PARS ABOUT PEOPLE

Observer, Volume XXXII, Issue 22, 10 February 1912, Page 4

PARS ABOUT PEOPLE

STRAWS show how the wind "blows. While Sir Joseph Ward is proclaiming with a loud voice that he is assured of a majority, and will continue to hold office, it is significant that he has just appointed his principal private secretary, Mr James Hislop, to the responsible and lucrative position of Under Secretary to the Department of Internal Affairs rendered vacant by the death of the late Hugh Pollen. Mr Hislop has been with Sir Joseph Ward; for thirteen years, and having an intimate knowledge of the inner working of the political machine, _ and the complete run of the administrative ropes,it eeems scarcely likely that Sir Joseph would let him go unless he saw the necessity of making provision for him elsewhere.

At the same time, of course, it is acknowledged that Sir Joseph is very thoughtful for the welfare of those closely associated with him, ai*d, at the cost of inconvenience to himself, he would not hesitate to deprive himself of an invaluable righthand man if he thought he could benefit that man, and at the same time the public service, by advancing him to a higher position. The case of Mr Ben Wilson is a good illustration of our argument. He wae one of the best and most highly-ap-preciated private secretaries, that Sir Joseph "Ward ever had, but when the position of Secretary to the Arbitration Court became vacant Sir Joseph did not hesitate to appoint him to it, knowing that he was a splendid man for the position. Probably he acted from precisely the same motives, and not from any fear that Mr Hislop would be out of a billet, in the present instance.

Robert Blair, whose death happened last week, was a splendid specimen of physical manhood. Standing six feet and some inches in his stockings, and broad in proportion, he was a fine figure of a man. In the early days, he was one of our leading cricketers, and could lift a ball beyond the boundary as easily as he could light a cigarette. He was one of the team that in 1882, under the captaincy of W. W. Robinson, toured the colony and won every match but that at Christchurch. There are very few of the members of that team in Auckland now. Some have passed over to the great majority, some are in other parts of New Zealand or.elsewb.ere in the world, and, as far as we can" remember, the evergreen Bob Yates, P«rcy : Dufaurand Jack Arneil are about the only ones that are still to be met in the streets of Auckland.

Willie Crowther, accompanied by his brother and sister, returned by the Wimmera on Sunday from an enjoyable trip round the world. Hβ has had many experiences, pleasurable antil otherwise, and the least pleasant of the latter was that he was robbed of some valuable jewellery on the outward journey. But the trip had its compensations. He caw the Coronation, and many other memorable sights, and some most delightful spots where the ecenery was exquisite. But, like most other young Aucklanders, he reckons there is no place so beautiful as borne. We don't know whether he would go quite so far as the late W. S. Wilson, of the " Herald," who, on hie return from his first and only trip abroad, was asked : "Well, Mr Wilson, and what was the best thing you saw since you left Auckland P" The reply was laconic but expressive. " Rangitoto " was Mr Wilson's answer.

Harry Bradney, the supplanter of C. H. Poole, is not the man to sit down quietly under any unwarrantable aspersion or reflection on himself. Last week, he tried to get the Harbour Board to rescind its . resolution of a year ago stating that certain allegations of his concerning the stone apron of No. 4 jetty, and,the suppression of a certain letter, were devoid of foundation. Messrs Alison and Adams supported him to the extent of endeavouring to have the matter reopened for further inquiry, but they were out-voted by the old brigade, and Mr Bradney's motion was negatived. Now> he talks of taking the matter into a court of law, and unless he gets satisfaction otherwise, he is more than likely to keep his word.

Sir John Findlay's legal services have been much in demand since his return to Wellington. But what has become of the house he was going to buy in Parnell ? , By the way, the " poor and proud " suburb is wearing a sad and chastened look since it lost the opportunity of living in the society of a real Knight. It will have to take steps in the flirection of getting Ben Gilmer knighted, and then nothing will matter.

