All Sorts Of People

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 147, 25 April 1903, Page 3

All Sorts Of People

Ma A. D. THOMSON, the Bibleclass Union enthusiast, whose paper, read before the gathered camp at Lowry Bay last Meek, was looked upon as a pearl of great price, is not vi the habit of blaring forth his talents. You know he is clerk of the Magistrate's Court, of course, that he is m St. John's, and is 00-leader with Mayor Aitken, M.H.R., of the Mount Cook School Bible Class. He has other good points deserving of mention. For instance, he can play tennis equal to the first flighters, and he showed up pretty well in the recent tournament. * * * Mr. Haselden, S.M., remarked once that Mr. Thomson was the fastest longhand writer he had ever had working with him. Looking backward, we find that, the quiet, clean-shaven, embryo magistrate seventeen years ago represented the Wellington province against the English football team, and many say that his play was responsible for the victory of his team. Mr. Thomson is at present a member of the Appeal Council and Management Committee of the New Zealand Rugby Union and acts as delegate to the Council of that body tor the Wanganui Rugby Union. Mr. Thomson's brothers are prominent athletes one of them being a clergyman or Lincoln, Canterbury. * * * Mr. T. Reese, of Wigram Bros., Christchurch, was. we believe, the first president of the Bible-class V ™ n -^ + is one of those wiry, muscular Christians and one of the best-known athletes in Christohurch. He does not run to fat certainly, but he is one ot those well-set-uo, restless and energetic'fellow s who are always around when the bell nnes. He has represented has province m the football and cricket arena perhaps as often as any other player in Canterbury. Mr W Grey inspector of schools for Wanganui district, tried hard to get away for the camp at Lowry Bay, but could not manage it. He is one of .the most ardent supporters of the Union and was leader of the Presbyterian Church Bible Class m Dunedin for a long period. » * * Admiral Dewey, the Hispano-Ameri-can war hero, who has been reminding the German, eagle that the Americanbred bird of that family is aA\ay ahead of the Fatherland's exhibit, is a sailor. It is believed that he has learnt nas trade and that he is capable of conductins any fight that he may be called upon to manage But 'twas not always thus with Yankee naval officers. lne Admiral is alleged to have told a yarn recently at a social gathering. Even in republics the plums do not always fall to the most deserving This is his yarn "A rank landlubber w as, through influence, appointed to the command of a large American ship of war. Upon his arrival to take up the command he was shown round the ship. Presently, he oame to the companion ladder, peered down, and then exclaimed amazedly, 'Why the dumed thing's hollow, then " Reminds us of the sheen expert from Home who went up country in Australia to look into the wool industry. Arrived at Goondibadeerv, he was introduced to a big mob of highclass merinos. '-Oh— aw— l— ah, say, donoherknow " he remarked, I—aw— nevah knew you bwed the bally kansavoo to Mich an enoimous extent as this, donchf-rknow'"

