PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 61

PERSONAL NOTES.

Collier, local preacher, check-weigher, and miners' agent, Mr Vernon Hartshorn, M.P., is regarded as the best champion that the miners have ever sent to Parliament. He has a weakness for children, and is fond of the story of the little girl who said to her mother: "Mummy, I'm not going to say my prayers to-night, an' I'm not going- to say them to-morrow night, after, an' if nothing happens then I'm never going to say them again." Sir J. M. Barrie, the newly-elected Lord Rector of St. Andrew's, by a hundred years the oldest of the Scottish Universities, had two noteworthy predecessors—elected to' but never installed in office —a Czar of Russia and his Satanic Majesty. About the middle of last century the professorate attempted to interfere with what the students regarded as their inalienable irightthe election of the rector, and the undergraduates retaliated by going through the solemn fare© of electing these notabilities in opposition to the professorial nominees. The students ultimately carried their point. Admiral Sir Henry Stephenson, whose death was recently announced, entered the navy in 1855, and took part, with the Naval Brigade, in the last stages of the siege of Sebastopol. While still a midshipman he saw service in China and in India, where he fought against the mutineers; in 1666 he. served in the Fenian rebellion in Canada. Sir Henry commanded the Discovery in the Arctic expedition under Sir G. Nares in 1876, and was appointed Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod by King Edward in 1904. Sir John Ellerman, the shipping magnate, has just purchased for £150,000 the Ingram interest in the Illustrated London News and the Sketch. Sir John, who also owns the Sphere and the Tatler, is one of the richest men in the world, his income being put down at something- like a million sterling per annum; yet he started life without a jenny. He is a shining example of what determination and courage can accomplish. He wisely leaves the administration of his newspaper enterprises to the men who have built up their reputations; thus Mr Maddick, a well-known figure in Fleet street, retains the management of the Illustrated and the* Sketch, Sir John Jackson, head of the great firm of English contractors bearing his name, was 68 years of age when his death took place at Godalming on December 14. His name is connected with many great dock and harbour works in this country, his first big contract being for the extension of the docks at Glasgow, obtained when he was 25. This was quickly followed by various huge undertakings hi this country and elsewhere; among the former may be mentioned the Manchester Ship Canal, the Tower Bridge, and Dover Harbour. The man who supplied more clothing to the British army than any other firm of manufacturers was Mr R. H. Glanficld, who has just negotiated a £1,000,000 cloth deal with the Government. He is head of a famous firm of woollen merchants established by his grand -father 70 years ago, employing nearly 3000 hands on the making of men's and boys' suits and overcoats and women's and girls' dresses and coats. The deal resulted in the purchase of 2,000,000 yards of gaberdine, "the bulk of which," says Mr Glanfield, who was closely associated with the Government's standard clothing scheme, "will go abroad. Some, however, we will make into raincoats, which will be placed on the market at a reason able price." • —Mr Arthur Mann, the editor of the Evening Standard, is going to desert Fleet street. He has accepted the important editorship of the Yorkshire Poist. recently vacant by the death of Mr J. S. R. Phillips (says the Star). Mr Mann is an old Warwick School boy, and learned his journalism in the Midlands and Cardiff. He has the happy knack of knowing all that is going on in the political world and of writing about it with a great air of authority. Mr Mann, now in the middle forties, was a sound cricketer when he had more time for play -(says the _ Evening News). There are now two important editorial chairs vacant in London, the other being that of the Daily News, which has been unoccupied for months, since the resignation of Mr Gardiner. —Dr Johan Bojer (pronounced Boyer), whose books in English translations have made a strong appeal in England and America, is at present in London for a short stay (says a writer in the Evening News). I am told that this is his first visit, though he speaks and understands our language so well that it is difficult to believe that this can be so. He is an alert, middle-aged man, of medium height, arid with a manner full of charm as indeed the author of "The Great Hunger-' could hardly fail to be. That book was one of the successes of last autumn, both here and in America, and Dr Bojer's new novel, "The Face of the World," will probably bo even more widely read this year than its predecessor was last year. Few foreign writers have enjoyed such sudden successes as Dr Bojer, who has had two new novels and an old one revived within 12 months, one of which Mr John Galsworthy described as "a nobis work." An irony of the situa tion is that the second novel, "The Power of a- Lie.' was published over 10 years ago in this country, ond met with a very moderate reception. "The Power of a Lie' has almost certainly sold more copies in the first week of republication than it had done-previously in 10 years.