All Sorts of People

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 96, 3 May 1902, Page 3

All Sorts of People

TKLRh is quite an niuption ot Masons into Wellington tins week and at the piesent moment \ou cannot throw a bnek in Lambton Qua\ without hitting one ot them. We don't mean the vaiiet\ ot mason who clips awaj at sepulchral stone with maul and chisel but the other testive species, who is gorgeous in regale, gives you a knowing grip with the hand, sticks lia-lf the le+teis ot the alphabet after his name, and wears the compass and square on his watch-chain. The> are a jolly lot of follows, these worthy brethren of the mystic tie. The milk of human kindness has not cuidled with them, and, to judge by the samples now in Wellington they hare all learnt the art of getting on in tliie world. They have been pouring into the Empire City from all poirate of the compass during the last few clays, and one worthy brother assuies us there must be several hunch eds of visiting craftsmen now 'within the gates." Ot course, e\er\one b\ this time, knows tihe occasion of the gathering K\er\ two yeais the Grand Lodge of New Zealand meets at one or other of the large centre** of the colony — taking them each in clue turn — to mstal its officers and this is Wellington's turn. And being Wellington's turn it is also Wellington's pnde and pierogative to furnish the Grand Master. • • * Mi. Herbert J. Williams who has just been elevated to that coveted position is, perhaps, one ot Wellington's best - known men. He has a good many irons in the fiie and none of them seem to clash. When he landed at Port Nicholson in 18b9, their v, asn't any Brewers' Association noi ,u-,v Lioor.sed Victuallers' Association to be secretary of, and Masonry was in its mf anc\ . He is now secretai\ of both the above Associations, and has filled neaxlv every office in Masonry, so that he has rullv earned his present dii'iitv of Most Worshipful Grand Master of New Zealand. His own lodge, by the wav, is the Pacific No. 2 It would take a couple of pages of the Lance to set out the positions this, broad - shouldeied, good - humoured, spike-moustached gentleman has held in Masonry, but good and true brethien w ill probably get a detailed list of them m the 'Craftsman" very soon. * * * Bv the wav Mr. Williams is editoi ot that paper, and he does other journalistic work on commercial subjects If you want to know anything about fnendlv societies go to H. J H He has a, cyclopaedia in the ''book and volume of his brain." He is also an Oddfel low under the American Constitution, and he is going aw ay very soon as a delegate to the Triennial Parliament, to be held in Adelaide. He is the New Zealand head of the organisation Mr Williams has been a Wellington city councillor, and he has not been a member of Parliament. He had a narrow escape, however. He doesn't look any the worse for it. He has wielded a sword as well as a pen, and he has been on man? a bloodless field urging his troops to victory with blank cartridge. Away back he held a commission in the Thorndon Rifles, and rose to the rank of captain When Captain Williams went on the retired list, the Wellington Rifles sent him a requisition asking him to take their company. He, therefore held a captaincy in that corps, and any honours emblazoned on their colours he shares.

