All Sorts of People

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 215, 13 August 1904, Page 3

All Sorts of People

/f\ NE of the quaintest officials who I I ever compiled vital statistics was Mr. W T. Wyatt, who died last week at his residence, at Newtown. Born away back in thle yeai 1816, he came out to the colonies in his 31st year, and ten years later settled m the New Zealand Civil Service. He is best remembered as the Registiax for Births, Deaths, and Marriages for Wellington, and, on retiring, s»ome sax or eight years ago, was 1 succeeded by the present Registrar (Mr. Mansfield). The old gentleman had a curious system or 01 oss-examination for seekers after marriage certificates, was full of condolences for the bereaved, and lemembered "dear old John" very well in those early days, but was most quaint in his running comments at the registration of births. Mr. Wyatt was a remarkable connecting link between two such Registrars as Mr. Haldsworth (his predecessor) and Mr. Mansfield (his successor). # * * V/ Ironmaster Cable, chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board, who presided over the Conference of delegates from the colony's Harbour Boards, held last week (the sixth Conference in Wellington in six weeks), begged of delegates not to put him in such a responsible position "just because I happen to be oheermaan o' th' Wellington Board." But, an Auckland-Lyttelton conspiracy made it inevitable that the diffident Scat should submit. However, he had his revenge, for he pushed business through at such a pace that the order paper was cleared) at the fii st day's sitting' The next day was spient by a number of delegates in compiling another order paper for a third day, as the Wellington Board had arranged 1 a banquet to terminate a Conference expected to extend over three d'avs. * * » Mr. Wm. Ferguson was the moving spirit, if he was not actually the organiser, of the Conference. If any man should havei found 1 his hat too small for his head, that man should have been the secretary of the Wellington Harbour Board, for the praise bestowed' upon him at the close of the sitting was many-voiced and hearty. He was eulogised by the secretairy who has seen the longest service in the colony, viz. Mr. Brigham (Auckland Board), who has been thirty-two years in the Queen City's service , bv the Lyttelton secretary, Mr. Hood-Williams, who comes second in length of service, with a term, of twenty-eight years and by Mr. Kenny, secretary of the Napieir Board, and the vaungest deleerate at the Conference. There were others who joined l in the chorus of euiloerv, whilst Mr. Ferguson wondered why men should praise a man for doing his duty. « • • v/Congratulations to Mr. Louis Cachemaille upon his appointment to the secretaryship of the newly-formed Harbou 1 Boardls' Association of New Zealand. He had oa,nried' out all the preliminary work and was justly entitled to the position, but it isn't always the deceiving who "get there." Mr. Cachemnille is one of three brothers who cam© from England! to Wellington a few years n^o, and he is the only one of the trio who has not led to the altar a Wellington lad^. He has been Sec-etßiv Fergusons 1 corresponding clerk during the past two or three years, and clnso contact with a man who draws £1700 per annum haisn't spoiled him.

/ -/Mr. William. Henry Hawkins, the new M.H.R.. for Pahiatua, has arrived in town, and entered upon his Parliamentary duties. When we saw him last week he was ariayed in a knioker suit, with golf continuations that set off his shapely calves to advantage. William Henry wears a clean-shaven face of much resolution, and his well-knit, athletic figure is just the sort of ball-dog build that will stand a lot of kncokingout. Mi\ Hawkins used to be a school, teacher in the long ago. In fact, he ministered to the mental needs of the youth of the Waio-karaka School, at Thames. ,It is 1 elated of him that once upon a time he was engaged in the exhilarating pastime of "foifeits" at a Thames social affair. A part of the game consisted in scribbling names on bits of paper. Mr. Hawkins wrote his name, "William Henry Hawkins," and handled it in A wit handed it to a near-by lady. "William 'Arry Hawkins?" he asked. "No, I will not!" the lady indignantly replied, "I am engaged." * # * Mi. Hawkins drifted ultimately to Dannevirke, where he worked hard amd built up a store-keeping and auctioneeimg business. He played football and cricket, too, and has captained the Hawke's Bay representatives in both branches of the sport. A fire came along, and burnt the future M.H.R. out, even to his books, so that he had no recoi d of the £800 book-debts owing to him. Nor did he ever recover any of the said debts. He didn't despair to any laige extent, and, as he had a wife and child to support, he "up bluey" and away. He dumped his swag on some co-operative road works, and got a job, where he shovelled mullock for many months, and had the best time in his life. He is not the sort of man pick-and-shovel work would hurt. * * * \/ One day, a relative of his, who owned a paper at Pahiatua, and who had heard that William Henry was wielding a shovel, wired him . "Get out of that, and come into this." On receipt of the wire, Mr. Hawkins, who was pushing a long-handled shovel, whirled the weapon round his head, and sent it spinning into a far-off gully. "What the duvil are yez doin' ?" asked his mate who was working alongside. William shook hands with him, and hit out for Pahiatua. He has since been "hitting out" m Pahiatua. Mr. Hawkins, who did not "file" when the Dannevirke disaster overtook him, has been paying his creditors ever since, and he has iust about completed the contract. He'll probably have some of his £300 a yeai to spend on himself now. / * * * VMr. Lindsay, a subaltern in the 7th Dragoon Guards, who is taking his "long leave" in the colony, is a New Zealander born and bred It was ieported a while back that Mr. Lindsay (who is not much over twenty) was a captain-adjutant of the legiment, and he has been referred to as "captain" in the lowl presLS Promotion, however, in the Imperiail Army is not quite as rapid as it is in the colonial auxiliary foices, and Mr. Lindsay, who has assisted the adjutant of the regiment, is still "lieutenant." Before the Boer war he held a commission in the Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry. * * * V He is the son of that well-known Canterbury officer, Major Lindsay, and was picked for service as an officer with the First New Zealand Contingent, from which corps he was drafted into the Imperial Army. Mr. Lindsay thinks enough of New Zealand to take a wife from it. He will shortly marry Miss Riddiford, a daughter of Mr. E G Riddiford He returns to the cavalry depot at Canterbury, and the 7th Dragoon Guards will probably go to India where a fellow can play polo without ruining himself, don't you know