Mr H Wynn Williams corrects an en or by saying that Mr. H. H. Ostler, Chief Justice's associate, is not the only New Zealander educated at Christ's Hospital, the famous Blue Coat School, in London. Mr. Robert Wynn Williams, his brother, and son of the late Crown Prosecutor in. Auckland, attended Christ's Hospital from 1872 to 1879. It may not be generally known that Christ's Hospital was originally a charity school, but has gradually grown in importance until it is an exceedingly difficult matter to obtain entrance, even bv paying the goodly fees now indispensible. The "Blue Coats" wear the long, blue frock coats their great grandfather Blue Coats wore yellow stockings and broad-toed shoes with steel buckles A hat is not part of the dress, and it is usual for the students to appear in public without head coverings. * • • We believe that boys fearing the sun, sleet hail, and rain of Britain's vanegated climate may wear a hat by obtaining permission, but most of them are proud of the traditional bare head. By the way, Mr. Harry Valmtine, brother of our Deputy Chief Health Officer, was a Blue Coat boy. He served, as is known, with New Zealand regiments in Africa, and wrote a racy little book dealing with his experiences as "Ten Weeks a Prisoner of War." * * * Mr. Frank Jones, one. of the FitzGeralds' advance men, is fond of telling a yarn about himself , accompanied by gestures illustrating the most painful experience he ever had. Although Frank is a circus man, up to four or five years a,go he had not crossed a saddle. Business made it necessary for him to consume the distance between Coromandel and Opotiki, and the lengthy advance gentleman wondered how it was to be done. Friends suggested that he should hire a horse, and follow the mail carrier over the rocky roads, the bush tracks and the boegy ways. Behold him then, "driving tin tacks" into the saddle, and suffering agonies of mind and body. Mailmen have to arrive on time, and Mr. Jones had to keep the horseman in sight, or get lost. Frank is tall and — not fat. When he fell out of the saddle at Opotiki, he found that his legs described a couple of parabolas, and that he required his dinner to be laid out. on the mantelpiece in the hotel dining-room. For two days he dodged about Opotiki, every limb yelling aloud the fact that he had once been a horseman. The first part of Frank's duty was to bill the town. He wanted a rest, and found a bill-sticker. The bill-stacker was dilatory. Frank went to look him up, and found him with a milk-dish full of paste, and the consistency of dough, a hair-brush. It wanted but a comb to complete the barber-ous ensemble. 'Twas then that Frank learnt a new vocabulary. In his merry moments, Mr. Jones can be persuaded to assume* his celebrated horsendine attitude, but up to now Dan FitzGerald has not put him in the bill. * * * The Lusk family is "well known throughout the North Island. Several members of the family have been noted cricketers and footballers, and their fani* is dear to Aucklanders and Napierites. Word comes that one of the elder brothers has passed away in Braidwood, New South Wales, where he was clerk of the Petty Sessions. He had joined the Civil Service in New South Wales after leaving New Zealand, and was in the service thirteen years prior to his death. Another brother, who took to the law went to America some ten years ago, and has got on in the land of Stars and Stripes. Mr. Hugh Lusk's name frequently appears in American maeaxines attached to articles dealing ■nith phases of Australian and New Zealand public life.

Mr. J. A. Kinsella the Government's Chief Daary Commissioner, is bound for Africa, having naturally been unable to refuse an offer of a larger sphere of influence plus double the salary he at present receives. It is very doubtful, after all, whether our Chief Dairy Commissioner has not been worth £800 annum (the amount offered by the Transvaal Agricultural Department) during the few yeans he has been in New Zealand. The dairy industry has gone ahead literally by leaps and bounds since Mr. Kimsella has bee<n at the 1 head of this branch of the Government's enterprise, and dairy farmers are now making their thousands of pounds under the system where they made only hundreds under the old • * The argument comes along — "Oh, well you know, it is the New Zealand enterprise in. the. diary industry which has made Mr. Kinsella's reputation, and therefore he should stay on here!" Yes? Before he came to New Zealand from Canada (his native land), Mr. Kinselia had won fame as on© of the most expert and u^-to-date exponents of modern dairying methods. He knows 1 not only the XYZ of the business, but the ABC, and has the rare gift of being able' and willing to impart his knowledge to others. He hasi gone up and down the colony, with a great expenditure of energy, looking for farmers to whom to impart instruction, and it is no uncommon siffhit to see him in a dairy giving, coat off, instruction to a farmer and his family. His latest endeavour has been to capture the southern West Coast for the dairying industry, his regret being that th© West Coasters have been, so slow to see the great possibilities in making butter and cheese. Decidedly, New Zealand's loss will be the Transvaal's wain in the capture of Mr. KinseUa, the Butterman. * * • Recently New Zealand has been visited by several Australian journalists, who had fled from the heat of the Great Australian Summer. Just about this present time of tihe year New Zealand journalists take a run over to Melbourne and Sydney to repay the calls made by their brethren of the pencil. Among the New Zealand pressmen who have reoently crossed the Tasman Sea on recuperation bent, is Mr. Len Muir, editor of the Poverty Bay "Herald," who is well known in, Wellington, where also he has a number of relatives. "Len" was a very popular attendant regularly in the Press Gallery during session time. # * • Captain J. H. Sutter who passed aw ay at Timaru the other day, was well know n in Wellington when he represented the Gladstone (South Canterbury) electorate in the House of Representatives. He sat in two Parliaments being first returned in 1881. When he stood again for re-election, he had three opponents, one of whom was Mr. J. M. Twomey, who is now a member of the Legislative Council. The Captain beat the to-be Hon. Jeremiah. After serving his second term Captain Sutter did not seek re-election. • • • Captain Sutter served on all the local bodies, and was six times mayor of Timaru. He was born in Aberdeenshire away back in 1818, and whilst vet a boy he went to sea obtaining his master's certificate ius-t after getting out of his 1 teens. He voyaged to all quarters of the globe, and, in his own ship, took nart in the excitements of whaling along the Greenland coast. In 1859 he came to New Zealand, and ieft off going down to the sea in ships for evermore. After four years spent in Dunedin and the Otago goldfields, he went to Timaru — then a lonely little village — and there remained until the end of his long life of 85 years.

