PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3016, 3 January 1912, Page 87

PERSONAL NOTES.

The Eight Hon. Thomas Burt, M.P., “father” of the House of Commons, has celebrated his eeventy-fourth birthday. —Mr Henry Labouchere, proprietor of Truth, who was a member of Parliament from 18S0 to 1906, has just entered upon his eighty-first year. The Scotsman, in an article on Mr Bonar Law, the new leader of the Unionist party, points out that Jiis distinguishing characteristics as a speaker are directness and an almost entire absence of ornament. His appeals are directed to the intellect of his audience, not to their passions, and his aim is always to persuade rather than to dazzle. Observers have commented on the strain of “grim ruthlessness” in his oratory, as evidenced in the manner in which he follows out the development of the subject he is discussing, steadily declining to be led into side issues, however tempting they may be. But to this downrightness of manner he unites a capacity to perceive the position of his adversary and to detect its weaknesses.

Sir Ilarrv H. Johnston is at present touring on the Continent, particularly in Germany and Holland, and he has informed the secretary of the Native Races and the Liquor Traffic United Committee that his chief object is to discuss, with prominent men on the Continent, the question of alcohol and non-European races “1 am not a sentimentalist,” he writes, “but I do hold emphatically that it is a ‘paying policy’ in the long run for statesmen of all nationalities to control most severely the output hnd consumption of alcohol, especially among the ECO millions of yellow, brown, and black peoples more or less subject now to the moral or material control of the white man.” The university world of both England and Wales has suffered a heavy loss by the totally unexpected death of Ur R. D. Roberts. For fully 20 years Dr Roberts had been associated with university . extension work, latterly as registrar of the London Board. Ho knew the whole movement as it is known to no other official, and, as was well said, he could expound its working in the manner of a Chancellor of the Exchequer unfolding a Budget. Besides being a fine lecturer and an accomplished public servant, Dr Roberts was a man of great personal charm, and was known to hundreds of educational workers as a helpful and inspiring force. —Mr Carnegie has incorporated himself for benevolent and philanthropic purposes. Further gifts to educational and other institutions will accordingly bo made through the Carnegie Corporation, New York. The incorporation has evoked semi-humorous comments in the press. The fact iiS. Mr Carnegie, who is approaching the age of 76, is desirous both of relieving himself of innumerable details of investigation necessary to successful philanthropy, .and is also determined that the good works that ho Iras initiated shall continue independently of his ago and health. He has now given away more than £40,000,000, a far greater sum than Mr Rockefeller, whose total public gifts are estimated at £11,000,000. The Duke of Devonshire is to be Mayor of Chesterfield during the coming municipal year. It is practically certain, also, that the Earl of Derby will be Lord Mayor of Liverpool, so (ho peerage will bo well represented among the chief magistrates of 1912. During the last few years there have been an unusual number of titled mayors. The Earl of Dudley eet the fashion a decade or so ago by becoming Mayor of Dudley. Sheffield's first Lord Mayor, the Duke of Norfolk, had previously been M ‘yor of that city, and also Mayor of Arundel and first Mayor of the City of Westminster. Lord Cheylosmoro served Westminster twice, and the Duke of Mur! bo rough occupied the civic chair of Woodstock for two years in succession.

The fact that Mr Balfour took all the principal prizes for Oxford sheep at the Highland Agricultural Show at Inverness is a reminder that the ex-Prime Minister has been, longest of all, a farmer and agriculturist. Years before* politics engaged - his attention he was intent on his agricultural studies, and the local papers published during the days of his youth frequently announced that “Mr A. J. Balfour, of Whittinghame, has taken prizes for his agricultural exhibits.” Aided by his mother, Mr Balfour devised many plans for improving his farms and for the promotion of the comfort of the tenants on Iris estate. In fact, his first speech, made at the age of 12, was due to these agricultural connections.