t / / The British footballers and the Hon. Mr. Hall-Jones stiuck Wellington simultaneously, and the Minister probably feels how very insignificant an atom he is in compai 1&011 with Mr. Bediell-Siv-nght and has team. The Britishers ane believed to have i emarked that the blizzard that blew on their welcome day was "ideal football weather." Still, •there aie no Esquimaux in the team. The high and mighty officials of the New Zealand Rugby Union, the lowly Ms.H.R., and the unconsideied Ministers of the Crown, took the team in hand on that day, and showed them where the laws of the countiy a>re made, and the celebiated and mysterious Bellamy's, known only to a favoured few — the gentlemen's club pai excellence of the colony. * * * /Mr. S-eddon had been receiving deputations, and he was late. The team and other people weie gathered in the lobby, waiting for him. He came with a mighty rush. Advancing from the fiont, with no flankers out, Mr. Sedd'on charged the heap of humanity, and warmly seized the hand of the "Evening Post" lepoiter. "Good day'" he genially i oared. Then he cordially gripped the hand of the Free Lance artist, and shook him with vehemence. "Had a pleasant tnp P" he asked. Then, he got us by the hand, and welcomed us with immense enthusiasm to the colony. These three newspaper men are trying to find out where they play in the British team. *■ * * Mr. Sivwnght was, of course, the chief attraction He is a daik-skinned young man, who betrays his British origin at once bv the long, swinging stride he takes. Most colonials toddle. Curiously Mr. Sivwright's neok attracts most attention. It is so long, and smooth, and thick. It shows he has a good constitution, and lots of physical power. Mr. OBrien, a New Zealander m the team, was, of course, marked out for special attention, and all the friends who used to know him before he was anglicised clusteied round him. * * * The footballers' health was drunk in brimming beakers of " fizz," and Mr. Seddon remaiked several of the things that one would expect him to remark on such an occasion. The last British team had been captained by a Seddon (enthusiastic cheering) ; they often had serums in Parliament, many tnes, and sometimes a goal. He said nothing about off-side play. The British skipper was more nervous of that great man, the Premier, than he was of the surging crowd that afterwards welcomed the team. The thing that strikes one most about the Biitishers is their unobtrusive way. They have not the colonial love for labels. They don't wear highly-coloured hat-bands or rep. caps, glaring buttons or heaps of trinkets. One doesn't know if they are "old boys" or belong to W.F.C.C. or C H.Q.R., or anything of the kind — and it is refi eshing. Likewise, they are not leady to give an opinion on every subject under the sun. This also is refreshing. * * * But, that ciowd in the Theatre Royal! It was magnificent. The cheer that rent the air was a revelation. Comsidei ing that thet theatre was packed with men who had, bv hook or crook, to get away from their occupations, and that there was a crowd outsidte in the freezing weather unable to get in. it was the. warmest welcome possible. When the team got outside, they didn't "chuck a chest," or do anything conspicuous, so that the waiting crowd didn't know they were there, and concluded that they had gone home the back way. Mayor Aitken and) Chairman of the Rugby Union Campbell made tactful speeches, and OBrien, the British team New Zealander, was less at a loss for word 1 * than is usual with a Britisher It is a colonial characteristic.

