LONDON LETTER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4868, 6 February 1894, Page 2

LONDON LETTER.

[from our own correspondent.] c London, Dec. 30. ; There has, I need hardly ttll you, been < little or nothing doing during the present j week. Up to Wednesday, all the world ( aad his wifd were vigorously Chriatmasing, and, since they have been— well, Buffering a recovery, business London will not se-; seriously to work again until Monday. Gladstone's birthday. To-day, Mr Gladstone completes his eighty -fourth year. He waß born in | Liverpool on Dec. 29, 1809, and is often erroneously spoken of as t'.e oldest mem- t ber of the House of Commons. There are, in fact, two older members, Mr C. P. Villiers who \a ninety-one, and Sir Isaac Holden who has seen eighty-six winters. Of these three, Mr Glad&t ne waa the first i to enter Parliament. He has not, however, I sat continuously in Parliament so long as Mr Villiera, who enjoya the distinction of : being the " Father of the House." Of j English statesmen who bava reached an , advanced age, it may bs remarked that Lord Palmeraton died in his eighty-first year, when holding office as Prime Minister. Lord Sidmouth died at eightyseven, Earl Rusgetl at eighty-six, the Duke of Wei ington at eighty-two and Earl Grey at eighty- oae. But all theee ' had retired some time p eviously. The pmentLord Grey waß ninety-one yester- ( day. PEB3ONAL AND GENERAL GOSSIP. It seems from the evidence at the Po'ice Court last Friday that the man Norton, who is charged with being the prime , planner of the many successful cheque forgeries this year, ecraped acquaintance with Frank Slavin, the pugilist publican, and was introduced by him to Mr Samuel Thompson and others. This, no doubt, explains why bookmakers and one or two i Australasian visitors were selected as victims. In gossiping with Slavin and Co. the wily Norton managed to learn all about them. The absurd rumour published recently in the Pall Mall Gazette to the effect that Sir West Ridgeway had tried to get the Government to promise him the Governorship of New Zealand at the end of Lord Glasgow's term of office, haa been effectually settled by the honourable gentleman's appointment to the Isle of Man. He did not, however, take the post at all willingly, and I believe it is true that he intimated he should expect a colonial ViceRoyalty later. Mr Arthur Clayden pictured " our colonies" in roseate colours at the Borough Polytechnic last week, illustrating bis praises of the Bunny south with, some capital lantern shdea of " Brighter Britain." He considers systematic oolonisation the panacea for our social pressure woes, and contended it was infatuation to neglect so providential a means of relieving the congested state of our population as emigration affords. Inquiries are being made for E.A.C., who left Jersey in 1871 for New Zealand, or for his relatives. Apparently E.A.C. IB entitled to certain moneys now in Chancery. During tte tarrific gale of last week in the Channe', a gallant rescue was effected by the New Zealand Shipping Company's Hurnnui, which, under circumstances o! great danger, managed to haul aboard the crew of the sinking fishing smack Bessie Waters. The men were subsequently transferred to the smack Minnow and landed at Plymouth, where they bore testimony to the courage and promptitude of the Hurunui's crew. A number of large and fat New Zealand frozen hares were selling in London at Is 6d apiece on Christmas Eve. A weekly paper announced lftßt week that a lineal descendant of the "great Warren Hastings " had just been sentenced to six months' imprisonment as a ro<ue and a vagabond at Wellington, New Zealand. Presumably the source of this intelligence waß a local paper. Wherever it came from, however, it iB untrue, for whoever the offender may be, he is certainly not a "lineal descendant of Warren Hastings," who, as Truth points out, died without issue, leaving all his property to his widow, and after her death the beautiful domain at Daylesford, where he passed the last twenty-four years of his life, was sold. It has since changed hands several times. ■ SOME FARMING EXPERIMENTS. Mr Labouchere inserts the following "par" in the current ibsuo of his journal : — An Irish gentleman, describing himself as a practical farmer of thirty years' experience, sends me some results of sundry experiments, which may be of interest to agriculturists in England as well as in