PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 87

PERSONAL NOTES.

— General Kodama, the chief of the Japanese. Staff, is one of those men who inspires confidence rather than love, and to Vfhom their fellows turn more readily for advice than for sympathy. His countrymen never greet him with these wildly -enthusiastic cheers with which they greet Marshal Yamagata or Marshal Uyama, whenever they have the clianoe. None the less, they have more trusx in him. than in any other human being. They call him the

"brain of the army." „,-,,«■ Alderman Sir Otto Jaffe, Lord Mayor til Belfast, is the most distinguished Jew in the Emerald Isle, and with Sir Israel Hart, of Leicester, shares the distinction of being the shining light of provincial Jewry. He ■was first Lord Mayor of Belfast in 18991900, the following year becoming High Sheriff of the city. He is head of the firm of Jaffe Bros., linen merchants, one ©f the biggest business houses in the city, a J.P., member of the harbour board, and governor of the Hoyal Hospital. Besides all this, he is consul for the .German -Government — a dc-mewhat unique position for a Lord Mayor.- . — Tibrd Ripon, who is 77, during his tenure of the Tice-royalty of India, was popular with "the native rank and file, but he made himself immensely unpopular with nearly every European in India.- He treated the" Indian native as -an equals In a candid' -moment -I/ord Kipon once- said to a. very, effusive admirer, "I don't believe there was anyone in India who really approved of my policy,, except my old Scotch gar- ' denerV' Lord Hipon leads a useful old age, being much beloved by his tenants, and his butter, for the sale of which he has shops in Kipon and Leeds, is saidi to be about the best in England. His son and heir, Earlde Grey, is the finest game shot in the country, ' while Lady de Grey is, of course," a noted beauty, and a great friend of -Queen Alexandra. The Marquis is a Koman Catholic, but Lord de Grey remains faithful to the Anglican Church. — "Here is the story -of Mr Rufus Isaacs's first "brief : When he "was ,a lad he ran away to =sea/ The on board ship were - ao bad that the crew held an indignation meeting, and decided that one of their number should beard the captain and tell him of their grievance. JBut nobody -was found bold enough to- do so. At length the cabin "' boy, the youngest of them all, a brightlooking lad of 14, proposed -that the deputation should- .consist of the vyhole crew. This -was agreed to, and; they all sallied" forth to ihe quarterdeck. But once in the presence of the -terrible skippei they 'were^all dumbfounded except the cabin boy, whose persuasive - -eloquence touched the stern skippers-h eart, r and from that day forward they had P little/ fault- to find with their ■rations. The cabin "boy" was -none other than the future King's -Counsel, now- Liberal member for Reading. -^-'Dr Ellicott, the octogenarian xiishop of 'Gloucester, has announced his intention to resign the bishopric, on account of his age.* The venerable prelate was born in 1819, and links the Church of England of a- past generation" with -the present, for he is the* last of the bishops appointed by Lord Palmerston. Dr Ellicott had a distinguished career at Cambridge, and had been Professor of Divinity, at King's College, .London, as well as Hulsean Professor of nity at Jiis own university before he "became Dean of Exeter in 1861. Two years later Lord Palmerston made him Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, 'the last-named place being created a separate see in 1597. He has" written much on theology, and has hosts of friends among all classes. His resignation will take -effect at- -the -end of the year, and he- will carry with him the good wishes of all churchmen." <" -- _

— Sir John Stirling-Maxwell is a Scottish

baronet of ancient lineage. He is originally __of the same stock as the Maxwells of Monfeith, but the houses diverged sometime in the thirteenth century, and four centuries later thoir respective Jieadfe were created baronets by Janies II within a year from one another. -Sir Herbert Maxwell of Monreith is some 20 years older than Sir John, but the two were fast friends for many years,- shooting, fishing, and deer-stalking together, before Sir John made the older man his father-in-law. -Before he married. Sir John was looked upon by society _jnammas as being one of the most eligible young bachelors North of the Tweed, for he is a. man of many acres, and no small part of these represent -ground rents in the city- of Glasgow. He became a baronet -at the age of 11, and -entered -Parliament "when he was 29. • He is t a lean, - alert-looking man, and a good speaker, who has never suffered from "House fright." He is, moreover, a popular figure' in the House and out of it, and though he does .not speak very often, is always listened -to with attention. — The Earl -of Ancaster, Joint Hereditary Great Chamberlain of England, is now 74. He owns something over 150,000 acres of soil, English and Scottish, his possessions in the latter country including the great Drummond which were at one time the property of the Earls of Perth, but which passed to Lord Ancaster's family by marriage. Starting in life as plain Mr Heatncote, his lordship, on the death of his father, became Lord Aveland, while from hie mother a little later he inherited the title of Lord Willoughby de Eresby. Last of aIL he was created Earl of Anoaster in 1892. his eldest son receiving the courtesy title of Lord Willoughby de Eresby, which dates from the tims of Edward I. A strange story is told concerning Lord Ancaster's bouse in Belgraye square. In 1893 Lady Ancaster was giving a big reception, and a lady who had just arrived remarked to a friend. "I have just seen Sir George Try on ©a the stairs. He looked very strange and

white, and did not speak. Has he been ill?" "You cannot have seen him," 6aid the other, "he is with his squadron in the Mediterranean !" It was not till next day

that the terrible news came of the sinking of H.M.S. Victoria in that very hour, with the stern, white-faced admiral standing on her bridge as she took the final plunge. JjorA Keste-ven, who has just returned from visiting the various battlefields in South Africa, on more than one of which lie played his part as a commander of the machine gun section of the Imperial Yeomanry, comes of a family which- has given IK anore than one distinguished 1 man. It •was the seventh baronet — this title dates from 1641 — who became first Lord Kesteven, and who was the father of the present peer, but leaving an admiral, a suffragan bishop, and an historian out of the question, the best-known Trollope was Anthony, the novelist who was grandson of the fourth baronet Like not a few others who have made ft mark in the literary world 1 , Anthony Tirol-

lope was a. post office official. His first novels were written when he was a pest office inspector in Ireland, but these proved failures, and it was not till eight years later that he gained success with "The Warden." Trollops has of late come more or le£s into fashion again as an author, but there was on© matter of authorship" which might easily have gained him a wider fame than all the novels which he ever wrote. It was his fertile brain that originated the notion of the pillar-box, but probably not- one in a million people who drop thenletters into these highly-coloured receptacles has the. smallest notion who invented them