All Sorts Of People

Free Lance, Volume VIII, Issue 402, 14 March 1908, Page 4

All Sorts Of People

HAVE you seen the new assistantmaster at t!he Techniicatl School yet? No! Well, yo>u ought to make his acquaintance. He's a man to know. The Dulwich parish church baptasmad register certifies that has godfathers and 1 godmothers in his baptism gave hum a mame, saaid name being Harry Linley-Richardsoni. But beaing a. genarus the assistant-master ihas made additions to that name So to give this genual 'new arrival m Wellingtoini his full deserts, ihe us Harry LiaSey-Richardson, R.8.A., figure and landscape paomfter, black and white artist, exhibitor un the Royal Academy in 1900-1, illustrator of numerous popular works, etc., etc. ■* * * There's a happy little twinkle itn his eyes as he says that he is gommg am, for portraiture whilst here in New Zealand. He will get there. We would predict every time that what H. Lm-ley-Richairdson goes for he'll get. There is a joEy determination about him. He has been teaching art in connctojon with technology foir some six or seven years at Home, and mow he has brought his box of callipers along, and is measuring heads at the Wellington School. Reckons he doesn't want to commit himself to any expert opinioni just yet, but he has got a notion that the artistic bump bulges about 110 per cent, bigger out here than t'other side of the equator. Puts it do.win to the climate and God's Own Country. * * « H. Lind-ley-Richardson was educated at the Westminster School of Art to begin with, them went oni to St. Julani's, Paris, and hilt tip against the Latin, Quatre in tihe gay eiity for a couple of years, and soi he follows the Parisian* style of eloquence* — thalt is he talks most fluently and comfortably with hils hands in his pockets and' his legs dangling from a stool. Amongst other illustrating work that he has done for publication, H. Linfev-R. scored hie in Phil May's Annual. AUteo, he has illustrated Goldsmith's "Deserted "Village," an edi'tibn de luxe of George Eliot's works, and a host of others. » * # This Lancer has an idea that he has started on heads and faces down Lambton Quay. At any rate, he has been taking note .of our public "men who run Wellington," and probably he won't illustrate a "deserted village" next time. P.S. — H. LiiniLey-Riehaj-dßon wears a smooth face and wavy hair. His suit when we caught him oni the hop was browm, to match his locks ; he favours a nice shade of green tie, and has aoi ordinary size rootfc. Says that the most heir-bread-th- escape he ever had mi his Mfc was when he narrowly escaped a newspaper interviewer. The Lancer left haim gasping, after summoning medical aid. # » # And the little "batch" shall know him no moire. The Maori kit goeth no longer to the store, and the large "M" at the south end of his shirt front hatth evanished. In fact, E. G. B. Moss is married. For years and years and years E. G. B. has been, growing no younger and no hair. He has referred with greatt cheerfulness to "the henpecked 1 bragade," meaning those contemporary roosters who had more reason for loss of hair. And E. G. B. has done right. "Everything comes to him who wants." He didn/t wait lbujger than) the 3rd of March, for oni tha.t day at Feilding he wedded a charming and acoomplisihed lady, Miss Amy E. Hull 1 , weß-known in scholastic circles a® principal of the Melmerly Collegiate School, in Auckland. • • • The' Feilding telegraph office had coped with previous weddings with one hand, so to speak. It had to call in assistance and peel its collective coat and waistcoat off when the Mosses began to get oongira.tulalte!di. The merry Mosses have meandered Souith to see the cold lakes, and are then going back to Parnell to' fight an election, amd to settle down. E. G. B. excuses himself for getfctiiiDg married by remarking that if he had waited another 25 or 30 years he might have stood a chance of being relegiated to the shelf. It might be as> well alt this juncture to> remind E. G. B.s ancienit 'political friends 1 , Messrs. McGowan, Aitken, and Buchanan, of the fearful risk they run — buifc ye ken the three of them are more or less Scoitch, and its vera expensive, this marrying.

