PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 77

PERSONAL NOTES.

— As a boy of 14 Mr Thomas Burt, who ha 3 been returned to the House of Commons, went to work as a, trapper boy in a colliery iit Hazelweli, -n Durham, at lOd a df.y. Promotion to the position- of donkeyel nyer" brought an extra 2d. "My home was two or three miles from the pit," he said, in a. chapter of autobiography, some years ago. "I had to get up at ?n the morning, io walk the distance, and the work was so hard durina the day that I may really say that I spent my whole time absolutely between work and sleep." — The elevation to the peerage of Sir William Wills, Bart., the chairman of the Imperial Tobacco Company, recalls a wittymot in the House of Commons at his exp< nse>, which he received with great good liumour. Sir William Wills was betrayed into an "xclamation of cordial approval when oir Michael Hicks-Beach, as Chnncellor of the Exchequer, announced that it was not inten led to raiso the tax; on tobacco. The late Mr E. J. C. Morton immediately interposed • with the remark. "The hon baronet takes a bird's-eye view of the case."

— The German Emperor has entered his forty-eighth year, and has just celebrated his "silver wedding. Six months hence be will have reigned 18 years, or just about as long as his grandfather, who was proclaimed Emperor in 1871, and died in 1888, though as iCing of Prussia he had succeeded his demented brother Frederick William IV in 1861, after acting as Regent for a couple of years. The only thing wanting to his perfection as a sovereign in tho Tfaiser's own estimation is the fact that his health is not, and has never been, quite as sound as a bell. — There is a curious parallel in tlie careers of the mover and e-econder of the Address in tho Lords. Lord Horschell, the mover, is the son of Mr Gladstone's iaet Lord Chancellor, and Lord O'Hagan, rhe seconder, is tha son of Mr Gladstone's first Loid Chancellor of Ireland. Both also avo private secretaries to members of the present Government — Lord Herschell to ths Earl of Aberdeen, and Lord O'Hagan to Lord Tweedmouth, who, by the way, w brother-in-law of the Lord Lieutenant. Both also are young men — Lord Hereehell 27/ Lord O'Hacan 23 on the day he spoke.

