All Sorts of People

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 123, 8 November 1902, Page 3

All Sorts of People

COLONEL Porter, C.8., who brought his Coronation Contingent home again the other day, „„■ marked to us that there was a "little of him still left." The gallant officer is enthusiastic over the trip of the stalwarts, and the stalwarts themselves are more enthusiastic than the Colonel. Colonel Porter has been m the Government service for forty years, and has been a staff officer since 1869. He was attached to the 10th Regiment of foot m the Maori Wax, and wears the decoration for the campaign. This medal, together with the South African with its clasps, long and distinguished service, the Coronation, and C.B. decoration, make a brave show on the 46in. chest situated nearly six feet from the ground, with a good piece of the gallant officer topping it • ♦ • The troopers of the Coronation Contingent have practically had the freedom of the British Isles for several months. The aristocracy have hero-wor-shipped them, and there is not one of the men who would not give you a bad tune if you shouted "Down with the nobility'" The frightfully select and aristocratic Ist life Guards spent £2000 on a single entertainment to the colonials and hob-nobbed with them in brotherly fashion, which is refreshing when one remembers the imputations of snobbishness oftentimes oast at the "service " People at Home are surprised at the ' ease" of the colonials. * * * For instance, Colonel Porter tells a tale about the Duke of Aroryll, Governor of Windsor Castle He personally conducted our warriors through the histouc place, and chatted with the greatest affability and without anv condescencion at all. Many of the men took notes. The Duke, having explained a priceless picture for one trooper passed into another room The soldier rushed after him, and dragged him back. "Here I say. old man," he said, 'what did vou sa,v about this picture P" and the oreat man mildlv repeated it all over again. Then, the Duke took them into St. George's Chapel "Here," he explained, "members of the Roval lamily are married. "I was married heie "Oh vou are married are you -uciied a trooper "But I say what have vou o-ot to do with the Ro\al Farnih His Grace did not explain « * * Then, the Loul of Inverarv showed them ' the armour arrav, being suits of old Crusader times. The Duke explained that the armour was of great antiquitv , many hundreds of yeais old in fact. One of the Contingent incredulously examined a suit of untarnished brilliance "Look here, old man what are vou "ivinsr us ; tell that varn to the Yankees We're colonials, vou know " All these stories His Grace retailed to Km? Dick when the lf>+tei visited him to Inverary. At Alexandra Palace ladies of hash rank would visit the troops, sit on the bunks in the tents and chat awav about New Zealand Princess Christian, according to one of the men was "nist like a sister to a fellow" What seemed to astonish the noblewho took a dolitrht in entertaining w a«. the wonderful historical knowledge nossessedbv the colonials. On more thin one occasion a noble lord stood correction in good grace The troops went