But tli e quaant point about the Moss marriage is that Pii-om deuce prompted someonie to leave E. G. B a. wad of money not long ago. And the Lance has to apologise for having onsliy a fortnight ago repeated the casrto.gato.ry remark that he w as still a baoheHoi*. There is the story of the Ya-nkee who lost a do.g and advertised in the Brazilian "Free Lance" for it. Almost before the ink diry lax that issue an alligator ciaiwled out of a oreek and died in front of the "Lance" office. The Lance alleged things, amd is therefore an allegator. Uus paper therefore has the undying giaitnftu.de> of E. G. B. • • • The great Dominion public us ever seeking 'news. It i*s able to obtain it from Gusborne papers. Here ils >a sJab of news from a Gisboirne souice — "Mr. Gilbert. Maori N.Z.C., who has already retired from the servfce, eevred with distinction in the Maori war as Native interpreter and Judge of the Native Land Oouirt. He has done good wrok in irecenffc years. " One speculates interestedly om who Mir. Gilbert, a Maori N.Z.C., may be, why he has retired from the N.Z.C., where the N..C. head office w, whether theire was a native Land Ooniotit during the Maori war, and what was the particular "wrok" he was engaged un m the office of the N.Z.C. in, recent years. The paper gropes in the dairk aind. if it had ordinary common knowledge it would likely have said- "Captain Gilbert Mailr, N.Z C, who served with distinction, in the Maori war. has retired from the positron of Native- Land Couirt judge, in which position he has done good work." ■* * * G D. Portus, the genual ad\ance manager for J. and N. Tart, has recently joined the Chinese- Exeliißnion League. Theieby hangs a tale. The great and only Portus recently wadltzed into* the shop of a Chunese firunterer at Palmerstoai North, and demanded a bag of the best plums, emphasising the fact that they must be the best, and hang the expense. The Monigoiban smiled the inscrutable smite of the East, and, as he handed over the bag, remarked, "Welly good plum, hoim ; goo' ni/!" and shut the door. Shortly afterwards, when the gemwail advance manager arrived at his hotefll and proceeded to treat his friends to plums, he found one layer of "weMy good" plums, and two of deceased peaches, while the balance was composed of over-ripe tomatoes. If W. B Leyland wants recruits for the National League to repel 1 foreign ilnvadeTs with veJUow skins, he wHT find a staunch and useful one in G. D. Portus.

A man can't lift himself by his own bootstraps, any niore tham be cam lift a tub by the handles if he's standing in it himself. It siimpiy "can't be did." But men do l!itft themselves up by their own efforts in this wo.iid of oius, and one of this "self-i-ajsing' J brand of genius is in the Wellington Customs Department. He answers to the name of George Graig, and is known as one of the most genial and approachable men you could meet aaiywhere along the road between sunrise and sunset. + -n \ In November, 1906, on the retd'rement of Mr. Brewer, George Craig was appo united chief of the Custom© Audit, but that didn't take the edlge off his appetite for study. It's the breath oi life to him. He grows fat on books, and becomes a meo-e skeleton in a month if he takes a holiday from study. His latest achievement lis his seoudniig of the L.L.B. degree, taken up as a kind of bobby between office and bed-time. But after soime several conversations With thils student the Lancer conceaved the notion' that George Craig was- iln foir the science course. He is well up in it, at any rate a.md maybe he will pull' that apple off the tree next. - * ■* His way up so far has been interesting. He won a sohola.rship to> the Dunedm High School! (being a Dunedm boy), and while there passed the Junior University Scholarship, being highest in the Dominion in mathematics. In the Junooir Civil Service examination he was first m New Zealand, and m the Senior was the oinlly candidate who passed the exam, with distinction. The puzzle is to know where George Craig finds' time for it all. His friends coniidenitly belaeve that he studies in hiis sleep. One thim-g certain is that he- spends a lot of his spare time in long, hard "walks over the "Wellington hills, or in gardening, or in teaching has little twin. daughters (of whom he is- no emid proud) the "langwidge" and the use of their fecit. • • • There's a very fine feeling existing between the employers and employees at the well-known city house of Kiirkcaldie and Stains. The members of the firm, the folk in the offices, and those behind the coiunters or in, the workshops, don't spend any time in quarrelhng oir arguing points They a.re clean out for business 1 ©very trime, and they get theTe. Witth this umidei"6tan,diine; al round, the firm has been, able to "state a case" for their staff which has caught ami immensely, and a

