All Sorts Of People

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 80, 11 January 1902, Page 3

All Sorts Of People

THAT well - known lawyer Mr Y W Ponnefather, has returned foi a brief spell to New Zealand, where he will finish among other literary works, a draft of a code foi the South Australian Parliament The unassuming, fragilelooking gentleman in grey strikes one above all things as, a student. One can imagine in conversation with him that his thoughts are on his literary woik, in which he is entirely engrossed He will perhaps, be remembered best as the private secretary of Governor Jervois. Since then, he has acted temporarily and with much credit, as a judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, and, for some time past, he has been lecturer on law at the Adelaide University. * * * He thinks New Zealand u> a charming count n, but. unfortunately, too far from England The heat of Adelaide so piostrates him that he flies that city on the approach of summer and New Zealand is a good place to nee to Ho comes to New Zealand for the tome that its magnificent climate affords, to renew acquaintances, and to quietly work at his beloved literary P"**™** Mr Pennefathor is staving at the Welhno^toii Hub •* * * Mi W C Kensington, the new Un-der-Secretary for Lands, is a, gentleman whom the whole public service Racily welcomes to his new po.satdon Outsiders wonder why a man of such ability so long remained comparatively unrecognised. As far back as 1869 he was doing chief surveyor's w r ork, and in 187b he was chief draughtsman Mr. Kensington should have been promoted many years ago if his ability had been recognised. The Surveyor-General of olden times, however, ruled that a deputy chief-surveyor in the field, who became chief draughtsman could not be promoted. » * * It he had been content to know about half the knowledge he had assimilated he could have reached any rung in the ladder of promotion twenty years back To use a homely illustration the navvy who has only one aim is considered, by that process of reasoning a better shoveller than the man with two. The Seddon Government has altered all that A field surveyor, with an office experience, now is the most favoured for promotion and, naturally, the many gentlemen who have recently been promoted are kindly disposed towards a Government that ha.s killed the particular red-tape clause that debarred a man from risine because he was particularly smart at his calling Mr Kensington knows Maori thoioughly He has, coached three or four Chief Surveyors, and he has taught Commissioners of Crown Lands their duties He was an Auckland volunteer officer in troublous times, and was at the Gate Pah A quiet, unassuming man who is a perfect gentleman, and who is an enc clopsedia on land matters and Native history Mr. Kensington has right worthily gained his reward at last. « ♦ • Major Heapfy, V C was the prince and pattern of surveyors, and to him Mr. Kensington owes his early training The "fighting surveyor," during the engagement in which he won the highest

distinction a soldier can wear was riddled with bullets while performing acts of h&roac devotion The War Office then was no whit more brainy or businesslike than it is now . The V.C hero waited for a pension that came too late to do him any good. That remarkable institution granted it six weeks before he. died. His widow got no compensation. Clerk was away on a holiday, or something of the kind Major Heaphy was the "most beautiful draughtsman" who ever drew a New Zealand plan, a gallant soldier, and the forerunner of a race of surveyors who do the highest credit to New Zealand • ♦ • Mr. James McKenzie, the new Commissioner of Lands for Taranaki, knows something about land He has been in the civil service for thirty-five years, and can spin you some rare old yarns about the early days. He saw the light m Edinburgh. *m 1849 but left that town with his parents in 1858 He brought along his accent, which is still in working order. Otago district school is where the youthful idea beeran to sprout and the Dunedin High School turned him out the finished article Although the said High School was not in any especial favoui , through relienous dissensions, etc., it turned out a good many of our best known men. Mr Harry Bell (Bell, Gully. and Co.), Judge Edwards, Mr. Tom Hi«lor>, were all contemporaries of Mr. McKen^ie's The same school finished off Captain Moffatt (s.s Maori), Mr James Fulton, and Judge Kettle. In 1807, everything m the garden" was not too lovely, and bush life had its httle crosses. Under-Secretary Cameron and a party went on a West Coast expedition to Preservation Inlet, West Otago, to survey the Martin's Bay Settlement. Cameron with others was shooting ka-ka in the bush, and was accidentally very seriously wounded. Mr. McKenzie and others brought the wounded man in through the dense bush on a dark night over cliffs, creeks, and other impediments, and put to sea in an open boat for the Bluff ' For four days and four nights they battled with the waves in Foveaux Straits, and at last arrived at Riverton ♦ * « From there they carried their wounded mate to Invercargill. Their splendid devotion, however, did not have its reward, for the poor fellow died on reaching his destination. Mr Welsh, who is still m the survey office in Wellington, was one of the crew of the boat, Messrs. Andrew Hepburn, Robert Goodworth, Fraser. and McKenzie himself forming the rest of the selfsacrificing crew. Like Mr Kensington, Mr McKenzie has been kept in the rear through a faulty system, and, like him. too he has had long service in the office (twenty-two years), and long service in the field (thirteen years) * * * He tells a Lance man that it is almost breaking his heart to leave the lovely homo at Karon, where he has twentytwo acres, a house of fourteen rooms, prime Jersey stock, and the finest gardens anywhere in the district He has been m Kaiori for twenty-five years, but a quarter of a century ago a four-roomed cottage stood on the ground that the present mansion occupies Also in those days there were not nine McKenzies junior, or the Kelburne tram, or any road worthy of the name Karori roads have received much attention from the jolly surveyor, and the tramway, too. He has been on the school committee for ten years. Fact is, Mr McKenzie has crammed a heap of incident into his fifty-two years of life. His oarlv adventures, and his lone-delayed promotion, do not seem to have soured his genial disposition Courteous, kindly and, above all eminently practical he goes a step higher with the erood wishes of all the service to hoist him