Foi thf next two \eais the lieaclquaiteis ot tlie New Zealand Giand Lodge will be m Wellington, and aftoi that it will be Dunechn's turn And as tJie Grand Secic tan mo\ es around with this peripatetic Giand Lodge, Mi . Malcolm Niccol is booked toi *"w o years at least a& a Wellingtonian All his life lutheito he has been an Aucklandei and he has pla\cd a prctt\ promment pait m civic life theie. In the first olace, he has been thiough even possible degree of Masoui\. In the next place he has been identified with the Auckland Harboui Boaid for the past ciuarter of a centun and has been chamnan of it thiough full\ half-a-dozen terms In the thud place ho helped to build up the thm ing marino subuib of De\ouport, and, ais its raa\ 01 , he pio\ed himself one of the b<«-t * * * Mr Xiccol lias also applied to politics and at the last geneial election he wa.s within an ace of being letumcd He contested the Kden seat agaanst + he buih Mi Bollard and was onl\ beaten b\ one vott in a well-fought fight Mr Xiccol is a fluent, persuasive speaker, owns, the sunniest at tempeis, and has ne\ ci been known to take part, in a scene If you don't know him bv sight lookout foi a spiuce, well-gioom-ed well-set-up figme on Lambton Qua\ stepping along quite gaily oh, with a spimg in his gait as if he woie one of those pneumatic soles, and a chastened smile upon his lips,, and a genial How aae you" look peeping out of lus dancing eves, and you may make up your mind you are face to face with Malcolm Niccol In addition to his othei virtue Malcolm pla-\s bowls * * * Quite a, gay little part> of Grand Lodge officeis and biethien came down from Auckland on Tuesday night. Theie w af, the retiring Grand Master, Mi A. S Russell, who is local manager of the South British Insurance up in Auckland, plays bowls foi Ponsonby, and is held in such general estimation In c\enbod\ that if there was a vote taken for the most popular citizen he would be almost sure to carry it oft. \nd there was also Giand Superintendent Murdoch McLean, who, in conjunction with Brother Neil, of that ilk has put un a good many wharves in Wellington, and carried out its big drainage scheme to a successful completion Amongst the others there were Alt Bartlett president of the Board ot Geneial Puipose*. who is a leading watchmakei and keeps the tow n clocks in order Dr. Walker a well-known medico who is an authority on school committee matteis G Powley who manufactures shirts for one-halt the eon-.iunm and H. Wethenlt, who needs no guide to find his way about Wellington * * • The, licensed victuallers don't do much tiumpet blowing when they as' 3 ?mble in solemn conclave, and their annual meetmo- in Wellington last week wa., rot blazoned abroad much. This young meeting of the New Zealand Licensed Victuallers' Association is interesting to WeUingtonians, principally because that old and inspected Wellington identity Mr. E W.lson. <_f the Post Office Hotel was elected president Away back in the early forties, \ ounp- 'Teddy' w\s a small boy whose education wa\ neglected to allow of his cvinnif? his living away down m the Cumberland coal mines. Delightful laws in the forties' When Teddy got big enough to overlook a mantelpiece without standing on tiptoe, he nit out foi fresh coalfields, or an-hmg else fre«h ultimately drifting to Caribou, British Columbia. * ♦ ♦ You might keep young Wilson under around but he was bound to rise to the surface and we find the grimy little pit-boy in time large enough for mine manager. In Yar.couvei , he occupied that position, and wherever there wa* a ball to be kicked, or one to be danced,

theie was Ted," footing it with tli. • best or tliera. He goldmmed with varying success at Caribou, and saw much ot the lough and tumble of diggei life. When he had dona with Caribou , he ] L ;st set out for Cumberland, and he took his colonial experience Home with him Colonial experience i<& not a bar! thing to have about you, and a big enginccung film m Cumbeiland reached out and captured the Brrhsh Columbian. ♦ ■» ♦ The president of the licensed victuallers can still handle himself pretty capably, but m the year 1875, when Ke bewail making inquiries about a cannibal island "down under " called New Zealand, where you had to be mighty oaioful of bomng-mud holes in the truni streets 1 of the capital, he was well able to keep his end up, and the other follow s down If you had happened to bo aboaid the "Nelson," in the year mentioned, you would have found the young engineer, coal miner and golddiggci bumping his fellow passengers around the deck in Cumberland fashion, getting up sports, and generally conducting himself as if he were a young blood with lots of vim and energy. Wonder if Mr. Wilson got that Scotch accent vx Dunedin ? * ♦ * He landed at Port Chalmers, anyhow, humped his bluey" up to Conyers and Davisons engineering works, and started in to help build the first locomotive enerme made wholly in New Zealand. Next, the New Zealand Railway Department gave him a job. and he worked there until the Atkinson Government, iii its wisdom, or whatever you like to call it, docked the wages ten per cent That ungrateful wrestler from Cumberland then agitated for his mates, and he packed his tool chest ml "got " The engine driver, etc , shunted on to another line. ♦ * * Cunouslv Mr. Wilson, up to this time, had never touched, tasted, nor handled intoxicants Perhaps, this is why he went in for hotel-keeping? Wain's Hotel, Dunedin, had his name above the door, at any rate, and he dispensed "spirituous and fermented liquors" as per sign. His father was a rigid protectionist, and, even to this clay Mr Wilson himself sticks to " ponies " not half a hand higher. In other words, he ib strictly abstemious In 1891, he entered into the Post Office Hotel, and the life of Wellington, and if you want to know anything about manly sports of any kind perhaps his mental cvclopsedia will supply particulars. » * • His eye lights up at the sight of a boxing glove, and he knows a "lepper." human or equine. Also, he knows .he wav to indulge a wind, if you want lo get a big sr>urt out of a yacht. He 's> a member of the Wellington Racing Club, Port. Nicholson Yachting Club, anld goodness only knows what besides ai dog fancier, a Mason, and not a bad old sort to have as a friend. He fears (with a slight oscillation of an eyebrow) that the lady lecturers new talking to New Zealand will prevent everybody from taking a. "modest quencher," oyt (w r ith a more pronounced oscillation) ] c will do his best to decently cope with the prevailing thirst in moderation * * • Mr J. P. Willis, the man who wll convince you in five minutes that a New Century typewriter is the machine you have been looking for all your life, stopped for five seconds one recent day, and a Lance man seized the psychological moment. It was understood that he had a tale to tell. As he had to rush off to about fifteen towns to plant New Centuries, he had very little time for more than about three columns or so. The first mental photograph of the steam-engine like little man is taken, on the banks of the Paramatta River, New South Wales He> has a fishing line with a frog dangling thereto, and he is trying to catch flatheads.

