People Talked About

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue XXI, 24 May 1902, Page 994

People Talked About

Malcolm Niccol. By the depart lire of Mr. Malcolm Niccol, Auckland in general, and Ilevonport in particular, loses one of the most familiar of “men in the street.” Mr Niccol, who has taken a very active part in Masonic, Harbour Board, and the municipal affairs of

“the marine suburb,” as he loves to call Devonport, is gifted with a suave and pleasant manner, and an abundance of tact. Few public men have been more continuously popular, and it is really matter for some surprise that his efforts to get into the House of Representatives have hitherto failed to meet with success. At the last general election he was defeated by only a single vote, and public excitement in the district ran high while the scrutiny of the votes was gone through. Mr Niccol was. on Wednesday evening last,'the recipient of a purse of sovereigns from the Masonic Order. He goes to Wellington, and his innumerable friends in the North wish him every success in the Empire City. Miss Amy Castles. I would like to correct (writes a Melbourne correspondent to ‘M.A.P.’) a statement made recently in your paper about Miss Amy Castles. Your informant states that Miss Castles was discovered and introduced to the Melbourne public by Lady Brassey. 'Tlai was not so. though Lady Brassey very kindly lent her support and patronage to Miss Castles as soon as she was brought under her notice. The fact was that a Bendigo fi iend introduced Miss Castles to Mrs Joseph Doubleday, a teacher of singing in Melbourne. Mrs Doubleday. herself an artist, al once recognised the unusual beauty and quality of the young girl’s voice, and with some trouble obtained a hearing for her at the Austral Salon, a wellknown social and literary club of which Lady Brassey was President. It was on this occasion that Miss Castles was introduced to Lady Brassey. whose kindly help and influence contributed so largely to the phenomenal success that afterwards attended Miss Castles in her tour through the States. Mrs Doubleday then organist d a concert, entirely at her own expense. to g*ve Miss Castles a wider hearing than she had hitherto obtained. The result was astonishing. Not only was the Town Hall crowded Io its utmost extent, but 400 or r»OO w’ere turned away, necessitating an immediate second concert It seems only just that such love of Art as was shown by

Mrs Doubleday should be recognised by the publie. though her best reward has been the knowledge that through her the world has gained another great singer to “add to the gaiety of nations-” Arton Now Wealthy. The celebrated M. Arton, who was one of the central figures in the great Panama scandal, and who, it will be remembered, was arrested in I.ondon and extradited at the request of the French Government, is now a rich man. Last year he made between £40,000 and £50,000 by speculating on the Bourse. o o o o o A Millionaire’s Taxes. Mr Reginald Vanderbilt, one o the best known younger members of the family of millionaires, recently called 'on the commissioner of taxes, who had assessed him at £200,000 person alty, and proved conclusively that he was liable only for some £2,000. The commissioner a-eco-rdingly amended the tax schedule, whereupon M Vanderbilt astonished him by saying that he had no wish to evade the rerponsibilities of great wealth, and therefore asked to be assessed at £ 50,0001 o o o o o Sir Robert Stout on Gambling. All thoughtful people are discussing the remarks made by the. Chief .Justice of New Zealand (Sir Robert Stout) on the terrible hold the gambling evil is getting on this community. In passing sentence on a misguided man at Napier, whose gambling propensities had led to theft. Sir Robert observed that the gambling

habit was one which unfortunately was not dealt with as it should be, and its evil effects were not recognised sufficiently by the citizens. Tn many districts of the colony gambling was going on habitually, and the people who ought to be leaders of society did not seem to see what it meant in the yearly sacrifice to this Moloch of numbers of young men. Sir Robert Stout received the honour of the K.U.M.G. in 1886. His early training as a schoolmaster has left its mark upon him. and when in the House he was never able quite to lay aside the Dominie, and had a habit of speaking to members in a lecturing sort of style. 'l'his habit is retained to some extent on the Bench, but. of course, is less noticeable in a judge than in a tnere politician.

