ALL SORTS OF POPLE

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 924, 28 March 1918, Page 4

ALL SORTS OF POPLE

QUITE a flutter wa caused in. official circles when the National Efficiency Board announced, without consulting the Minister of Education, that it intended to carry out a rather thorough investigation of New Zealand's education ; system. On the face of things, the procedure looked _ like a vote of no-confidence in the Minister, and the Hon. Hanan evidently made a : pretty strong protest, against this interference without notice, for thereappeared in the press a few days after the original announcement some verynice and tactful references to the efficiency of the Minister of Education, and his agreement with the objects; of the inquiry. So the storm-blew over. The man in the street wants to know if the Efficiency Board is the right body to do the work. The short-lived Mackenzie Government set up an Education Commission which made useful recommendations, many of which subsequently got into our Statutes, but this Commission consisted of education experts. Is the Efficiency Board short-of work? ■* * *. ' ' * The Minister of Education having accepted these new advisers, he can now claim an easy record as the most advised Minister in the.. National - Cabinet. Leaving'out the "experts' m education who are to be found whereover there is a newspaper to publish their long letters, Mr. Hananis blessed or otherwise with advice from the TJniversity Senate, the Council of Education, all the Education Boards, School Committee Associations, Teachers' Institutes, and his own departmental advisers. Happy man! He is a good listener, and the Ministerial pigeonholes are very capacious. * * ■ * .'/*■' When we first heard the story of the miraculous escape from the Aparima disaster of a Wellington cadet named E. Bevan, we were disposed to believe that the circumstances recounted were too marvellous to be true, but as they have been | corroborated by the skipper, Captain Doorly, it is evident that they are correct. Bevan and two other cadets were in a cabin together, when the torpedo struck the vessel. Two of the cadets were-killed by the explosion which followed, but Bevan was blown up through the cabin ventilator ten feet high, his clothes stripped off by the violence of the blast. He was thrown quite unconscious on to a raft, and after lying there stunned for. a while, the ship having meanwhile gone down, he recovered hi s senses, remembered that the raft tank contained signalling flares, and used one to attract attention, with the result that he was picked up by a rescuing boat. , ■ ■• * '• * '•■■ * ' ?• ' ■•'■. The term of New Zealand's General Manager of Railways, Mr. E. H. Hiley, will be up next July, and thereis.much speculation about his reappointment. The probability is that the ■/' National Government will avoid any controversial business and leave Mr.; Hiley in the enjoyment of his three thousand a year for the period of the war. If there were a party Government the matter would, no doubt, be opened up, but at present Mr. Hiley is quite safe, though, judging by the Christchurch business men's deputation last week, there's thunder in the air. • * * * * ; "Miss Tatiana Romanoff,'.' second daughter of the deposed Czar, seems to have escaped from Russia , and the story of her fictitious marriage was not the invention of an American spacewriter. On the authority of the head of the news bureau of the Russian Post Office in New York, the young lady underwent a fictitious ceremony of marriage with the son of her father's former chief chamberlain (Baron Fredericks'), and in this way gained a certain measure of freedom from observation, which she utilised to escape to Harbin and thence to Japan, where she took passage to San Francisco. The exCzar's daughter will work' for the Russian. Civilian Relief, she will write short fairy stories and give dance performances, and she desires to lecture to American women on conditions. in Russia.: She will exhort the people of the United States:. not to leave Russia to the mercy of the Socialists, traitors. and Germans, but to help her people to unite for the Allied cause. •'. ' ■ #■. * * Some Wellington returned sick and invalided soldiers speak glowingly of the kind hospitality extended to them by certain good folk over Nelson way. They have been treated, quite unostentatiously, to a holiday and fest that must go a long way towards restoring them to their former good health.

