PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2539, 12 November 1902, Page 72

PERSONAL NOTES.

— Mr Bayha, K.C., though provided with a r^tir.ng pension by the Liverpool Corporation, at the age of 85 still' retains, arid performs all the duties of the office of Judge of the Liverpool Ccurt of Passage. He has occupied this position since 1876, and it is believed he is the oldest occupant of a judcial office in tho country. — Professor Troves Dewar, v. ho has been elected president of the British Association for the coming year, '6 50. Born at Kincardine on Forth, he received his education at Dollar Academy and Edinburgh University. In his early years he was assistant to Lord Playfoir. In 1897 the learned professor was elected president of the Chemical Society. Ho was a member of the Government Explc 6 ives Committee, and in 1894 received the Rumford medal of the Royal Society in recognition of his investigation of the pror perties of matter at lowest temperature, a i subject which does not receive nmch attention at the hands of most learned men. Professor Dewar enjoys popularity as a writer in the scientific and chemical press. — The Earl of Kintore entered his fiftieth year ,Mie other week. His Lordehip, who is a Prbfff Councillor, and the bearer of many Orders and academic distinctions, succeeded his father in 1880, the year in which he made a gallant fight in the Conservative interest at Chelsea, receiving ac many as I 10,000 votes to 12,00 recorded for Sir CMiarles Dilke. The administration of Lord Kintore ac Governor of South Australia (1889-93) was attended with conspicuous success, and was peculiarly distinguished by a trip across the Continent from Port Darwin to Adelaide, 45 days being occupied in traversing the distance of 2125 miles. He ie honorary colonel of the 3rd Battalion Gordon Highlanders, is a J.P. and D.L. for the counties of Aberdeen and Kincardine, and ie a director of the Great North of Scotland railway. — Sir Charles Isham's pet hobby ib his rockery at Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire, sN>gun about 40 years ago. Some of the pigmy fir-trees in this wonderful rockery are over 70 years old and only 3ft in height. Strangers to Lamport must no/, be startled on observing a lady seated alone upon a craggy eminence. She is a lifelike model in terra-cotta. The rockery, which is 90ft long and 47ffc broad, is the finest in the world; the only one to approach it belongs to the Emperor of Austria. The aged baronet ie a kind-hearted and lovable man. He is a spiritualist, vegetarian, teetotaler, and non-smoker, also an amateur poet. He ,v;«"— ™ .r-^tOM^mrn _rfi«inrti . r-fatiiu

being another hobby of this many-sided landowner. — The Rev. J. M. Bacon, whose recent balloon chase, with its unhappy sequel, ha» excited so much interest, is not at all the visual type of aeronaut. He ie a man of 56 years, whose health was co bad that he was compelled to retire years ago to his quiet country home near Newbury, in Berkshire. He had originally been intended by his father for the army, but instead went to Cambridge, and was ordained in 1870. His ballooning career was comparatively recent, for his first trip was only made 20 years ago. Since then he has found time and opportunity in the midst of. his other scientific studies (which are many) to make xumeroua ascents, though, almost always with a view to some definite experiment. He has frequently been accompanied by his daughter, whose interest in ballooning is as been as her father's. — Prince Franeia of Tecfc, brother to the Princess of Wales, who has just sent in his | papers, has (says the London Evening News) I been anything but a toy soldier. He joined j the Ist Royal Dragoons, of which crack: regiment he is a major, some 12 years ago. His Serene Highness served with the Egyptian army in 1897-98, and in the late war ho sailed for South Africa in the hospital ship Avoca. In connection with his services in the remount department, he was m-entionedj in despatches and promoted. He is the. second .son of the' late Duke of Teck by his, marriage with Princess Mary of Cambridge, and is tall, handsome, and utterly without' side, a quality which has gained for him hosts of friends in the land of his adoption. Had it not been for his grandfather's morganatic marriage, ihe present Date of Tecfcwould be heir to the throne of Wurtembe-rg. . —Mt lan Malcolm, M.P. for the Stow-" market Division of Suffolk since 1895, was born at Quebec 34 years ago. His father was a colonel in the Royal Engineers. After leaving Eton he passed on to New College, Oxford, where he graduated. With a temperament that ran along the line of diplomatic service, he was not long in securing a post, and in 1891 he became Hon. Attache to the British Embassy at Berlin. In 1893 he waa transferred to Paris, and later waa attached to the Embassy at St. Petersburg for the Coronation of tho Emperor. As a sneaker he possesses ingratiating qualities of the highest kind. His voice is even and pleasing, and yet nofc without robustness. In appearance he is singularly handsome, and not long since succeeded to the estates of his uncle, Lord Malcolm of Pontallooh. He has recently left bachelorhood behind him, and taken .as a wife the charming daughter of Mrs Langtry. — The Earl of Harewood, who was 58 in August, is a Yorkshire landowner, a retired captain of the Grenadiers, and an A.D.C. to i the King. He sold Harewood House, hia London house in Hanover square, to tha j Royal Agricultural Society, which has it 3 offices there, for £65,000. Harewood House formerly contained a magnificent collection, of Sevres and Dresden china, valued at £100,000. which is now removed to Harewood House, Yorkshire. The Lascellea family are very Royalist now, but it is quaint that their fortunes were founded by the two eons of Colonel Francis Lascolles, who fought on the side of the Parliament in the Oival War. Feeling that they would be out of place at the Restoration, tliey> emigrated to the West Indies, came back millionaires, bought Harewood House with the proceeds, and founded a peerage. Tho present Earl's young brother. Erie, died in, a caravan at Broadway, Gloucestershire, lasfc year, after living for several years the life of a travelling showman. —Mr Balfour, if not exactly in the same sense as his colleague, Mr Chamberlain, and hi« friend of other days, Lord Randolph, is socially as smart as either of these, or even (writes Mr T. H. S. Esoott, in the Liverpool Post) as his Sovereign could desire. By his social patronage, as well as by some of his later novels, Bulwer Lytton, some 4-0 years ago, did a great deal to give spiritualism and copnate absurdities a fashionable vogue. This sort of thing has changed its name ; it is called psychical research to-day. The cult occupies the Eame position as it did under its earlier hierophants, and is with a modish set of both sexee a sort of substitute for Tcligious faith. At Cambridge, Mr. Balfour gave no promise of the public distinction he has since attained. He showed in essay societies and other such coteries much quickness in detecting fallacies in politico-economical discussions, possibly with, respect to the very bi-metallism which, it 5 a said, haa since secured him ac its eonver-. Among his contemporaries on the Isis was Mr F. W. H. Myers, with one or two more, regarded as high priests in the newfangled inj T sticism. The Prime Minister does' not race or bet, is seldom seen at theatrical first nights; plays, indeed, golf; but holds aloof from polo, bridge, or baccarat. As a psychical researchist, however, he has taloeo; his place in the exclusive society of "souls," and, as a votary of these metaphysics made easy, has long since become a dangerous rival to Mr Asquith.

— They know how to encourage shooting" in Switzerland. During two days recently there was going on at Zurich a boys' shoot* ing festival, in which 2300 boys between 12 and 14 took part. The competition is quite voluntary, being worked through the schools of the town, each boy who enters paying 59 cci- times. The festival, it is said, is e--tremely popular with the boy* themeelvc , and also with their elders.