to Welbeok Abbey, the seat of the Duke of Portland, husband of the most beautiful society woman in Britain. Welbeok has a training track underground, w here horses are got. "fit" in absolute seorecv, away from touts" and "soielers." The Duke owns Carbine, the great New Zealand chestnut and gave each man a picture of the celebrated horse. * * * Colonel Porter is particularly struck with the appearance and manner of His Majesty the King. He says that the King has a complexion as clear as a. child. His face is absolutely unwrinkled, and he has. the kindest expression possible. Colonel Porter treasures the words of the monarch. Calling him from a crowd of distincmished persons, King Edward shook hands. ''I am glad to see you, Colonel." The colonials saw rooms in royal palaces hitherto sacred from the eyes of the highest m the land. Two of the men horrified the attendants by sitting in the Quern's private throne at Windsor. Of course, they were reprimanded. Every one of these soldiers, whatever he was before, is now an ardent imperialist, and an admirer of the lilies of the aristocracy, who toil not, neither do they spin. The Hon. T. W. Hislop, candidate for the Newtown seat in the House of Representatives, quietly talked to fifty electors for an hour and a-half at Kilbirnie on Friday night, as if he were reading from a book The candidate, who handles his subject in a lawyer-like way, uses no "fireworws." he never raises his voice, he is absolutely unflurried at any tame, and he is a frightful disappointment to people who like a lively meeting. Mr. Hislop's favourite phrase is ''from time to time " and in that speech he used it sixtv-seven times. He is trying chiefly to show that liberal laws do not emanate from so-called Liberal Government, and that all the pre-sent-day reforms are practically copied from Tory Governments He spoke of the Tom Dunraven Commission., which recommended measures more liberal than any of New Zealand's laws and he rather thought the Atkinson Government was the finest thine of its kind that ever broke loose The surplus of 1890 was real, and it was €300,000. All other surpluses are not quite the real things they pretend to be. Mr. Hislop believes that the people should know more of w hat occurs in Parliament, that members should be taken more into the confidence of the Government, and that reports which are now withheld should be easily obtainable The present Government lias a tendency to imagine that it is the instead of the servant ot the people Those hftv "horny-handed" electois applauded tins sentiment. Why. pooduess only knows, for a Go\ eminent will do anything the people want, or will ha\e to 'tiek." Nothing is surer than that A person in the audience arose later and said that Mr Hislop had dia,wn a lease for lum some vears aeo and the lease was falsified " He was labouring under strong excitement and nobod\ took him senoush He made several small tlueats and Mi. Hislop m his quiet wa\ arose to explain ♦ * * The complainant, who had brought private matteis into a political meeting, had sued his father under the "Statute of Frauds." The complainant interjected 'He was not mv father " ' You represented him. to me to be voui father It is a wise child who knows his own father." said the ummpassioned Hislop, and the man with the grievance was beaten The whole matter was thrashed out in court veal's ago, and the interrupter is probablv one of those harassing persons who cannot forget or forgive an imaginary wrong.

The Lance congratulates both the British War Office and Major Bartlett upon the decoration of the latter with the Distinguished Service Order. Of all our officers who went, to South Africa, Major Bartlett, of the Hawera Muonted Rifles, was one of the most unassuming and one of the most zealous. With the captain of his mounted rifle corps (now Colonel Davies), and. quite a host of the same company — tihe Hawera Mounted Rifles contributed the biggest of company quotas — he volunteered for service with the First Contingent, and went to Africa as a subaltern. At the front, during the campaign in amd around Colesberg, he proved himself a self-reliant and capable officer, a fine tvne of the ever-read v, resourceful, independent colonial, who won the esteem of the red-tape British officer. * A * He came back from the war with a captaincy, and went out again under Colonel Davies, with his majority, in command of the North Island Regiment of the Eighth Contingent. The Maior was a great favourite with all his men and officers. He has presided over both the annual re-unions v/hich. the New Zealand First Continent Association has held in Wellington on Trafalgar Day. Major Bartlec leaves for South Africa this month, with his family, to give the country five years' trial. If that trial does not turn out successful, then he has promised to return to New Zealand. ■» ♦ * Old friends of "Joe" Calnan, champion oarsman of the Wellington Rowing Club, and a representative footballer, were astonished to see him walking down Lambton Quay once more this week. "Hello, Joe 1 " is the salutation. 'Thought you were in London, doing the Thames and its pullers!" Joe smiles. "When did you come back?" asks the persistent querist. "Came back with Kins; Richard's escort — the Coronation Contingent," is the re" 1 ". For Joseph h-'d gone to the front with one of our Contingents, with the rank of sergeant. He reinorts to his Wellington friends now — when asked about the report that he had decided to become a professional oarsman with Tom Sullivan - — that rowing matters are dead on the Thames. Towns the Australian, had been going round with his mouth wide open looking for someone to row a match with him, and it was "no go." "So what hope had I?" said the modest Joseph. "Towns has come away, and it was the best thin? for me to get away— and here I am '" • • ♦ The passing away of Mr. "Fred." Hill, last week, came as a surprise to many of our old identities, who knew "Fred" from the days of the arrival of the First Ships. He came out when a boy, with his parents — he was onr" fifty-nine when he died — and lived in Wellington for over forty-five years He was in business in Willis-street with his brother for manv years, and then established the buck and tile making works "which are now being run by Messrs. Peter Hutson and Co., to whom the works were leased some years ago, when Mr. Hill decided to retire from active business life. Mr. and Mrs. Hill who were old adherents of the Primitive Methodist Church, had a \aiee family — a round dozen of sons and daughters — who with the widow, are left to mourn a faithful husband and an dffpctionate father. r * -r A trio of prominent Welhngtonians created a great deal of interest at the Carterton Show last week. Miss Babington, sister of the Commandant of our Forces, was the observed of many observers, as she snaoshotted some of the ring events. On the second day she was one of the competitors in the riding contests. On the first day. the Hon. Hill-Trevor A.D.C. to the Governor and Captain Campbell, A.D.C. to Major-General Babington, were competi-