Sergeant - Major Callow-ay, of Goromaiidel, the First and Sixth Contingent, and recently of several hundred places in South Africa, is at present in Wellington, where he is trying to demonstrate the fitness of a soldier with a Mauser puncture through his liver to go to the front witih the Eighth. There is a history attached to that punctured liver. According to "Cal," he got it and a DC M for disobeying orders. At Withkoip, somewhere eastward from the vaal, John Boer was extremely lively, ajid the brigade - major under whose eagle eye was "CalV squadron, of which the returned soldier was sergeantmajor, gave orders to fire on a body of Boers between the sky and the said major. "Call" protested they were Queeiislanders, but his officer told him that it was "sanguinary rot" to have an opinion of his own when an Imperial soldier e^oressed a contrary one. The troop of New Zealanders, however, under the Coromandel boy. dashed for the Queeni4anders, who were under heavy fire, and effected a diversion in their favour • • • Several men were badly wounded in the ru<h, and Calloway dived in to rescue whom he could. He carried one man cut of range, and then went back for another. 'Twas them that Mr. Sniper got on to him, and bored a hole right through his liver. The salve to his w ounded — cr — organ is that he is to get the D.C.M. By a passenger of the Papanui, we are informed that the gallant sergeant-major, who, by the way. is a handsome half-caste, could have married several ladies who were passeneers by that boat, but he refused to do so, possibly because he has a preference for a New Zealand maiden. Callow at- is the authority for the statement that no known snipers are taken prisoners and that it is usual for colonial troops to regard Boer prisoners generally a& snipers. Calloway was helped on to the boat at Capetown by friends. He walked off unassisted in New Zealand, and he avers he danced continuously at a fanov dress ball on the evening of his arrival, which is a good record even for the versatile half-caste. * * * Mr. Robert Thompson, M.H.R., who was banquected by tJie Yvhangarei County council the other day, has been getting even with the Auckland members who slated lus pet Grahamtown railway extension scheme last session He was particularly rough on his neighbour member tor the Bay of Islands. If Mr. Houston had "woiked wich him " lie said, they could have got another £10,000 for the Northern line. Just look at that now. Other members, who do not usually get such an ample slice out of public works as Mr. Marsden Thompson, had better keep their optics peeled next time. Captain Bartlett will return to the front if the War Ofhce will let him. If that institution has no tyro to put in his place perhaps the man who, next to Colonel Davies, worked harder than any other hew Zealand officer, will be allowed to go back junior to some other men whose advancement in the service is one of life's little mysteries. Nobody knows why Captain Bartlett has not been promoted major before this. However, he returns to Africa whether the Defence Office accepts his services 01 no He believes in the future of the country, and his place in, Hawera will know him no more. He is one of the men whom Colonel Daviefe would have picked had the Defence Office not debarred him from having a say in the matter. It is possible that as junior to anybody at all Captain Bartlett will feel himself obliged to take up the bridle once more. Men with service are showing in no uncertain way that such officers as he are the only ones for whom they will do their best under a second term of service

