PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2631, 17 September 1902, Page 70

PERSONAL NOTES.

— Sir Edmund Loder is me of the most enthiibiastlc and successful of modern biggame hunters ; and at Leonardslee, his Sussex seat, has an unrivalled collection of hunting trophies, including some remarkably fine elephant tu3ks. At Leonardslee, too, he has, with one possible exception, the most complete private meoagerie in Great Britain. Sir Edmund is an indefatigable traveller and a famous rifle-ehot ; and bis wiff> shares his sporting tastes with an enthusiasm equal to hi 6 own. — Mr Justice Wright is said to be the only judge on the bench who requires the aid of cushions to raise him to a dignified height on the judicial peat He is perhaps the keenest and certainly the quickest of all our judges, and the legal knot has not yet been made which he cannot undo with a turn of his dexterous fingers. No wearer of ermine is more unconventional and charming than Sir Robert, and he still clings to his seasoned briar as lovingly as when he was reading in chambers and answered to the name of "Bob." — General Sir Mark "Walker, Y.C., a Crimean veteran, died afc Arlington Rectory, North Devon, on Friday, July 18, at the age of 75. Heart disease was the cause of death. General Walker entered the army irr 1846. He commanded a brigade in Madias from 1875 to 1879, at Aldershot fom 1883 to 1884, and at Gibraltar from 1834 to 1888. 11 0 .vas appointed colonel of the Sherwood Foresters in 1890. General Walker lost his arm and gained the Victoria Cross in the Crimea. £Te also served in the China War of 1860. Made a. C.B. in 1875, he was promoted K.C.B. in. 1893. — Lord Stanley, Financial Secretary to the War 'Office, of whom one heard much when he was chief press ccnaor in South Africa, is a dark-mosistached man of 37, | with a strong and at times almost portentously serious face. He has proved himself an excellent soldier and ati indefatigable Whip at Westminster, while he has I won golden opinions everywhere by his utter j absencs of affectation, his kindness and his generosity. He is a great sportsman, equally at home on horseback or with a gun, and as heir of the Earl of Derby will some day own nearly 70,000 acres and a seat in the House of Lords. — Many of the world's greatest discoverers were of humble parentage, and lacked th© advantages to study now obtainable by all. As instances, Lord Avebury has given the following: — "The famous naturalist Ray was the son of a blacksmith, Watt of a shipwright, Franklin of a tallow-chandler, Dalton of a handloom weaver, Fraunhofer of a glazier, Laplace of a farmer, Linnaeus of a poor curate, Faraday of a blacksmith ; George Stephenson was a working collier, Davy an apothecary's assistant, Wheatstone a musical instrument maker; Boulton, 'the father of Birmingham,' was the eon of a button maker ; Galileo, Kopler, Sprengel, Cuvier, and Sir W. Herschel were all children of very poor parents." — Sir John Gordon Sprigg i» a native of Ipswich. Late in the fifties he was a Parliamentary reporter in London, but his health becoming shattered, he went to the Cape in the effort to restore it. He intended to remain "a little while"; the "little while" extended to decades. He settled in the division of East London, devoting himself to journalism. He dropped into politics, and became East London's member. He took office in 1878 in the dual Hgifiifcl si fioloninl 9«finUcc io£ Fifimtat