Ireland. He seems to have had great success in growing flax, and maintains that if the management of the crop wan properly understood and a market for it created, flax conld be grown more profitably in the south of Ireland than in the north. His own experiment was made in County Cork. The crop was the finest ever seen by the northern labourers imported to instruct his men in the art of raising it, and was sold in Belgium at a large profit. Mr Labouchere's correspondent further claims to have shows by experiment that New Zealand oat 3 can be grown with profit on the poor93t soils, and that they can be sown aa late aa May. He further recommends New Zealand potatoes to the Irish farmer, but doeß not state what special virtue the antipodean tubers possess. BOUND FOR NEW ZKAIAND. Snatches of Gaiety songs, lusty cheers and a few passing tears, with a libeial allowance of ye o!de London "pea soup" fog, marked the departure of tha new twin-screw steamer Gothic from the Royal Albert Dock on her maiden trip to New Zealand. The Gaiety Eongs were explained by the presence on board of a email company despatched by Mr George Edwardes to South Africa, under direction of Mr Leveneton, to perform Morocco Bound, Niiouche, Miss Decima, In Town, &c, at Capetown and elsewhere, during a six months' tour. The Gothic's passengers were delighted with her magnificent saloons, smoking-room and state cabins, and much good-humoured chaff was indulged in as to whether any of the nineteen chorus ladies who are making the trip to the diamond and goldfields will return aa occupants of the sumptuous bridal chambers which are a feature of the vessel's accommodation. In all, the Gothic had e'ghty-one saloon passengers and sixty-nine tnird-clasß. AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY. There are at present a hundred aad twenty-five candidates for the Auckland professorships, and Mr Kennaway considers them on the whole a promising lot. Amongst the gentlemen anxious to nil Professor Aldis'a chair are several Wranglers. The reduced salaries have no doubt made some difference in the class applying, and Dr Abbott may have scared off a few intending candidate?. Piobably, too, the Times article may lead to withdrawals. Still, ont of the substantial remainder it should, Mr Kennaway i opines, be easy to make a capital choice, j The crux seems likely to lie in forming a selection committee. Several gentlemen I have already been asked to act and refused. < I understand the Agent General is now j urging Bishop Selwyn, Sir W. Buller and Mr Mackenzie to reconsider the question. The last-named pair may consent, but— as '. previously ob-erved — Dr Selwyn hap, I 1 fear, been intimidated by Cambridge opinion and will hold aloof. NO BBIDEGBOOH. A queer yarn concerning a wedding comes from Hugstetten, in Baden. Tue Bürgermeister had arranged to marry a : young couple on a certain day. The I appointed hour arrived, and with ifc the ' bride and her relations; but the bridegroom came not, After an hour's delay [ the father of the miseing man came upon ' the scene with the news that his son, to celebrate his wedding day, had imbibed bo . freely as to utterly incapacitate himself. He was in bed, and so bad that there was no chance of bis getting up that day. Of

iourse the young lady cried "off" altogether ; but in Germany the parents have l greater cay in the marriage of their shildren than the principals, and they wanted to arrange for the wedding to take place next morning. Hcrr Barge • - meister, however, did noi fall in with this solution of the difficulty. He had made arrangements to start upon his holiday jaunt on the morrow, and did not ace his way to postpone. " If," siid he to the elderly bearer of the untoward news, " your son chooses to git drunk he cannot expect everyone to alter their planß to Eiiit him ; the wedding must take place without him." Accordingly the ceremony waa gone through without what is generally considered a necessary for a wedding — a bridegroom. The register was duly signed, a blank being left for the husband's signature. This was duly filled in upon the young man's recovery from his pre -nuptial debauch. The Bur^ermeister's original plan of marriage came to the knowledge of tha higher au- horities, and he has been relieved from his position. The question cot yet decided is — " Are the pair legally married, or to legitimatise their issue will they have to undergo a second ordeal ?"