ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 816, 18 February 1916, Page 4

ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

MR. Alexander Peebles, a prominent member of the- Whakatane County Council, who arrived in Wellington by Saturday's express on a ■business visit, found himself able on Tuesday, the 15th, to celebrate the 55th .anniversary of his first landing at Port Nicholson or "Poneke," which was then the Maori's neat abbreviation of the English name. The occasion calls up in .Mr. Peebles' mind memories of an exciting event on the passage out in the .ship John Bunyan, a small craft of 466 tons burden, commanded by Captain ■Joseph Allen. It seems that the crew broached the ■cargo on the high seas, and got through -a, considerable quantity of bottled beer before they were found out. The rush _ to Gabriel's Gully diggings in Otago was then on, and fired by the bottled beer and the golden lure, the sailors iiatched a plot to seeize the ship and run her down to the South Island. But .a chance event precipitated affairs before the plot was ripe. The broaching -of the cargo was discovered through one ■of the sailors getting drunk and indulging in violent language. He was promptly put in irons. Then his mates in a body came to the quarter-deck and demanded his instant release. . / -B » » ■ .» Captain. Allen, was a resolute skipper, and quite determined to quell any disorder. He whipped out his revolver, and warned the mutineers at the peril of their lives to advance a step further. The ringleader, Daniel McDonald, at •once lunged out with his fist at the -captain, striking him on his right arm, and the revolver, going off, lodged a bullet in McDonald's brain and terminated his career. The captain, still presenting the revolver, stood over the ringleader's body and. called upon the mutineers to give themselves up. Thoroughly cowed by this time they gave in, the manacles were fixed on them, ■and the John Bunyan reached Wellington with her crew of eight sailors in irons. * # •• # * On arrival in port they were at once brought before the R.M. (Mr. B. A. Ferard), and charged with larceny of the beer and the two surviving ringleaders with piracy. ' On their part they •charged the skipper with murder. The case will be found reported in extenso in the "Wellington Independent" of that date, a small paper published twice a week, and the upshot was that I>he eight seamen were committed for trial, while Captain Allen was conmitted on the reduced charge of manslaughter. On Friday, March Ist, 1861, Mr. Justice Johnson* opened the quarterly assize of the Supreme Court. The Grand ■Jury threw out the indictment for manslaughter against the captain, and the common fury found the crew of the John Bunyan guilty of the larceny, and the two ringleaders guilty of piracy. Mr. Izard, was counsel for the defence. In sentencing them to six months' and the two ringleaders to 18 months' additional, Judge Johnson said: "Had it not been for the promptness, determination, and prudence displayed by the captain, there is no telling to what length your conduct might have been carried. It is a fortunate thing for you. for the owners of the vessel, and for the passengers that the captain acted in the ~very manly way in which he did." «»"•»' « . ' '« Thus ended a memorable voyage and its consequences. Among the few passengers on the small ship were Mr. and Mrs. John Peebles and their four children. Peebles pere was on his way from Fifeshire, in Scotland, under engagement to Mr. Purvis Russell, the hig Hawke's Bay squatter,' and Peebles fils, who tells this story, was ~the eldest of the four children. went on from Wellington to Napier in a small cutter, which took about a fortnight to do the trip. Now, after 55 .years, Alick Peebles, drops in to Wellington from the Bay of Plenty, where he is still busily engaged in the heroic work of colonisation, and fond memory passes in the lively incidents which heralded his first landing in 1861. The case of Mrs. Savile and her daughter, both employed by the British War Office despite the fact that the former was born in Germany of German parentage, created a sensation in the Old Country. Mrs. Savile is the wife of an English rector at Beverley, in Yorkshire, and additional particulars to hand by the last mail reveal that her father was a German count, her brother a major in the German Army, and her cousin a German general. The cables have already related how they had entertained a son of Von Tirpitz before