Throughout after life, when he was not soiling typeiwriters, he was catching fish Mr. Willis, before he started out to tell people m New Zealand that fere pen had gone out m place of the typew nter, was secretary of the Amateur Fishei men's Association of Sydney. This does not mean that he kept the books for a few gentlemen who, with a pocketful of worms and a ball of string, went looking for sprats. The Association has extensive premises m Pittstreet, the members number 600, and the rooms are for the purpose of foregathering and seeing who can tell! 4 he steepest piscatorial narrative. * * • V/hcn Mr. Willis travelled the drought-stricken interior of Australia, he dad not take his fishing lines, hut- he took Ins yarns. In the wild west, whsn a "bncknelder" was darkening the sun, and the boarders had to shave with hot beer, several travellers were once gathered together. Our typewriting fisherman was there. Could he tell them a yarn? Yes. He was fishing off "The Rocks," near North Head, Sydney, and he was losing a '"sinker" even' ten minutes among the rocks. Having no more sinkers, he fell back on blue metal, and heaved his line into the Beautiful Harbour He had no bait, but that is merely a circumstance. ''And. will you believe me," he says, I caught a seventy-nine pound groper. ' "Swallowed the bare hook?" queried the travellers. "No, the blue metal." * • • One of those travellers was a newspaper man, and all the fishing journals got hold of the yarn, and published it as a plaan statement of fact. Now, if you ask Mr. Willis "What's the price of blue metal ?' he looks woirried at having told that acknowledged "euffer." He does not confine himself to telling fish stories ; he has the temerity to write them, and the t'otherside papers seem glad to get them. Naturally, *ie likes New Zealand, for it has swallowed New Centuries wholesale. » ♦ » He originally intended to stay in these delectable isles for six months. but the Sydney - side fishermen will have to put up with Mr. Chasi. Thackeray, upon whose shoulders tho schnaipper hunter's mantle fell. "Fact is," says Mr. Willis, "New Zealand is a ripping country for biz., the people are tip-toppers, and I am sroing to stay." He is talking of starting an Amateur Fishermens' Association when he gets five minutes to spare, but ambitious 1 fishermen who want has help will have to leg-rope him if they want tiim to stop in one place long enough to give them points of procedure. * • • Sergeant Kenneth Gordon Malcolm, whose counterfeit presentment appears elsewhere, was in the Wellington volunteers several years ago. He joined Ihe Canterbury section of the Seventh Contangent, aiid was made sergeant before the Seventh, left Wellington. He was amongst the wounded in that desperate . fight at Bothasberg in February last, but is now on the fair way to recovery. Sergeant Maloolm is tho fourth son of the Hate Mr. Neil Malcolm, barrister, of the Inner Temple, and two of his brothers are also- out with him in South Africa, fighting for the flag. The young Malcolms seems to take to the profession of arms as naturally as the duckling takes to the nearest pond. It is evidently an inherited trait. Their grandfather on the distaff side was Captain Wilton, of the Grenadier Guards who fought under Sir John Moore at Corunna. * • • Mr. Lowry B. Archibald, who, for the past six years has been an officer of the Railway Stores Department (managers office), has been transferred to the branch at Addington, and left For Christchurch last Saturday. Before his departure he was presented by his late fellow-officers with a handsome travelling bag, suitably engraved.

