PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5735, 2 November 1905, Page 5

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, September The president of the Bonni of Trade has on the nomination of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, appointed the if on William Pembor Peeves, the High Commissioner in London for Now Zealand; to be a member of the new Advisory Committee on Commercial Intelligence.

Hr Howard Smith, of Christchurch, accompanied by Miss L. E. Smith, Miss Turton, mid Misses Ida and Fanny Pyue, loaves London bv the P. and O. Liner Marmora next Friday, on route for New Zealand. The party left Christchurch on March Ist, and after snemiing a week in Sydney sailed, for England by the Marmora. arriving on Anril IUUh. Most of their holiday has been spent on the Continent, and in visiting relatives m this country. They spent a few weeks at Brghton and the remainder m London, seeing the sights. A New Zealander named Clifford Jennings is included in Sundew's international troupe of strong men, whom the champion of phyrsical culture has brought to England “to prove that men of all ixationalilics can be equally well developed under* Ws treatment. Ine troupe arrived from the East yesterday, having followed the champion by a later boat.

Tho death of Mr Daniel Heard, a youd" We7iThctoni«n» took place in London this week umTer circumstances exceptionally sad. TJr Heal'd had been ,-Jinlying i'or the law at St. Andrew 6 Dniversily, I'm it is bebeved that overwork had" undermined His system. \\ hue stooping in Loudon this week he had the misfortune to burst a blood-vessel, and expired soon after his removal to the Bolingbroke Hospital Inst YVednesdav. Ho was absolutely alone in London, and had, indeed, no relatives in this country except an uncle in the north of Scotland, whom he had never seen. The hospital authorities communicated with the New Zealand High Commissioner’s Department, by whom the sad nows was cabled to tho bereaved parents in Wellington. The deceased was the eon of Mr Joshua Heard of Wellington, and his age was twenty-five years, the funeral took place to-day at Wandsworth Cemetery. , Mrs Gower, of Auckland, who brought her children to England by the Moldavia last May, has taken a residence at t>ydenham, and will spend the winter in this country. Iter eldest daughter came Homo last rear to gain experience in one of tho largo Week End drapery houses, and will remain Kero till tho iamily ieturn to tho colony, which they purpose doing in about a year's time. Mr Gowei, who is a member of the firm of McCullagh and Gower, will join his family in London next year, ’and they will accompany him back to Auckland. Mr A. J. Wycherley, of Karaka Bay. who arrived bv the Ormuz on July 16th, has been spending his holiday m various parts of England, and is now having a look round London. It in more than probable that he will make a lengtny Slav in this country. Mr Claude Barltrop, _of Nelson, has come. Home with the object ot getting an engineering berth on mi ocean-going steamer, in order to enlarge his oxpouence Ho left Wellington on _ May -Bth ns assistant refrigerating engineer on a cargo steamer bound tor London, Australia, Port Saul, and Malta, and arrived here on September 6th, ate a voyage lasting a little over three months Sire Macfarlane of Auckland and hei two daughters, who have been on a xmt to this country, have gone to Pans, with the intention of spending a couple of months on the Continent. . , Miss Nellie Waller, of Auckland, is at present on a visit to pr - 10 .5 ir JS starting for New ..Zealand by duect steamer in a few weeks time. Hr and Mrs ,T. Rhodes and Miss Rhodes, of Dunedin, are on a trip to the Old Country. They Wt Dunedin on March lHh. and travelled via Sydney and the Canadian Pacific to New York, and thence to England. During the English summer they have been at various watering-places m this country, and have also toured the Scottish Highlands. Mr Rhodes greatly enjoyed ro■visiting his native country, Yorkshire, where he found great improvements had been made since Ins departure in for New Zealand— notably in the housing of the working classes, and in municipal administration generally. Mr John Pow,, a New Zealander, who has been on a visit to Scotland, has been presented 'with a photographic group and an'address by the bowieis Hawick. Ho is the donor ot a Pow cup for competition among the bowling clubj of Hawick. , „ , . Mr and Mrs A. P. Firth, of Blenheim Lodge, Blackpool,' left last 1 ridar on a tour round the world Australia will bo the first place visited, and Mr and Mrs Firth will probably spend a monte there, and another month in New Zealand, to which country Mr Firth look a great fancy on a previous visit eomo timo aco They are accompanied by MaforTohn/n. an old friend who has travelled extensively with Mr lurth on previous occasions. Callers at tho High Commissioner s office this week : Mr and Mrs J: Rhodes, add Mias Rhodes (Dunedinl Mr William' Carkeek Stewart (Aramoho), Mr A. J. Wycherley (Karaka Bay), Mr and Mrs John Sidney and Miss Sidney (Dunedin), Mr and Mrs XI. M. Hayward (Wellington), Mr Claude B. Tudehopo (Auckland), Mr E. Middleton (Nelson). Mr J. Bennett (Hastings), Mi Norman R. Fisher (Dunedin). Messrs 1. Logan and Ivan B. Logan (Napier), Mr Howard Smith, Mies L. Smith, Miss F . Turton, Miss IdaiPyne and Miss 1 1 . Pyne (all of Christchurch), Mr Win. Mortimer (Auckland), Miss Olivo Grimes (\V elungton), Mr Claude Barltrop (Nelson), Mr G. C. Cruickshank (Wellington). Miss Norah Kerin, whoso marriage to Mr Cyril Michael will take place at the London Central Synagogue next week, will be remembered in Australia and New Zealand as a member of Musgrovo s Shakespearian Company a year or two ago. Miss Kerin made her debut six years ago, and has had a most successful stage career. She played with Mr George Alexander in London, toured the Australasian colonies, and later appeared as Miranda in Mr Beerbohm Tree’s production of "The Tempest/’ Her mother was one- of five sisters, all of whom have seen their daughters go on the stage. Miss Kerin’s four cousins are Miss .Tulia Neiloou, Miss Hilda Jackson, Miss Hilda Hanbury and Mies Lily Hanbury.