the war. Since the war broke out, Mrs. Savile had written to her brother, the German major, and had received letters from him. By order of the British authorities she was -compelled to leave the east coast of England. But, notwithstanding all these reasons against her; comfortable billets were found .. for this German lady and. her daughter in tii e British ' War ' 0 ffice. •» ' ■ • * ■ * . The case was fully ventilated in the press, and the pertinent question was asked how was it ,that Mrs. Savile, whose husband, the_ Rector of Beverley, was in receipt of a salary of £800 a year; and her daughter could find wellpaid posts in the "War Office, when there wer e hundreds of wives and daughters of dead British soldiers who would be glad of such work. Of course, the usual "naice" people—-friends of the Saviles, canie forward with statement* that they had known the family for years and years and years, and they made-.hot accusations., of "persecution, etc., etc. The papers remarked that both mother and daughter were "surprisingly beautiful and ■ attractive," but even this does not jdtei the facts of th e case'as "stated above. * * ■» # Ulstermen are justly proud of their Roll of Ho.nour —in fact, so should be all Irishmen alike, for aren't they all sons of Erin? It adds lustre to many names famous in Irish history, such as, for instance, Blackwood, Cricliton, Brooke. O'Neill, Hamilton of Killyleagh, and Pottinger. Instances of titled Irishmen on the Roll are very frequent. Amongst them is the Earl of Erne—better known as Viscount CricKton —who has been reported missing for many months. The Ear]: of Ranfurly has lost his only son. the Earl of Antrim,, a brother and a nephew, and the Earl of Castlestewart his heir and a nephew, in addition to a second son who is long posted as wounded and missing, discount Templeton's heir, Viscount Lifford's younger son, the Countess of Clanwilliam's brother, a brother-in-law of the Countess of Roden, and a nephew of Lord Dunleath "have also made the supreme sacrifice. BrigadierGeneral Dowry Cole, a gallant member of an old Fermanagh family, fell at Fronielles, fighting with ' the' ardent energy and unfaltering courage which had distinguished his grandfathei at Albuera. "Three grandsons of the first

Lord Lawrence, the great County Derry man, have given • their young lives with a spirit of daring worthy of their noble ancestor, one of them being killed at the head of a storming party. Captain Victor Dane, a brave descendant of a Fermanagh officer who received a jewelled sword from John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, in recognition of his services in Flanders, was killed recently in Mesopotamia. *■ . # •» ■» Lieutenant C. E. R. Pottinger, of the Royal Engineers, proved himself worthy of an honoured name before he was mortally wounded at Ypres. Angus Macdonald Richardson, of the Gordon Highlanders, a young County Antrim officer, with the blood of the Nicholsons in his veins, was killed in the heavy fighting in Flanders on 25th September. Archibald Rowan Hamilton, of the Irish Guards, the only son of Colonel W. G. Rowan Hamilton, and the bearer of a historic name, died in 'France in October of wounds received in action. In this connection it. is worthy of note that two of his cousins have been decorated with the Military Cross for gallantry in the field; another cousin, Lord Frederick Blackwood, has been twice wounded, and yet another cousin, Denys Stephenson, led the remnant of a company of the Scots Guards through a hell of lyddite and machine gun fire, and died rather than yield to the enemy. * ■& <3- ■» Another feature of Ulster's Roll of Honour is that it reveals the names of four eminent members of the Devil's 'Own. . General Sir Charles C. Monro, 1K.C18., who succeeded Sir lan Hamilton, at the Dardanelles, is the son-in-law of the first. Lord Q'Hagan, a former Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Lieut.-Colonel Wilfred Dallas (Earl of Cairns) is the son of the first Earl of Cairns, who eventually became Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The names of two nephews of the first Earl also

