PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2677, 5 July 1905, Page 70

PERSONAL NOTES.

i — Mr S. B. L. Druoe, the secretary of the London Farmers' Club, died suddenly on April 26. The deceased gentleman was by profession a barrister, and he had a large practice in agricultural cases. He was appointed secretary of the London Farmers' Club in 1875, so that he has held that post for 30 years. He was one of the four Assistant Commissioners under the Duke of Richmond's Commission, and all through a busy life he took a very active interest in agricultural matters. — The fact that Sir William Arrol ati tended Parliament to record his vote on the evening of his marriage merited the ; recognition which was accorded him the other day, when Mr Balfour presented the bridegroom with a handsome piece of plate. JHis whoie career is a brilliant example of what energy and talent can achieve. A poor boy in a cotton factory, he worked hi 9 way ur> to the dignified position of striker for "a blacksmith. The same man, 30 years later, was building the Tay Bridge at "a cost of three-quarters of a million, and very shortly afterwards was constructing the Forth Bridge, with an army of 5000 men at his command, and £1,600,000 to spend. He owes nothing to any man's favour ; all he has accomplished has been the result of his own splendid energies and integrity. ' *". — Lord Rosebery is never more charming than when he is talking of his Eton and 'Varsity days. His reference the other day to the head master as occupying a position of greater importance than that of a Secretary of State was quite sincere. Although it was his youthful ambition to be Prime Minister, perhaps he would have looked back with greater satisfaction upon a record such as Dr Warre's. He certainly looks back with infinite tenderness to his Eton days. Said he at' a pubho meeting over which the Hon. Arthur Acland was presiding : "I have always been a little under your presidency, Mr Chairman, because I began a-s your fag at Eton, and I little thought, when I I poached your eggs and made your tea, that we were destined to meet under these very dissimilar circumstances." These were not the only offices the youthful embryo Premier performed for his senior. He was to be seen one fine morning chasing down the High street towai'ds a tailor's with his fag-master's breeches under his arm, wofully torn. — The strong memorandum received from Australia advocating recognition of marriage with the, deceased wife's sister will have a personal interest for King Edward. In practically all our colonies marriage with the deceased wife's sister is valid, and the King, although he has no politics, has his views upon the question. Only once did he vote when in the House of Lords, and then it was'again'st the bishops, and for the bill legalising 1 the marriage. This was one of the occasions when his Majesty startled those who regarded him as all [ pliability. Another was when he removed his name from the membership roll of the Travellers' Club on their blackballing Cecil Rhodes; another when he attended the wedding of Mr Leopold de Rothschild. Opponets of Jewish emancipation held their heads and! expected tho skies to fall. Jusfc ! as unconventional wa9 Ins dining with Mr j Bayard, when that Ambassador was on the I point of returning to America. Then he upset all present by smoking in th© Middle Temple at a Grand Night, causing, perhaps, dead Templars to turn in their graves, but winning the gratitude of all the living ones.

— When Major-general Sir James Wolfe Murray -was created Master-general of the Ordnance, a post was revived which had been absent from the reference books for half a century. The Master-general of Ordnance had passed by process of evolution into the Director-general of Ordnance. General Murray is «. hard-working, longheaded, assiduous Scotchman. At Woolwich "White" Murray, as he was then known, was a popular young- man without any special distinction. In emerging from the Staff College equipped for battle, he joined the Intelligence Branch at the War Office before passing' on to He did sound" work in Ashanti, obtained a good post in India, proved himself a capable organiser on the lines of communication at the Cape, and returned to India again as Quartermaster-general. Prom India lie came Home to take up his new appointment in Pall Mall. He is an administrator rather than a aoldier. He is sufficiently intelligent to talk Russian. He works 10 hours a day, is Bound without peculiar brilliancy, and never makes mistakes. In such qualities lies promotion.

—Mr Georga Neville Griffiths, who had he&Di ailing for some time jpa-sfc, died at

his residence in Sydney suddenly on April 28. H© was born in New South Wales in 184-0, but was educated principally in England and on the Continent, taking his B.A. degree at Cambridge. In 1862 he returned to Australia., and went at once on ftations to gain colonial experience. In 1870 he bought the Nardoo Station, in the Springsure district, Queensland, and resided there some years. He married in 1874, came to live in Sydney, and shortly afterwards joined partnership with Mr F. Weaver as stock and station agents. He subsequently retired from that firm, and purchased the Minnie Downs Station in partnership with Mr Irving and Mi' Lang, to which property lie subsequently added the homestead households of Irvingdale and Griffdale. He also acquired the principal interest in the Wooroowoolgen Station, Richmond River, which had previously belonged in part to his father. He leaves a family of eight, the youngest being 15. He was for some years member for East Sydney, and up to the tim-e of his death remained a director of the Sydney Hospital. He was also for some years a director of tho Australian Joint Stock Bank. He was a man of high intelligence and cultivated tastes, whom it was always a pleasure to meet, and his loss will be much felt in many ways.— Pastoralists' Review. — The N.B. Agriculturist of April 12 i-ecords the sudden death of Lieutenantcolonel Thomas Alexander Riddell-Carre, of Cavers Carre, Roxburghshire, a descendant, through the Hamiltons of Cairnhill, of Kjq? Malcolm Canmore. The deceased laird had a common ancestor with both the Duke of Roxburgh© and the Marquis of Lothian in John Ker, of the Forest of Stelkirk, who flourished in the fourteenth century. His. descendant, Sir Robert Ker, was cupbeaier to James TV, and Sir Robert's son, Sir Andrew Ker of Gessford, fought at Flodden, and became Warden of tbe Middle Marches. He was much involved in the feuds of his time, and defeated Scott of Buceleugh in a skirmish, but was himself killed. His son, Sir Walter, was a leading opponent of Mary Queen of Scots, and fought aginst her troops at La-ngside. Sir Andrew Ker, of Ferniehurst. distinguished himself by breaking into Kelso Abbey on the night after Flodden, and turning the superior out of doors. Sir Andrew's grandson, Stir Thomas Ker, was a. steadfast adherent of Queen Mary, and was believed to be deeply implicated in the murder of Darnley. The eventual heiress of the Carres of Cavers married into the old house of Riddell of Riddell, and was great-graiidmother of the deceased laird. The late Colonel RiddellCarre, who was bom in 1831, was at one time in the service of the East India Company. He- is survived by a- son and a daughter, the former being Captain Ralph Gervase Riddell-Carre (born 1868), now laird of Cavers Carre.