ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7202, 13 September 1901, Page 1

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES

PERSONAL AND GENERAL^ [From Our Correspondent.] •;. LONDON, August #. A lady correspondent contributes the following pen-portrait of your "Governess" to " M.A.P." : — " Lady Ranfurly is a handsome brunette, with large, tiark eyeSj.and masses c£ dusky hair, which she wore' cut across the front, in the original straight fringe, long after everyone else had .discarded it. Her features are well marked, and she has a singularly sweet expression, which harmonises with her genial, pleas- | ant manners. There is not a particle, of 'side' about her, nor does she allow any j undue formality to mar the success of ••her j entertainments* in New Zealand^ though no one better understands how to ntfuntain the dignity of her high position. Well read, and -with a cultured mind, '■ she has never been very keen about sport, ,but in her younger days delighted iin. dancing, i and often took part in the gay national dance which from time immemorial .has opened St Patrick's ball at Dublin Castle. Mr R. Tristram Harper was one of the Imperial Yeomen presented with, medaJs by the King last week. "•.!-. In honour of Sir George Grey's exceptional services to the Empire, the rule that a decade shall elapse after : a celebrity's death before 'his portrait is hung in the. National Portrait Gallery has been relaxed. Professor Herkomer's sympathetic portrait of the Old Man Eloquent is now on view at the Gallery. : I -wrote you some months ago of the experiments which Sir Tollemache Sinclair, of Thurso Castle," Caithness, was making himself and.enc/>uraging his tenants to make with seed oats. He distributed New Zealand and Ross-shire seeds among his tenants, and samples oft. the oats grown from them, and also from Caithness seeds, have been on exhibiticn. The Caithness "Courier-,'' after an inspection, observes that" : ';Ne\r ; ZMand and 1 ". Ross'^slwre (especially the former) oats «re much superior to the Caithness. Sir Tollemache himself tells the Caithness people that "a quarter of New Zealand oats has been made into meal at Halkirk, and some of those who have tasted it consider that it is as euperior in flavour to Caithness meal as barley meal is to bere meal." This from the land of "burgoo." J Mr James Howie has lefj; on -his return journey to the colony, Mrs Howie is studying steadily with Mr Santley, who thinks well of 'her . prospects of ultimate 6UCCCSS. • '■ ■•. - t Dr J. P.. Frengley, M.D., B. Chi* Royal University, Ireland, Dublin, and King's College, London, has been granted by the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons a diploma in public health. Mr A. H. Chapman, who 5s at Home, combating incredulity and vested interests in connection with his patent process for defrosting frozen meat), can boast of having made at least one convert, for the "Meat Trades Journal," which at first viewed the New Zealanders air-tight bag scheme through a thick pane of judicious scepticism, came out this week with the following:— "We had a further opportunity last week of inspecting meat whioh had^^vitreajbed,,]^' the v » Chapman dry thawing process, and are bound to say that th« two frozen hindquarters submitted to us were in splendid condition — dry, bright and firm. The fact that these hindquarters readily made from. 4d to 6d p*r stone more, points conclusively to the commercial value of the system." Mrs and Miss Acton-Adams (Canterbury) made their way to England, through. Canada, in a leisurely fashion, visiting all the show places, -while Mr Acton-Aaams went off to Japan. After three weeks with relatives in New York they left for England, just in time to escape the (heat wave. They found the C.P.R. route quite the pleasantest to travel. Mr Acton-Adams has now arrived from Japan, and has decided to take a house at Tunbridge W«lls until Christmas. In a year's time he will pay New Zealand a visit, but it is at present uncertain whether Mrs Acton-Adams will accompany him. I believe that when Major Burnham, the famous American scout, who did us such good service, and had such hairbreadth escapes in the Boer war, returned to England from South Africa the Government approached him with a proposition that he should become the head of an institution for training scouts for the British Army. But the War Office is not a generous paymaster nor easy to get on with, and so Major Burnham plunged into the jungle of West Africa, and found goldmines for speculative syndicates, and struck a better lode for himself than if he had prospected for the War Office. Meanwhile, however, another scout, none other than "Buffalo Bill," in fact, has taken up a new line in army coaching, and has founded the Oody Military College and International Academy of Rough Riders. He promises to turn out experts in " bronco-busting," trackers of bi£ game, and able-bodied campers-out. "He will take the effete and render them elemental, -will tan the anaemic, and turn dyspepsia into greedy appetite." His primal object, however, is to turn oub the fighting man called the "Rough Rider." The site of the college is some thirty miles east of the famous Yellowstone National Park, at t'hft foot of a picturesque mountain range, abounding in big game. The college buildings, new in course of erection, will be constructed of logs, after the style of "block-house" forts, formerly so common on the American frontier.

It is stated that there has been for some time a dearth of candidates for commissions in the cavalry of the line, rartly to make up the deficiency, and partly as ;i reward for services, it has been decided to offer a number of commissions to the members of the colonial forces and the Imperial Yeomanry. Nine captains' and fifty-six subalterns' commissions will be available, and the officers will be appointed for a year on probation. Candidates must be recommended by the officers under whom they served in South Africa, and be between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four years for captains and eighteen and twenty-fivo years for subalterns. As a. cavalry officer requires a private income of about £400 a year, it is the idlest mockery to offer cavalry commissions to' colonials. The colonial has proved himself ready to fight for his country and to die for it, but he doesn't see why ho should bo asked to puy for doing so. • The London correspondent of a Birmingham paper ha-s some wonderful information to impart concerning the King and the colonies. He tells us confidently that the tour of the Duke amd Duchess of Cornwall and York will be followed in future by much more frequent Royal visits ti> British dominions beyond the seas than have ever before been paid. The King, he avers, "has been so deeply and nlca&urably im-

pressed by the loyal enthusiasm with which the colonists have received his son and daughter-in-law, that he has expressed himself favourably to the cultivation of an influence so valuable in strengthening the Crown and binding the Empire." His Majesty, the scribe informs a wondering world, has been able to form his impressions on this subject not only from information -which has been made public, but also with the aid of private despatches sent Home by the Duke of Cornwall." As a further instance of his Majesty's interest in the colonies, the same correspondent announces that the King has determined upon making a series of presents from his zoological collection to the zoological and acclimatisation societies of the antipodean colonies. Royal visits to the colonies ar*. of course, desirable occasionally, but I sincerely hope for the sake of the British taxpayer, that future tours will be run on somewhat more economical lines tbate those adopted in the Duke's case. As to his Majesty's intention •to present items from his zoological collection to zoos and societies in your part of the world, I may mention that the Royal collection is not particularly varied. The King has no lions, tigers, • bears nor rare beasts on hand, and if he wanted' to give you.aJv elephant or a chimpanzee he would first have to make a deal with Jamrach or some other purveyor of zoological furniture. With semi-wild boars and peacocks the King can play a good hand, and may be a> few brace of waterfowl suitable for adorning ornamental waters would be -within his scope. Bub ; n the proper sense of those words his Majesty has no " zoological collection."