All Sorts of People

Free Lance, Volume VIII, Issue 377, 21 September 1907, Page 4

All Sorts of People

PUBLIC attention has been diawn to Captain Rolls by the parlous plight of the Union Stt amslnp Company's vessel, the Monowai, dm ing her recent pi otracted voyage to Sydney. Captain. Rolls is a true son oi the sea, and one of his characteristics —a slightly rolling gait— seems to suggest that there is moie in a name than Shakespeare would have us believe. Aged but foity, and possessed ot unassuming manners, Captain Rolls nas a heroic side to his composition when occasion calls foi its display. He showed this not \ cry long ago when the flaxen cargo of the steamer Tarawera caught fire on a voyage from Gisborne to Auckland. It was a tune of peril, but he stuck bravely to his task, and brought his vessel safely to Port. His bravery and resourcefulness so impressed the passengers that the more influential amongst them made representations to the directors of the Union Company concerning the captain's merits and abilities, and it was in part due to these that he was given his present command. Since his promotion to the Monowai his record has been a consistently good one, and the passengers who sailed with him on his latest voyage will, no doubt, have as much commendation for his conduct as did those whom he so much impressed on the occasion of the perilous trip of the Tarawera. * • ■ It is a peculiar coincidence that the Mokoia has twice succoured the Monowai in her distress. When she previously rendered aid to the Monowai, Captain Spinks was in charge of her. He had previously done a similar good service to the steamer Perthshire and these two acts so impressed the Union Steamship Company's directorate that they promoted Captain Spinks to the high position of marine superintendent a shore job which he has filled with complete satisfaction to everybody during the r»ast few years. It used to be a sailor's colloquialism that when in distress yon must send for Spinks. Spinks is no longer available now that he has become a longshoreman, but it is evident that his old-time boat is keeping up her reputation as a salvage gainer. Keir Hardie, the energetic socialist, who will shortly arrive in this country, bad an experience of practical socialism at Winnipeg lately. Strange to say, he didn't seem to appreciate it. It came about in this way. Keir was delivering an impassioned diatribe on the advantages of socialism to the Winnipeggians, and, while he was doing so, som Winnipeggian, evidently anxious to convince himself of the truth of Keir's teaching, got away with the lecturer's hat, vest, and tobacco pouch. Keir had no reason to complain. According to his own theory, it was right that he should divide his worldy goods among his fellow-men. The individual who took them was not a thief — he was merely a socialist. But evidently even * hardened- socialists like Keir Hardie don't altogether like their disciples to take them too seriously. * # * Dr. Collins is making a move in the direction of preventing unsuitable marriages, but, in the words of the song, "he's got a long way to go!" The mischief is that there never was an unsuitable marriage contracted yet. The parties were born for each other, anci the bond was drawn up, signed, and duly sealed in Heaven before the two hearts beat as one on this planet at all. It is always the aftermath that upsets the little contract. * * * The eminent Councillor is, of course, speaking in the strength of profound experience, and must be heard He suggests that parties to a proposed marriage contract should produce certificates of health, showing hereditary tendencies. But, alas, the commandment that forbids bearing false witness against a neighbour places no bar against a false account of one's own history, and is it to be expected that Mary Ann will acknowledge that her pious grandmother was given to delivering harangues in public places on "the lost ten tribes," or that Thomas Henry will admit that his forbears were distinguished in the worship of Baccbus? As for the doctor's other point that woman has a right to choose her partner in life, he would be a brave man who would suggest to the average woman that she has no such right. To control marriage bv^ legislation should be quite as interesting as suppressing gambling by legalising the tote.

