PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3265, 11 October 1916, Page 49

PERSONAL NOTES.

Dutch newspaper Tyd) that Burgomaster Max, of Brussels, who for some months countered the tyranny of the Huns, who is still in a German fortress, will be raised to tho nobility by the King of the Belgians, with the title "of Count Max, of Brussels. M. P. Painlevc, who at the age of 35 years was already a member of the Academy of Sciences and a Professor at tho Ecole Polytechniquc, is considered _ in scientific circles as one of the first living mathematicians and experts in mechanics. the Gordon relief expedition, the War Office tried to shunt Kitchener into a barrack appointment at Cork; but Lord Salisbury selected him for a mission to Zanzibar, which ultimately led him back to Egypt and tho Sudan. last words before he left were characteristic of him and of his determination to live down dull official opposition: —"lS T ever mind, my dear fellow, a few years hence you and I will bo generals, and these people who annoy us now will be looking at us out of their club windows., with _ all their teeth falling out of their heads." Mr Arthur Henderson, as President of tho Board of Education, is Labour's representative in the Coalition Cabinet. He holds strong views as to the necessity of improving our secondary education, particularly in the teaching of fcience; but. though necessarily much taken up with the work of his own department, he maintains the closest possible relationship with the Labour Party and tho workers of tho country, by whom he is trusted implicitly, lie enjoys the respect and esteem of all parties in the House of Commons, and this fact, with tho confidence reposed in him by the trade unionists throughout tho country, gives him great influence as guide, counsellor, and friend in times of difficulty. One, at least, of tho "astounding facts" given by Ilerr Trietsch in his comparison of tho comparative degrees of culture of Germany, Prance, and Great Britain, certainly .deserves the adjective. "Is it barbarism," he asks, "that German scholars have been able to secure 14 Nobel prizes, and Franco and England only three each?" Apparently Herr Trietsch is only referring to the three science prizes, those for physics, chomistry, and medicine, as 14 is the number of those which have been awarded to German men of science. But, n« a fact, instead of France and England sharing only six between Ihem, they have actually divided no fewer than 21, of which 12 have gone to France and nine to England. And it is worth noting that, while Franco and England share four of the Poaco prizes awarded to date, not one has been awarded to a German. "Is. this barbarism?" to quote Herr Trietsch. "The strongest motive in tho nature „.c ti.<> Kta Sir Arthur Ma.rkhain, M.P."

says the Westminster Gazette, "was a real sympathy with tho workers and the poor, trsrishited into big" deeds. Long after his outbursts in Parliament are forgotten men will remember him for the work he did, expressed roughly enough sometimes, but with his own hands, brain, and soul, to better housing conditions and to spread tho garden city movement into tho desolation of colliery-land. It was a pride with him thai ho had been able to build garden cities cheaper than anybody else, not because the work was scamped," but because ho had brought to the task tho equipment of an engineer and tho business experience of a man accustomed to contracts upon a magnificent scale. Ho was proud, and rightly proud, of Woodlands, the garden town he had created in Yorkshire. Ho was always designing' new cottages, and designing fchem not as an architect but as one who knew all the foibles of the people who would inhabit them, and all the little things that lighten housework."