tors in the jumping events. Both gentlemen proved themselves to be good riders, and Mr. Hill-Trevor rode into second place on Lady Constance Knox's horse. Captain Campbell also was in the driving contest on the second day, and got a place. The two aides have been enjoying some fishing in the Wairarapa rivers. • • • If Dame Rumour were a truthful gossip, polities in Wellington for the next two weeks would become extremely lively. We were told that the Govenunemit "ticket" for Wellington would consist of Messrs. T. K. Macdonald, Charles Skerrett, Charles Izard, and Dr. Finidlay. This was one too many, but "T. K. Mao" said ho was nat '"having a try." Folks thought, then, that tihe bar was going strong with, its trio of candidates : nevertheless, disappointment ensued when Mr. Skerrett announced that he was not a starter. Had Mr. Skerrett stood, he would have made a great fight of it. The young Wellingtonian — who has "arrived" early (as. the French have it) at a successful point in his career — is a virile speaker, and would "scatter his enemies" like chaff before the political wind. * * « Still, Councillor Izard is left. He has not declared Dame Rumour to be a lying jade, and, if he mounts tlhe platform, then we will have a good time. There are great possibilities in Councillor Izard, and the political platform may brine him out as he ha® never previously been brought out. At tlhe meetings of the City Council he_ is the "man of surprises," and, as an interjector — when other councillors are airing their eloquence — he is the champion of the long table. Even in politics he has created two surprises--— first, in coming out; second, in cominp" out as a Government supporter. Most folks have the impression! that Mr. Izard is "a rank Conservative," but when he speaks they will hear something edifying. Rev. A. F. Smith, a New Plymouth clergyman, is not a follower of Bishop Julius. In common phraseology, he "went bald-headed" for the muscular parson on the subject of Sunday cricket and such like. The lesser clerical light said that the Bishop had wriggled out of the position, and so on. Closely following what the spiritual peer of Christohurch has said on the subject of Sunday games, we are constrained to observe that wriggling is not in the Bishop's line, unless he does the wriggling with a hairpin when a look refuses to be picked by other means. One thing is certain, the Bishop will have more converts to his gospel of healthy Sunday recreation than the Rev. A. F. Smith will have to the orthodox and effete kind. # * * Mr. L. Blood, of Christchurch, claims to have broken the world's walking record. This is eight miles and a vardin one hour. This is equal to "furious driving," and is as likely to be a "walk" as the pace of a Corporation car is likely to be a "gallop." * * ♦ Nurse Hay, one of the plucky New Zealand ladies who volunteered for the war, is no longer Nurse Hay. She recently married Mr. R. D. McKenzie, a wealthy South African pastoralist, and is now "doing" an extensive honeymoon tour, which will include Australia and New Zealand. Lots of ladies lost nothing by volunteering to nurse the sick in Africa. Nurse Hay, if we remember rightly, was in the early part of tii? war, stationed at Pretoria, and she got an urgent helio message to entrain for Nooigedaoht, where some wounded and sick New Zealanders were in hospital. The nurse went at once, and the first patient she attended was her own brother, Sergeant Hay, of the Second Contingent! There are some times in. the life of a man when a sister is not a bad institution.