nice little function took place alt the warehouse o» Friiday evenrilnig last when Mr. Sidney Kurkoal'ddfe was pres&nited with a handsomely .illuminafted address by the employees of the fiiran to mark their appreciation, of the valued concession recently made to Uhem. * * * The concession was originated on the sxiggestion of the manager, Mr James Dawson, and its outcome dis that Mir. Kurkcaldie has agreed to gitve all those employees who> have been uni the service of the firm for twelve momiths or over one week's holiday per year on full! pay, a ooincessiioin, lit dls understood, new to the drapery trade in Wellington. At any rate, tlhe employees are delighted about it, and weaiit eyes out to show their apprecia^ tion. The presentation was made by Mr. R. Roberts, one of the headls of departments, who voiced' the sentimemft® of the staff o.n Mt. KaTkcaldie's considerate actnon. * * • Passed over the great divide on Monday last Charles William Benibow, than whom no man mi Wellington was more highly esteemed amongst those who knew him and his true worth. O. W. Benibow was firtmly Tooted in the early history of Wellington, having landed heire fro>m Birmingham via London in the ship Borrder Chief, in/ 1870. On his arrival he took up work in, the office of Levin and Co., superintending the itmsuirance work, etc., of the firm. Those were the days of comparatively slow growth ,in Wellington's commercial and mercantile expansion. Before the hydraulic cianes and reclaimed areas girew up, at any rate. • • • Mr. Benbow was as well-known in later years as the Post Office clock in his capacity as manager of the South British Insurance Company in this city. His keen business acumen, his integrity of character, and withal hils naituTally genial nature, endearing him to all ranks of the community. The earlier days witnessed his prowess m athletics, and on the cricket field he excelled before the era of the bil-liard-table wicket in Wellington). But as a chess champion he was most widely and favourably known. The story of his skill in this game has run into books,, and his moves have set players to their task across continents. • • • As a pillar of the Wesleyan Church Mr. Benbow will be greatly missed, and as an Oddfellow of the American Constitution his empty seat will be deplored as greatly as the loss of his sage advisings on .important matters. The deceased gentleman leaves a family of five daughters and one son — Mr. Charles A. Benbow, manager for the A.M. P. at New Plymouth. Mrs. Benbow pre-deceased her husband by a couple of years * • • An echo of the past thrown -to the wands by an Adelaide investigator. xue echo remarks that forty yearns ago the late Premier Seddom and: Mir. McGiilivray, M.P. for Port Adelaide, worked together as foesicker® oai the VvopofDvaHi' gold rushes, and the Me Gaflr livnay dehiged tlhe local promts wiltih remimiscences of the great New Zealand Premier when thatt statesman doied. Kangaroo Island has lately been surveyed, and cut up. Now two adjounmg hundreds on that island are called McGiliivray and Seddom, in that order. The investigator assumes that this order is kept up in the "Ga,zertte" on the principle ' 'that a llitve dog is. better than a dead lion," which lls, to sa.y the least, not complimentary to the live dog. * » * A railway line is to run along the spune of the Kangaroo some day soon, and it is thought that either Seddjpn or McGaliivray will be the township, and that either McGallivray or Seddbn will be a suburb of either Seddoni or MtaGiiLlavray. It is not definaiteiLy known which will be the one, or why it will be the other, or whether both both wiill be neither. There us no particularly viofenit feeling m the maffotar yet, but it is considered likely there won't be. * * # Here's a story that will pass about the laite Detteotive Browne, who had a remarkable career, and about whom much has been wnlttem. One of the late "D's" mates confided it to a Christchurch hooker-ourt> of news. Inspector Broham was conducting a case, and sent the Court orderly to hds office to bring ' 'Roscoe on Evidence. ' ' The man dashed off down the street, and finally turned into a barber's shop where Johnnie Roscoe, a publican, was being shaved. He dragged the unfortunate Roscoe out of the chair, and bundled him uruto the Courlt halfshaved, in spke of Brownes desperate interference. Mr. Fitzgerald, R.M., and all present in the Court, excepting Inspector Broham, Johnny Roscoe, amd the orderly, shrieked themselves hoarse with laughter.

