NOTABLE PEOPLE

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 51, 23 December 1893, Page 536

NOTABLE PEOPLE

rpHE subj-ct of the present sketch is Mr Charles Kettle, District Court Judge for Taranaki, Wanganui, and Wairarapa Districts. He is the eldest son of the late Mr C. H. Kettle, of Littlebourne, Dunedin, and was born at bis father's residence in Dunedin on the 4:b June,

1850. Mr Kettle made rapid progress with his legal studies and was admitted as barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court on the 14ch July, 1873. He was appointed District Judge February 21sr, 1890. Judge Kettle is remarkable as being the first New Zealand born man who has been appointed to the office of Judge.

By the Talune recently Bland Holt and his company left New Zealand, having concluded the most uniformly successful dramatic tour of the colony on record. Many persons will envy the great actor manager the piles of money he is popularly supposed to be making. No doubt Mr Holt is making a very respectable income, but the business is not by any means the goldmine many ignorantly suppose it. The money is hardly earned, and much of it has to be laid out in a very insecure and speculative fashion. For instance, the colonial rights of a play like the ‘ Million of Money ' cost Mr Holt no less than £6CO for five years. If, like the piece mentioned, the play is a success, well and good. The money is well spent, though this six hundred pounds is solely for the right to act the play for five years, quite exclusive of the enormous expenses for scenery and the like. But there is no means of telling how a play will succeed. If a play goes well in L indon and is considered a like’y thing, Mr Holt buys it. He cannot afford not to do so lest s meone else should. But there is no certainty that a London success will not be a colonial failure. There :, e dozens and dozens of instances where this has proved the case, and in this event the £6OO f>r acting rights is dead loss, apart from everything else. Moreover, in order to be sure and have the best, it is necessary to buy more than can be actually nsed, and Mr Holt has paid huge prices for many plays which he has never found an opportunity to produce. T avelling expenses are a’so unusually heavy in the colo'-y. A cheque for £7OO would not c >ver what the Union Company alone have been paid for the transport of of Bland Holt Company curing the New Z-aland tour.