PERSONAL ITEMS FROM LONDON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12909, 4 July 1905, Page 6

PERSONAL ITEMS FROM LONDON.

[FROM OUR OW2T CORRB3POSDEKT.]

London, May 27.

Lady Ranfurly took Lord Brave's house, 4, Buckingham Gate, for her dance last Friday night. A great many guests were present, including some from New Zealand; the spacious drawingrooms. of the house were thrown into one and were superbly decorated 'with roses and double pink geraniums. The whole scheme of floral decoration, winch was carried out by Goodyear, was pronounced to be a triumph of art. The hostess, in white and silver tulle, wore an emerald and diamond tiara, while her daughter, Lady Constance Knox, was in a soft white dress through which gleamed an underdress of spangled silver. The annexe had been cleverly built over the garden, and the walls, panelled with tapestry, made a becoming background for the pretty dresses of the ladies present. ,■■'■■'

Mr. Edward Wakefield was the principal speaker last Tuesday evening at a meeting in Ed'gbaston, Birmingham, called by the Free Trades Association. He said that Mr. Chamberlain had taken every opportunity .to make fiscal reform a' party question, and to drive out of the party everyone who differed from him. Speaking as an old colonial administrator, he denounced Mr. Chamberlain's attempt to drag the colonies into party strife. The colonies, he said, had shown a dignified restraint. The disingenous way in which the question had been handled by the Tariff Reform League, from the leader to the lowest member of the party, was arousing in the colonies a feeling of indignation, almost of shame, that great statesmen, leaders of empire, should stoop to such low devices for party purposes. " A man who ' thought Imperially' without thinking geographically and historically was an unsafe guide," Mr. Wakefield contended. To suggest that the colonies would break away without preferential tariffs was.'a bitter insult, to all of them, and was without the slightest justification .or foundation in fact."

' Mr. Philip Sydney Ardern, who is a New Zealander, and a graduate of Auckland University, seems to have had a curious experience at Oxford the other day, where he is now continuing his studies at Exeter College. Mr. Ardem was officiating 'as Cross-bearer in a procession during the' ordinary service at a church in Percy-street, Cowley St. John, when a man named Benjamin Blackwell, a painter by trade, entered' the church, apparently in a state of great' excitement, seized Mr. Ardem by the throat and forced him over a chair. When brought up before the Magistrate's Court, Blackwell behaved in a very violent and ecoentrio manner, but whether he believes that the mantle of the late Mr. Kensit has descended upon his shoulders, or whether he was endeavouring to ventilate some private grievance against the clergyman who was.stated to "own" the church, is not made at all clear by the report of the proceedings. There is a cryptic allusion also *to some man, " Donkin," who " had been exposed in Truth in four articles," but who the said Donkin might be, or what he had to do with this case, remains an unsolved enigma. In the end Blackwell was bound over in £10 to keep the peace for twelve months and he was ordered to pay 2s 6d costs.

Mr. ' George Hutchison,' who returned to England a short time ago, after a very satisfactory visit to South Africa, has now finally decided to return to New Zealand, with the view to permanent residence there. ; " I cannot stand South Africa any longer," he said to me yesterday. "I consider it is spoilt as a British colony. The introduction of Chinese labour was a fatal step, and I foresee much trouble in the future. When responsible Government comes, the Boers will have the ascendancy; I do not say or think that they will "be disloyal to England, but they "will certainly have no enthusiasm on her : behalf. So, what with their influence on the one hand, and that ;of the foreign financier on the other, South Africa will not be at all, a country suitable' for British settlement. Certainly, in this last case I arrived there just at the right time, when there was a considerable boom in shares, etc., and personally I have done well enough. But, so far as I can judge at. present, South Africa will not see me again. Then, I cannot stand the English winters; this would mean my always wintering' abroad if I settled down here, and so I intend to go out to New Zealand very ■ shortly to prepare for talcing up my residence there permanently. My wife. and family. will remain at Home for two or three years, so that the younger ones may complete their education, and then probably I shall make .another run Home and take them back to New Zealand with me."

Latest callers at the New Zealand Agency-General have included: Mr. R. Briffault and Mrs". Brifl'ault (Auckland), Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Arlington (Ashburton); Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Osborn (Christchurch) and Miss Osborn, Mr. and Mrs. P. Hohlenberg (Dunedin), and Mr. F. Hohlenberg, Mi-. D. Mann (North Canterbury), Mr. A. P. Cameron (Dunedin), Mr. W. M. Kirkaldy (Dunedin), Mr. N. Fortescue Perston (Nelson), Mr. F. J. ■ Costal] • (Wanga-nui), Mr. E. J. Faulkner (Dunedin), Mr. T • Mute and Mrs. Mute (Oamaru), Mr. and Mrs. Aspinall and Miss Aspinall (Halifax), Mr. A. Chiaroni, jnn. (Dunedin), Mrs. R. B. Denniston (Dunedin), Mrs. Meek (Dunedin), Mr. and -Mrs. Charles M. Luke (Wellington), Mr. C. R. Luke (Wellington), Mr. W. Gee (Christehurch),' Mr. E. W. Gahites, Miss Gee, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Russell (Palmerston North), Mr. E. K. Smythies and Mrs. Smythies (Riverton)j Mrs. E. L. Stephens (Riverton), Mrs. -Jacob Joseph (Wellington), and the Misses Joseph, Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Broad (Inver-ca-rgill), Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Kingsland, Captain E. Harvey (Wellington), Mr; and Mrs. Goodson (Auckland), Mrs. Nicol (Plimmerton) and Miss Nicol. Mr. D. Brav (Wellington and Dunedin), Mr. John Reed (Oamaru), Major. Nelson George. Mrs George, and Miss Dorothy Sutton (Auckland), Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wilson (Auckland), and Miss Wilsen, Mr. Welbv E Fisher (Gisborne), Mr. G. W. Selth (Dunedin), Mr. R. W. Gibbs and Mrs. Gibbs (Wellington), Mr. G. S. Short (Wellington), Mrs. H. E. Stevens (Christchurch) Mrs. Withers (Christehurch)/ Miss M. A.' Boyd (Dunedin).