Captain the Hon. Nigel GathorneHardy, fourth son of the Earl and Countess of Cranbrook, aide-de-camp to His Excellency the Governor, comes to New Zealand highly recommended. He is a dasher with his regiment, the oth Fusiliers ; he's a slasher at cricket — his English batting average last year was 24 ; try him at golf, and he is tip with the leaders; at tennis he plays a keen, strong game ; and he claims a bit of knowledge on the subject of shooting. But if you want to find out these things, you've got to trawl for them with a kind of drag-net. He doesn't do any home-advertising. He's a right stamp of a man, but the journalist has to gather him in bits. * • • He has been in New Zealand three weeks, so of his own knowledge he knows very little about us, but he has come out here to make friends, and he runs a pretty big risk of making scores of them. Just before he left Home, Captain Gathorne-Hardy was speaking with Lady Constance Knox, known best to New Zealanders as Lord Ranfurly's daughter, and Lady Constance assured him of a splendid reception and an enviable time in New Zealand. J hp genial aide-de-oamp is already realising both In addition to this source of information about New Zealand, the Captain's eldest brother, who was for a time private secretary to Lord Glasgow, and married Lord Glasgow's youngest daughter, has visited this colony with his wife, and on the occasion of Captain Nigel leaving England both of them expressed their wish to again visit New Zealand. ♦ • » Captain Gathorne-Hardy was born in London, within the sound of Bow-Bells, twenty-seven years ago, and is of an o' t Yorkshire family. He was educated at Radlev, and joined the 7th Battalion Rifle Brigade in September, 1899. He obtained a commission in Ihe sth Fusiliers in February, 1900, at York, became seconded on 22nd May 1902, and went out to South Africa with the 37th Battalion I.V (Highland Horse), but peace was declared when

they arrived at Las Palmas, on the way out. He remained in South Africa, however, for six months, after which he rejoined the sth Fusiliers at Gravesend in January, 1903. He became adjutant of the 2nd Battalion in November, 1904, and relinquished the appointment the day he left England foi New Zealand. • • • Speaking of sports, the Captain is very keen on the game of fives, and, if he would only confess to it, he was probably very successful at that sport on the Aldershot court. At Fiji, on the way out, he took part in a cricket match against a native team. He made top score in the match, but he has a great regard for the Fijian bowlers and the native cricketers generally. The match was full of interest, and was watched by the distinguished viceregal party. If time permits during the coming season, Wellingtonians will probably see six feet of GathorneHardy willowing the leather around our reserves, or gathering in wickets behind the sticks. He had a front tooth knocked out behind the wickets once, but that was an incident compared to the stumps he has rooted out when in that position. It is worth mentioning that when his brother visited the colonies the "Bulletin" called him "6ft 3in. of lead piping." • • • Eighty-two years of age, and still going strongly, shows the kind of stock from which the Rev. W. Kirk, of Petone, sprung. Last Monday was the anniversary of the veteran clergyman's birth, and letters and telegrams ot congratulation simply pouied in upon him. Mr. Kirk came to New Zealand in 1846, and has never since turned his back on G-od's own country. What he does not know about the early Maori doings up and down the Wanganui district need not be written down. In those far away days his ministry was amongst the natives, and, with pardonable pride, he shows a register which contains over three hundred name? and baptismal declarations of Maoris baptised by him. On one day,

