PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3254, 26 July 1916, Page 69

PERSONAL NOTES.

one of the wealthiest, and at the same time the most highly-cultured, nobleman in India. His rent-roll alone is estimated at; about £IBO,OOO a year, and ho is the possessor of some of the most magnificent jewellery in the world. The value of it is reputed to be over £B,OCO.GOO. —Sir Edward Thackeray, V.C., whoso " Reminiscences of the Indian Mutiny and Afghanistan" will be issued- shortly by Messrs Smith, Elder, and Co., is a son of the Rev. Francis Thackeray, whose " History of the Earl of Chatham" was the peg upon which Maoaulay hung his first essay on Chatham. Like his father and his relative, the famous novelist, Sir Edward is skilful with his pen. As was the case with most of the name. Sir Edward spent the greater part of his active lifo in our Eastern empire, and his gallant exploits there form an intercstin<r addendum to the records of the family as writ large in Sir William Hunter's "The Thackerays in India." Sir Charles C. Wakefield, Lord Mayor of London, is a Lacashire lad, and the Liverpool Post has some jottings concerning his early and later days. It was.at the Liverpool Institute that ho received his schooling. It was while there that he patented his " vacuum " automatic oiler for engines; and it was in Liverpool that ho started his business career as an oil merchant. He has remarkable energy, for in the few years in which he has lived in the .metropolis he has not only consolidated his fortune, but as a public man been succesa councillor of the city, a sheriff of the city, and alderman of the city, and a magistrate. In his early married lifo he taught a Sunday school class at St. Paul's Wesleyan Chapel, Old Swan, Liverpool. —Mr Lloyd George's son. Captain Richard Lloyd George, has inherited a fine gift of oratory fuom his famous father. When he was little more than a boy, he once deputised for his parent at a public meeting, and convulsed the audience by the manner in which he accounted for his presence there. Responding to a vote of thanks, young Mr Richard said that Mr Lloyd George was unavoidably prevented from speaking that day, and ho added gravely: "There is a verse which states that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, and —that is the reason I'm here !' Genera! Ruzsky has once more been restored to health, owing, as he says, to the line climate of the Caucusus and the skill of the doc-tors. He reported himself for duty at Petrograd' early in May. In the earlier part of the war he had command of the Russi n armies from the Pripct to Lcmbcrg, the right wing of General Ivanoff's army group, General Brusiloff having the left. 1L? had an attack of pneumonia, and had to retire. On recovery lie was given command of the northern sector, the line of the Dwina, but again- had to resign owing to a. second attack of pneumonia. He is a formidable addition to the Russian strength." Admiral Haus, Commander-in-Chief of the Austro-Hungari-an navy, has been raised to the new rank of grand admiral. He was born in 1851. the son of a farmer in the Tolmino district, which the Italians are trying to win. He entered the navy in 1869, and by 1886 had become professor of oceanography at the Naval Academy. In 1912 he was appointed inspector of the fleet, and next year chief of the Naval Department at the War Ministry. On the outbreak of war Admiral Haus was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Elect. Though it is small, the Austrian fleet is very efficient, and has managed to give the Franco-Italian blockading force a good deal of trouble. Great Thoughts for May contains a character sketch of Mr Ronar Law. The writer says: "There will be enough of crisis before us for years to come to prevent any return to the angry internal strife from which the war delivered us. Mr Bonar Law feels this. To him the days when he was searching his vocabulary for hard and bitter words about opponents (whom he really always respected) seems ages ago. His one thought at the moment is to get on with this business of killing international war. When that is over, no statesman who is not a fool will want to plunge into a party war. And, whatever Mr Bonar Law is. he is rot a fool." The kite Stephen Phillips's estate has been assessed in value ax £5. Few authors, having anvthing at all to leave, have left so little, though hundreds have died penniless, and one at least could - make a jest of it, for in the will of Rabelais, dated 1553. there is this phrase: "I have no available property ; I owe a great deal; the rest I give to the poor." On the other hand more than one writer lias left riches. Rn.belais's countryman, Victor Hugo, loft estate in England alone amounting to- £92.125. Lord Lytton ("Owen Meredith"! left £73.270. " and Lord Tennyson £16.777. Matthew Arnold, on the other hand, left in the briefest- will ever lccorded only £lO4l. The value of physique in a Prime Minister has never been more strikingly shown than in the last few years. Even Mr Gladstone could not have sustained the burden which has been laid upon Mr Asquith. In all his long period of office the Prime Minister has had onlv two slight breakdowns. After the coal strike a touch of influenza and nervous worry compelled him to take- a short holiday, and earlier this year an attack of bronchial catarrh kept him away from the House for about a fortnight. He lias a splendid constitution, but he owes his immunity from serious ailment to the same cause as did Mr Gladstone. Like .Mr Gladstone, he has the power of dividing his inind into water-tight compartments, and when once a. subject has been temporarily disposed of it ceases to worrv him. --Sir James Alfred Ewing. K.C.8.. C. 8.. M.A., LL.D., has been appointed to succeed the late -Sir William Turner as Principal of the University of Edinburgh. Sir James is at present Director of Naval Education at the Admiralty, an appointment he has held since 1903. He' is a native of Dundee. Until 1873 he was engaged in engineering work. In that, year he was appointed Professor of Mechanical Tup.ineering at the Imperial University, Tokio. Tie remained in Japan for fully five years, and thereafter accepted an invitation to return to his native city; and for the following seven years ho occupied the Chair of Engineering at University College. Dundee. Subsequently Sir James was electee! to the Chair of Mechanism and Applied -Mechanics in the University of Cambridge, from which he passed 13 veal's ago to the. post of Director of Naval Education.