It is mvigoiatwig to see men lepiesentinig warring interests sitting round the "groaning table," drinking champagne, and patting each othei s broad necks, and saying wha good chaps they are. It happened on the laige, much-decked new Huddairt-Paiker steamer Ulimaroa the other day when Captain Langfey Webb, a dihectou or that company, "fed several laage local' shipping men on all the delicacies of the season, and poivied a special diy vintage into them. * * • Don't know that Capfaiin Webb is a particularly common type of sailor man. He is l&ig-e, and ruddy, and confident, but he talks wjith the fluency of a business man. Most saiilor men, can't talk. For instance, tlie skipper of the new ciiaft is the whitehaiTed boy of the company, and if he can talk he won't. In reply to the toast of bus health, Caiptann Vvylhe. said three words and a pot-book. Gaptam Wyllie is stall young One thang noticeable about these large shipping men us that they don't drunk much. They fe«d 'hear.ti.ly, and are well developed about the muscles of the face — especially fch-e- muscle that dnvee th© lower jaw. » * • That new knrieht, Sir James Matfflfs, oozed lowing kindraess, and seemed to infer that the Huddairt-Parker Company only had to coime +o him amd he wou.Ld take the Union S S Company out of the running at once, and the Huddar-Parker sneakers repined in. effect that it would dearly love to see tbe TTmiom Company expand to a fearful extent. Evervbrdv likes to bear Mr. Jones, local Huddairt-Pa,rker manager, say things, because he is q-uaamit. Nobody knows how nervous he is. He trembles with nervousness every time he makes a good pomit, and he makes several in every paragraph • * * There was, of course, the innmatable Tom Wilford amd, as it bad been agreed that tlieore should be no speeches, Tom, whose wicket is just up as chairman or tbe Harbour Board, played a good innings abouifc a column long. Ha filled tbe air with figures, much to the delight of Mr. "Wilfoird, as well as the chairman of the Harbour Boiaird, the member for the Butt amd a barrister who happened to be present The silence of Mr. Harold Beamchamp was not a fair thing, and nobody protested when. Mr. Nathan said nothing about tbe Gasworks or anything else. ♦ * • Frank J. Donohue is dead. It isn't long since that Fraink was in, New Zealand, and chamied old friends of the press here with his bright manner and hus witty style. It was known he was ill, but it w as thought the New Zealand climate might heJlp him to get better. It duel not He bad been for twenty years attached to- the staff of tbe "Sydney Mo railing Herald" as a leader w riter, 'and his style was, keen and cutting. There is mo doubt he was able to' move things more effectively with hi's satire than many dear old bald-headed editois who write Tike a loaded dray ever have oir ever wii'l. *' * * Frank J. Donohue, of course, had been edutor of couinitry papers before he took to the city, and there is no better school for the budding mover of Empires than, the same couruttry press, where the editor wields tbe thunder and the handle as occasion demands, and writes bitter satires on bis own leaders m the correspondence columns. He was a "Bulletin" writer for many years, and bis work in, that papei has been collected and published. He was geniall) and kindly, a good wrilter, a decent friend, and there are men m Wellington who are sorry he has gone. He suffered much during the last months of his life. * ■* * Tbe Marquis of LinJiuthgow, who died recently, was not a particularly remarkable man, except as a meeter of accidents. He, of course, was a prominent personage 1m that he was the first Governor-General! 