figure on Ulster's Roll of Honour— Lieut.-Colonel John McNeile, fell at the Dardanelles, and his brother, Lieut.-Colonel EL D. McNeile, was accidentally killed in Flanders. The only surviving male representative of this family is Lieut. J. H. McNeile, of the Coldstreoni Guards, who was wounded and taken prisoner in " 1914. Major Sir William Lennox Napier, killed in action at the Dardanelles, was a son of the late Sir Joseph Napier, a former Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The present wearer'of the Napier title was wounded at the Dardanelles, and the heir-presumptive is serving on the Western front. The fifth son of the late Lord Chief Justice of England (Lord Russell) has been awarded the D.S.O. honour after being twice wounded on the Western front. and a grandson, Captain John ..Holms, has died of wounds. * • • • * Major-General *L, Miggell, who is appointed Chief of Staff to- Sir Douglas Haig, is an. Irishman: from the- County Liniei'ick. He married the daughter of the colonel of the Warwickshire Regiment, in which he began his regimental work, Miss Eleanor Spencer Field. He has proved himself a hard-working and most capable soldier, and is said to have more -than come to the fine promise he gave in Soxith Africa, and since. «• •» # ' * Captain Frank Beamish, of the Accounts Branch of the G.P.0., and one of the Sixth Contingenters who went to South Africa in a previous war, is about to shoulder his gun again for King and country. It was Captain Beamish who was chosen by the New Zealand Government to write the official history of our troops in South Africa. A propos of this, the. Auckland "Observer" points out that although the Government was guilty of paying for and publishing an atrocity by a Yankee named McMurran "From New York to New Zealand," it hadn't the decency to publish a single line ,of Beamish's book,- although it was completed with a due regard to accuracy after a period of the most painstaking and skilful compilation. No one has ever been able to find out whether the book was pigeonholed by a tired clerk- or. swept out by a sinecurist or burnt at the stake. «■ # * '. * Probably the history of the part New Zealand lias played in the present war will be written up some day, and possibly the benevolent powers that be will see to it that "Official War Correspondent" Malcolm Ross will get the job —that is, if his whereabouts are ascertained in time. If the present war is eventually written up—and it should be —well, then Captain Beamish's unpublished South African war history (as concerns New Zealand) should be incorporated. If the authors do their work well, and in good readable style, the- volume comprising the two histories should sell like hot cakes, and would be found in every home in New Zealand. If the Government doesn't underta_ke the work, private enterprise surely will. 'English papers to hand by the last mail publish a cable from Berlin reporting the death of General Von Emmich. This German general and the victor of Liege are identical —cause of death not stated, but it is more than probable the war was directly responsible. * # ■ # » Vincent Robert Sissons Meredith joined the Crown Law Office in Wellington in May last, and his appointment as assistant law officer was duly Gazetted last week. Gordon Frederick Saunders is similarly Gazetted as cadet in the same office. Phillip Snowden, the English M.P., whose visit to New Zealand a couple of years ago in the interests of the prohibition campaign fell very flat, lately had to cancel a labour meeting, he was booked to address at Bolton, England. The day before the meeting, sandwichboard men paraded the streets of Bolton with a printed notice, asking if loyal citizens would allow their husbands and sons -at the front to be insulted by Snowden addressing a meeting. Presumably, Snowden got "cold" feet when he heard of this invitation to the citizens of Bolton to giv e him a "warm" reception. Many readers of fiction will deplore the death of "Martha Ross," the author of many a charming Irish-life novel. In collaboration with Edith Somerville, she wrote several books of real . Irish humour, amongst which may be named "The Expenses of an Irish R.M." Her last book was . "Naboth's Vineyard." Her real name was Violet Florence Martin, and she was the youngest of ten daughters. Her father married twice'. «• # ' # •& When in New York recently on his loan-raising expedition, Lord Reading, the Lord Chief Justice of England, surprised the legal world by dropping this pearl of wisdom. "The idea that it is the duty of the Law Courts to dispense law is becoming obsolete. It is recognised that the true duty of the Courts is to dispense justice. "This important statement he made at a banquet ac-

