PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2664, 5 April 1905, Page 77

PERSONAL NOTES.

— The Hon. W. S. Fielding is Sir Wilfrid Laurier's alter ego in Canada. The Canadian Minister of Finance began life as a journalist, and still mentions the fact with pride. He went from the editorial desk of the Halifax Morning Chronicle to take part in public affairs. His rise in th© provincial Legislature was almost startling. He was a Minister within a few months of his 'first election, and Prim© Minister in two years. Twelve years of that office was followed by the offer of the place of Minister of Finance in Slir Wilfrid Lauriei's .Cabinet, and, as Sir Wilfrid has remained in power since, Mr Fielding has been responsible for all his financial measures.

— Sir Gilbert Parker, M.P., who has returned from his South African tour, is a short, well built man, with strikingly keen eyes. He is not exactly athletic, but takes a great and boyish interest in games, and his favourite exercise is riding, of which he does a good deal when he is in the humour. He works, as a rule, three hours a day at his literary labours, but though he is absorbed in a story while at his desk, he has the happy knack of ceasing to worry about it afterwards, and thus he always comes back to it fresh and vigorous. He likes the country better than Loncju for literary work, distractions, social and political, being fewer, but while in town he is far from a reolase, and his house in Cfe-rlton House ten ace is noted for its dinners.

— Lord Gormansion is the premier "Viscount of Ireland and several Barons as well, including tha title of Lord Birmingham, not in Warwickshire, but in the Green Isle. Gorrnanston Castle, his chief seat, is an enormous palace of a place, and the present owner is not in a position, in these bad times, to keep it up as his ancesto did, and resides a good deal in London. The Preston family is a, very ancient one, and its wealth came first from the law in the person of a Justice of the King's Bench in the early fourteenth century. The first "Viscount, Lord Deputy of lieland—in I+7B. was in the same year elevated to the peerage by the title his descendant still holds, taken from a property which was acquired by the son of the- judge above-mentioned.

— General Sir Dighton Piobyn, who has passed into seventy-third year, is entitled to write many initials after his name, for his Orders are many, but the proudest of all is "V.0." It was at Agra, during the Indian Mutiny, that he won the most coveted of all a soldier's decorations. Not content with taking a foremost part in the fierce fight which was raging, young Probyn made a dash for one of the enemy's standards, which was surrounded by some 20 of the enemy. Astonished at the furious on. 6laught of the young lieutenant, the natives fell back, all except the standard-bearer, whom Probyn cut down, afterwards making his way, flag in hand, back to his comrades amid a storm of bullets. The one ambition of Dighton Probyn in those dars was to be a successful soldier, and he attained it. Tho dashing body of irregular cavalry known as Probyn's Horse, which he- himself raised and commaned, did, yeoman service for the Empire, and many a gallant featof arms is credited to the leader and his m^n. Now he is Keeper of the King's Privy Purse, an Extra Equerry to the King, and a member of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster, besides which he is the personal friend and confidant of his royal master, whom he has served so long and so faithfully for lis was Coniptroller and.

Treasurer to King Edward when the lattet was Prince of Wales.

— The Duke of Abruzzi, who has now turned 32, is a cousin of the King of Italy, and is perhaps tho most energetic and athletic of tho~ members of European royal houses. He is one of the first mountain climbers in the world, and his Polar expedition i cached farther north than even Nansen's. The Duke is the third «on of that Duke of Aosta v>ho was for a time KingAmadeo of Spain, and it was in that country that the royal explorer was born. He is a fii:ely-built "man of the wiry order, and, as his feats hays coaelusnely proved, as tough as nails. When he was only 14 years of age Prince Luigi, to give him his other title, showed a great liking for geography, mathematics, and for a sailor's life, so they eenfc him to a na^al academy. There ho was just as the other pupils, his chief characteristic being long fits of abstraction, ■varied by mischievous turns, which the authorities were hard jut to it to punish. He grew up a young man of simple- tastes, despite his wealth and rank He refused a military or civil household, he wandered round the world or skywards, by way o£ the mountarns, as the whim took him. His many adventures have left him a simple Italian gentleman, and incidentally the despair of match- rnakmg mammas.

— The oau'9 of biological science has sustained a serious los^ by the death of Professor George Bond Howes, which took place at his re-Jde-nne, Ingledene. Chiswiek, on Saturday, February 4. Professor Howes was educated at a private school, and in 1574- obtained an appointment under the Science and Art Department. Here he was brought into rlose toach with Huxley, whose influence was clearly to be traced in Howe's writings and methods of work. When the late Professo. Thomas Jeffery Parker (subsequently of tha "Ofcago University) resigned his appointment as demonstrator of biology in the Normal School of' Science and the Royal School of Mines, the post was conferred on Howes, who held it till he- was made assistant professor of zoology in 1885.On the death of Professor Huxley in 1-595 Howes booame professor of zoologs' in the Royal College of Seienoa. Hip old title "School of Mines" being . abolished. He also held some minor posts as lecturer on. comparative anatomy and examiner to more than ono university. The Linnean and Zoological Societies elected him a member of their respective councils; he wf.s a vicepresidej*k of the Zoological Society, and in 1895^ucceeded the late Mr W. Percy Sladen as zoological secretary of the Linnean. Society. Two years later he was one of the selected candidates for the Royal Society; in 1898 St. Andrews gave him the" honorary degree of LL.D.. and the Victoria University conferred on him herD.Sc. in 1902. He was a member in 1898 of the Executive Committee of the Cambridge Zoological Congress, where he re- , presented the colony of Victoria. Three ' years later he attended the Berlin Congress as the delegate of the Board of Education, the" Royal College of Science, the Linneaix Society, and (with the Hon. Walter Rothschild and Dr P. L. Selater) the Zoological Society of London : he was also one of the vice-presidents of the opening meeting.

—Tho Kaffir Magnates.—

Mr Harry Barnato was a conjurer before h-i made a fortune as a financier.

Mr George AlSu is understood to nave t«en interested in the drapery business in. his early days.

Sir George Farrar and his brocher, 'Mr Sidney Farrar, were agricultural engineers before they discovered the vast possibilitiei of the gold industry.

Mr Alfred Beit, the premier Kaffir magnate, was a banker's clerk in Hamburg. Mr C D. Rudd was destined for the law, but was forced to fly to South Africa to recruit his health. There he met anothe* invalid, C. J. Rhodes, with whom he entered into partnership.

Mr J. B. Robinson ■was a farmer before he founded his fortune by buying diamonds from the native' in exchange for oxen, waggons, Cape "smoke," and other luxuries likely to tempt th© untutored savage. Sir James Siv-jwright. who was credited with having" made £300,000 by one "dosd s^ during the war, started in life as a schooi teacher.— To-day.

— During illness, after an accident, oi during times of mental depression, the growth of the finger nail is not only affected, and retarded so far as its length is con« cerned, but also as regards its thickness.