doubly grateful for the Queen's chocolate. Ha carried the box into action in his breast coat poeket, and a bullet found its billet not in his -heart, but in the lid of the box. The box with the bullet embedded in the lid has just been deposited in the museum of the Royal United Service Institution, in th« banquetting hall in Whitehall, V> which all colonial? should) pay a visit, not only because it was from a window of this yearn that Charles I. stepped forth to exertion, but because of the interesting collection of naval and military 1 objects it conftainf. Mr E- A. Fitzgerald, of Alps and Andes •fame, has exchanged the ice-axe and the .rope for tV award and the- -cuirass, in 'pt'her words has joined the army. It came about in this wise. He and a friend, pass>Jng through St James's Square one night 3i9t year noticed a large placard on the '.Yeomanry recruiting offices. " What a lark it would 'be to join in the morning," said one- " I'm game if you are," said the other, and sure enough next day they both "signed on." Mr Fitzgerald was quite at home on the kopjes, and so distinguished himself as a Yeoman that Lord Roberts igave him a commission. He was gtetted to the" sth Dragoon Guards as second lieutenant about tix months ago, and ha? j«st been promoted to lieutenant. Mr and'Mrs James Mills (Dunedin), who "have been, staying -at the Grand Hotel, move this week into the flat they have .taken at 24, Kensington Gardens, where they will be joined by their family. Mr Mills intended spending a month or, $o in 'ltaly '» as to espape the cold weather in 'England, but was called to London on a ina-tter of busine&s in March- Ho is, of saurse,. interesting himself in the Vancouver line. He will visit the West of England portly. Mr Wolf Harris has purchased three of the Academy pictures, "Yseult," by Mr Prank Dickste, R.A., the "Wishing Well," by Mr G. D- Leslie, R.A.,and an "Italian Garden," by Mrs J. Y. Hunter, " Yseult" is.a semi-circular picture in a frame orna-' mented with Celtic tracery, and- its richness of colouring is its strongest point. Yseult of Ireland aits at her balcony in a- golden bower stretching her hands out towards the shipkaa sea. lit by a dull red sunset. Her gown is crimson studded with rich gems and embroidered with gold. The "Wishing Well" :» a charmingly quiet composition. A girl in a simple white dress with a black bow stands with her back to the spectator at an old stone basin into which trickles a istream from a green wooded elope above. It is a restful harmony in green and grey. Mrs Hunter's picture, 'which hangs in the " gem" room, depicts •l girl in a purple dres? and broad straw aat with green ribbons; seated on a. bench ander a dark green tree by a marble well in an Italian garden. Another picture of Mrs Hunter's, "Joy and the Labourer," Is a quaint fantasy. Mr James Davenport (Christchurch) has been staying .in Staffordshire- for some time. He will take back 'some Shropshire, sheep with him when he returns to the colony t The Misses Jones (Christchurch),. ' who jpassed tho-Ophir in tho Canal on their way Home in the Oruba, Lphdpn on May 22 to visit relations in Dorsetshire. Their plans includi a tour in Scotland and perihaps a short trip on the Continent, and they expeco to leave about the end of October "and to return via Sues. Miss Margaret Fryei' (Christchurch), after a couple of months in London, goes ifirst to relatives . in Monmouthshire, and then*to others in Germany. She will be away from New Zealand for at least a " ;year. Miss Leach (Christchurch), who has completed her medical studies at Edinburgh, and is now a fully qualified physician and/ •urgeon, leaves th:e week for South Africa', where she is to be married to Mr Herbert Stack, a .son of Canon Stack, at Port Elizabeth early in June. Canon and Mrs Stack leave Bprdigbera ahortiy for the Italian Alps, where the • Canon will undertake jome clerical duties for a month. July they will spend at a friend's villa in the Swiss mounts, ns, 5000 ft •hove the Lake of Geneva, , , Mr Labouchere, in " Truth," wishes that English Judges were as''successful in fitting the punishment to the crime of outraging little children as tho New Zealand Judges, and fully approves of the recent ■entenee in Dunedin of fifteen years and two floggings of twenty-five strokes each upon such a brute for an asrault on a girl of four. In England, he says, the ruffian would pro/bsbly have been let off with lomething' like' six Tnc-ntW hard labour, and' tihis, -oi course, would have been un-

accom/panJecC "by the aidditibnal wholesome corrective of the cat-of-nine-tails. " The " Financial News " devotes a column to pointing QU't the immensa advantage New Zealand wil! reap by the construction of the ; Nioaragu,a when the. carrying trade, ©I th«» world will desert the present ocean; rwtea and New Zealand lie in the fairway of oma oi" the great trad>e and passenger'routes <v.f the world.