The Hon. J. A. Millar is having a busy time denying the tattle of Dame Rumour's lively tongue. The veracious lady has been running him a very hot second to Sir Joe himself in her bulletins of the last few weeks, and the railway lord of New Zealand never knows when his perspiring eye will light on another of those telegraphic messages anent his honourable intentions. First he is packing up his port sammy for the High Commissioner's office ; anon he has accepted what the daily Press poetically describes ac a highly lucrative office with a big commercial firm in Australia ; and yet again, on the word, not of an Angerau, certainly, but of "a leading Liberal," we have it that the honourable gentleman will resign his seat and repair him to Sydney. Oh, fie, on these wicked rumours ! In these hot early February days ie it not enough to wear the cankering cares of office without having to get up in the morning to smite a rumour. Shades of a nightcap ! What varlet twanged that Australian lyre. Meanwhile, the Hon.. J. A. is at Taupo, catching enormous trout one day and enjoying sun baths on the broad of his back the next. " I don't care what becomes of me."

Dr. Newman has been endeavouring to draw a parallel between Mr Massey and Moses. Certainly, theywere both a long time in the wilderness. But the only apparent connection we can see between the two is that one was and the other etill is the leader of the shent-per-shent party.

S. J. Flewellyn, the affable and urbane gentleman who directs the destinies of the Royal Hotel, celebrated his silver wedding on Saturday by assisting, as one of the Carlton team, to win the trophy given, by Mr Walter Davies, Present of the Onehunga Bowling Club, on. the occasion of the opening of the new green. Sydenham Flewellyn, for that is his distinguished name, first landed from the Old Country in Auckland, though the greater part of his adult life has been associated with Wellington. Many of his most intimate friends are not aware that he was at one time connected with the fourth estate, but that is nevertheless the fact. Twenty-five years ago, at the period of his marriage, he was a member of the staff of the Wellington " Evening Press," which at that time, under the control of the gifted Edwand Wakefield had been making desperate attempts to knock out the " Post, ,, edited by the late E. T. Gillon, but which, after a thirteen years , struggle, expired from " tightness of the chest."

• • • Syd. Flewellyn was so disappointed at the untimely end of the ' Evening Press " that he gave the newspaper business best, and turned his attention to the more profitable occupation of hotel management. Since that time, he has been the owner (of several of the leading hotels in the North Island, anfl more recently he hae controlled the Royal in Auckland, which is a popular house under his management. He and Mrs. Flewellyn were the recipients of many congratulations on the occasion of their silver wedding, and in the evening their friends entertained them at supper, when some flattering speeches were made, and when Mr Phil Newbury and others sang. Mr Flewellyn was presented on the occasion with a gold watch and Mrs Flewellyn with a valuable bracelet. They were aJso the recipients from the hotel staff of a handsome silver rose bowl. MrsFlewellyn, twenty-five yeans ago, was a Miss Eades, and was one of tneprettiest and most admired erirfe in Wellington. * • • Apropos of this silver wedding, the present writer recalls an interesting little episode of Sydenham Flewellyn s life, before his marriage, which at the time was considered a great joke amongst his friends. He was not a caterer for the public at that time, but, on the contrary, was one of the long suffering public. But even in those days he knew how things ' °JJSht to be done. Hence the joke. With twenty or more choice spirits, some of them young Aucklanders, he boarded at Whitehall, an establishment at the top of Plimmer's Steps which, in those days, was much in vogue with young fellows from the North. Hie company was good, but, alas, the table, as in many boarding establishments, left mucih to be desired.

One Sunday morning, when the bill of fare disclosed nothing more tempting than the stereotyped and wearisome chops and steaks,' there was displayed on the dining roommirror a copy of the house menu card and beside it the menu of a rival establishment where the living was decidedly good. . The landlady was furious. She had her suspicion* concerning the culprits. Half-a-dozen of the boarders, Syd. Flewellyn amongst them, received peremptory notice to leave. Not a morsel of breakfast were they allowed. They were compelled to pack and go at once. And the funny part of the episode was that Flewellyn was absolutely ipnotient of any complicity in the joke. But he has never forgotten, since that boarders get tired , of everlasting chops and steaks, and that is probably why he has made such a success of the hotel business.