The Goxeinor la.st week land the toiuiclation stone ot a new St. Matthew s church in Auckland, which is to co,t 130,000. Moie than that, all the money is aJioach in liand. The eail> membois of that chinch seem to haw looked a long wa\ be\ond then nos<'s In the fai-dib-tant >ears the ladies, btaited the nucleus of the fund by mea.ns ot sewing boes, and, instead of adopting the usual piacticc" of building first and finding the money afterwaids, the. St Matthew's people went on la\ ing com to com, and steadih accumulating thiougli .-11 these worry * * * Tt is baid that in tho<-<> wil\ da,\stho Hon A J. ('adman— who, b\ tin- \uv, is mst about to leturn to tlie vllft (oimtiv to piosecuto that big 11011saad cntoi-pnsc- used a.s a bo\ to ting St Matthew's bell for Sunda\ aaul wwk-d~v sn-Mces, and that the lio-ioi-anum for his labouis was the magmnfont '•urn or o.ie shilling a w eok ,\ou so« there was. no Arbitiation Couit in those days to fix a minimum wage Mi ('adman's fathe) Mi Jeiome Cadman was at that time a ohurehwaide.i ot St Matthew \ And therein hang<annthei tale. ♦ * * It was the custom in the Anglica-n chinches*, and may be still foi the thurchwaidens to take the offortoiv into tlie \esti\. empt\ it on the table count it in the presence of the cleisr\man and enter the sum in a book, which entr\ was initialled bv fie clergyman One day Bishop Selwyn (the first bisliop of New Zealand) was preaching at St Matthew's. Mi Jeiome Cadm.in bi ought in the ofFerton- placed it on the table a,nd pioce<"led to transfei Hie coins to Ins pocket » * * Bishop Sehwn saad tlie usual couise must be followed Mr Cadman lcplie'l that his u.suail coui-e was to count the money ciuieth at home. Then they piocot'de'd to a-rgne the mattei out Both the ba.sh.op and Mr. Cadman weie mem who disliked \erx much having to give \uv At last the bishop rose, locked one of the doors of the estn , put the kciv m his pocket, and stood with Ins back to the other, which had no ke^ . In. the ciicumstqnces Mr ('adman was compelled to capitulate and he sat down patiently and counted the 'SinaJl sihei The Bishop had his Mr Joigensen otwhom a good deal has been heaid in connection with the contest for the ma\oraltv of Melro<-e is a young man with a past«.about twen-ty-nine long. He has tned to profit as much as possible by the limited experience, and lie is not a bad examp.e of the strenuous young colonial who is hkelv to beat dow n opposition m cho w-av towards a descried goal Bom • i Wellington, before some of his brothers and aftei others, he tasted his first •suppleiack at New town School and when he knew enough to teach the schoolmaster, he went looking for trouble. # , At least, he went in for law which is the same tiling. Seems he is built for public position, for was he not twice elected to the Kilbnnie School Committee., twice on the Melrose Scenery' Preservation Society, and twice —wo mid with a hushed rjeu— a councillor for the borough of Melrose ' As secretary and treasurei or the Kdbirnie C ticket Club he 'flannelfooled" a bit and he heard the guns shoot a lot during a six years' membeisliip of the T> Battery. Latterly he wore three stupes in that arm of Uie sea vice * * * Ho is not much of a rolling s+one for ho has b?em A\ith one legal firm foi fourteen ver.rs, a.r.d he knows more of com-