The marriage of the Rev. Otho FiteGerald, at PaLmerston North, on Easter Tuesday, was an event of some interest to the people of Wellington. As Vicar of St. Thomas's (Newtown), the Rev. Otho was well known, and as the youngest son of the late AuditorGeneral, and one-time Superintendent of Canterbury, the incident was also: of interest to Christohurch people. The reverend gentleman's bride came out from England to the lucky man, and she is the daughter and sister of clergymen. Her brother, the 1 Rer. 0. H. Isaacson, is in charge of the Churchi of England, at Bulls, and. her father is the Rector of Hardingham (Norfolk, England). The newly-married' couple have proceeded 1 to Waipiro, a suggest-ively-named T>laioe, indicating: anything but a prohibition district. Mr. Fitz-^ Gerald has just been appointed to Waipiro, which is a large district up in the wilds of Poverty Bay. * * • The echoes of Sleepy Hollow were awakened the other evening by tshe rousing send-off given by leading citizens: to Mr. S. J. Flewellyn, until lately Mm© Host of the Ship Hotel at Port Nelson, now licensee 1 of the Clarendon Hotel, Ohristchurch. The jovial Welshman is well known to many Wellingtonians, for, before taking to "the trade," he was a printer, and among his "typo" positions he was overseen? of the Wellington "Evening Press." He has flourished exceedingly, and grown as sleek as a policeman since he was called to the "bar." Mr. Flewellyn jnade a host of friends wherever he resided and the Nelsondans, during his five years' residence there, were just as amenable to bis good fellowship as other folks. ♦ ♦ • The Flewellyn farewell banquet was presided over by the newly-created M.L.C., the Hon. F. Trask, and the vice-chairman was Mr. E. Finney, president of the Nelson Jockey Club. It was indicated by various speakers at the send-off that the departing guest had been a very prominent and active member of the Jockey Club, the Trotting Club, and the Defence Rifle Club. The members of the latter olub gave Mr. Flewellyn a Gladstone travellingbag as a parting gift. ♦ * * As anticipated when Sir Arthur Douglas left the colony for England, towards the end of last year, that gentleman has sent out an official intimation that he has no intention of again taking up the duties of the Under-Secretairy-ship of Defence. No word has yet been received of ihe something better which it is surmised he is to geit at Home. For, Sir Arthur and Lady Douglas are connected with folks who are somebodies of influence at Home, and consequently, the ex-New Zealand Defence Secretary is sure to cast his lines in pleasanter places than the one he occupied here, the position requiring the strenuous exactions 1 and organising powers tb,at left the brainy baronet in anything but good health. Many-tongued Rumour has given the vacant Defence Under-Secretaryship to several people, and those people havebeen astonishingly eager in denying the softly-put suggestion. It was said that Mr. George F. C. Campbell had received the appointment, because of his enthusiasm and experience as a volunteer officer. But, Mr. Campbell says there is nothing in the report, as he is already well up in the Property Tax Department. Then, Dame Rumour said she had got mixed up a bit in names. It was Colonel Collins she meant. But, the Colonel for once lost his gallantry, and said the lady was quite wrong and misinformed. As Act-ing-Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Heywood being away on furlough) there was nothing for him to hanker after in the wearing of Sir Arthur's shoes. So the Dame is still looking round for a likely Under-Secretary for the Defence Department.