The. genial L. F. Ayson, autoorat of the oysters, has been making one of his periodic jaunts to the village by the Waitemata. Incidentally, he has been saying some more things to raise the bristles of the bad men. who prowl around sequested rocks with the little hatchet, athirst for the sauce of harmless mollusscs. Heroically he threatens them with yet graver pains an)d penalties, and throws down the gage to all and eundry as the fearless knight of the oys- " ter. It is a brave, a gallant espousal this cause of the oyster, in this picnicking season of the year. We can, in the ruminative eye of imagination, picture the dauntless L. F., warily stalking the desperate Amatus whose Phoebe has dared him to go capture her some oyster an he would seek her favours.

Phoebe Bits serenely on a rock clicking her dainty high heels and speculating on the delights of the forbidden meal, while Amatus, one fearful eye on his new ten-knot launch, and another on the far horizon, has but begun his murderous and unlawful work, when L. F., armed with all the majesty of law, his eye blazing with the holy blaze of him who knows no wrong, charges the miscreant with "An Ayson for the oyster," striking terror even to the heart of the wayward Phoebe. The scene, that follows might well beggar description, especially if the lady brought her lance to rest against the knightly despoiler of her oyster stealing squire, none but L. F. could hope to survive the fray and return to Wellington to relate of his der-ring-do to an admiring but respectful audience of other fisher folk. Yet, sure he is doing brave things for the Auckland oyster.

A bit of a sensation has been caused in Sydney by two clergymen of the Church of England going to the Church of Rome. They are the Rev. Mr Greer, assistant curate of All Saints', Woolahra, and the Rev. H. A. Murphy, of Bathurst. It is only a year or so since another B&----thurst clergyman—the Rev. Gordon Tidy—renounced his. Anglican vows, and embraced the Church of Rome. Now, surety it is up to Father Patterson or Father Holbrook or some other dignitary of the latter church to go over to the Salvation Army and balance matters.

: Arthur Rosser could not resist the temptation to poke his nose into the Wellington tramway strike business. His message was '"Be just and fear not." But this maxim was precisely what the Wellington Tramway Board, through the medium of Inspector Fuller, was trying to rub into the understanding of their employees. If they were just, which also means honest, they had nothing to fear from Fuller or any other inspector. He was placed in his position to detect dishonesty, not to penalize honesty, and so long as they were just and honest, they ought to have been thoroughly in sympathetic accord with him. Tne fact that they didn't want him, or probably any inspector at all, is calculated to make other people who also claim to be honest cynical.

Ethel Irving, the actress, for the third time while in Sydney, figured in an exciting rescue scene in the beautiful harbour. A fortnight ago, on a Sunday afternoon, Miss Irving and a party were out in a motor launch when a yacht, containing 26 people, capsized close by. Miss Irving and those with her went vigorously to the rescue. The women and children were first picked up, and then the men, some of whom were in difficulties, were taken on board. This is the story told in the newspapers. And, by the way, descriptive accounts of rescues from drowning are a better and fresher form of advertising than the hackneyed and played out stories of the burglarious theft of the interesting lady's jewels. a • m

The Gaekwar of Baroda, whose name was mentioned in connection with a recent divorce case, is not, it is the opinion in legal circles, amenable to English law, and it is expected it will be decided' that, as a reigning Sovereign Prince, he cannot be called before an English tribunal. He is, by the way, the only Rajah in Western India—that is, within the territorial limits of the Bombay' Government —who is not subject to the Governor of Bombay. The Treaty by which the British Government sent a Resident to Baroda in 1803 was made at the request of the then Gaekwar, anji no conquest of the Gaekwar's coiintry has ever been made by the British army. This is the native potentate who distinguished himself at the recent Durbar by turning his back on King George.

