PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3003, 4 October 1911, Page 87

PERSONAL NOTES.

"Mi" Harry Gosling, the dictator of the strike, 19 a man just turned 50 years of age," says the Mail, which published a very large portrait of the strike leader. "In his youth ho was apprenticed as a waterman to his father, and knows every detail of the riverside business. He is a member of the London County Council, and siiß on the Board of the Port of London Authority. Mr Gosling is a nowtype of labour leader who believes in the force of organisation rather than agitation. Ha is the cool, calm man who quietly pulls the strings connecting the various organisations which make up the National Union of Transport Workers." Lord Wemyss, who recently celebrated his 93rd birthday, continues sound in wind and limb, motors and fishes, is a clever sculptor, and has executed many busts and several groups of figures. The following 6tory shows his modern methods. lie had ordered his mother for a drive, but when the time came was informed that the car was out of order. So he at once proceeded to 'he garage, where he found his chauffeur trying fcp do repairs, He ordered tUo. man away, and' said:.. "I will hav»

the oar ready in half an hour." -He set to work, and, like a clever mechanic, removed some fitting's, remedied the defect, and soon had the oar spinning down the carriage drive.

—Mr G, R. Askwith, K.C.„ head of the Commercial, Labour, and Statistical Departments of the Board of Trade, who has been very successful in settling" disputes and ending strikes, is 50 years of age. Among the triumphs of hi® career as arbitrator, which has covered nearly a hundred' disputes, was the eettlement of the cotton dispute in the autumn of last year. Last month Mr Askwith settled the strikes of seamen, firemen, and carters in Manchester, after five days' negotiations, and the Hull dockers and labourers' strike, and in the first week of last month he helned to settle the strike of tram way men. at Leeds."

—An interested spectator at Bisley during the contest for the King's Prize wa« the Bishop of Singapore, whose principal recreation is rifle-shooting. Years aero the bishop was chaplain to the Punjab Light Horse. Soon after ho entered 1 on his duties he had. a very amusing experience. One day he was watching a firing party at the butts with such keen, undisguised attention that the sergeant-major, tippangf the wink to the company, approached him with a rifle in his hands. "I sir," said ho, "you've never done anything in this line before? Would" you like a shot or two?" And he held out the rifle persuasively. As the chaplain, however, seemed somewhat reluctant, the soldier said genially, "It won't bite, sir." At last the chaplain tried his fortune at 200 yards, and rapidly scored five bull's-eyes with successive shots.

Lord Lamington is the second holder of the title, as his father, Mr CochraneBaillie, was made a Peer by Disraeli in IBSO. The story goes that when the two lads were at school young Disraeli, who already indulged in dreams of greatness, said to young Cochrane, "When I am Prime Minister of England, Cccky, I'll make you a Peer." This proved a prophetic utterance, as in prcoess of time Oochrane-Baillie was_ given his Peeragci by Disraeli for services rendered to the Conservative party. The present Lord Lamington may be a less remarkable man than his father, but he is talented and industrious, and has had a distinguished colonial career. As Mr Charles OochraneBaillie, he acted as secretary to_ the lato Lord Salisbury, and then went into Parliament; and after succeeding to the title was Governor,' first of Queensland, and then of Bombay.. Lord Halsbury, who, as leader of the stalwarts, played such a prominent part in the recent struggle between the Lords and the Commons, is in his eighty-sixth year. His capacity for work is amazing, and he has outlived nearly all his colleagues of Bench and Bar. He was called to the Bar 61 years ago, and his. first great success was his defence Of Governor Eyre, of Jamaica, for alleged cruelty during a rebellion. The case caused a great sensation, and the future Lord Halsbury scured the Governor's acquittal. Later he appeared for Arthur O'rton in the famous Tichborne trial, when, for his earnest and emotional pleading, he earned the nickname of "the weeping counsel." Physically and mentally Lord Halsbury is still wonderfully vigorous, and during the Parliamentary session it is no uncom mon thing for him to walk home to Kensington after a fatiguing day at Westminster.

—Mr Robert Meighen, the president of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company, who passed away so suddenly at his home in Montreal the other day, had made more money out of land than perhaps any other man in Canada. His early association with his brother-in-law, lord Mount Stephen, as well as with Lord Strathcona, the Canadian Courier recalls, brought him into the Canadian North-West previous to the time that the construction of the Canadian. Pacific railway had taken tangible "form.. Mr Mei'ijhen often told of how at that time he was sitting at Fort Garry, which is now a part of the city of Wiiriipeg, chatting with his associates, and even then h© had, as a reoult of his confidence in the north-west country, made up nis mind that he woudl, acquire just as much land in that section of the Dominion as ho possibly _ could. He did so,' and with other wisa investments became s. millionaire many times over. The Marquis of Quoensberry alone of the 37 Marquises of the United Kingdom, is without a seat in the House of Lords. Several previous holders of his Scottish titles have been peers of the United 1 Kingdom, and consequently with seats in the Lords, but in each case these peerages have expired owing to the failure of heirs within the limitations of the patents. His own el&r brother, the late Viscount Drumlanrig, who was a Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria, 'was Baron Kelbead of Kelin 1893, during- his father's lifetime, but he died unmarried the following year, and the peerage then expired. An unusually high proportion, of Lord Queensberry's direct ancestors came to untimely ends. The second Earl of Douglas, and hio illegitimate eon. Sir William Douglas, first feudal Baron of Drumlanrig. who may bo accounted the founders of this family, both fell in battle, the former at Otterburn, and the latter in France, The fourth Baron of Drumlanrig was killed at the battle of Kirtle, and the sixth, his grandson, who was the grandparent of the first Earl of -Queensbcrry, fell at Flodden. Coming down to later "times the seventh Marquis was killed at Kinmcun.t by r.ho accidental explosion of his gun. His grandson, the present Marquis, is not without the ancestral taste for fighting, for ho served in both the army and the navy..