PERSONAL AND GENERAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6284, 15 September 1898, Page 2

PERSONAL AND GENERAL.

The Affent-General returned all the bettor for a visit to Sir Charles Dilke nt the riverside, and a brief stay with Mr Byles, of Bradford, in the Yorkshire moors, to leave with Mrs Reeves and the children for Chinon, where he will spend August. Mrs Reeves will probably stay in France, a couple of months with the children. Mr Reeves has been making; good progress with his book, and. expects .to have , it completed on his . ,rfe.t(Urn. ifoVkoij'don.'. ..The Agent-Graie'ral^od! Mrs Repy.es left' towricori Wednesday. "£•: Mfi ; Justice Williams n^d party also dejpart next Monday .for .the^e/Ontinent.. .. „. - ,•::.::';;;; •'. There is no change in Sir George Grey's condition.- Unremitting watchfulness and ! a' few spoonfuls of beef tea just keep the worn-out constitution alive. The mind has practically ceased to exist. The Otfipo friends of Mr Faithful Beg£ will be glad to learn that he has recovered from his long illness, and re-appeared in the House this week, after nearly two months' absence. • : Loud Onslow is not quite so popular as a landlord as he was as a viceroy. His notions are conservative, and he has just had a somewhat! serious difference with his neighbours arient manorial rights.' A meeting was called tp Settle, matters,, and his ex-Excel-lency took the chair. Despite, However^ an eloquent speech, the lord and landlord found himself hugely out-voted, and had to announce his own defeat and discomfiture. At the graduation ceremony at the Uni-. versity, Edinburgh, on July 30, the following- New Zealanders received degrees and honours :— Mr Charles M°nro Hector, of Wellington, M.8.0.M., 1895, had conferred upon him the. degree of Doctor of Medicine, and was highly commended for his thesis on the surface tension and viscosity of urines ; and Mr James Watt, B.A. (N.Z.), M.8., •CM., 1895, the same .degree for his thesis on the structure of boltenia pachydermatina. Dr Charles Chilton, M.A., D.Sc. (N.Z.), Mr William Henry Dawson,' M. A., B.Sc. (N.Z.), and Mr Bernhard Myers received the degrees lof Bachelor of .Medicine . and Master in I Surgery, but the iwo former with second- ' class honours'. Messrs Alfred Charles Sandi stein, Harry Edward Gibbs, William Chisi holm Macdonald and William M'Kay received the degrees of Bachelor of Medicme and Bachelor, of Surgery. In addition Air Sandstein secured first-class honours and the James Scott scholarship : m ~ midwifery and . the. Preeland^.-Barbour scholarship in ana- . tqmy, physiology and pathology.. ! Mr and Mrs . 'A. ' R. Bloxam , of Christ ■ j churchy- left for New Zealand with their ; children by, the Gothic on. Thursday.. Mr' ■Bloxiam looks in capital health, if anything I a trifle fine, as he has been ke|pt on the run ever since he rose from the operation. A visit to Rugby, another to ; Clevedon and a stay of a week or two on the south coast quite set him up. Thence he went to Reading and across to Dublin, where he was the guest of Mr Alec Blunt, who has a large, practice as a barrister, and finds his colonial experience very valuable. '" After plunging into the whirl of dissipation in the Irish capital, Mr Bloxam sought rest at Cockermouth, which he left to go to Dumfries, ana on to Edinburgh, where he met Mrs Sprott, and stayed some days with Mr Sydney Dick, who lives a happy, peaceful life with two maiden sisters. Another short stay at Cockermouth, flying visits to Norwich and relations filled in the tjme very pleasantly until a fortnight ago, since which time the Bloxams have been sightseeing in London, and ascending every eminence of any. note, including the dome of St Paul's, .the Crystal Palace tower and the great wheel. Apropos of the very peculiar results of Mr C. H. Mills's actions for libel against the "Otago Daily Times" and. the Christchurch " Press," the " Critic " opines that New Zealand newspapers are as badly in need of a new libel law as their English contemporaries. If the " Times " had been a Uitlander paper in the Transvaal and the " Press " a Krugerite organ, Mr Hess " could have understood the absurdity. But in New Zealand !" The gossips are ever busy with the name of Mr Chamberlain. One day he is said to be about to abandon the Colonial Office and take up the overseership of the War Office, the next that he is on the eve of abandoning political life altogether. The latest rumour is that Joseph is to be made a peer and to be transferred to India, in succession to Lord tflgin. This report is sufficiently absurd to need no official contradiction, but it seems to have gained credence in many quarters The Duke of Manchester will return to England from New Zealand via the States and will make the acquaintance of New York «°ri ct l- in te ß6^ 011 ;,?* the "Patriarchs," " Martriarchd and "Buds'" balls, which are the principal events among the Four Hundred. Mrs Brown-Potter has parted company with Mr Kyrle Bellew, who will play the lead in Wyndham's autumn novelty at the Criterion. This is a comedy called "A Merry Gentleman," by Parker and Carson. H. B. Marriott- Watson has a capital highwayman story, entitled "The Lord Chief Justice," in "Harper's Magazine" for August. Mr A. E. Fletcher tells, in the " New Age," a story of an old Australian colonist, who was charged with neglecting to send liis chil3ren to school. " Have you any other chilIren?" asked the Magistrate. "Am I obliged bo answer that question, your Worship'/";

'•Certainly,." "'Wellfeir/td tell the tiutii> '" I have another daughter; bat I have discarded^ her; She has disgraced j the family, uhe married an English nobleman, who is a member of the House of Lords !" Canterbury College •will be proud to learnl that that clever young New Zealander, Mr Ernest Rutherford, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, whose scientific researches from time to time have attracted considerable attention, has been selected from a large number of candidates to fill the important position* of Professor of Experimental Physics in ther Magill University, of Montreal, a post which! has just been vacated by Professor CaHander r F.R.S., upon his election to the corresponds ing position in University College, London*