PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 69

PERSONAL NOTES.

— Lord Morley, who is retiring from the chairmanship of Committees in the Hcise of Lords was the model boy o£ his time at Eton and the model undergraduate at Balliol. In recognition of -his intellectual and moral excellence -Lord B'oringdon, as he then was, was examined by tne Public School Commission of 1862. One of his answers became famous. The commissioners asked him what effect would be produced on a boy's social standing at Eton if it wore 'known that he was the most intellectually distinguished boy in the school. The reply was. "Provided he was good at games, I don't think it would do him any harm." — Sir James Fender, who has just en- j tered on his sixty-fourth year, is the first baronet, having been created (in the De- | brertt ssnse of the term) m 1897. He is the eldest son of the late Sir John Pender, of submarine cable fame, who boasted! a G.C.M.G. and a quite- extraordinary number of decorations from almost all the crowned heads of the world. Although ha is devoted to sport, Sir James only indulges his passion in the intervals ofbusiness as a director of the Globe Telegraph and other companies, for he is one of the busiest of men. His principal recreations are Iran ting with the Pytchley hounds and yachting, his yacht, the Brynhild,' having won him many prizes. — Much regret was felt in Brisbane by the resignation of Major-general Sir Herbert Chermside, Governor of Queensland. Sir Herbert was appointed Governor in December, 1901, and both he and Lady Chermside have been extremely popular with all classes. The late Governor married, in 1899, the younger daughter of the late Mr William Frederick Webb. She brought him as her marriage portion Newstead Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, and with it an estate of 4000 acres. The Abbey, founded about 1170 by Henry 11, was formerly the residence of Lord Byron, having been granted to his family in 1546, Sir John Byron, knight, being the grantee. Lord Byron, the poet, succeeded to the Abbey at the age of six, but at that time it had follen largely into decay. It is not the least tragic of the many tragic episodes of the life of the poet that at the very time when he was constrained, by lack of money, tovsell the estate to his friend, Colonel Wildman, there was that beneath it which, ha*d he known it, would have made, ,him one of the richest men ir England at that date, for the estate lay over one of the finest coalfields in the county. Th© retiring- Governor served with -distinction in £he Egyptian campaign of 1882, was commander "in Crete in 1896, and in 1900 went to South Africa in command of the 3rd Division, in succession to Sir William Gatacre. He was made K.C.M.G. in 1899. — Whilst holiday-making in the Swiss Alps the Rev. Dr H. P. Gurney, Principal of the Armstrong College cf Science, New-castle-on-Tyne, has been killed, it is supposed by missing his foothold whilst climbing a mountain. The deceased gentleman, it appears, for some time had been staying at Arolla, which is a centre for many excursions and glacier passes. He had been missing for seme days, and a search resulted in the discovery of his body at the foot of the Gysa, a. southern spur of the Rousette. Dr Gurney was 57 years of age, and a man of scholastic attainments. His education began at the city of London School, whence he went to Clare College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow. He was 14th Wrangler of his year, and fourth in the Natural Science Tripos. After leaving Cambridge he held curacies at Rotherhithe and Kensington, but for the past two ye irs Dr Gurney had been resident in the north. He became principal of the Durham — now Armstrong — College of Science, Newcastle, and a professor of mathematics, and since 1896 had been lecturer of mineralogy and a chaplain to the Bishop of Newcastle. He was an Hon. D.C.L. of Durhana University, Fellow of the Grological Society, the Physical Society of London, and MineEalogicaL Society. As an authority on educational matters, Dr Gurney was a co-opted member of both the Newcastle and Northumberland Education Committees. He was also Gollege representative on the governing bodies of schools at Hartlepoo!, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, and Rothb'.iry. —Mr Lachlan Andrew Macpherson, of Corrimony, Inverness-shire-, and Wyrley Grove, Staffordshire, died 1 on October 10, after a brief but very acute illness, at the age of 60 years. The deceased gentleman, who was a native of Badenoch, came of a military race, as his father and tyo grandunol&3 all fought under Sir John Moore at the battle of Corunna. At a comparatively early age Mr Maepherson went out to New Zealand, where for many years he was superintendent of a station of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, and he also held a gcod deal of land of his own in New Zealand. Some 20 years ago he returned 1 to his native country, and shortly afterwards he married the heiress of Wyrley Grove, after which he settled down to enjoy the life of a country -gentleman, and built up a herd of Aber-deen-Angus cattla there. Ten years ago he purchased the fine Highland estate of Corrimony. on the shores of Loch Ness. For several years he had a nice flock of blackfaces there, but latterly the whole estate has been turned into a deer forest and grouse shooting. "Corrimony," as he. was affectionately called by his Highland I friends, was a man of great force of charac1 ter, combined with groat kindliness of disposition. He was held in the> very highest esteem by everyone, and many of the poorer people in Inverness-shire will feel his death as a great personal loss. He is survived' by -a widow and family of two sons and throe daughters. — The story of the, latf> Professor Finsen's life is one which will live as a history of great achievement under the worst possible conditions. It may be- truly said that _he gavp his life for others. So genuine was his altruism that he scorned to make money out of his discovery, a long nig.ht's debate with himself deciding- him. to take poverty as his portion, andi give his invention for the benefit of mankind. The idea with which Finsen commenced his researches in 1890 was that most diseases start from microbes, and tha lidhb

