PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1851, 30 March 1904, Page 75

PERSONAL NOTES.

— Sir Arthur Rucker. who has hern speaking up for the claims of a classical education, is, apart horn the fact that he is Principal of London Unnersity, be«t known as a ecic-ntist. From 1874 to 1806 ho was Professor of Mathematics and Physics afc the- Yorkshire College, Leeds, after which he became Professor of Phyncs at, the Royal College of Science, South Kensington. He has twice been a candidate for Parliament, and had a narrow e:cape of being elected on each occasion; but that was a good many years ago, and he has never been tempted to renew his experiences as a candidate. As a scientific defender of Greek, he stands almost alono. — Duke Fiederick of Auhalt, who died shortly before midnight on Sunday, January 24-. was in the seventy-third yeor of his age. He wa* bom on April 29, 1531, and v.%* tho fon of Duke Leopold, on whoee death, m 1371, he succeeded to iba ducal throne of Anhalt, and to its many auxiliary dicnitios. His mother was a Prussian Princess, an-d it was in strictly Prussian traditions that he was brought \ip. The late Duke distinguished himself in the FroncoPrussian war, in whic-n he ser\sd as a lieutenant-general. Hb reign was uneventful and happy. Throughout Anhalt, viitn its 500,000 inhabit -aits, he was exceedmgly popular, and within the wider limits of the Empire he was profoundly respected for his high culture, his fine character, and hie thoroughly German -spirit. — Mr Arnold White, the War Minister, started his career through tho influence of a cousin who was managing director of the P. and O. fleet, as an officer in the sorweo of the company. But not caring much for the life, though he enjoyed seeing the world, he started coffee-planting iv Ceylon, ixr White returned Home to be married in England. After that, he went into the Edi?on electric-lighting and telephone business. But during this period he was always working away at social problems m rhe evening — problems which had ever exercised the greatest fascination for him. In 1884 and 1835 he took up these questions seriously. In company with Lord Dunlaien, he formed the society for the prevention of immigratio.i of destitute alien*. He wrote largely on the subject. One of his social book=, "The Problems of a Great City " has since iuii through many editions, and is regarded as a standard work on the great social question. — William II of Germany was 45 years of a<*e on Wednesday, January 27. One of the "•rcalost of the minor griefs of the Kaiser is tho fact, that hi* bhtliday did not fall on the 24th of January, the natal dry of Frederick the Great. Dining the 16 ocd years the Empercr haa m'ed over Germany, ir has been wittily remarked that he has dono much, but said morel His latest utterances 0:1 Waterloo— as in the case of his famous Kruger telcgiam— li^ve not rendered him more popular in England. Still (cays the Liverpool Post) thero is a very great deal to admire in tno Kaiaor, and he is undoubtedly a man in the boot sense of the word; he knows what h& wants he is resolute, and a patriot to the core and remarkable for his true and unaffected piety. Nowhere does the Emperor appear to better advantage than when, mounted on a charger, he reviews his troops; he is a soldier to his linger tips, and thinks nothing of spending 12 hours continuously in the saddle. By universal consent thero is no s'l-on^e-r judge on the bench than Mr Justice BVhnm The son of a Liverpool merchant and the possessor of one of the biggest pracf"cs ever known on the Northern Circuit, las appointment to the bench was well receded by the trading classes, who mistrust "cultured," Greek-play judges. Certainly Sir John Chailes Bigham has done well, particularly in the prolonged and difficult trial of the Liverpool Bank frauds and also in 'that of Whitskor Wiight. Sir John docs noc look his 64 years, and he w morally certain to be promoted to the Couit of Aupeal. or even to the House of Lords. Ho has been employed, according to the modern fashion, on extra-judicial duties as a member of the Royal Commission on Martial Law in South Africa, and beicre he was raised to tho bench he served on the famous House of Commons Committee on tho Jameson raid. — The Earl of Devon, the Rector of Powderham and Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral, died at hig residence near Stare-roes, on January 29. The Rev. Henry Hugh Courtenav thirteenth Earl and a baronet, was born on July 15, 1811, and educated at Westminster and llcrton College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1834, and he was ordained in the following year. From 18+5 to 1577 he was Rector of Mimhead, Devon, and =inee then Rector of Powderham. In 3 875 the then Bishop of Exeter (Dr Temple) appointed him to a prebendal stall in the Cathedral, and he has rarely, if ever, missed his preaching turn. He was an active parish priest, and took great interest in the many woiks for the Church carried on b» the eleventh earl, known as the "good earl, whose daughter is Viscountess Halifax. Je succeeded his nephew, the twelfth earl, in 1891 and did not give up his clerical work. Ho married in 1035 Lady Anna Maria Leslie, daughter of the late Henrietta Anne, Countess of Rothes, who died in 1897. He is succeeded by his grandson. — The Duke of Connaught, who presided o-.a January 25 over the inaugural dinner of the Ireland Club, is regarded by Irishmen as one of themselves. His title if> Irish, ho i<3 Commander of the Forces in Ireland, and Dublin is never better pleased than when he is in its rnid-t. If he was not actually born £> soldier, h& was intended from his cradle days for tile army. All his toys were miniature implements of war, and we all 'know of his prowls with the drum. His (•kill in this direction was his passport to tho affections of one of tho mo-t remarkable men in Europe, General Polis?ier, who, in the Duke's boyhood, was French Ambas-a-dor in London. Not =0 long before Peltier had been- a soldier, and all Euiope had been thrilled with tab story ofhi.3 suffocating 500 Arab fugithos in tho caves of the Dahi-a The boy Prince and the grizzled warrior met at the houee of an Eagli=h nobleman. Suddenly there was a terrific din. The Piinee wa's at work on hi 5 dium! A momentaiy pause was succeeded by a_ still g ■•eater uproar. This time it was Pelissier himself who was thumping thunder out of the Prince's drum. He had risen from the ranks, snd, although he did not admit U, it is supposed that he had been a drummerboy. At anyrate, his drumming op&ned the little Piince's eyee, if it made everybody else close their cars. The two were sworn friends alter that

— Mr John Johnson, the new Liberal member for Gatcshcad, was bom in iho little Northumbrian hamlet cf YVappmg, m ihe paiish of Beaton, and ieee:'"ed such education as then fell in the way of mh.eis' children in tho village school. Theie was no compulsory school attendance in tho^.e days, and at the age of nine ho was put to work in the pite. After going through the various grades of a miner's life, he made his n.iy to the neighbouring county of Durham, where for many yeais he worked as a. hewer. He was first heard of as a militant trade unionist at Marley Hill, near Stanley, and soon gr&w iv the knowledge of his, feiiov.fi, for during the> year^ of his arduous servioe underground he had not been idle in seeking for mental improvement. Refraining from the many outdoor pleasures which engage co much of the attention of the colliers in the north and elsewhere, he gave himself up to moie intellectual courses, and was soon ahead of the majority of his fellows in mental pursuits. So it was that in the early struggles of the union Mr Johnbon was a powerful speaker, a fearless advocate of the rights of the miner-3. When, by the death of the late- Mr Crawford, a vacancy arose in the places of the agents, he wa> elected treasurer and agent to the Durham Miners' Association. Nine- years later they elected him their financial secretary, the posi he now fills. He has also been honoured with the confidence of the electois by being returned as a member of tho County Council. Mr Johnson is a membsr of tho Primitive Methodist body; h& was former!}' a Sunday School Superintendent and a class leader, and has now, for 25 years, been a local preacher. One of l.is brothers is a well-known minister of the denomination, the Rev. Matthew Johnson, of Hetton, County Durham.