corded him by the New York Bar As- . sociation, and it fairly took the breath.' away oi the bigwigs of Dollarland. Whether or no it was the wine that loosed his Lordship's tongue, the fact remains that he was still talking sound horse-sense. Is New Zealand's Bench 'listening ? -«• * ■» * » Stated that Queen Mary, who was becoming—well, rather matronly in appearance, is repotted to be.losing some -of her avoirdupois. One dread she has secretly held, it'is said, is lest she should develop the figure of. her late mother., the Duchess of Teck, whose, proportions were Avhat we politely call comfortable. . . t » ■*• »..•.* A propos of the demand by some of the English press fqr the recal of Lord. Jackie Fisher to the Admiralty, it is said that he has completely reinstated fcuimself in public favour at Home by refusing to reply to Winston-. ChurchilL In fact, the silence of Lord Kitchener and Lord Fisher has made them the two most trusted men in England. •» «■ ».•»_' Well nigh forgotten that - it was Winston Churchill who had a price of £20 put on his head by the Boers during the .South African wai\- This-was their official description of him when he escaped from Pretoria:; "Englishman, twenty-five years old, about sft Bin in height, walks a little with a bend forward, pale appearance, red-brownish hair, small moustache hardly perceptible, talks through the nose and cannot •pronounce trie letter 's' ' properly." This dossier will become a classic. * •» # ■»-.-. News has - just been received . that young A. B. Hamilton, a Wellington boy. has successfully blossomed forth into a full-blown architect. He has been studying his profession in London, and has lately passed his final exam., also securing the £40 Jarvis prize for the best building construction. This is good news for his mother (who lives in Wellington), for the war had made young Hamilton restless, and he was all th e time wanting to break off his studies and follow his soldier-brother, to the fighting' front. The newly-qualified architect is a Wellington, boy, born and bred, and was educated iii turn at the Clyde-quay and Tebhnical schools, finishing off at the Wellington College. He served his articles in Mr. Chatfield's office. * ■ * •» * ■--.-, His brother, Will, who left for the front with the first Expeditionary Force and was wounded at the first landing at Gallipoli, is still lying hors de combat. It was only recently . that his mother learned of the nature of his injuries. She' had repeatedly inquired of him for particulars, and he has now assured her that he was not shot, but adds cheerfully, "I was silly enough to get too close to a shell when it burst, and it knocked me out.". Evidently the concussion unnerved him, for he is being treated for deafness. He is lying in hospital in England, -where he says he receives every attention. •» # • # #, William Shakespeare's ter-centenary happens next April, and a number of Wellington enthusiasts and admirers of the works of the Bard of Avon are holding a meeting to make arrangements to suitably celebrate the event. 'The proposal is to give performances of. a Shakespearian character on Will's natal day. A local elocutionist, Mr. J. Culford Bell, is prime mover in the project, in which he should have no difficulty in beating up interest. * * * * A very pleasant function happened at The Gresham Hotel last week, when a few admirers met Mr. Thomas Shields, Wellington's "daddy of all'the swimmers," and presented him with a handsome medal in appreciation of the work done by him in teaching the nippers the natatorial art. In the course of a few well-chosen, remarks. Mr. J. J. McGrath, who occupied the chair, referred to the good work done by Mr. Shields, and only regretted that something more fitting could. not have been arranged, although the tepid baths would, always stand as a monument to the efforts of their guest in furthering the interests of swimming. Similar remarks were made by Mr. F.H. Bowler, president of the New Zealand Swimming Association, Messrs. H. C. W." Blick and H. W. Harris, chairman and secretary respectively of the local centre, and Mr. J. E. Henrys. * * # *■ Mr Shields suitably replied, and stated that he had always looked upon his swimming work as a labour of love, and like the good fellow he is pointed out that his only desire was .to see everybody able to swim, as besides being a healthy exercise, swimming was nowadays more than ever a necessary accomplishment. May be live long to continue his good work. ~ * * # # • On e of Cornwall's oldest inhabitants, a Mrs. Harriet Eden, is proud of her offspring. She has one son, sixteen grandsons, two great grandsons, three sons : in-law, and six grandsons-iu-law serving with the colours. Where is the grandma who can beat that record?