The Rev. Joseph Lambert, the American Congregationalist minister who sprang into the limelight of publicity recently by marrving Colonel John Jacob Aster to Miss' Maclele ino Force, lias resigned his pastorate with the intention of “going into trade.” Mr Lambert declares that he is the victim of public criticism, and adds; “The worst thing ministers can say against rno is that I married a man who has lie on divorced for comrniting a statutory offence. It was simply his money which called attention to the marriage, and if Mr Astor had been a poor man nothing wou Id 1 lave been said.” Mr Lambert says he resigns his pastorate on his own initiative. and after being urged by his church trustees to continue. —ln the Kilmarnock Standard of November 11 Mr James Dunlop, a member of the Scottish Agricultural Commission which visited New Zealand, gives the first instalment of his account of Ids tour in Southland. He refers to his vi<sit to the property of Messrs M'Kercher Bros., at Flemington —-o called after James Nicol Fleming, its first owner. The Messrs M‘Kercher are sons of a Perthshire shepherd. while Mrs M'Kercher is the niece of Dr Christopher Strang, of East Kilbride. Their Bordor-Leicester flock is one of the finest in New Zealand, one of their stud rams ha v ing been bought from Lord Pohvarth for 150 gs soma few years ago. Their fine herd of Ayrshire cows are a very purposeful-looking lot, and their horses are of high merit. Mr A. W. Rodger, of Birchwood, a native of Stewarton, is one of the most popular men in the district. The hospitality and kindness of Mr and Mrs Rodger could not have been exceeded. -—Dr W. Lcdingham Christie, an early graduate of the Otago Medical Sobool, who was for some time in Milton, has been for the past few years i'Jaid-rmt of Bedminster, Bristol, England, wnere ho has taken a prominent part in public affairs. Dr Christie, on the eve of his departure from Bristol, received many expressions of goodwill, and his services in the public

certificated mid wives have qualified under the aegis of the society, and their services had been eagerly sought after by the counties for d.str.ct nut&.-s.

The Duke of Sutherland, who owns more than a million acres of land in Great Britain, is now engaged in negotiations which, if successful, will make him even a greater landowner in British Columbia. Hu has already purchased 50,000 acres of prairie land in the Saskatchewan Valley, and 12.C00 ac res on the Fraser River, and his agent has obtained options on nearly 30 miles of agricultural land on both sides of the Thompson River. The purchase price of this tract will probably exceed a million sterling. The Duke intends to sell 160-acre farms on easy terms, to his own Scottish tenants, or to others desiring to emigrate. An agent of the Duke of Portland has also been lately in Vancouver, commissioned, it is said, to buy largo estates for the Duke, with a view of the establishment there of farmers from the English Midlands.

Fifty years ago a young man of 18 hired, for Is a week, a costermonger’s barrow, bought a small tin urn and some cups and saucers, took up his stand in the gutter in one of London’s streets, and commenced to sell tea and coffee to working men early in the morning. A few years later he void the stall for £4OO, and with this money founded the famous catering firm of Pearce and Plenty, which to day serves 40,050 customers every day, and employs over 1200 hands. Mr Pearce, the young man in question, still speaks affectionately of his fleet stall—“ The Gutter Hotel,” as he termed it—and, although when he commenced his enterprise he had to fight against many difficulties, he soon had the satisfaction of taking as much as £6 a morning, chiefly in halfpence. —Dr Cosmo- Gordon Lang, the Archbishop of York, celebrated his fortyseventh birthday the other clay. Dr Lang is the youngest Archbishop, for when ho was appointed to Stepney he was only 37. Ho was originally intended for the Bar. but the day before “call night,” when he would have been made a fully-fledged barrister, ho telegraphed that his name was to bo withdrawn from the list of candidates. He- had resolved to enter the ministry of the Church of England. In a little more than a year ho was ordained. Six years afterwards he accepted the living of Portsea, a parish which is always spoken of as a “little bishopric in itself.” It was while there that Queen Victoria began to take an interest in his work. The story goes that once, while on a visit to Osborne, her Majesty remarked to him : “I hoar excellent reports of your work at Portsea, and I find you keep a staffi of- 12 curates. Is that so?” “Quite true, your Majesty.” “Ah, you should take to yourself a wife,” retorted the late Queen, “then you would bo able to do with one curate less.” “Oh. no, ma’am,” replied Dr Lang, laughing, “that would scarcely do. If I have a curate who doesn’t suit, I can get rid of him ; but I could not do the same with a wife.” And Dr Lang is still a bachelor.