I bills microbes. Three years' work resulted 1 in a discovery that smallpox could be mitigated by 'exposing the patient to certain rays of light. The fame which Finsen acquired through this discovery resulted in opportunity being given him to prosecute his studies' further, and the result was that in 1898 he had discovered that certain superficial diseases of microbio origin could be. eared by light treatment. It is only too true to say that Professor Finsen gay« all his scanty energy to the perfection of his invention, the value of which is now recognised in all parts of the world. His name has become familiar to Englishmen, mainly through the interest taken in him by Queen Alexandra. With thai; sympathy for human suffering which has always characterised her, the Queen presented a set of the" Finsen apparatus for the cure of lupus to the London Hospifal, thus bocoming the first donor of such a to any English institution. Last year sho visited the hospital to open the Finsen light rooms, and during her stay in Copenhagen honoured the scientist himself with a personal visit. His last years of lifa were- a mixture of richly-merited honours and inexorabla ill-health. The Notel Prize was awarded to him in ISO 3 amidst the approving Declamations of the whole world.--—On Saturday, Ootober 8, Colonel Anstruther Thomson, of Oharleton, Cclirsburgh, died at the patriarchal ag-e of 85 years. The gallant colonel had been in failing health for several monthts, and for the last few weeks he had been confined to his room, so that his death was not^ unexpected. The colonel was one of the grand old men of the kingdom. He had a stately presence- and most captivating manners, and was in every way on outstanding man. He was of high descent, for he was ths twentieth in direch succession from William de Candela Lord Anstruthe-r, and! heir of the line of the St. Ulairs. Earls of OrEney and Lords Sinclair. His father was- master of the Fife Hunt and colonel of the Fife Yeomanry, and the colonel held these same posts for many a long year. In his earlier years he served in the army, and had a full share of hard service. On his retirement from the army he gave free rein to his passion for country spori.s, and as a master of hounds he won a reputation which was absolutely unique, in his time the colonel hunted' with 101 different packs, and when he was master of the Pytchley pacik in England the- King had. mrore than one day's sport with him. On the occasion of the King opening the new hospital at Colinton in the spring of last year, his Majesty recognised the colonel among 'the veterans earaded at the castle, ■and he accorded him a most hearty greeting. The colonel. was also the, ."father" and historian of the Fife Light Horse, which he 'commanded for many a ysar before handing over the command to Sir John Gilfour, who was a man after his own heart. As a landlord, the colonel was just and considerate in every respect, - and he commanded the cordial respect of everyone on the estate. He is survived by a widow and jtwo son^ and four daughter?. One of hi? sons is Colonel Anstruthei* Thomson, of the 2nd Life Guards, and the other is Major Anstruther Thomson, cf JGlmany.

— A dozen members of Cooper's 8W63 Band, Barnsley, have given a singular performance. iV chimney connected with the local Co-operative Society's electricity plant has been completed 1 , and the band were assembled on the parapet at the top of the i ohimney, about 140 ft high, and from their lofty stand gave a short performance.

— Ancnt the recent calculations of England's national wealth, variously estimated at from 1600 to 2000 millions sterling, the French Economist publishes an estimate of the weath of France, putting it at 1060 millions. This would give an income for every man, woman, and child' in England of from £38 to £48 per annum, and in Franca only £27 per annum. In the French calculation incomes from foreign investments axe not estimated, a large but unknown quantity. On the other band, in spite of a smaller population, there are probably some half-million more houses in France than in England, and so many more families, which 'wou-d make the family income in France still lower than in England.