Since the electors of Waikato decided to do without his services in the new Parliament, Harry (ireensl£4ie hae buckled to with renewed energy at the work of journalism. As proprietor ot tlie Waikato "Times," Mr Ureenslade now cuts a large-sized figure in business at Hamilton, and his country will need to call with a very loud voice indeed if it wants again to seduce him away from hi 6 personal affairs into the service of the State. By the way, Mr Greenslade is at present erecting a family residence which will be one of the finest in East Hamilton. Built on the estate of the late Colonel Lyon at the bend of the river just above the traffic bridge, it commands a perspective view of the main street of the town, and from its palatial appearance is itself one of the sightsof the district.

The appointment of James Hislop, for many years agone Sir Joseph Ward's principal private secretary, to the post of Under-Secretary to the Internal Affairs Department, vacant through the death of Mr Hugh Pollen, suggests the reflection that under the Seddon and Ward Governments, officers who proved themselves worthy while at the side of Ministers, have frequently been provided with comfortable niches high up in the service. For instance, B. M. Wilson, another of Sir Joseph's secretaries, is now Director of the Commerce and Tourists' Department ; C. E. Matthews, who was scribe to the Hon. Mr McGowan, ie chief clerk of the Police Department j George Schmidt, aforetime secretary to Sir Wm. HallJones, has been made secretary of the Public Tenders Board ; J. W. Stevenson, of the late Mr Seddon's staff, was translated three or four years ago to the Hansard reporting corps ; and T. H. Hamer, who practically " ran " Mr Seddon'e public business, has a snug berth as auditor in the High Commissioner's office.

Mr Hislop has been to Sir Joseph Ward what Mr Hamer was to Mr Seddon —his chief confidential officer. In some respects he probably knew more about the details of the Premier's office than the Prime Minister Himself. The earlier part of Mr Hislop's service was done in the Postal and Railway Departments. Hβ hae accompanied his chief to all the important Imperial Conferences held in London during the last few years, and has shared with Sir Joaebn the'remarkable reoorda—flf.

travel that he has set up, both within and without J\ew Zealand. Tactful and suave in his dealings with tne public and thoroughly versed in tne attairs of tlie country, Mr Hislop has been a model oincer as the x-nme Minister's right-hand man. Tne qualities he exhibited in that capacity should go a long distance in equipping him for his new . rank as head of one of the most important uianches of the Dominion's public service.

Charles Bagley, eke of the Mount liosliiii Koaci lioard, has joined the uazek twig brigade and now dreams o' nights of rivers of water flowing underneath the local domain, perhaps, who knows, under his own hearthstone. The Heverend Watertinder evidently does not know- his (Jharles. He stands, or floats, in imminent and mortal peril of a rival if that water materialises in the wilds of Mount Kbskili's domain. We can already hear and see the evergreen chairman of the rocky board delivering a profusely illustrated lecture on the art of divining water, by one of much and varied, experience in many subjects relating to the stability and moral welfare, not to say, gentlemen, the educational principles of the Empire. Leastwise, I don't think, if you will permit me to say so for a moment, and it may be as well, at this point, to digress a little.

John. Phillipps, who died at Mount Albert at the advanced age of eighty, was a characteristic type of the early colonist who did so much to make Auckland the fine city that it is to-day. He was a sterling man of the old school, conservative in his political convictions, upright in all his dealings, and the soul of integrity and good and sound principle. He was the son of the founder of the business of Phillippe and Sons, oil and colourmen, but taking a deep interest in agricultural pursuits, he was also a well-known and successful breeder of Clydesdales. In political life, Mr Phillippe, who was father of the ex-member for Waitemata, was an uncompromising opponent of the radical of the last few yeare, and indeed, of everything approaching Socialism. Whether he was right in that respect or not, he was certainly a man to be admired, and one who was straightforward and honest in the expression of hie sentiments, and conscientious and staunch in his adherence to