Christmas Eve, 1848, Mr. Kirk baptised eighty-one Maoris, the whole n party of them having been brought to him at Te Arere (Wanganui river). With all his years, Mr. Kirk continues tv take a close interest in civil, religious, and political affairs. ' ■i * » A well-known sportsman in the Ashburton district is reported to be Buffering from mental derangement, induced by a recent fishing experience. He landed a trout which turned the scale at 321b weight, and the new regulation only allows a 201b. catch to be taken fiom the river. Said sportsman took his catch home, but a violent attack of conscience has supervened. His friends are anxious. * * • Bert Royle is the man who writes pantomimes and comic songs and manages this Dominion for Mr. J. C. Williamson, and he needs very little introduction to New Zealand beyond the foregoing Sitting in his office one day this week, enjoying the consolation of my Lady Nicotine, with his merry blue eyes twinkling humorously, Bert thought over the funny incidents of his managerial experiences, and told the story of w hat he considered his most amusing situation. He was at Randwick, on a big race day. A gentleman of the profession, who was in a chronic state of impecuniosity, came up to him and explained that he nad been having bad luck, but he only needed £5 for the next race to set him right side up again. The money, if loaned, would be returned next day. • • • Bert lent the £5, but "next day" never came. Two months later he wrote to the professional gentleman reminding him of the obligation. He received a reply that the artist had no recollection of the incident, but, if Mir. Bert Royle could produce a receipt for money lent on the racecourse, the bill would be met. Failing the receipt, he wished it to be understood that he was not m a position to administer out-door relief. Bert never recovered his £5, but he carries a receipt book to the races now. • • • Speaking of tight corners reminded Mr. Royle of the evening when he was in Palmerston North with the "Are You a Mason?" Company. They were due to play at Napier next evening, but at nine o'clock a message came through by wire to say that a landslip on > thousand yards long had occurred! in the Manawatu Gorge, and that no train could possibly get through for two days. Inquiry elicited the fact that access by road was also impossible since the landing stage of the punt at Ashurst was carried away by the flood. Ultimately, the railway authorities agreed to Bert Royle's suggestion to run a train to each side of the landslip, the company to move their goods and chattels at their own risk. • • • This was done, all the actors acted, find the workers worked, and some miles of scenery were transported over the slip. The only losses were a few suits of clothes and the printing box, which one of the actors dropped in older to run out of the way of a falling rock. The printing box. with the programmes, is still up in the Gorge. The Napier public showed their appreciation of the company's heroic efforts to appear up to time by flooding the local press with letters condemning Mr. Williamson for producing a performance without providing programmes! * • • Mr. Royle has written seventeen pantomimes, and, prior to the advent of "Mother Goose" his "Djin Djin," written in collaboration with Mr. Williamson, held the record in Australia. The "Mother Goose" show has been more productive than anything the proprietary has touched for thirty years, even surpassing the Sara Bernhnrdt and other distinguished successes Speaking of the success of his own pantomimes, Mr. Royle says that he is sensitively sorry, but financially glad that the "Mother Goose" pantomime has beaten the "Djin Djin" record for business bv quite 100 per cent. * • At a Wellington wedding last week a gentleman, noted for his embarrassmo speeches, rose to propose a toast. Everyone present who knew him became a picture of keen anxiety, and not with needless fear, for, smiling blandly on the company, he said finally "Ladies nnrl gentlemen, I drink to the health of the bridegroom. May lie see many days like this!" The Hon. J. A. Millar is probably feeling like a cat when it is stroked both ways. The Wellington Trades and Labour Council are making his life miserable by heaping upon him all the odium at their command, and the Auckland Labour party are applauding him to the echo. Perhaps the Wellington party are a blessing in disguise A very wise discerner of men said ■ ' 'Woe unto you when all men speak well of you." In this respect Mr. Millar is very safe.