Mr. Thos. W. Witt— Willie" Witt among his intimates — manages with excellent judgment the fancy goods department of Messrs. Sargood and Co.'s large establishment. But, "Willie" will frankly tell you that the finest lot of fancy goods he e\er had in his hands were labelled "Miramax." And the excellence of hisi judgment is attested by the fact that he wag wide-awake to their quality when most other people were sound asleep on that subject. He it was who formed the first Miramax syndicaits which bought 525 acres of thait fine estate in March last. Mr. Witt picked it up when it fell from the Corporation's hands Fred. Townsend, Alex. Veitoh Wm Allan, Chris. Smith Harrv Price, Alf. Lindsay. BalcombeBrown, Dalziell. J. B Fmdlay, Wm. Crichton, J. A Pyke, Fred Haybittle, were some of the wide-awake men who stood im along with him. But, Willie was chief engineer of the venture. How well it panned out everybody knows. Bought in March for £26,000, it was sold again in October at £78,000. At least that is what Mr. R. Ohase Morris agrees to give for it if his big tontine comes off. * * ♦ Just after "No. 1" had floated, the Evans Bay and Miramar Company — otherwise "No. 2" — was started (the syndicate which realised its £19,673 the other day), and "Willie" Witt became one of its earliest shareholders, and also assisted in its flotation. It also was a solid concern — more go-ahead, if anything, than the earlier prospectors. W. H. P. Brjrbor was at the head of affairs, and his fellow-directors were Dr. Chappie, Messrs. J. Godber, J. Lookie, T. Bush, M. T. MoGrath, and W. Morley (Briscoe and Co.) Mr. Alex. Grav was tihe solicitor who acted for tihem in effecting the agreement to purchase 192 acres, at £iOO an acre, of •which; they at once sold ten acres at £300 an acre — on immediate profit of £2000. Mr. Thomas Ward was the surveyor who sub-divided the land for sale, and grass did not grow under his feet, seeing that the company bought on May 22nd or 23rd, and sold sixty acres by public auction on October 30th. They have realised all their purchase money, and have 122 acres left • #• * Mr. Witt's confidence did not stop at becoming a sKireholder of Nos. 1 and 2. Just r>rior to the recent auction sale he bought up sone more interests in No. 2, at decent premiums, and at the auction ho bought some nice sections, and paid good prices for them. If you have doubts about the future of Miramar, just have a talk with "Willie" Witt, and if he has time to listen to you he will sho<wyou the other side of the picture. He has scored every time, and Sluck and confidence won the tricks for im. Shouldn't wonder one bit if they insist on making him first mayor of Miraznar. It is a safe tip, at any rate, that he will have a choice villa residence out there. * * • The third Miramar syndicate is not, perhaps, quite so well known, because it has come more recently into the field. But, it will make itself known all right. It is called the Watts Peninsula Land Company, and holds the eighty-four-aore block extending from the Evans Bay flat (near the old racecourse) over tihe hills to the Crawford dairy. It also takes in the Crawford homestead. Mr. Herbert W. Shortt, the sharp, wideawake young man, who conducts the property sales department of the goahead firm of W. F. Shortt and Sons, had a large hand in the formation of tihe Watts PeninsiJa Company • ♦ » Messrs. Moorhouse and Hadfield are the solicitors who conducted the negotiations to a successful