nion law than se\eral Js P wo know He lias lived m Kilbirme toi twentythiee \cmis, and he says lie is beginning to pet used to the locality now His bioAieis h\e theio too when the\ an not wOl king. One is acting Messib Tui.ibuM and Co. to pile up wealth, a.iotlioi conhres his luminous efforts to borne bianch of the making of pas at the local works, one is 1 along m las ,sh..ie of shekels at the Hutt, and ,\uothei does not wander much hut km th« i Kilbirme It is on lecord that Albert Joigcnson has a more vaiied . \ oeabulaiv, a.id a better kno\ ledge of Us use. thai the aveiage Mehose councillor It certainly must be useful to lune an mteipietei around sometimes » • • ?Ji R Keene, a-iothei M.-'iose ina>01 al candidate and one who has ;i«ul so\er,.J woids to sa,\ about the pioposod tramway extension to Island Ba-\ , is a sample of that kind of citizen nho will get on if there is the loast httlf opening. Piobablv, Mi Keeno came f lom Kent or somewhere in that direction although he is not much gone on hops" except in their raw state Seventeen \ears ago the man who now pays. like £.100 in lates, a Wellington, oi theieabouts. was that mucih \oungei and a gardenei fiom Home, looking for fiesh helds to dig He saw theie was money to be made ii Wellington, and he laid down the el and the hoe," and took up the chisel and the plane. * * * Staitmg with the usual half-crown, ci less he lrwide se\eial otheis, and ,ie doos not count his banking account xm in silvei now When \ou see Mr. Keem' coming towards you with a sad expression on bis face, and Ins hands folded, he has- got a pioperty up h;s sleeve. If you don't run away, hell sell it to aou prowded you have cash Natuially lie is only m the Melro-e Borough Council for tlie good he can do to his fellow -man, and his cieat giasp of the Municipal Coiporations Act md tlw 1 Mehose amendmentis theieto, aie tlioi\ not wntten in the lecoids of 'ho boi ough ? * * * He is as tenacious as a Bathuist bun, aad he hais a diphi one in his speech Dopend upon it, if he' wants* a tiamway hne to go a certain w a,v he will woik niajlit and day to de\iate it As he points out. he'is Mtallv interested in nnpiovements What improves his own property as a latepaver impro\ es othei peoiile's property a,s rate-paveis His plaitfonn t.horeifore, seem.s to be a kiml selfishness. The wto help one s neighbour is to make mone\ Havino made it, spend it in house propeit\ You thwbv inorea.se the saleable vaiue of neighbor's, and mju will hustle all you know to keep the wolf fiom -\our own dooi and the other dooi lin a our Mpimtv A modem cieed and not a bad one.

Mr. Hoi aw Bastings, who piesnled owl the deliberations of the aainual licensed wctualleis' meeting, is an a'liouikl man. It takes a tolerably xparsne waistcoat to go all round him, Imt the theei.} clapper, little man from Imeacaigill won't mind our being mdc toi once. Hoi ace, before lie went to tho higid South, was in the same line of business in the more or less torrid North. When tihe Upper Thames inimng boom was, the delight of "senppeis," publicans, and sinneis Mr. Bastings inhabited a long, low, dingy building in Paeroa, that was bv couites/ called the C'nterion Hotel. Not foi long, howe\ei. Soon, one of the most palatial of New Zeiland hotels spiang out of the mud clow hand y, and everybody, particulaih mining experts — geneially gentlemen who were expeit* in spending we-aJth after it was gained, filled the Cn" from floor to ceiling Horace's name fre(|Uenth occuis in the Hauraki mining ie.giyter and he had bits of special claims all o\er the Peninsula. Horaco w ais good to> the Paea-oa volunteeas He would e\en give money to people in want without publishing it, and lv^ heart grew biggei as his waistcoat expanded It is an unfortunate truth, fiom a cold-water point of view, that public niiS aie not greatei sinners than other brands of business men. Frc(juenth tliev have hearts as big ?.>» pumpkins. Hoi ace's pumpkin is a pi l/c vegetable. It is located at Invercaigill just now. Cher ni Austiaha, Mr. Barton is packing his carpet-bag, and getting h.s hair out m, order to catch the next boat for the coronation. And this 19 the st-vle in which the Sydney Ncwv lett.-." Ta-ta" to him — With eighteen hundred golden quids To pay Ins little bills, We're sending Barton oversea So he can put on frills, And repiesent Australia in The best wav he know s how . With aJI that boodle sureh he Won't stiike his 'uncle" now. HeY quite the dandy figurehead, We all of us well know \nd at drinking wine and eating Dick Seddon's got no show , But he's reckless with his dollais, And when we wake at dawn We 11 breathe a little prayer that He will keep out of pawn. «■ * ♦ Thc\ were in a reminiscent mood at tin- opening of the new Roman Catholic Chinch at Waaln on Sunday week, when the Rialit Re\ Monsignor O'Reilly related this incident. When he took c-haige of the Coromandel paaish he was Mimmcmod 111 haste to baptise a newlyboin infant who was not expected "o h\e That infant was now the Very "R( . Father Brodie, the present popu1 \r parish priest of Waihi

Mi. Andrew Collins, who was denouncing the greed of employers in Auckland last week, says the 'Observer," is not at all greedy himself so far as emolument from the public service is. concerned. He has a daughter in the Post Office, besides two sons in the civil service, while he occupies a seat on 4 he Conciliation Board. He can afford to pose as the champion of the oppiessed working classes, and denounce the gieed of employois.