- The Rev. B. L. Thomas sprang a surpnse upon the people of the Newtown Congregational Church when he told them last Sunday that it was his intention to give 1 some other shepherd a chance to look after the flock for tthe future. There had been no preliminary trouble, such as occurs m well-regu-lated churches even as well as in families. There had been no unseemly squabbler, or any tiling of that sort. It is just three years and four months since Mr. Thomas left the Devonport (Auckland) Church, and took up his residence in Newtown. In September next, by which time he hopes to hand over the Constable-street Church to another pastor, Mr. Thomas will have completed eighteen years' service as a minister in New Zealand. * * * The pastor of the Newtown Congregational Church has taken a more active interest in the public affairs of Wellington than does the average clergyman. Besides participating prominently m the Prohibition movement, he has gone into politics, and not on the same sid|e as the great majority of the leaders of the Cold Water Party. For Mr. Thomas is a Seddoman in politics, and was the first president of the Newtown branch of the Liberal and Labour League. He is also chairman of that superfluous body, the Wellington Conciliation Board. It has been whispered that Mr. Thomas intends taking a rest from pastoral duties for some time, aaid will seek a change by returning to the business 1 to which he had served' has apprenticeship before he joined the church. He was in the timber trade when a youth in Wales. * * * The resignation of his pastorate by Mr. Thomas reminds the Lance of other Congregational ministers well-known in Wellington who have exchanged the black cloth for everyday tweed. There was the late Rev. Mr. Habens, who left his pulpit in Ohristohurch to come to Wellington as Inspector-General of Schools. The Rev. Mr. Isaacs a few years ago resigned his over-charge of the Nelson church to become a technical instructor and inspector for the Education Department. The Rev. W. A. Evans now-a-days gives up the whole of hia time to the public service — but receives no remuneration for his mamy labours. The pastor of the Courtenay Place Church (Rev. W. Newman Hall) is leaving his pastorate in November next, with the intention of spending some time in leisurely touring America, and perhaps some other countries before returning Home. It would appear from the above-quoted list that some Conr gregational men, in serving their Church, go back to that sect's first principles, and become too independent. * # ♦ One of the best-known of Wellington's "printers, as he was also, we believe, the first of the city's apprentices to the printing trade, passed 1 away at tihe end of last week, in the person of Mr. E. J. D. ("Ted") Johnson. He was boom, eduoated, trained, and lived the whole of his life of fifty-six yeais in Wellington. The Government Printing Office knew him in its early days when Government Printer Didsbury and a mere handful of men ran the State printery. He was for several years foreman of the job printing department of the "New Zealand Times" business, beine succeeded there by Mr. Wm. Haggetb, who came from the Timaru "Herald" as Mr. Johnson's successor, and is now in the Government Printing Office. Then Mr. Johnson established a printery of his own, which he was carrying on when death took him off. Unlike his brother, < ( Alf.," Mr. E. J. D. Johnson took no interest in matters outside his own business, his home, and his church, and severe rheumatism laid a heavy hand upon him during the latter years of his life.