There is a clergyman in Wellington who generally gets the first call to weddings and funerals. His popularity ensures that distinction to him. He is the Rev. J. Kennedy Elliott, but he is just as often called "J.K." Known as the wit of the Assembly, one can see from the twinkle of his eye that he has all the humour and wit of the true born Irishman. Kennedy EJliott is what the Americans call an "Ulster S co t"— a native of the North of Ireland. He born m the city of Belfast, studied at Queen's College, and is a graduate of the Royal University. After the completion of his arts course, he studied theology in the Divinity Hall connected with the Insh Presbyterian Church, and was ultimately licensed as a preacher. • • » These North of Ireland people are of Scottish exti action, and Lord Duffeim fittingly descnbed them when he spoke of himself as a Scotchman improved by a good dash of Irish blood and by long residence in the Emerald Isle. JMr. Elliott had successively three pastoral charges m Ireland, in the counties or Down, Antrim, and Londonderry. ±±c was ordained on the lOfch December, 1872, and has had a very varied experience He has a saving sense of humour, and tells many a humorous story If he had been born into the Roman Church instead of the Presbyterian, he would have made a splendid Father O'Flynn. • * * Mr Elliott arrived in Wellington on the 17th October, 1884, m the steamship Doric. .The cause of h s coming was the serious JlneMof his wife, who was ordered abroad by the doctors Her life was prolonged a mtle bv the change, but she died, on the 18th August, 1887. He fi remained in Wellington, and was the first minister of the Kent Terrace congregation, oi which he is still pa«tor. He has a great love for the legal Profession and Sften attends the law courts. On^ one SXnd «-- the P^dingiudg; and upon the appearance of the three cleric" he gravely asked the Crown Prcsecntor S Mr. McCallum • "Are these the plaintiffs? • - Mr Elliott has filled some public Wellington Benevolent Trustees. Has SSoKrch honoured him «iakmg him Moderator in the year 1901, and this is the only recognition of merrt the deed for incorporating union with the Southern Church. Sneaking recently at a meeting at which thefe were present two bislops, J« Anglican anS the other a Roman CathSic, Mr. Elliott who followed thie prelates) premised has remarks by assssaSss speak with common sense. Referring to Presbyterians at the same meeting, he sas he was afraid Presbytenanism was not understood. . Some .people were under the impression that the Moderator of the General Assembly was a man who was a moderate drinker. Mr. Elliotts family consist of two sons and one daughter, one of his son 8 being a medical practitioner in Wellington, and the other practising m thia city as a dentist Two rather sti iking travellers slipped away to Lyttelton by the Wednesday evening ferry boat. They have been dcing a big business stroke m the colony, and are making southward to catch the Manuka at the Bluff on the 23rd, for Melbourne. Messrs. Preston and Worth were the gentlemen, ihey have each taken an interest in mining jn past years, but at present they are travelling in the milky way, representing the big Nestles milk enterprise. In Australia they are setting up factories which mean an outlay in all or £400,000. In New Zealand they don t catch up to that figure, but they are spending a big pile of money in order to develop their splendid industry. • • ♦ Taking the travellers separately, Mr. Herbert J. Preston is a man who has travelled more than most people. Me has been eleven times to the Old Land, several times to the Land of the Midnight Sun— in fact, the fiords of Norway and Sweden are favourite calling places of his— ltaly, Germany, America, and five years ago he represented the Western Australian State Government at the great Japanese Exhibition at Osaka. His friends say that he has made one fortune, and is now busy making his second. It is a fact, at •«-p r«+A that he followed gold mining

on the Western Australian fields in the early rushes from the putting in of the peg to behind the scenes in London financing, where he personally placed and floated some big things. « *■ ♦ Mr. Preston has been travelling fairly incessantly for twenty-two years, and during the last nine months he has covered 9000 miles. The only big block he has had while en tour was m the big Waikato flood last January, when be was pent up in Huntly for some days. He is making homewards now to his palatial house at North Shore Sydney, where he sports a couple of motor cars, cuts up the haiboui with his oil launch, and generally enjoys what little leisure he allows himself. The second gentleman, he of the fair Saxon complexion and splendid physique, Mr. Reginald T. Worth, A.M., 1.C.E., is a native of Cheshire, England, and ha-s come out to Australia and New Zealand as a special representative of the great condensed milk manufacturers to arrange sites for factories, and to settle other important business. Mr Worth has also travelled extensively in Europe and the dependencies, but has just completed his first trip to New Zealand. He has a most sanguine belief in New Zealand's future as a dairying country, and considers that it is a land for fortune-making with cows. • • • "Let me get out of town and be alone, away from roofs and fences and the everlasting shop windows, and if I can climb some hill and stancTin the wind and sunshine, I am satisfied. You see," said Miss Grace Palotta, "the audience is my sweetheart, and I owe them so much that I delight dturing the day to think how I can give them of nr very best in the evening." Miss Palotta has seen enough of New Zealand's scenic glories to make her long foi a leisurely trip through the colony, and one of the chief attractions to her in the present tour is the fact that she is to visit Rotorua. ♦ • ♦ The bright comedienne is eagerly looking forward to meeting her "little mother" at Monte Carlo when the present tour is finished. For twelve years now she has provided for her mother, and since her father's death there has been a more than ordinary bond of affection between them. From Monte Carlo, where Miss Palotta is to meet her mother, they are to go to Vienna, which is home. "Home, where we eat music with our bread and cheese, and drink to dear old Wagner