The passing hence of the Hon. Dr. Giace MLC, removes from the city one of its most nrominent citizens, and a genial and striking personality. He will be missed from the Legislate Council and the lobbies during the coming session, but most of ail will the Geneial Assembly Library Committee miss liis counsel and advice. He has always taken a real and genuine interest I*ll the library management, and for many years he was the chairman of the committee. His successor in the chair, the Hon. John Rigg, caught his enthusiasm for the library from Dr. Grace. * • » Another section of the community which will miss the genial medico will be the Hibernians. At the annual parades of the members of the Hibernian Society Dr. Grace always put in an appearance. Year after year he marched with "the bhoys in green" on St. Patrick's Day. Tins custom became a duty with the Doctor, and as he remarked to the w riter after he came off his last St. Patrick's Day parade, "there would be wigs on the ereen if Dr. Grace did not turn out with the society." • t , It was to the enterprise of Dr. Grace and a few other city gentlemen that Wellington got. its tramway system, and the Doctor was the promoter who hung on to the property until he sold at an advantage to the Corporation some two years -ago. Dr. Grace was a genial son of Erin, with a word and a smile for everyone, and he will long be remembered bv his fellow-countrymen of the Empire City. * • * Ex-Maiyor Keene, late leading light for the deceased Borough of Melrose, rather thought, at the banquet held to celebrate the union of his borough to Wellington, that Greater Wellington would shortly be the "most up-to-date city this side of the line." Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, BaUarat, Bendigo, Goulburn please take notice, and orepare to receive footpaths, or something aggressively modern like that. Mayor Aitken is really confident that his "municipal perfection" ambition is now feeling its way towards realisation, and that sooner or later the natural and romantic beauty of the Empire City will be so artificially enhanced by eleetrio trains, and things of that sort, that Arcadia will have come again. # We will suppose, for par. purposes, that you have never heard the modern Socrates, Mr. Fullford ex-member of the Melrose Borough Council, and embryo councillor for the Melrose Ward m the Greater Wellington City Council. Like other great orators he has his language of gesture, and no justice can be done to them excexvt by kimematoeraph. In, spite of yourself, after listening to a speech bv the ex-council-lor, you are bound to believe that Ly some means or other any improvements in municipal conditions are the result of his work. The credit for the motion to amalgamate was given to City Councillor Devine, and the successful sememe 'emanated from the "master mind" referred to by a fluent orator. » * * Councillor "Charlie" Izard, the e/jaoulator, was in, magnificent form at the banquet. He told several tales in proposing the health of the press that no one has read m the papers for at least a month past. His dramatic power and wealth of expression unfortunately cannot be re-produced, but must remain a pleasant memory to the assembled banquetters as long as life shall last. Coming down to the serious side of the question, the gathering was notable for the supreme optimism displayed on all hands. While humorous references were made to the catastrophe that robbed the city of screaming "copy" by the decease of Melrose Borough it was amjarent that the deepthinking citizens who sat round Godber's groaning tables recognised tihat a revolution in municipal expansion was absolutely within sight. Geniality is scarcely ever wanting mi a gathering of representative city men and at no banquet at which tihe Lancb has been privileged to be present has this distinguishing characteristic of the Empire City been more ar>narent. * * * Minister James McGowan can boast of being one of the founders of tradesunionism in Auckland. It was away back in the sixties that he worked in the city asi a journeyman baker, and he and a few more enterprising spirits formed the first union thereabouts. They considered it a. great achievement when they succeeded in getting the hours of labour for the trade restricted to twelve per day. The meeting-place of the union was in a cottage off Queen-street, iustat the back of Darby's Hotel, about the site of the Strand Arcade of to-day. * • • One of the weaknesses of the infant society (gossips the "Observer") was the tendency of its members to vote all the accumulated funds away for wild Saturday night razzlet-dazzles. until, in a moment of foresight, an amendment was

