PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8812, 27 February 1892, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

The King of Greece is about thirty-five years old. He has a complexion as clear as a baby's and speaks with fluency a dozen languages. The Yen. J. Pilkinpton Norris, D.D., Archdeacon of Bristol, was appointed Dean of Chichester on December '28. He was then very ill, and Qn the following day died of bronchitis. The most eloquent pulpit orator in Canada is Dr. George Douglass. _ He is blind, and his hands fall helpless in front of him from paralysis, so that he appears half dead. But no one that hears his voice can remain insensible to the charms of his oratory. Mine. Rubenstein, whose death at Odessa, at the age of eighty six, is just announced, was the first music teacher of her son, Anton Rubenstein, the famous Russian composer. She herself was an excellent musician, and took the greatest pride in her son's career.

Dr. Heinrich Karl Hermann Hoffmann, the eminent German botanist, died on the '27th ult. Like Darwin, Hoffmann was an exponent of the idea that there is no such thing as abiogenesis, bub that even the smallest living beings have their origin with other living beings. Hoffmann has contributed critical essays on Darwinism, the views therein expressed being deduced from botanical facts. He was 71 years old. Mr. Besant has been taking the readers of The Author into his confidence in the matter of hygiens for a literary life. He finds that "frequent changes of scene tend to strengthen the exercise of the imagination." Accordingly, he betakes himself as often as he can to country places, and makes notes of what he sees and hears, with the result that he finds, when he gets back, his work becomes brighter, the handling firmer, the colouring more delicate. Freemasons throughout the country will lament the loss of Colonel Shadwell Henry Gierke, the Grand Secretary of their Ancient Order, who died on Christmas Day. Colonel Gierke had held his post of Grand Secretary since 1880, when he succeeded the late Mr. John Harvey, receiving the collar of Grand Secretary from the hands of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. During his service in the Army the Colonel was identified with the 21st Royal Scots Fusiliers, with whom he distinguished himself in the Crimean campaign. There are 5 feet 10£ inches of Mr. J. Sexton Simonds, the new chief fireman of London, and he is big and strong and broad-shouldered in proportion to his height. Physically he is the beau ideal of , a commander, big and brave and handsome. He was born in London in 1843, his father being Professor J. B. Simonds, a distinguished veterinary scientist, who was appointed by Government to visit foreign countries and report upon the cattle plague. Mr. Simonds was articled to Messrs. Ransomes, Sims, and Head, the agricultural engineers, of Ipswich, and as an apprentice ho went through the engineering and mechanical shops, obtaining a sound commercial knowledge, which has proved most valuable to him at Southwark. It has enabled him to improve many of the appliances and to devise many new ones. For thirteen years after leaving Ransome's, Mr. Simmonds was engaged, and successfully engaged, in organising and directing a largo mechanical business in Ireland. Then in 1881 he was appointed by the late Metropolitan Board of Works second officer to Captain Shaw. When Shaw was there there was only recognition for ono man. But the comparative obscurity of subordination to Captain Shaw could only hide his good work. It could not prevent his doing his work well. He did much for organisation of the brigade, and much for the wellbeing of the men under him. He has been present, sometimes in charge, at many of the great fires of London during the last ten years, several times has been injured, but only once, when his eyes wore hurt, has he been for a single day absent from his duty. Onco at the big fire on Bankside he was struck by falling timber, cut in tho neck, and his tunic cut to shreds. But Mr. Simonds' pride is nob in the big fires that have taken place. His joy is in tho remembrance ot the big fires that have not happened—the big fires that, owing to imI proved organisation, batter appliances, and 1 proved organisation, better appliances, and better discipline, tho brigade has been | enabled to prevent.