PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVI, Issue III, 19 January 1901, Page 133

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(From Our Special CurrespoadentJ LONDON, December T. The Agent-General was one of tbe guests at the annual dinner of the Royal Society on St. Andrew’s Day. His paper on "Colonial Governments as Money Lenders" appears in the Decemlter number of the “National Review.*’ ( Among the most recent additions to the fellowship of the Royal Colonial Institute are Mr J. Cathcart Wason, M.P.. Dr. Ernest Roberton, and Mr Edward H. Godsal, of New Zealand. Mr J. Cathcart Wason. M.P., was one of the early birds at the opening of Parliament last Tuesday. He arrived punctually at nine o'clock to secure his seat (and he requires a fairly large one), although Parliament was summoned for 2 p.m. There were, however, several members Itefore him. Mr Macdona put in an ap|»earanee five minutes after midnight. The next legislator on the scene was Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence. who appeared on the horizon of the House at a. 30 a.tn. Mr Wason's lecture at the Imperial Institute on Monday promises to be very interesting. He will depart from the beaten track and give his audience an account of the experiences of a New Zealand sheep farmer from pioneer dais to the present. Mr E. H. Vanderfelt. who will be remembered as Miss Fortescue's leading man in many tours all over the world, died rather suddenly at his home in Battersea on Saturday. He was clever and good looking, but possessed with illimitable ambitions and full of histrionic vanity. It was the latter led him (without a strong company or sufficient resources) to try ami emulate Benson's successes at the Lyceum at the Court. Unfortunately Vanderfelt fell ill before the first performance of "As You Like It." and in a few nights the house had to be closed. Probably this catastrophe hastened his end. as the young actor sank aud died in a few hours. There was an amusing, and at the same time instructive, scene on Ludgate Hill last Saturday when brownskinned (I will not call them “hardbitten” for any money) Canadian

volunteers wtrf struggling slowly through the traffic towards St. Paul’s. “‘Sent ar-rms!” said a man on the pavement in raucous drill-sergeant tones. There was a line of men on the kerbstone, and with one accord they brought their umbrellas to the salute. The Canadians smiled at the unexpectedness of the demonstration, bat the crowd took it serionriy, and there waa More cheering there than anywhere in the eolonialw’ progress. I trnst Miss Benjamin will forgive me quoting the following from the “Ceylon Standard”. —“A lady, Miss Benjamin by name, appeared recently as a barrister at the Supreme Court, Dunedin. New Zealand, but to the infinite satisfaction of all male barristers, her client was non-suited. Mean fellows to rejoice at the lailure of ‘my learned sister.’ They will do all they can to make Miss B. cry in court when argument goes against her. Oh, those base males of the Dunedin bar, jealous of this ‘bar-inaid.’ ”

Mr John Yeats, of Auckland, has nearly finished his lecture campaign in the Old Country, and intends to commence his voyage back to New Zealand early in January. Most probably he will ship by the N.G.L. Kaiser der Grosse, which leaves Southampton during the first week of the New Year. During his stay in the Old Country Mr Veats has done a good deal of his travel a-wheel. and has derived great enjoyment from getting out of the beaten paths of travel. 1 am glad to hear that his son’s health has greatly improved during his stay at Home, and Mr Veats would have liked to stay here a while longer in order to see if a permanent cure could be effected. Unfortunately, Mrs Veats’ health shows signs of giving way under the climatic vagaries of the winter, and her husband deems it advisable to clear for more congenial climes.

The many friends whom Madame Steinhauer, better remembered perhaps as Mme. Bahnsen, made in Australasia will be delighted to hear of the success of the vocal recital given by her last Monday in the Steinway Hall, before a large audience. The Danish singer was responsible for the whole programme, and seems to ’have pleased the critics as much as the rest of her hearers. The “Times” critic

ba* nothing but praise for her. and says: “Her voice is occasionally quite powerful, and some times is used almost in a whisper; but, though there are many more beautiful organs to be heard, and many singers who have more faculty of graduating their force, Mme. Steinhauer must make her mark by her intensity of expression and her perfect freedom from affectation. All the resources of vocal colour are hers .... she is almost as perfect in her German diction as !»he is in the Scandinavian languages she prefers; her English is even better than her German, and her French is very creditable” The central feature of interest was a group of really charming songs by Mr Albert Mallinson (her husband), who played all the singer’s accompaniments with exquisite finish. His “Eleanore” is strongly individual and expressive, and the “Canadian Hunter’s Song” most effective—all in fact are of high quality. Brahms. Mendelssohn, Hartmann, Macfarren, Kjerulf. Heise, were all illustrated by Mme. Steinhauer. Sjogren, whose “Klinge, Klinge, mein Pandero,” used to appeal so strongly to colonial audiences, was selected by the singer. A second recital of a similar nature is to be given next week. To say that the hair of countless noble families stood firmly on end when they read that Lord Alan lan Percy had been charged with being drunk and disorderly in Piccadilly Circus last Tuesday but faintly describes the sensation occasioned by this young nobleman’s escapade. He sinned, however, in excellent company. His three brethren in adversity were Lord Leicester's grandson, Mr John Coke. Lord Dudley’s cousin, Mr Chas. Dudley Ward, and Mr Robert Oppenheim, the heir of a great financier. The four culprits (all just over twenty) appear to have gone “on the ran-dan” in somewhat noisy fashion. Sergeant Shepard, 2 CR, deposed that at half-past ten on Tuesday evening he saw the. prisoners trying to enter the London Pavilion Music Hall without paying. They were stopped by the attendant, and Oppenheim used bad language. The manager was called, and they were requested to leave, which they did, but would not for a time go away, remaining and arguing with the witness. Eventu-