madei in the rules enabling any three members to veto expenditure outside the ordinary purposes of the union. Theai it began, to wax fat from the prosperity that came with the opening of the Thames goldfield, and the heaping up. of funds laid the foundation, for the success of the bigger union that grew m later years. If Mr. McGowan doesn't see eye to eye with the unionists of today in their demands, they owe him some gratitude for his labours in theninterests in the early days. • • * New Zealanders generally, and the people of Christ church particularly, have been interested in the recent illness of the Rev. J. Marriott Watson, Vicar of St. Mary's Church, in Preston (Victoria). That illness has ended in death, under tragic circumstances. He had seemingly recovered, and took up his duties again. He took the morning service a few Sundays ago, and had reached the end, when, in the act of pronouncing the benediction, he fell prone upon the altar. So death had come to him in the midst of his duty. • « ♦ The Marriott Watsons are a Tasmanian family, and inherited the. literary gift in a marked degree. A brother of the deceased clergyman spent the greater part of his life in Christchurch, and only predeceased the Victorian clergyman by a few months. The late Rev. H. C. Maimott Watson (of Christchuroh) was the father of Marriott Watson known the world over as a brilliant novelist, and who is not so well known out here as the editor of the Edinburgh "Review." Waitson the novelist spent his youth in New Zealand, and he made his first hit in the literary world with a Maori War story, "The Web of the Spider," which was of so shilling-shock-ingly a type that he does not care who takes credit for it now-a-days. • * • Word came from Chnstchurch, at the end of last week that Mr. Patrick S. Cassidy had died in the Cathedral City. Ten or twelve years ago Mr. Cassidy came from New York to see his brother, a successful contractor on the West Coast. At the time of the coming of Mr. Cassidy. the "New Zealand Times" was on the look out for an editor or manager, many changes having: been tried without success. The man from New York became an applicant for the position, and he was appointed managing editor. Then it was that, for a brief space of time, our on.lv morning journal was run along Amreican lines.

Mr. Gideon Rutherford, a North Otagan, fanner who passed away last week, was a prominent figure in the Baptist Ohurch of the South Island. His eldest daughter married into tihe Church by becoming the wife of the faanous Spurgeon's now-famous eldest son, the Rev. Thomas Spurgeon, when that gentleman spent several yeaais in New Zealand pnncdpally as pastor erf the Auckland Tabea-nacle. Sir J. Pateirson, ex-Premier of Victoria, was a cousin of the late Squire of Manure (the' Rutherford homestead, near' Oamaru). * * * There are several well-known names upon, the list of officials appointed at the Wellington Licensed Victuallers' Association annual ~ meeting last week. Last year's president was the popular host of the Post Office Hotel, Mr. Edward Wilson, fellow-apprentice and lone; - time - ->al of Premier Seddon. Mr. Wilson was an engineer, and he only left off crossing bars to run bars. He stall has mainy friends among the marine engineers of the colony, as a call at the Post Office at any time of the day will prove. * # * The newly-appoanted president of the W.L.V.A. is Mr. A. R. Y. Ladder, owner of the City Buffet and Bellevue Gardens. Mr. J. Mandel, owner and licensee of the Empire Hotel, is the vice-president of the W.L.V.A. The secretary is Mr. Herbert Williams, the Grand Master of the Freemasons of New Zealand. Among the other officers for tibe year -we note the names of Mr. J. H. Pagni, the one-tdme messenger of the Government Life Insurance Department, who now flourishes as Mine Host of the Western Hotel, and Mr. Frank McParlaud, an old West Coast comrade of the Premier's, and who for many years successfully ran a bakery business in Wellington. He threw away his baker's cap to don the smile of the license© of tihe Hotel Cecil . * • • It is announced that. Mr. R. A. Hearn is leaving Worser Bay, and selling all his interestte. there, in order to join the exodus to the Old Country. Mr. Hearn was the pioneer of the seaside resorts at. th© head of the harbour. Some ten years ago he and Mr Williams (now an inspector of fir© escapes) saw the possibilities of Worser Bay as a seaside resort. In those days Seatoun was a patch of desert, Worser Bay a a\ aste of sand and Karaka Bay was) unexplored. Worser Bay, with its lovely

.m-tle bit of sand it® shallow water, and protected bighib seemed just the place for a summer resort. Messrs. Hearn and Williams bought the sandy flat and hills and there built a terrace of summer houses. Then, the/ rush.for the seaside set in and there are hundreds of people who have lively and happy recollections of a hokday spent in Hearn's cottages. * * * In the course of time, Mr. Williams sold out to his partner. Mr. Hearn built and ran a store and a kiosk, and things flourished exceedingly. The Worsen Bay settlement served as ,am advertisement foir Seiatoun, and Kairaka Bay , and the result is that to-day there are many very nice villas and peirmanent residences all alone; the shore from Karaka Bay to the Heads, there is a Seatoun Road Board, two wharves, a ferry service, and a school house to supply the needs of the district.