NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14224, 22 November 1909, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON.

Sib John Kniix, the new Lord Mayor of London, was born in September, 1856, at Blackheath, and was- educated ; at Beaumont Lodge, Old Windsor; at Feldkirch, Austria;" and at Solesmes, near Sable, France. He married in 1882, Mary Edith, third daughter of Mr. John Hardman Powell, of Birmingham, and afterwards of Blackheath. . Lady Knill is the granddaughter of the celebrated architect Augustus Welby Pugin, whose exquisite art • contributed so largely to the beauty of the present Houses of Parliament." Sir John Knill has two children, a, son and a daughter. He was ex-officio member of the Lewisham Board of Guardians for some years, and in 1893, during his father's Mayoralty, was elected a member of the City Corporation. He became alderman for the Ward of Bridge Within, in 1897, during the Mayoralty of Sir George Faudel-Phillips, and served the office of sheriff with Sir Alfred Reynolds in 1903-4*, under Sir Marcus Samuel and Sir James Ritchie, and during his shrievalty received the Order of the Crown of Italy. Sir John, who is a member of the firm of John Knill and Co., Fresh Wharf, is a justice of the peace for the County of London, and is on the. committee of the Miller Hospital, Greenwich. . He is on the livery of the Goldsmiths' Company, his other guild being that of the Plumbers, of which' he has just been elected master for the third time. The Lord Mayor has travelled extensively, and - has visited, amongst other places, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. He is a Roman Catholic, as was his. father, Sir Stuart Knill. Sir Stuart signalised the fact that he and his son, the present Lord Mayor, served on the Coiirt of Aldermen together (for a period of one year), a most unusual occurrence, by decorating the outer lobby at the Guildhall with the beautiful fresco of heraldic design which arouses the admiration of visitors.

HOW NATIVES TELEGRAPH NEWS.

■I Europeans have frequently marvelled at the rapidity with which news spreads among the natives of barbarous and uncivilised countries. Bishop Wilson, of the Melanesian Mission, gives an interesting explanation of how it is done, in the current number of the Southern Cross Log. He writes :—" News spreads quickly in these islands (the Solomons), and I was shown by the chief of Rumatiri how it was managed. He took his drum, made of a hardwood log, and beat irregularly upon it, very much as a telegraph clerk jerks out his message on his instrument. When he had finished he said that that meant, " To-morrow the feast will take place, come to it, and behave well at it. Let there be no quarrelling amongst ourselves, or be second to the enemy." Again he beat out a different tune which, he said, contained the names of all the villages invited to the feast, and exactly what food was provided, and that it would be dealt out fairly to all, without favour. Then he beat out that the enemy was approaching 'and the villages around must muster with spears and shields. " Let men not suppose that all was well, for danger was at hand." Then he varied his tune again, and told all that his drum would . bark that "the village has been raided, and so many had Keen killed." Even on the drum it was a melancholy story, played in a minor key, and extremely expressive. These drum-messages carry for miles in, the still air of the forest, and can be read by a few in every village, and passed on. So the news is spread."