A NEW ZEALANDER AS BARONET AND TOBACCONIST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10426, 26 April 1897, Page 5

A NEW ZEALANDER AS BARONET AND TOBACCONIST.

SIR H. YELVERTON GORING. [FROM OOR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, March 20. Mr. HaHry Yelverton Goring, formerly of Mew Zealand, at present a tobacconist at Tamworth, in Staffordshire, who has just succeeded to the family baronetcy, has been Interviewed today by a representative of one of the leading daily papers. It appears that on Thursday ho received a telegram from a friend in Lichfield congratulating him on his title, and referring him to the obituary notices in that day's Times. " 1 said to my wife,"said Sir H. Y. Goring, "1 doubt my friend is hoaxing me, but anyhow I'll go to the public reading room and see the paper. So after I had had my dinner I went, and read the notice of the sudden death of my cousin, Colonel Sir Charles Goring. I had never anticipated a fatal termination to his illness, particularly as he was of the same age as myself, and hart not gone through the many hardships that I have." "You had, 1 believe, in your youth, joined the army as a private ?" " Yes, I went out with my father and mother to New Zealand, where my father became private secretary to Sir George Groy. the then Governor. My father continued in the capacity of private secretary to the succeeding Governors for thirty years, when he retired on a pension. After 1 went out I could find nothing to do, and I went to Sydney to look for work. I couldn't get any, so I joined the First Battallion Twelfth Suffolk Kegiraent in l>S6t), I had, like many other members of our family, been inclined to military life. I was then nineteen." "Did you find any friends in the regiment?" "No, I knew no one, and the promotion 1 got was simply on my merits. I was made sergeant at Sealcot (India) in 1869. In 1872 I returned home from India and was stationed at Dover. Afterwards I came to Lichfield as clerk to the officer commanding 19th Brigade Depot. I retired in 1886, and I now have a pension of 25? 6d per week. I had a big family, and they needed keoping, so I entered the tobacco business, and have had it for the lafeb seven years." "Do you think you will stay in Tamworth ?'' I feel quite satisfied with my present position, so far as it goes. lam quite comfortable, and did not want this thing at all—this honour which has been put upon me without my wish. Ido not expect that I should ever come into it, as my cousin . was of the same age as myself, but I always thought my eon would get it some day. He is in Now Zealand, managing a sheep ranch. I've knocked about the world a great deal." An old woman entered, placed a penny nn the counter, and Said, "Mr. Uoting, I'll hare the usual," whereupon the baronet took down tho snuff caddy from the shelf and weighed her out a supply, The baronetcy is an old ono, the present baronet being the 11th holder of the title. His wife is the daughter of a Lichfield musician named Hickin. They have five sons and two daughters, The eldest daughter is a clerk in the local post office, and the grownup boys, except the eldest, are engaged in factories in the district.