— The Duke of Rutland is over 87. Three-and-fifty years aco he was in the

Cabinet as First Commissioner of PubliWorks, what time Gladstone was Chancel;llor^o|"the Exchequer. Their Parliamentary association, however, dates back 64- years, for he and the futtxre Radical Prime Minister sat :n: n ihe Pajrlianieat of 1841 as members for Newark. He has done- good public service, but will always bo best remembered r pr his famous couplet : Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die, But leave us still our old nobility. 1 * — The Rev. Sir J. Erasmus Philipps, lit agecfPribendary of Salisbury, is, the Manchester Guardian points out, a Liberal parson who will have thr&e Liberal -sons in the new Parliament. Col. Ivor Philipps 'headed the poll at Southampton ; Mr Owen Philipps converted a Conservative majority of 12 into a Liberal maioriry of 1049 in tho Pembroke Boroughs, and Mr Wynford i Philipps was returned for Pembrokeshire j' by a majority of 3280. The three brothers will probably be the tallest trio in the House. Mr Owen Philipps is 6ft 7in'high; Colonel Ivor Philipps, 6£t 4in ,and Mi Wynford Philipps. - 6ft Sin— a total of 19ft 2in. — Dr Gregory has been celebrating his eighty-seventh birthday. It is a ijreat tge for anyone to reach ; but in the ease of Dr Gregory! it is wonderful to find him, after .a long iife of arduous labours, so "fit*-' as he i&^ Day after day he crosses ihe thronged road which lies be-tween -the Deanery and, his gr#at cathedral, and attends the servicfeyje Has done so much to render beauti-■fuDV-A burly policeman watches over this journey, and it is a pathetic sight to see him take the aged dean's arm, and help him up the long flight of steps that lead to th& western doors. Dr Gregory has been for nearly 40 years connected with St. Paul's, and in that time has seen the Cathedral made immeasurably more beautiful, and the cervices vastly incs-eased^ ?nd improved. — The- Bishop of London* who has completed his forty-eighth year, is probably the most industrious of all English 1 prelates, not even exempting tho -archbishops.. - Some idea of what has to be got through by Dr Winnington Ingram may be gained when it is mentioned that under him are four suffragan bishops, t',vo archdeaconsV 560 Beneficed clergy, and -over 1000 curates. It is easy, therefore, to see that the bishop has a very arduous life ; but in business matters there is probably no more methodical r an ia London than he. The bishop is an optimist who always has a good word to say for everybody, even if the person under discussion may seem to have no admirable qualitie?. One day, when he had been, standing up for a particularly disreputable specimen of humanity, a friend said io him":— "How is it that you always- can think- of something pleasant lo.'say about everybody under the sun?" ' «Th& Bishop laughed. ''Well, you see," he said, "there is so much good in the worst of us and so much bad in the best of us that it does not become any of us to speak ill of the rest of us." &»+n.J&li& — Mr T. M. Hcaly, Q.C., M.P- (said Ryletfc in a recent lecture hi Sydney), ia a dear friend of mine. I never quarrelled with him. I decline to. quarrel with any man who fought in* the fight in the hard times. I may not agree with everything he does, but I will cot quarrel. Whjin Tim gets up in the. House of Commons 'Ao speak, it immediately begins to fill, because- everybody is anxious to know who he is going to hit next. It is immense fun to watch the House whilst Tim is up. The impression you get of Tim is that he is a grumbling sort of chap, but ho is not; ho is perfectly delighted with children. Put him with a lot of children in a room, an.d he will have them screaming with laughter and delight in the equrse of five minutes. He has a great charm 'in that way. He has tho Carlylean contempt for fools ; he canrot tolerate a dull person. That is all the matter with Tim, and I confess, for my pai't, that I have exercised jrreat disciplinary influence on myself, in order to be eharifcaßle* towards fook. ' ~ 2 — Few naval inventors get their rewnra like' Percy Scott has. The new Knight Commander of the Victorian Order has rot stopped with the heavy g-un carriage used in South Africa, and the night signalling! apparatus at present used in the navy, ?but goes' on adding to the list of contrivances he' brings out. All eorts of appliances for teaching the young naval idea how to shoot(lilerallv) have been born in hie fertile brain, —the /J dotter" and spotter, the loader, arid many another. Two more have just emerged. One of them is a shutter to -be attached to the front ot searchlights, which will enable the electric beams to flash messages in the Morse code visible for many miles. Several shutters prepared from t*o Scott designs are- to \>d supplied to vessels for a series of tests. The other invention is a teaching apparatus, and consists of the model of a. ship's barbette, built to scale, and fitted with dummy jjuns. Only instead of being snugly armoured in. the Scott barbette is left open, so that the whole structure can be seen, and thus men going through a gunnery course quickly get a good notion of the -barbette and its working, the relations of its several parts being easily seen, whereas in the real thing all is closed in and inaccessible. With the loading tray for quick-loading practice, and lhe aimine appliances for learning to shoot straight, the gunnery pupil of to-day has a soft time compared to his predecessor of a. dozen years ago. — Liverpool Post

— A fine specimen of the royal sturpreon has been -old in Aberdeen Fi»h Market at £3 10s. It measjwd Bft 6in in 1-ength, and weighed 28st (3921b).

— A somewhat unusual coloured fox is among the- new arrivals at the Zoo Gardens, London, where it may be seen in oii-e of the dens facing the lion house Palefurrcd foxes, white foxes, and albino foxes by no means uncommon ; but this animal is ciebalcL

— The dog i 6 the most widely distributed demestie animal. He lives in the lowly hui of the African savage, and with the Greenland Eskimo, the most northern inhabitants ot the world. He is, in fact, the iiisepa.able companion of man wherever the human race exists