PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON

Otago Witness, Issue 2600, 13 January 1904, Page 32

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON

(From Our Own Comiespoxdent.) December 4. Mr D. It. Eunson, general manager of the Roslyn tramways, arrived in London last Monday night. He travelled from New Zealand by way of Australia and the Orient line, taking tiie s.s. Orotava bo Marseilles, ■where he landed, proceeding thenoe- overland to London, having stayed only one night at Pam en route. Mr Eunson informed me that the object of his visit to thie hemisphere is mainly to purchase^ engines for New Zealand tramways, aleo for motor ears, etc. He tells me that so far his preference is for the Diesel internal combustion oil motor, wliioh in his opinion is not onJy the most efficient motor at present in the market for that purpose, but ib also free from the drawback attaching 1 to go many other oil motors, of being a street nuisance* on account of their smell. He declares that the Diesel internal-combustion oil engine gives off no unpleasant odour, neither does it emit smoke. However, I fcope to hear further from him on the subject on his return from Belgium, whither hewas to go to-day. Hie London address is 63 Finsbury Pavement, E.G. On Sunday least the death took place of Mre Frances Sarah Wilson, widow of the late Mr Frederick H. Wilson, of Cas-hmere, Canterbury, Now Zealand. Mrs Wilson had been in ill-Tiealth for some months past, and her relatives in this country who watched over her most affectionately had the pain of knowing throughout that her sufferings could have but one termination. She- pa«ed way at Chilmark Rectory at the ag© of 63. Mrs Thomas Spu^geon, wife of the pastor of the Tabernacle, is slowly recovering from lier serious illness. Great sympathy is being shown to " Pastor Tom" in his Borrow. Mr C. Onyon, of Wellington, is at preoent in London after a visit to South Africa. He is staying with friends at Ealing, and expects to return to New Zealand about the middle of January. Major Pilcher, of the South British Insurance C/ompany, who did such 'good! "work for the New Zealand troops on their arrival at Capetown, is expected in London before ■ long on a six months' leave of absence. I hear that Mr W. H. Carlyle, a New Zealander, has invented a process for railway ballasting from which great things are expected. Miss Jessie Weston contributes to the new number of the Empire Review another of "C. de Thierry's" interesting and ■brightly-written articles about colonial subjects. This one is entitled " Their Excellencies." Miss Weston holds that "if inaccurate thinking invests the colonial Governor with too much power, imperfect knowledge of the social and political conditions in Greater Britain invests his wife .with too little— she is a greater personage than her husband." In other words, Miss "Weston holds that " unmarried Governors are almosb invariably failures," and that " a Governor who has not taken to himsolf a jwife has small chance of access in a democratic State." And she adds : " One has merely to remember the. political conditions of a self-governing province to understand that this must be so." "C. de Thierry" does not shrink from laying down speoifio rules for guidance. "No Governor," she says, " should ever be sent to a self-govern-ing colony with a strong-minded wife; intellectual ladies of rank with a gift for public speaking and pronounced views on the mutual relations of the sex-es have their place in the world no doubt, but that plaoe is not Government House. Nothing is more fatal to her Excellency's popularity than extreme opinions of any kind. Her mission in a British colony is not personal, but representative. It should be her ambition to win hearts rather than *o win souls, to work for tho Empire rather than for total abstinence ; to elevate her sex by example rather than by precept." Miss Weston never lacks the courage of I her opinions, or fails in respect of plainupealcing. She does not hesitate to indii^ate where some Governors' wives fail. *' A Governor's wife," she says, " may be .'deal in every other respect, but she may y&t 2ack the saving grace of tact" — or, she says, " sympathy is perhaps the better word to use." Lady Carrington and Lady HelyHutohinson are speoiaily mentioned as instances of the tactful wife of a Governor. " More than one Governor's wife," say 3 Miss Weston, "has made herself unpopular fey mistaking smart folk for *he -backbone of society — it is a mistake which is never forgiven." But " her Excellency" must never be "oppressively conscious of her station, , ior " no one more readily bows- to rank when its air is simple than a colonial ; no one resents it more deeply when it is arrogant."" Another form of tactlessness Miss Weaton cays is the desire to bo exclusive, which rise to a feeling of soreness even when it wears a sweet and gentle aspect. "Any attempt to make Government House a uhing apart from the life of the colony- is resented." She admits that n Governor's •wifo has a difficult part to play, and p=serts that while a Governor rarely fails to obtain popularity, his wife is not so fortunatf. She observes in conclusion : " A perfect sense of the fitness of things is possible only to a tactful woman with a warm heart uud a sound social training, in other words, tiie feminine type which has dominated tlio ■world from the beginning of time is ..ho type whioh triumphs at Government House." I really think that is very true, don't you?