Complete strangers, they have been taken right into their hosts' homes and moreover have been made to feel quite ■at home. . Notable amongst these kindhearted Nelson hosts are Mrs. (Dr.) Hudson, of Tapawera, and Colonel and Mrs. H. Deck, of Motueka. It is to be hoped that their worthy example will prove infectious and that other country folk who are able will extend their hospitality to soldiers war-worn and broken in health. The father of one of these returned soldiers has shown the Free liANCe, with tears of gratitude in his eyes, a letter he has received from his son. The soldier acknowledges the kindness and hospitality of : his hosts by saying: . "We are having such a fine time. Everybody down this way is anxious to give usl a good time and if we were to accept all the invitations we get to go and stay with people we would be here for another six months. . We have been out motoring every day since we have been here and believe .me it is good." The father of this boy considers that the kindly action of these hospitable Nelsonians deserves mention and praise and the Free Lance quite agrees with him. * * * ' * ■ Mrs. Massey, wife of the Prime Minister, has become President of the Sydney Street Soldiers'' Club. This is a busy, not an ornamental office, and Mrs. Massey, apart altogether from her official position, is well entitled to. the honour. New Zealanders do not see or hear much of the Prime Minister's wife, for she hates publicity and is quite, pleased to keep in the background, seeing to the domestic comfort of our leading politician without worrying about the number of rays of limelight she can attract., Mrs. Massey's first duty as the President of the Club

was to organise a supply of clothing for the unfortunate settlers in' Ohakune district who were burned out of house and home. * * * * A good deal more fuss is being made in Germany and neutral countries than in England over Lord Lansdowne's pacificism. To those who have closely followed Lord Lansdowne's career, his latest performance does not altogether come in the nature of a surprise. He was never a 1 good fighter. When put intoi a tight corner he was ever for backing down, and the period of his leadership of the Tories in the House of Lords was coincident with some of the worst disappointments and rebuffs suffered by his party. Mr.: Lloyd George never had difficulty in making rings round him. "Wobbly Lansdowne" was his unofficial title long before he perpetrated his current stupidity. * «■ * * A man who> will do down in history as one of the famous' personages of the war is Lieut.-Commander Norman Wilkinson, E,.N;V.D., who made ships look like dizzy nightmares. He invented marine camouflage, which, as everybody knows, "breaks up" .the vision of a ship at sea until it looks Mke smacks chasing whales or sunshine chasing destroyers, or wrecks, or islands. Before he became a camouflagist Lieut.-Com-mander Wilkinson engaged, in the peaceful art- of painting pictures on canvas. He got.. his idea from nature, the study of chameleon in its change of colours; light, shade, and shadow in the woods, but, above all, by studying "mirage." The first experiments were made in the Thames at Putney with small camouflaged models. The celebrity has just been married to Miss Eva McKenzie, a lady of great wealth, who has been forewoman in a shell factory.

Wellington lost a well-known citizen last week in Mr. Joseph Mandel, news of whose death came with almost tragic suddenness. Three days before the end he was as hale and hearty as usual arid; only that morning had arrived from a business visit to Christchurch. Illness supervened and two days, later he was operated on for appendicitis. He never rallied after the operation. For nigh on half-a-eentury Mr. Mandel had been closely and actively identified with Wellington business; life, steadily establishing his position from the time when,, in 1875—then .a> youth of 18—he first stepped ' ashore 'on what is now Lambton-quay. He leaves a widow and a family of three daughters (Mrs. E- J. Hyams, Mrs. J. Salmon, and Miss G. Mandel) and two sons (I>r. Jjeo Mandel; of the Royal Naval" Hospital, Edinburgh, and Master E>. Mandel. '* ''*■'''■■"*■.: ,* . ' : '-.-- ; Mile. Eve Xtavalliere, a popular Parisian actress, whose adventures and extravagances have for years furnished" gossip for the boulevards, has decided to take the veil. 111-health and misfortune have overtaken her in .recent years and now she has sold what remained of her former splendour, distributed her jewels and dresses among her friends', and is going abroad to enter a Carmelite convent.