PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10413, 10 April 1897, Page 4 (Supplement)

PERSONAL ITEMS.

Both the Princess of Wales and Princess Beatrice are exceedingly fond of lace, and much interested in all that has connection with it. It is said that Princess Beatrice places far more value on her possessions in the way of lace than on her jewels, and that her collection of lace is almost priceless. Everybody knows the great interest Lady Henry Somerset takes in temperance work, and it is not surprising to hear that sho is organising a society of ladies for tbe purpose of platform speaking in this connection. They are to receive a special training for this work, so that they may be thoroughly acquainted with the subject on which they speak. The wife of the new Archbishop of Canterbury is in many ways an accomplished lady, One of her accomplishments — namely, shorthand—ie particularly useful to her husband. She is a clever shorthand writer, and it is easy to understand whab a great assistance this knowledge must be to him in the enormous amount of work entailed by

bis position. Cecil Rhodes is no lover of the prevailing fashion in dress. Silk hats and other abominations he seldom over wears. While on his last journey to England he scandalised the people on board the liner by appearing in a pair of old leather slippers, a grey felt hat with no binding to the brim, and a flannel shirt clumsily tied at the throat with a thin white necktie of pongee silk. It is often the case that a person especially gifted in one way has but mediocre general talents. This is not bo, however, with Mdlle. Nikita, the well-known singer. In addition to her great musical talents, she is exceedingly clover at languages and pointing, and is a writer of no mean ability. The lady is an American, and has studied under some of the greatesb lights of the musical world.

There is one member of Her Majesty's Government- whose holidays are hampered by an important drawback. Lord Halsbury, as Lord Chancellor, is obliged to spend the Recess somewhere in Scotland or England. He is now enjoying the bracing air of the extreme north of Scotland. The reason he may nob cross tbe sea is that he keeps in his possession the Great Seal, and thab ib is treason to take this across however short an ocean passage.

Though she retired from the world eo quietly and unobtrusively that few people knew that she had really left it, Christine Nilsson, the great singer, ie etill a beautiful and most charming woman. For her favourite hobby, the Countess De Casa Miranda, as ehe now is, has taken up a collection of laces, both black and white. For jewellery she has no great liking, though her collection of precious stones is one of the most famous in Europe.

Sir Alfred Milner, who has been appointed Lord Rosmead's successor in the offices of Governor of Cape Colony and High Commissioner of South Africa, is said to possess a wonderful memory. It is recorded that on one occasion, when be was Mr. Goschen's secretary, he was called upon by a journalist for a copy of Mr. Goschen's address to the electors of East Edinburgh. The address bad been sent out by post and there was no copy, but Sir Alfred Milner eat down at once and wrote out the address from memory. When ib was compared with tbe original there were only three words wrong in the whole address of nearly four hundred words in length.

A Roman correspondent) states that the best proof of the baseless character of the alarming reports concerning the health of the Pope ie to be found in the fact that His Holiness continues to give public audiences. On the feast of Ephiphany he received no lees (ban seventy visitors, and chatted freely with most of them—an ordeal from which many a man of less than half his age would shrink. A correspondent writes stating that the recent allegations that the canonisation of Saints U a mare money-petting device is utterly without foundation. The practice of canonising holy and devout men is one which has prevailed in the Roman Church since the foundation of Christianity itself, and it seems strange that these honours should have been given, not on account of those canonised having furnished bright examples of virtue and holiness, but because money had to be raised, The charge ii not merely wicked, but ridiculous.