Sergeant Eudo L 'Estrange, if Nature had left him any top-covering, would have grown grey in the service of his sovereign. Like most small men who take to the profession of arms, he seems to like it, and he is proud of the fact that of all the men in the First Contingent who did not get commissions, he is one of the few who were really qualified for one. He served in the Cape Mounted Rifles once for four and a half years, and his military experience has, therefore, been vast. He slew niggers in Pondaland, and he knew the wily Boer before the ultimatum of Oom Paul. He drifted to Wellington from Africa, and, when war broke out on the Dark Continent, he was bound to go and help fill the breach . * ♦ His veteran advice to all tyros made him of incalculable service to our First, and raw troopers humbly accepted his advice with becoming gratitude. He was once in charge of a patrol in the Ma°rahesburg: Valley. Johnny Boer, to the number of about a hundred, spotted him and his men, chased, and fired on them and save them a hot time. The patrol, four or five in. number, made tracks the burghers in hot pursuit. I/Es+ranee's horse knocked up. Palmer, a corporal dismounted, and offered to take L'Estrange up behind. Eudo disdained the offer, and strode nonehalantlv along, amidst a shower of bullets, and, with his useless horse took his chance. • ♦ * The Boers took him, however, and, believing him to be a person of some importancei — he speaks several words of Dutch — they entertained him royally for a month or two. He has immortalised the event in tersely written words, but the edition is sold out, and there is no reprint. He joined the Baden Powell Police in Pretoria, securing a commission, but for unexplained reasons he resigned, and again joined his regiment, becoming quarter-master sergeant to the Ist, 2nd, and 3rd New Zealanders. He is one of the few non-coms. who by some occult means gained the entree to the sacred precincts of the Imperial officers' quarters, and he is acquainted with the inner life of Pretoria in all its nakedness * » W He declines to receive the commission m the Eighth which the local War Department is so anxious to confer on him, preferring to earn position by sheer merit, of which he has an abundance. He is engaged at present giving raw recruits of the Eighth points, about war. He believes* that had he hustled, and got rid of a too pronounced diffidence, he would be wearing "three stars and a couple of crowns," which seems to signify that a special rank will have to be created for him when his modesty has been sufficiently sunk to allow him to take promotion. • * * Mr. A. McKay, geologist to the Mines Department, has recently returned from Cheviot, and has brought back the information that the seasmic disturbances in that Paradise junior were- — earthquakes. He brings back enough stones and quaint happenings to fill a book — other than the official report. Naturally, he reads the Christchurch papers, and the two great dailies of that city vied with each other in startling headlines and sensational detail. He expected to find Cheviot a wreck when he got there, but was agreeably disappointed. The country looked as if it could never be guilty of buck-jumping. • • • It played havoc with the chimneys, and was death to nick-nacks," said the genial geologist to us the other day. The earthquake was biggest in the Christchurch papers. The bigger the earthquake, the larger the circulation. Premier Seddon is proud of Cheviot., as he may well be. He wired to Christchurch • "Not so much earthquake l " Thereafter "gentle un-

durations" instead of severe shocks." The Premier, you see, understands human nature. A Cheviot settlei" named Dougall tj' rl Mr. McKa> (and lie now tells the world) that so great was the eiratic violence of Mother Eaith's emotion that he grabbed the fence in his stock-vaids to keep lumsolf on terra infirma Some times he was on one side of the fence and sometimes on th • other, doing involuntary handsprings "And which side did you finish up on Douo-all s " ' Wpll, the fact of the mattei is I was too paralysed to know • ■ * Anothei settlei solemnly aveis th-i* lie w-ent nane times up and down in an interval of ten feet to get a clothes prop When that ti tree fork wa.s nearly won an undulation would send him back to the starting place. Tins settler is a prohibitionist, too Cows and sheep lay down and bellowed in sheer fright, and fowls took to the bush for two days. Mr. Scott is the gentleman who had nerve to obseive very tall gum trees lashing the earth bending down and springing back like po^bum snares. He us considered to have remarkabh fine eyesight fc Mr Flahertv ot those earthquaking parts, proudly asserts that he is the cause of the earthquakes He is bv profession a searcher after petroleum Wherever he sinks there are the earthquakes to be found. His theory is long and scientific, but he certainly ought to be suppressed if he is going about the country boring holes and thereby causing earthquakes. • * * Mr. Scott, of the Commercial Hotel, Cheviot, is considered by Mr. McKaj to be aggressively truthful. He happened to be frying sausages on the day of th© memorable quake. The first he knew of it was that the sausages stood on &nd, and commenced to dance like so many ghostly sprites of defunct felines, the frying pan hit him in the face, and it was* then that Mr. Scott left for the back-country. A poor lady did not leave. She tried to, but the earth rose up and made a little hillock, on which she lay prostrate, so nicely balanced was she that she formed an impromptu see-saw, to the edification of nobody at the time • * • The Government has a task that even Mr. Seddon will find a difficulty in overcoming. Settlers, who once had creeks in their paddocks, now have none. Those who were without, have permanent water. ''Where's Jones's creek?" is a common question. ''Oh, over the fence in Smith's paddock, and he won't give "I me back." Lawyers are busy studying up the question of riparian rights, and the man who held the fee simple of a spring is mocked every time he looks at his transfer, and, of course they all want to know what the Government is going to do about the sprines and creeks they used to have, but which the other fellow is now using half-a-mile away. • • • Miss Nellie Patterson is only three and a-half years old. But she is a niece of Madame Melba, and catches gome rays of reflected glory. She already sings, and Madame, her auntie, says she can take "F." The iuvenilp songstress has, with her small brother, sister, and mother, been staying with "Aunt Nellie." Said that the baby songstress electrified the passengers on the Australian-bound boat from Home by sinoiner perfectly many difficult pieces that Madame Melba has made famous.