1 Mr Alison, the cuily-haned M.H.R. for Waitemata, and a Harbour Boaid delegate, made a joke at the Wellington Harbour Board's dinner to the delegates fiom various bodies of the kind in New Zealand last week. He said, with a good deal of piehminary pieparation, that the Auckland delegates weie now connected by "Cable" with the Wellington Boaid. Of the foity-nine mien there, forty-seven and one boy (the pianist) saw the joke in, £sec, but, for two minutes until the thing was kindly explained no one laughed. It is tickling ™ y et. . -' Frankly, such a dinner is dieadfully dreary. Everyone who speaks thanks everyone else in these exact words. "I thank Mr. Blank for the vei y kind manner in which he has proposed the toast." When the most spaikhng pebbles on the beach, such as the Hon. Charles Mills and Mr. Harold Beauchamp, say that sort of thing, of course the smallei fry have a perfect right to say precisely the same thine in the most pained way It was regretted by everybody (except leporters) that King Dick wasn't there, for nobody would have caught the last oar, and that Sir Joseph Ward wa.s snfferine; from influenza, and that the re-cently-returned Mr. Hall-Jones was heaving on the bounding main outside Wellington aching to get to Godber's. * • * However, Mr. Mills, acting: Ministei for Marine, was "very glad to be heaw ," and Charlie Izai d spoke of "marines" he had known. Charles averred that, in earlier days, he had served as a cabinboy for ninety-seven days, on a barque, and had been ropes-ended (doubtless he deserved it). This was his first marine experience. Hiis second was when he was twenty-one, and "stone-brobe." He took his dress clothes to a ''marine" store, and had a jolly good dinner on the proceeds. His third marine experience was with the "dead" kind. All this the people laughed at, even Mr Cable, the chairman, who, it has been asserted, is a Scotsman. * * * One thing Mr. Mills said amuses us. "The self-sacrifice of membeis deserves every credit." Upon our word, one would think the average politician was a man who didn't strain every effort to get the billet, and who would scorn the base dross and fiee passes attached to the said billet. Mr. Tom Wilford oertainly enlivened the show by his songs, and he told a stoi y or two at the tables that raised a smile. But, it is certain that that dinner was one of the stodgiest things one could attend. The same men, if they gathered promiscuously over a "wee drap" in a hotel parlour, would have a heap better time. They ought to try it. * * * Every now and then we get a leminder of the historic mutiny of the Bounty, which led to the settlement of Norfolk Island. A native of the island, Captam F. E. Quintal, is just now visiting Wellington. It is somewhat surprising to find a military man as a pj-oduct of that lovely place, which lies 960 miles off the coast of New South Wales, and 680 miles from Auckland But, then, the Transvaal war discovered 1 a great many previously unsuspected warriors. When the cry of the Empire came on the memorable occasion, four Norfolk Islanders rose up and cried- "Here are we, send us!'' They served with the New South Wales Bushmen — for Norfolk Island is under the jurisdiction of the "Mother colony" — and as a result of that campaign the representative of the house of Quintal obtained his captaincy. * * * There is fighting blood in the Quintals, though it had lain doimant for over half a century with the Norfolk seotaon of the family. When the mutineers of the Bounty were living on Pitcairn Island, a British warship touched there, and a Captain Quintal was so much struck with thear need for a teacher that, on reaching England, he resigned his post, entered the ministry, and, having been duly ordained, crossed the seas again, and became pastor of the flock of muineers. That Quintal spent the whole of the remainder of a long life with his flock, w Inch was removed to Norfolk Island, and was the grandfather of Wellington's visitor. * * * The grandson of Chaplain Quintal is built like a dragoon, dark of feature, and of sturdy stature. He is an extra A.D.C. to the Govei nor of New South Wales, attending his Excellency (whoever he may happen to be) every time the latter visits Norfolk Island, which the Governor is bound to do once a year. Captain Quintal is proud of the fact that during his service in South Africa he was attached for a time to New Zealand's Seventh Contingent. In his opinion, "one of the best of the best" was "Tiny" Emerson, who did the honours of Wellington towards the Norfolk Islander. "Tiny" Emeison served l with our First and Seventh Contingentsi — but that is another story, and, perhaps, too familiar to tell to many Wellingtonians, to whom the son of the late Police Inspector is so wellknown.

y The people wfho leside on the south- Last week the Ruapehu brought western heights overlooking the city are back from England a clever 1 and enterenthusiastio, as become people who lave prising Auckland lady, Missi Foote, who upon hilltops. Last week Mitchell- had been selected! from amongst the bown turned out to a man and woman to Queen City's most skilful nurses to take d)o honour to their schoolmaster, Mr. charge of Captain Lacey, of the cable W. Foster. An illuminated address steamer Iris during the voyage Home, and a tea ajid coffee service are a pretty It will be 1 emembered that Captain substantial reoogsition of a pedagogue's Lacey's health broke down when the services, and the honour shown to the Ins was in our northern waters, and he master foi his fostering care of the did not survive the voyage Home. Miss young idea in Mitchelltown was all the Foote, who. by the way, is cousin to greater, seeing that there was no spec- Mr. J. R. Gibbons, chief reporter of the ial occasion looming It could not "Evening Post," some years ago estabhave been made because of Mi . Foster's lished an important private hospital in election to the position of secretary of Auckland, and l has a staff of some ten the Wellington Educational Institute, nurses in her institution. Two of Miss because he has held that post for r overal Foote's sisters are on her staff. She left years — and the Institute, very sensibly, Wellington for Auckland at the end of keeps on re-electing; him That presein- last week. After inspecting some of tation was made for no special reason, England's best hospitals, Nurse Foote excepting a woman's leason, "just be- declares that our Wellington Hospital is cause" he deserved it. equal to the best.