with our glass of milk. You know, I arc. only a little more plebeian than old Omar Khayyam. He wanted his flask of wine and music beneath the bough, and I prefer milk. That is the only difference." After a stay at Vienna, Miss Palotta •s going to take a pair of thick boots, i short skirt, and her little mother to the Austrian mountains, and let the sunshine go right into her heart, so that she can bring it back to the colonies. Miss Palotta says that she hopes the people here will not throw bricks at her if she comes back again, but she does want to return. It is her ideal life here, and she is just charmed with the people. Speaking of her family life, the popular actress stated that her father died at the age of fifty years, just when he had given the three children a splendid education, and was going to enjoy a life of ease and comfort. His death decided Miss Palotta in her wish for the stage. • • One of her brothers is married in London, where he is cashier in a bank. The other is an architect at Bloemfontein South Africa, and is unmarried. Miss Palotta has, of course, had no end of compliments paid her on the score of personal charm and professional accomplishment, but she regards- a letter received from an Australian girl a few weeks ago as unique. The young lady wrote to Miss Palotta to say that she (the aspirant to the stage) had! no talent that she knew of, but she had seen Miss Palotta act, and, seeing that she had got on so well, she (the Australian girl) would like to go on the stage also. She was quite willing for Miss Palotta to take her up. « • « Mr. Joseph Ellett Page, formerly Town Clerk of Wellington, and a man without a single enemy, passed over the great divide at his residence, Khandallah, on Wednesday morning last. Of a cheery and genial disposition, Mr. Page was extremely popular, and even hard-headed business men about town speak of him as a most lovable man. When m Wellington as Town Clerk, Mr. Page took a keen interest in bowls, and was for years a member of Ihe Victoria Bowling Club. In the days of his youth he was a very fine cricketer, and the old school of Wellington cricketers will remember some of his splendid performances on th© fipld. • • * When living in Austin-street, he took a prominent part in the affairs of St. Mark's Church, and for a long time held the position of choirmaster there

under the late Rev. R. Coffey. After removing to Khandallah, he becanM secretary to the District Fire Board, and treasurer of the Benevolent Xruatees. He was also the secretary of the Seddon Memorial Fund, and wu an indefatigable worker in these interests. Mr. Page was a native of Suffolk, England, and came to New Zealand in the barque Langstone, with bis young family, in 1875. His wife and four sons and six daughters survive him. • * • One of the serious men of the party, though not sombre, is a fair description of Mr. H. Phydora, who is attracting widespread attention by his impersonation of "Mother Goose." A man slightly under medium height, sharpfeatured, and not at all goose-like, he began his career as a vaudeville artist, and then drifted into the drama. The etas'- of company in which he gained his earliest experience may be judged by th^ fact that on one occasion, after playing a comedy character in a fouract drama, he had to strip, put on tights, and play through a six-scene burlesque, alternating the parts of the "Beast" and the "Ugly Sister" as the scene changed. * • • But, Phydora reckoned he could fill the bill, and he fought his way bravely oO the finish. It was a great night for hirr when he appeared at half-an-hour's notice as "Wun Hi," in "The Geisha," and made such a success that th? members of the Daly Theatre Company assembled after the performance to cheer him. Phydora then took first place among burlesque comedians under Mr. George Edwardes' management, and in this capacity he toured through South Africa. » • • While there, Mr. Phydora made friends of several notable military officers, including General Baden Powell, who is a painter as well as a soldier, and indulged in his hobby by doing a water-colour sketch of Mr. Phydora as Tweedlepunch, in "Florodora." This tribute to Mr. Phydora's ability now has an honoured place in his Brixton flat, in London. • • • Among Mr. Phydora's many and varied experiences is a thirsty one, which occurred while travelling from Mafeking to Bloemfontein. On the trip the company ran short of water, and the days were very hot indeed. At last they approached a place named "Fourteen Streams," and an exclamation of delight was unloosed from the parched throats. "But, oh, the satire of it." says Mr. Phydora, "there wasn't a drop of water in the station. In fact, I don't believe the people of 'Fourteen Streams' had ever heard of water!"