If happen just at present to bump up in the Quay against that hawk-eyed mill tan veteran Major Loveda^, -you will notice that lie has a. pro-occupied air .aid a far-away look Don't run awa\ with the notion that he has caught the scarlet fever, and is sickening for South Africa No King Dick has marked him out for quite a different destiny. ■U the last Cabinet meeting the Government wanted a smart and enthusiastic officer to organise and boss a force of public school cadets, and they fixed their choice upon Loveday. You see he had shown such business aptitude, grasp of detail, and organisms skill in managing the cadets at the bier Chn«tchurch review la*t vcvr, that he could not very well be passed o\er. * * • He is theiefore appointed to command the public school cadets throughout the colony, and habeeai assigned an office at P.uliament Biuldings, where he is already up to his ©yes in work. He estimates he will soon have a force of 0000 public .school cadets to deal with. They are to be uniformed in blue woollen jerseys and knickers, and Glengarry caps with diced borcku, the afoiesaid diced bolder being a cunning device to pie\ent the use of the uniform cap when off duty. Minimum stature for cadets is to oe 4ft 7m As for arms, 500 Wostlcy Riohards miniature rifles (Martini Henrys) ha\e been procured through the Wellington firm of Cameron and Christie. The price- is, £2 1.5s each, they aie sighted up to 600 yards, and are very light and handy weapons for boys to use. As .500 rifles won't go round 5000 cadets, they will be distributed in ten por cent proportions, and the youngsters will be encouiaeed to become good shots. King Dick, like the Prince of Wale* is impressed with the importance of having a cadet army, and Maior Loveday is just the man to gratify the King's wish Mr. and Mrs A. H. Benge, of Waihi, were m Wellington this week, spending part of their holidays. They arrived on Saturday, charmed with the beauty and picturesqueness of the Wanganui river, which they had lust explored a 6 far as Pipinki. On the evening they were there fifty tourists- sat down to dinner in the boarding-house, so that things are humming on the upper reaches of the Wanganui rust now. Mr. Beuge is a busy man. He controls a school with an average attendance of 640 in addition to a high school department of thirty-two, and he carries the purse for the- Anglican Church, the Masonic lodge, and the Hospital Board of his town, showing that he is thoroughly in the public confidence When a community trusts a man with its bawbees it gives him a certificate of character that is- gilt-edged. Mr. and Mrs. Benge have more than a passing interest in Wellington, lor the reason that their eldest son — a bright young feiiow, who entered college with a scholarship, and performed the "hat trick," so to speak, by passing junior and senior civil service examinations, and also matriculation last year — is now a cadet in the Education Department here. This holiday trip has given Mr. Benge an idea which he means to turn to account when he gets back to his school. It is to select twenty of his brightest pupils at the end of the year and personally conduct them on a holiday jaunt over the route he has already travelled this time. It will spur r>he elder boys to do their best, and the holida" itself will be both instructive and pleasant for those who participate. The boys' parents, of course, will pay their expenses, but these will be low, as Mr. Benge has been taking time by the forelock by arranging for special rates. It is an idea that might be edaborated into a system with great advantage. Everyone who has met that genial prieet, Father Paterson, late of Palmerston North, knows that he is a capital raconteur of good stories Here is his latest, and he tells it against himself "be the same token." He had just married a couple, and was somewhat nonplussed to find that there was no fee forthcoming. The happy man could afford to get married, but, singularly enough, he could not afford the customary fee to the clergyman "Never mind, Father," said the bridegroom, eventually, "sure you can take the fee out in trade." "Yes, but what is your trade?" asked the priest, somewhat relieved to find that it was not to be all dead loss. "Oh, well, I'm a trombone player " That fee has not been taken out yet.