Engen Sandow, the apostle of physical culture, returned to London this week from a tour in Africa and the East. One of his objects was to study the methods of phvsical culture adopted by different races.'but he did not see much that recommended itself to him. Another object was to prove that his own methods were equally applicable to all nations on earth. ITiis Sandow considers he has done effectually. "I have chosen and brought back with me,” he said, " a native of every country X have visited. There are thirty-two in pH, including Chinese, Hindus. Kaffirs, and natives ot the Punjaub. They will arrive at 'Southampton next week. The men chosen were in the majoritv of cases weaklings, and some of these very poor specimens indeed. They travelled with me, and I trained them as wo went. At every entertainment I delivered a lecture upon the scientific development of the body, and the natives, stripped to the waist, formed fitting illustrations, representing as they did all grades of physical culture. X am certain that the weakest of them is now a stronger and a more perfectly formed man than the majority of trained athletes.” Sandow states that he receired J 210,000 for curing a wealthy Hindn of that dreadful disease, elephantiasis. from which the victim had suffered for eighteen years. The whole of the treatment consisted of a system of exercise and a little dieting, and the cure was effected in six months. After a farewell tour of London and the provinces the strong man intends to give up appearing as a public performer, and to settle down here as director of the

“National Distil tile of Physical Culture, a great training school, which he proposes to establish shortly. Lord Curzon, who will presently bo homo again from India, this lime as an cx-Viccroy, is the subject of eomo interesting boyhood reminiscences by nn ‘‘Old Etonian’' in (lie current “Poll Mall Magazine/* As a small schoolboy at Eton tho future ruler of India was “tho brightest, cheeriest lit tie being imaginable, round of fact*, with pink and whit® complexion, big serious eyes, an exceptionally determined mouth, and a high, square forehead. At Eton we wore ail moro or I«?s particular in our dross, ami especially incur linen; but Curzon, oven, as a little boy. was always noiicoably tidy. In fact, I think I enn safely say that in all tho years T knew him I never onco tow his hair dishevelled, nor his collar or cuff'd in the least degree soiled/’ ’With Iris books he was equally careful; but then ho loved (hem. Curzon, im those days, was a most excellent; aud critical judge of cricket, but he never took game© seriously. Whereas Alfred Lyttelton was {he hero of every; boy in tho school, George Citizen was the ideal pupil from tho master’s binmlpoint. Ho was not content to learn his lessons sufficiently well to escape reprimand; be entered into tho spirit of his tasks in all their bearings*, and took pride and pleasure in master-' ing all that was difficult and obscure in translations and derivations. One of the most extraordinary gifts that George Curzon possessed as a boy, we aro also informed, was that of repartee: “I have often sat in my room, convulsed with laughter at tho discomfiture of some rival wit; and I remember on one occasion a big fellow, who could have easily administered' a licking to three boys of Curzon’s size, bolting from my room and slamming the door so as not to hear tho scathing retort which ho knew was coming. In Top’ (which was the Eton debating society) George was in his eleincut, and it would bo interesting to reproduce a few speeches which lie ivuulo before ho Ifet. Unless X am much mistaken many of them would compare favourably, from an oratorical point of view, with the majority of speeches dc* Uverod in the House of Commons today/' Curzon was always a groat lover’ of tho picturesque. “Ho .loved the insignia of power, and was to tho backbone an ideal Conservative.”

