PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3313, 12 September 1917, Page 55

PERSONAL NOTES.

Mr Kennedy Jones, M.P., the Director of the Food Economy campaign, is another nun who maue ins fortune in newspaper enterprise, ins strenuous effort largely helped in the early days of the Lonuuii livening News and" the Daily Mad. Later ho devoted his business experience to a reconstruction of Waring and Uiilows. iho death is announced of tne Rev. Dr James JJenney, the distinguished Scotch theologian, at the age ot bl. Dr Denney was a great power m the councils of ine church and a potent leader of men; but his most poweriui ministry wus through his contributions to Christian literature, particularly in the department of New Testament exposition and Biblical theology. Among his many valuable works were two on the Atonement, with the titles, ' 'inc Death of Chnet" and "The Atonement and the Modern Mind." Lieutenant-colonel Yamamuro, chief secretary of the Salvation Army in Japan, who has gone to England to discuss with General .Booth pians ior the advancement Of Salvation Army work in his native land, is a man ot influence among his own people. Ho has been decorated by the Mikado, and has been commissioned to inquire and report to the Japanese Government upon the moral and social conditions of England in war time, and the measures adopted by the British Government for their improvement. The story of his rise from humble beginnings to his present position of distinction and usefulness is full of romance.

-Mr Charles M. Schwab, the American bteel Iving, says that the figures of the gain to the employees of Bethlehem through the system of pricing jobs and fixing quantities and paying for economies in time and material and a high grade of manufacture are astounding to an Englishman used to tile mean and niggling methods of many of our great works. The president o'f Bethlehem (Eugene Grace), if he were salaried on the ordinary lines, would probably get an equivalent to £IO,OOO per annumMr Schwab puts it at £6OOO to £BOOO. Last year he actually made £200,000 (not dollars) in bonus. "If he had made two million dollars," says Mr Schwab, "tho corporation would have made that much more ; and, naturally, tho corporation would have been glad. That is the principle. Eight years ago Grace waa switching engines in the yard at Bethlehem. Less than three years ago Sir Arthur Oirrie conducted a real estate agent's business in Victoria, British Columbia. To-day he commands the Canadian Forces on the western, front, a task which he has carried through with brilliant success. Behind this story hes one of the most meteoric careers on record—a real romance of the war Arthur Currie began life as a schoolmaster, but soon launched out on his own as an estate agent, devoting his sparo time to training in the Militia. At the outbreak of war Currie immediately answered the Mother Country's call, and went to the front in command of a battalion. A large man with laughing eyes and a face that has tho cleanness and freshness of vouth. Sir Arthur Currie, who is only 41, is described as a soldier "with a punch " —one who "delivers the goods." He is highly popular at the front, and when Sir Julian Byng resigned, the cry of the Canadian Tommy, whether in the trenches, dug-outs, or rest-camp, was: " Currie for the Byng boys!" Tho war has given a great revival to heraldry, and the number of applications to that quaint, Odd World institution, the College of Arms, situated in the midst of Modern London, for coats of arms and badges has increased considerably of late. The - devices have almost invariably a naval or military significance. And in'this connection a brief reference to the arms of our great fighting men ie interesting. Sir Douglas Haig shows upon his shield stars and crescents, which are reminiscent of the Border frays; and Sir John Jellicoe's crest is a cherub—possibly allusive to that little angelic being who "sits up aloft"; or not improbably pointing to the original form of the family name, as it is still to be found in Canada—Joli-Coeur. Lord Fisher of Kilverstone surmounts his escutcheon by a naval design, and with a scroll bearing the words, "Fear God and dread naught"; and Sir David Beatty's crest is a Don—the name, curiously, of his old flagship. Viscount French points to his name origin by bearing the dolphin, the emblem of the old French Dauphins, with a Latin motto, translated, " Death rather than dishonour." General Joffro bears tho Cross of Santander, with tho fleur-de-lys of Old France upon his blue escutcheon. Many have been tho estimates made of tho wealth of the ex-Czar of Russia and his family. The Slovo (Petrograd) says: " The cash possessions of the Romanoff family are hidden in the vaults of the Bank of England, and, consequently, cannot be estimated. As land-owners the Romanoffs possess about 138,000,000 acres of tho best land in Russia. Not all of this land was cultivated; but from the lands rented to the peasants tho former Czar used to receive 12,000.000 roubles (a rouble is about 2s Id) a year in rent. The Romanoffs had more than 100 factories and 1500 mills. While the mines on their properties were not fully developed, still, more than 100 of thom were in process of exploitation. The vineyards brought to the Romanoffs more than 20.000,000 roubles a year. The Czar received 70,000.030 roubles a year for the upkeep of his Court. The Empress received 200.000 roubles a vera-, the heir-apparent roubles, and each child 20,000 a year from tho day of its birth. Approximately tho same " salary " was paid to the grand dukes, duchesses, and their children. The best parts of the Crimea and Caucasus belong to the Imperial Family.