01 the Common-wealth, and the celebrations that took place when he placed his foot on Australian soil to take the billet were qunrfce unprecedented in the codlonies. Sydney was a, mass of fireworks and loyalty. To use a coEbquaaJiism, it "wen* off its rocker." Lord Hopetoum didin't like it. He didn't like anything of the kind, because he was a quiet chap, who was mostly ill, and intensely nervous. Be oame to Sydney in ill-health, and be left it in, lllbealth, and. in, tears. • • • Lord HopetOUn was not very diplomatic, and he conceived the extraordinary idea of distributing champagne to the great army of drifters who infest Sydney because Sydney is warm and balmy, and ha® splendid parks for sleeping in. The great army sold the champagne at quarter price to the publicans, and bought beer. It was as a horseman that itlhe Marquis showed a great falling off. He was always runmdng up against accddeaijts. He bad fractured ptentty of bones in his time, and although be rode be

never liked it. There is a story told of a Lin-htlhgow pony that the Governor-Genei al had driven for a couple of } ears. The pony was turnout. • • • A joking friend had the pony biought to Government House, kmiowin,g that the G.-G desned a smart anew dog-cart harse. The pony was offered to the G -G foi £10. The G-G Looked it over saw tJhat its haur and tail and fetlocks w ere long, and sooaited' the idea of giving so much few such a scrag. The friend took the pony away, had it clipped, its taal cut, and thoroughly smartened up. Hi.s lordship was chairmed with this new pony, and was quite willunig to pay the £.50 asked for it. And the friend won the bet he had made with a certain aide-dle-eamp But the Marquis was esteemed im Australia focr his krndlv w ays and ge.ii.tle manurea . The people wamted ham to< remain for another "Derm. He. however, went Home, where he foiund it quite as easy to fall off ihorses as m Australia, and he added ia few more broken* rabs and collar boines to his laige TOilLectdomi • • • Some people seem to find that a pol iceman's life is a happy one. If tliev don't, why do.n't they quit the service and become miillionaiires ? Take a man like Sub-Inspector o'Bono>van, for instance, who is a qualified isoilicitoi, and who gives moire free advice than aniv law veir in. this town Why is he a police officer 3 He'd make a good priest, or a country genrtileman of studious habits, or fill any occupation at all that was looking for a quiet, kindly man to woirk it. The Sub-In-spector is one of those soirt of chaps who is always on the guard for fear he should do someone an lniustioe • • • The O'Donovan wouldn't tell 'anyone of amy of the good deeds he has dome, such as taking pity on a family of fatherless baiirns, and bringing them up, but even that's m his leoord. And curiously enough he is of a liteiary tendency, and might have been a pretty good writer if he hadn't been a poJicemam He has a keen eye for "copy" as it is The majority of probationer constables are irresponsible boys fiom the country, and it doesn't hu'it to have a man of high ideals to look up to. • • • Then theie is that unusual policeman, Sergeant Dart, the "schoolmaster" at Mount Cook. He also has passed his law examinations, and is something of an "Admirable Crichtom" as far as accomplishments are concerned. He was a shepherd whecri he joined the police nine years ago, but he wasn't brought up to shepherding He was, in. fact, a pupil of the famous Charterhouse School, m Sunrev — a school with a history anld ti adlitioms. It is a little older than "Mount Cook Boys," having been founded 1.11 1310 as a priory for Carthusian monks. It was later very riohly endowed bv Thomas Sutton, and forty-four boys and "decayed" gentlemen lived there. The charity hospital was established in London, but the soholastfcic linstitutioai is now in Godalminig, and it isn't a charity school any longer, any more than that other famous school, Christ's Hospital (the Bluecoat School) is. Don't know why we deviated from Dart to Blueooats, but to revert momentarily to the former, he is a bit of a medical man, and an authority on sport, and something of a public speaker. And he does not advertise.