On Wednesday last Mr Alfred Kidd was installed Mayor of Auckland for the second time. The occasion was marked by eulogistic reference to Mr Kidd's services to the city during his past term. M. Loubet’s Trip to Russia. The date of President Loubet’s ariival at Kronstadt was fixed for to-day (Tuesday), and that of his departme on his return to Fiance for Friday. The new cruiser Montcalm conveys P.evident Loubet to Russia. Although only lasting three days this little tour will cost the Russians a good sum. The little visit of the Tsar to Fiance cost the Republic a pretty penny. Special messengers were sent to invite him at a cost of £lOOO, and £10,001) was expended in cleaning up Dunkitk, where he was to land, and putting t in a presentable shape. The government erected triumphal arches at a cost of £lO,OOO, and spent £lOOO for flags. Then there were 5000 picked troops to be got ready, besides the regular review troops. These picked troops were specially trained, drilled, and quartered for over six weeks at a cost of £20,090, and twenty-five military bands were put down in the estimates at a c, st for food and extra expenses of £25(0 The naval review held for the delec'ation of the Tsar cost £50,000, the it. in for coal alone being £20,000. In saluting, powder to the value of £5OOO w s burned, and the cost of guarding the Tsar was estimated at £10,009. On housing and feeding him and his su’te the sum of £15,000 was spent, and there was an extra appropriation of £lO.OOO for “sundries.’’ o o o o o Frank Bullen and the Halibut. “On a raw and cheerless morning, a week or two ago,” writes a Grimsby journalist, “a somewhat delicate-look-ing little man, enveloped in a heavy furlined coat, was observed flitting about ‘down docks’ at one of our large fishing ports. Now and again he was jostled unceremoniously by some great hulking ‘lumper.’ but he did not seem to mind. It was Mr Frank Bullen, prose-poet and lecturer, ‘artist and colourman in words.’ He was paying a flying visit to see with his own eyes how some of the fish is brought in alive. ‘How Uo you think they keep halibut alive and fresh all the way from the fishing grounds.’ he remarked a day or two later. ‘They tie the fish together by the tail and hang them in the sea, and when landed the tails are in many eases nearly severed.’ Mr Bullen has a passionate pity for all dumb animals, and thinks it is time the S.P.C.A. moved in the matter.”

A Cabinet Minister In Gaol. It does not, as a rule, fall to the lot of Cabinet Ministers to have the unenviable experience of being marched between a guard of two stalwart policemen and lodged in a Government prison. The Hon. C. C. Kingston, the Minister for i rude and Customs in the new Australian Cabinet, has, however, experienced this situation. It was a few years ago that Mr Kingston created quite a sensation by sending a challenge to his political opponent, Sir R. Baker, to fight a duel in the public square at Adelaide. The challenge came to the ears of the police authorities. and immediately a warrant was issued for Mr Kingston’s arrest. He was ap prehended and taken to the policestation, and there detained until he had been hound over to keep the peace towards all Her Majesty’s subjects. “ Charley ” Kingston is so universally popular in his colony that the incident did not endanger his seat, and his elevation to the Premiership of South Australia followed a few years afterwards. o o o o o The Mueh-talked-of Temperance Orator whose Visit to New Zealand is Abandoned. Mr Woolley, whose alleged pro-Bocr views and utterances have aroused such a heated controversy of late, has cabled the New Zealand Alliance that he will not be able to visit New Zealand as originally projected. Many persons assumed that this decision was the result of the indignation so freely expressed here at the proBoer utterances which it is alleged Mr Woolley gave forth in America. This is,, however, not the case. Mr

Woolley can as yet know nothing of the charges against him in this respect, or the feeling they have aroused here. If he knew be might make a special effort to keep the agreement, if only for the purpose of answering his critics, but two or three months ago he wrote stating that owing to the pressing requirements of business he might be com pelled to abandon his visit. The cablegram received by the Alliance simply confirms the fear that he would be unable to get away from America. Nothing that has been said or written in the colony has affected his plans.