ally they moved away arm-in-arm towards Shaftesbury-avenue, “sweeping” the pavement as they went. He again requested them to go away, and separate from one another. As they all remained together they were taken in charge. At the police-station he preferred a charge of drunk and disorderly against them, but the doctor who examined them pronounced them “excited., but not drunk.” They all paid the medical man’s fee. The boys (for they are little more) professed not to understand the reason of their arrest. Ix>rd Alan Percy said they were not disorderly, and did not insult the policeman, and his comrades backed him up. The Magistrate, however, fined each defendant 30/, with an alternative of 14 days’ imprisonment, for disorderly conduct only. The s.s. Himalaya, which sailed from Tilbury last Friday, carried among her passengers Detective Sergeant Frost and Police Constable Marsh of the Colchester Borough Police. These “minions of the law” are bound for Wellington to take over from the Maoriland police the charge of the man Arthur Blatch, who ’tis alleged murdered Mr Alfred Weloh at Colchester on the night of December 8, 1893. The man arrested at Wellington may of course prove to be merely someone answering to the English police description of Blatch. Both Frost and Marsh knew Blatch well, and they will speedily solve the problem of the suspect’s identity. The murdered man Welch was a tailor and naval outfitter in a large way of business, whose premises were burned to the ground, among the ruins being found his charred body, with portions of a rope round the neck and the skull smashed in. Blatch, who had formerly been a porter in deceased’s employ, was stated to have visited the latter shortly before the discovery, to ask for money, and on inquiry being made it was found that Blatch was missing, as was about £ 150 from Welch’s. private room. A search was instituted, and a man answering Blatch’s description was found to have walked during the night in a heavy rain some 12 miles to a little country station, where he appeared very excited on finding he had missed the

early morning mail to London. This man was seen counting a quantity of gold. A man, believed to be Blatch, was ultimately traced to a house In Great Titchfie’ld-street. Ivondon, where he had been living with a woman named Rash, although be bad a wife and child at Colchester. The >x>lice found a blood-stained coat and a cap, which woa afterwards identified as having been left in Mr Welch’s shop on the night of the fire.' Blatch, however, had gone, and from that day was not seen in England. Tlie evidence adduced at the inquest was of a moat conclusive character, and a verdict of “wilful murder” was returned against him.

Mrs Manson of Dunedin, whose nom de chanson is Miss Mabel Manson, is evidently steadily ascending the musical scale in England. She was well received at the Scotch concert in StJames’s Hall on St. Andrew’s night, at which Mr Santley also sang. On Monday night she found herself in excellent . company at the annual ballad concert at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, in aid of the Clerkenwell Benevolent Society. Among the artists were Miss Marion McKenzie, Madame Ella Russell, Miss Alice Gomez, Messrs Ben Davies and Andrew Black. The New Zealander, however, was by no means eclipsed, but had a rapturous reception. Her first song. “She Wandered Down the Mountain Side,” was encored, and she responded with “The Minstrel Boy.” Her invitation to “Call Me Back” in her second song was readily accepted by the who insisted on a double encore. Mr Manson has been appointed agent for Boyd’s pianos at Ilford, whither he and his wife will shortly transfer their abode, A pleasant feature of the concert on St. Andrew’s night was the reception by Mrs Manson of a card sent up to her by four New Zealanders in the audience, on which they had written their names and “Bravo! New Zealand!” The beautiful % Lady Majorie Carrington (eldest daughter of Lord Carrington) has captured one of the great matches of the moment in Mr Charles W. Wilson, eldest son of the muliamillionaire Hull ship-owner,’ Mr C.. H.

Wilson. M.P. I* was either in the latter’* country bouse or his brother’s that the famous Gordon-Cumming gambling scandal broke out, involring to his great wrath the Priuce of Wales. H.JLH. didn't blame the Wilsons, but he has never been more than civil to them since. Mr Charles W. Wilson has, I believe, a targe fortune, and i* a very good fellow. Sir James Feigusson, the ex-Gover-nor of South Australia and New Zealand. who moved the re-election of the Speaker in the House of Commons yesterday, saw the Houses of Parliament for the first time when they were only a yard or two from the ground. ’ He was six years old when he heard the guns of Edinburgh Castle fired for the Queen’s accession. He sat in Chelsea Hospital beside the coffin of the Duke of Wellington, and was inspected as a Guardsman by Prince Albert. He fought in the Crimea, and came home in time to take his seat in Parliament at 23. He had been elected for his native county of Ayr in his absence, and was an M.P. before he knew it. The strange incident in connection with the unexpected recovery of Miss Fannie Ward's jewels has (says the “British Australasian’’) been a muchdiscussed event. While passing to her carriage, after paying a visit to Mrs Brown Potter. Miss Ward dropped the wonderful jewelled bag and its contents. At the same moment the new Duchess of Manchester, with her maid, drove np to -Mrs Potter’s, it being then almost dark. The maid trod on something strange, and. finding it to be the jewels, took charge of them; but, owing to the excitement of Her Grace’s recent romantic marriage, the finder could not secure much atten- ■ tion. The jewels, which the maid not unnaturally thought belonged to her mistress, were placed in the Duchess’s luggage, and only discovered during the honeymoon trip in Ireland, Miss Ward having meanwhile offered £2OO for their recovery.