PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue XXI, 24 May 1902, Page 1041

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, April 11.

An ancnymous donor, unconnected with New Zealand, has been so much struck with the colony’s patriotism and with the conspicuous bravery of the New Zealanders in the recent fight with De Wet, that he has presented AlOO to the Agent-General, to be applied for the benefit of one of those wounded in the fight. The Agent-General, with the giver’s consent, has sent out the generous gift to Major-General Babington, to be disposed of in accordance with the donor’s request.

There is, according to the “Pall Mall Gazette,” some talk of the freedom of the city of London being offered to Mr. Seddon, whom that journal dubs “the perfervidly loyal Premier of New Zealand.” Mr. Seddon has, I believe, already received an intimation to the effect that the freedom of his native town of St. Helens is his whenever (so to speak) he pleases to call for it, but of course the freedom of the first city in the world is on quite a different plane to that of even so flourishing a little borough as St. Helens.

The first public appearance of the King’s Colonials in London will take place on 27th April, when they will have a church parade at the Horse Guards parade.

Mr, and Mrs. Seymour George and their two daughters have just arrived by the Arcadia, and put up at 52, Stanhope Gardens, South Kensington. The object of their tour is to enable Mr. George to recuperate his health, and to obtain the best medical advice, and they expect to be on this side for about six months.

Dr. Hocken has gone North to Newcastle for a few days, and has promise'd on his return to give me a few impressions of Japan and Egypt, in each of which countries he spent a delightful three months. Mrs W. Boss (Auckland) will return to the colony in September. Dr. Wohlmann, the new balneologist, left on Wednesday for the Continent, where he will visit Aix-les-Bains, Carlsbad, Marienbad, le Chapelle, and other important spas. The wedding took place on Bth April at Widcombe Old Church, Bath, of Mr Arthur Grenville Hume, the son of Colonel Arthur Hume (late 79th Cameron Highlanders) and Miss Amy Charlotte Rogers, eldest surviving daughter of Mrs. Rogers, 46, Sydney Buildings, Bath.

The friends of Mr. Walter Ponsford in New Zealand will regret to hear of the death of his 12-year-old son, Walter Desca, on Easter Monday, from thrombosis. The little fellow had not been very strong for some time past, but was only taken ill on Good Friday, so that the end was somewhat sudden.

A New South Wales medical student in Scotland has taken time by the forelock in a way that would have pleased "The Colossus,” for he has already put in his application at the AgentGeneral’s office for the three scholarships allotted by Mr Rhodes to New South Wales.

The officers of the King’s Colonia's will be presented at the levee on April 21, and will hold their first mess dinner on April 30. The first regimental dinner will be held on June 3, when the Prince of Wales, hon. colonel of the regiment, will be present.

Mr. F. C. Carruthers Gould’s cartoon in to-day’s "Westminster Ga-

zette,” “A Seddon Apparition,” depicts Mr. Chamberlain as a bemonocled fisherman, spindle-shanked and clad in Turkish garb, standing on the shores gazing aghast at the apparition in smoke arising from a jar labelled “Imperial Colonial Unity.” The appearance takes the guise of Mr, Seddon clad in a Maori mat, with huia feathers in his hair and a formidable Maori club in his hand. He says to Joe: “Call yourself an Imperialist! Just look at ME!” Mr Williampon expects to have his Jubilee statue of the Queen for Christchurch ready by the end of the month, Mr Drury’s statue for Auckland has been delayed by an accident, and will not be ready before the end of July, while Mr Luchesi is awaiting information from Italy about the rough-hew-ing of his.

Mrs McCarroll (Auckland is staying with friends at Belfast, and after the Coronation festivities intends to go to the Cork Exhibition, then to the States, and home by California, reaching Auckland in December or January.

The Countess of Unslow opened at Merrow, Surrey, on Saturday, a Morris tube rifle range, which the Eiirl of Onslow has presented to the Merrow Rifle Ciub. Her Ladyship, who was accompanied by Lord Onslow and the Ladies Gwendolen and Dorothy Onslow, fired the first shot, and made the inevitable bull. The Earl of Onslow gave a silver cup to be won outright, and announced that he would give a silver challenge cup to be shot for annually.

The Rev. Dr. Burford Hooke, the secretary of the Colonial Missionary Society, who has been away for seven weeks from work, owing to injuries in a railway collision, will leave by the Gothic on sth June for his visit of inspection of Congregational churches of the colony. He will be accompanied by

Mrs Hooke and by Miss Ledbury, of Frome, the fiancee of the Rev. Alfred John Lee, the new Congregational minister at De von port, Auckland. They will break the journey at Capetown, where they will make a fortnight's stay, and at Hobart, where Mr Hooke will be the guest of Mr Theo. Cane, and will arrive in Wellington by the Karamea on 17th August. After some weeks in New Zealand Mr Hooke will pay a brief visit to the chief towns of Australia before returning Homewards via Suez. •