but resigned a few years later over the 1 Basuto question. After changeful political fortunes he again became Prim© Minister (and Treasurer) of Cape Colony in 1900. ~A great devotion to public business is one of the most salient notes of his career. —Mr William Le Queux, the author of many novels and works of imagination, was born on July 2, 1864. His father was William Le Queux, of Chateau-roux, in the Department of Indre et Loire. The future novelist was educated privately in London and at Pegli, near Genoa, and then studied art for. a, time in Paris. Having, lik© Goldsmith, toured a large part of Europe on foot, he took to journalism, being first attached to Galignani. Coming to London, he edited Gossip and Piccadilly, and then represented the Globe in the Gallery of the House of Commons. Having been for two years sub-editor of the Globe, he resigned in 1893, and has since devoted his time to novel writing. He has travelled in Algeria, Morocco, Kabylia, acid regions still less frequented by Englishmen, and in 1900 acted as secretary to the British Diplomatic Mission to San Marino. — The greatest event in the Methodist ecclesiastical year is the holding of th& annual conference. This important gathering commenced at -ivianchester en July 22. Over the six hundred ministerial and layrepresentatives appointed by the District Synods, the Rev. J. Shaw Banks, Professor of Theology afc Headingley College, Leeda, has the honour of presiding. The new president is a Yorkehireman by birth, although many of hie earlier years were spent |v Birmingham, where he was, educated. He "eerved as a missionary in India for nina years, and on his return to England the conference appointed him to Plymouth. His subsequent circuits have been Dewsbury, Bays water, Manchester, and Glasgow. He was appointed to the Professorship of Theology at Headingley in 1880, on the retirement of the Rev. Sam. Coley,' and has proved an ideal teacher. His students, who during the past 20 years have had th© benefit of his instruction, speak of him in the highest terms of admiration and affection. He has been a, prolific- author and translator, especially in German .theology. His best-known* English work is "A Manual of Christian Doctrine," which is now in its tenth edition, and has been adopted as a text-book by many of the Methodist theological colleges, and has supplanted the one-time inidippensable ".Field's Handbook." The conference is one of unusual importance, as it marks the termination of the Twentieth Century Fund of a million guinras. —It is announced thafc the new Lord Mayor of London is to be Sir Marcus Samuel, who has been an alderman since 1891, and was sheriff in 1894-5. He waa knighted in 1898 in connection with tho services he rendered to H.M.S. Victorious, and has all through his career been a very successful man. In his young days he travelled widely in the East and Japan, where he established a business-, and it was he who first introduced the transport of -petrol leum in bulk through the Suez Canal. The Lord Mayor-elect, who 13 only 49 years ot age, lives in Portland place, and has a country house in Kent. His year of office promises to bo a very quiet one, in contrast to those of his three predecessors — Sir Alfred Newton, Sir Frank Green, and Sir Joseph Dimsdale. The first-named will be remembered in connection with the excitement of the war and the prompt organisar tion of the Cl.V.'s, which so splendidlyvindicated the prowess of the city. Sir Frank Groen's term of office witnessed the death of Queen Victoria and the accession of King Edward ; while Sir Joseph Dimsdale's time has been a particularly full one with, the Coronation. Therefore, it is hardly likely that Sir Marcu3 Samuel will find his occupation of tlve civic chair as sensational as those of his immediate predecessors. — The Sultan of Zanzibar passed away on July 18. Said Hamud-bin-Mahomed was a friend of England, and British nominee to tho post, being proclaimed ruler of Zanzibar by us en October 27, 1896, in succession to Said Hamid-bin-Thwain, who had died in the previous August. Before the former's accession, Said Khalid, a cousin of Said Hamid-bin-Thwain, had marshalled 1300 followers and seized the Royal Palace, proclaiming himself Sultan. This, however, did not suit our book, so H.M.S. George 6et to work to shell him out. The palace was reduced to ruins, and Said Khalid took refuge in the German Consulate. The late Sultan was a very good ruler, and ici 1897 issued a decree abolishing slavery, but compensating the sla\c-holderß. No trouble is anticipated in the succession of his son, Seyyid Ali, although both the Premier and Commander-in chief are at sea, returning from England, whither they came to attend the Coronation. The late Sultan, like many other native potentates, had his successor, Seyyid Ali, educated in England, and the new Sultan is a Harrow boy. He spent two years at this English public school, and only left 12 months ago, when he returned to his native land to get married and learn the duties of the position which he has so soon been unexpectedly called upon to fill. He starts his reign young, but under happy auspices, as he has the firm friendship of Great Britain. — Tho-re was a vci y curious little incident in the House of Common* recently. Though, Lord Hugli Cecil is «o longer the son of a Prime Minister, he is the first cousin of one ; and therefore he might be expected to cherish some feeling of loyalty towards the prpsent Administration, especially as it still contains within its ample bosom his brother, Lord Cranbourne, and his brother-in-law, Lord Selborne. But Lord Hugh Cecil has always been remarkable for independence of thought; people speak still with something like horror and awe of the way he used to stand up to his father when he had jusfc escaped from Oxford, and his father was the strongest Prime Minister for many years. There was something like an outbreak of this wild lawlessness in the debate on General Buller. Mr Brodrick had made a very strong and able speech defending the conduct of the Government in dismissing the general from his Aldershot command ; and he carried with him all the Ministerialists except one or two Devonshire men, who are bound to stand "by their county man. And everybody thought that there really was nothing more to be eaid, and that poor General Buller had been worsted beyond all recall, when suddenly up jumps Lord Hugh, and pours into the Government one of the hottest, ablest, most vitriolic little attack* they have ever received. It wag almost like the return to life of that Robert Cecil who used to be the terror alike of friends and foe* in the days when the world was young, and the aged Prime Minister was one of the swashbuckler* of the House of Commons.

hat does it mean? Surely Lord Hugh does not require to fight himself isU> li JBlMftt