close, and the directors who aie navigating the venture are Messis. Frank Wills — everybody who is anybody knows Frank — David Robertson (Phoenix Foundry), W. J. Gaudm (produce merchant, Cuba-street), Norrie Bell (watchmaker, and also crack bowler), and J. W. Bridge (the wellknown dentist), Archie Wilson (who won that big lawsuit against Chemist Fitzgerald tihe other day), and "janial" Dr. Mackin. Just after it had closed its bargain with Messrs. A. and C. Crawford, these Watts Peninsula Company's shares took a sudden bound upward. The company bought only a fortnight ago, and already the shares are at a considerable premium. * * * Mr. A. R. Barclay lets some light into the modus operand! of canvassers for candidates. He says, in a letter to the press, "What happens is this The canvasser calls, and begins discussing the election. Soon my name oro^s ut> and the visitor exolaims, in horror What ' Vote for Barclay ' Why, he's an awful villain ! He's too wicked to live ' Whatever you do. don't vote for hm.' Of course, that settles me. * • » Then, comes Mr. Arnold, and the canvasser this time displays disgust, and he says What' Vote for Arnold' Why, he's a plaster saint! He ought to have a halo. He's too good to live! Whatever you do, don't vote for him '' And so, of course, poor Mr. Arnold is killed too. I nresume Messrs. Bedford and Chisholm are represented, like somebody's whisky — I forget exactly whose> — 'as a judicious blend suitable to all palates." Then, of course, Mr. Barclay warns the other candidate tihat a special clause was inserted in tlhe Electoral Act last session providing a warm time for people who misrepresented candidates. You remember ho<w Mr. Barclay was misrepresented during the war? ♦ # * Mr. John O'Donnell, the Irish member, who created a scene in the House of Commons recently, made Mr. Balfour uncomfortable, and was suspended, is well-known in Auckland. He held the position of boots at the Waverley Hotel until times changed, when he drifted Home, and into politics. He is said to be a most fascinating person, and a fiery one "to boot." • • • The return of Dr. Findlay to town has been looked forward to with much more than the usual amount of interest which

a lawyer receives after a visit to the Privy Council. The present special interest in the home-coming of Dr. Findlay is due to the rumour that the Government Party want him as a candidate for a Wellington seat. When the Doctor left for England, same six or eight months ago, it was freely stated that he would "come out for Wellington" on his return. He landed in, Auckland by the San Francisco mail-boat last Monday, and a telegraphic query was waiting for him — "Will you stand for Wellington P" It is a remarkable thing that so much interest should have been attached to Mr. G. Wilson and Dr Findlay upon their return. Mr. Wilson was not asked to accept nomination, but, without his consent, Mayor Aitken could not have stood. * • « Dr. Fimdla-" is as \\ ell-known in Dunedin as in Wellington, for he was in proctice down there before he settled in Wellington. He was for a number of years a partner of the Chief Justice , before Sir Robert Stout accepted that position. The smiling Doctor, who is as courteous a, member of the ''Devil's 'Own" as ever donned wig and gown, is now head of the Dunedin- Wellington firm founded by Sir Robert. Dr. Findlay has had great experience as a pleader at the bar, and he is a ready speaker. As a writer, however, he is still more clever, having a keen wit and a biting satire. * * • General satisfaction is felt with the decision of the Appeal Court, to uphold the conviction of Mrs. Drake in that cause celebre, the Otaki manslaughter case. It was noticeable from, the bginning of the hearing of the appeal last Monday that the full bench was not in sympathy with Mr. Skerrett's contention that the evidence given by Mrs. Jenkins (sister of Mr. Drake) and haJf-a-dozen other witnesses was inadmiss u lble because they showed that Mrs. Drake had been systematic in her punishment of the child Dorothy. Mr. Skerrett was heavily handicapped in his argument by the cross-fire of interruptions aimed at him bv the whole of the five iudges, but he stuck to his contention, and fought gamely for hie client throughout. The whole sitting upon the appeal only occupied about two and a-half hours. * ♦ • From the very beginning of the case, Judge Denniston plied counsel for the convicted woman with suggestions suppositions, and puzzling queries. Jud^e Edwards, who had heard the case in the

Supreme Court, kept Mr. Skerrett strictly to facts in reference to what had passed 1 at the trial. Judge Williams had one or two legal posers for the acute counsel. Even Judge Conolly maintained a keenly interested attitude throughout the hearing of tihe aippeal. When the bench and the bar became somewhat involved in their "suppose it was so," and "it might have been" arguments, then the Chief Justice spoke and put the issue plainly. The tjosition of the case now is tihat, at thie next sitting of the Supreme Court, Mrs. Drake will appear and receive her sentence.