The late George MacDonald, t the aged; Scottish novelist, was as well known in the colonies as here, for the circle of his readers was world-wide. Amongst the ycuuger generation, perhaps, his fame has been overshadowed by the rise of Messrs J. M. Barrio and lan Maclaren, but his place in Scottish literature in) nono the loss assured. His writings strike a deeper note than those of tho later Scottish authors, and young people* nowadays probably find them too didactic in tone; but they breathe tho national spirit of bis race, and stand out as strong, sincere, and individual crealions. Though best known as a novelist, George MacDonald first won a hearing in poetry. Ho had a fine pift for lyric verse, and some of his writings for children, such as tho poem, “Where did you come from, Baby, dear?”' are masterpieces of their kind. His “Book of Strife,, in tho Form of the Diary of an Old Soul.” written in Kunic measure, was hailed bv Buskin as one of “th<r three groat religious poems of our country.” George MacDonald also excelled as a preacher, eloquent, broad-minded, and impressive. Ho had a fine appearance. A friend describes him as a tali, impressive-looking man, a little high-shouldered, and not without: a tendency to Scotch gauntncfis, tho head well-shaped, the features fine, the wholo expression noblo; hair long and flowing to the shoulders, full board and moustache, which* like tho hair of tho head, was grizzled.” When ill-health drove him abroad. George MacDonald for many, years spent his winters at Bordighcra. where his house was a literary and social, centre. His study, up two .flight® of marble staircases, was n spacious chamber entirely lined with books, and opening upon, a lovely view of blue hills, flourishing orchards, and an o£ sea. There ho worked with a typewriter* for hours at a time, and there in his last yearn, when, but the ruin of him former self, he loved to sit watching the’ sun set over tho hills, and catching a farewell glimpse of the sea. His rama gave way a. full three years before lu» death, on Monday of this week, but be made a calm and, apparently, a happy ending to a noble lite. Many are tho ©lories told of Dr MacDonald’s kindliness of heart. Ho woe always a champion of the helpless, As a student at Aberdeen, ho onco saw a drover cruelly beating one of bis cattle. He ordered tho man to stop, and when the latter mere, ly laughed, took off his coat, and gave tho fellow a thrashing. Onco ho went into a chapel at Malvern, and was distressed hevond endurance at the worn aspect of tho dispirited preacher .Whom the service was over, ho found Ins way to the vestry. He told the preacher that ■it was high time ho took a holiday, and that it was his duty, to do so. He was met by the statement that this was impossible. Ho asked that tho officers of iho church should he summoned. When they came in, ho revealed his identity, aud described himself as a preacher out of harness, but prepared to take three and then the conduct of the services for the next month. But now a fresh difficulty arose; the gratified minisbsr bad' nowhere to go to. so George MacDonald told him that this was easily settled. Ho could go to bis own homo «t th seaside; and so tho compact was nettled.*