PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue I, 5 July 1902, Page 48

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, May 23, 1902. At the Court held by the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace last Friday night, there were presented the Countess of Seafield, by Lady Forestier-Walker, and Mrs Joseph Studholme. on her marriage, by the Countess of Glasgow. Among those present were the Earls of Glasgow and Seafield. The Countess of Glasgow’s dress of palest, heliotrope satin, was broehe, with a graceful floral pattern. It opened in deep points over an underskirt of chiffon and lace, over which was a festoou of chiffon and gold roses- The bodice was trimmed with point d'Alencon lace, and garlands of chiffon roses with silver centres- The train of mauve miroir velvet was lined with lemon-coloured satin, and trimmed with real lace. Lady Forestier-Walker was gowned in white satin, wrought with silver, ami had a train of red velvet with a silver ornament forming a kind of hood.

Dr. Haines (Auckland) will return to the colony in October or November. During his two years’ sojourn on this side he has toured largely in Great Britain and abroad, and while in London he has been in constant attendance at the Medieal Graduates’ Polyclinic, the West. London Hospital, and elsewhere, with a view to studying all recent developments in his profession.

Mrs and Miss Morrison (Auckland) arrived at the end of last week by the Afric, and will go .lor.: in a few days to relations in Inverness, afterwards proceeding to Ireland and returning to the colony about September.

The Seddon Memorial Fund now amoun sto over £250. Among the latest subscribers are Shaw, Savill and Albion Co.. W. Weddel ami Co., Turnbull, Martin and Co., each of which firms subscribe ten guineas; Hallensi?. in Brothers nd 0.. and Mr Geo. Beetham, who sympathise to the tune of five guineas apiece; Mr John Cooke and N.Z. Farmers’ Cooperative Association, who each subscribe three, and “N. Seafield.” who gives a modest guinea. It has been decided that the memorial shall take the form of a service of plate, address and album, in which the contributor.- will sign their names. The presentation will be made r.t the New Zealand dinner on 17th June.

Last Monday Miss Mary Frances Neale, only daughter of Mr SV. A. Neale, J.l*., of Waihi, and granddaughter of Mrs Neale, late of Sunny Moor. Bournemouth, was married to Dr. John Aston Swindale, M. 8.8.5., eldest son of Dr. J. Swindale, M.R.C.S.,

L.S.A., Ipswich. The ceremony took place at Dr-yton. St. Leonard, and was performed by rhe bride’s uucle, the rector. Rev. J. H. F. Hope. M.A.

Mr John Bayne, M.A., B.Se.. former Director of the Lincoln Agricultural College, was last week unanimously appointed by the Technical Instruction Committee of the Lancashire County Council at Preston the Principal of Agriculture for the county, at a salary of £530 a year. Mr Bayne will take entire charge of the agricultural educational work through the county, which should profit handsomely by his colonial experience.

Mr C. J. Parr Las considerably enlarged his mental horizon since he left Auckland, and it will be surimising if he does not return a far more valuable councillor to the city after his experiences in America and the Old Country. The experiences of himself and Mr D. L. Caldwell, who were fellow-travellers in the American liner, gave them cause for reflection as to the effects of the swallowing up of British shipping by American trusts. The two Aucklanders spent a very profitable eouple of months iu U.S.A, and Canada, travelling through Southern California, Salt Lake. City, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit, the best managed and equipped municipality Mr Parr has yet seen, and Niagara. In Canada they visited Toronto. Montreal, and Quebec, where Mr Caldwell discussed with several leading business men the development of business nnd trades relations between Canada and New Zealand. The hospitality experienced by the two Aucklanders at the hands of their Canadian cousins was almost overwhelming, and they both came away impressed by the great- potentialities of Our Lady of the Snows. Through Boston and Philadelphia the travellers passed on to Washington, where through the kind offices of Senator Dillingham they obtained a ten minutes' interview with President Roosevelt at the White House. The President, who before receiving them had just gallantly bidden farewell to two lady visitors with the compliment, “Ladies, you have brightened my day.” was in genial mood. He showed himself well acquainted with New Zealand characteristics, and much interested in the trend of its legislation. and plied his callers with questions about the colony, evincing a special interest in the Maoris and their approximation to European civilisation. He expressed himself as much struck by the loyalty of the colony, and the large number of men, in proportion to its size, it had despatched to the war. Altogether the interview, though brief. was very cordial. Mr Parr, who'during the past fortnight has been making .some investigations into the matters of street paving, sewerage, and garbage destructors. will fill in The interval before the Coronation by trips to the Dukeries and the chief Midland cities. After the great event he will travel to ITreland and Scotland,and leave for the Continent about the beginning of August, seeing something of France,

Switzerland, and Italy, and catching the outward boat at Naples.

Mr Seddon's speeches at Durban attract a good deal of attention- in thy London press. The “Times” sees in them an indication of what a repetition (of a Majuba betrayal) might east us amongst the great and growing democracies on whom the future of the Empire largely depends. The “D»ily Telegraph” devotes a leader to Mr Seddon, in which it says; “New Zealand is the most democratic of all our colonies, and Mr Seddon is the most typical democrat who has ever' filled the office of Prime Minister within the borders of the Empire. It might, therefore, have been thought that he would have been ‘a grateful person’ to the Radicals of Great Britain. He is a great man and a powerful, but he is a staunch Imperialist. And so it comes to pass that next to Mr Chamberlain, and possibly Lord Milner, the Prime Minister of New Zealand is an abomination to the Little Englanders. He h%s given them cause, for New Zealand has, in proportion to its numbers, sent more contingents to the aid of the Mother Country than any of the daughter nations. But the raising of volunteers in his colony is by no mgans the gravest offence Mr Sgfldon has committed in the eyes of ■the enenues of their country. He has’ the. most uncompromising lan-guage-abput the bases of peace, and ■his virile words have made the ■wpimanisji allies of Mr Kruger wince, arid have brought on hysteria.” After contrasting the position of the pro-Boers with that of the colonial stallman, the “Telegraph” continues: “He has no voice in the Imperial Parliament, he 'can give no rotes, nor can he win them, and yet England would have lost more, perhaps, than her honour even —she would have lost her sense of gratitude—if she did not listen with the most favourable ear to the pleadings and arguments of chosen representatives of the daughter-nations. In the hour of stress and storm, without appeal, they proffered their assistance to the Mother Country. They made no terms, they asked no reward, gave, freely of their best without counting the cost. Cons tit uticmalliy, of course, they have no rightto raise their voices in Parliament, bat morally the opinion of Mr Seddon and other Colonial Premiers outweighs the judgments of all the proBoers at Home. Mr Seddon asserted at. Durban that ‘no one desired peace more than he did, but it must be peace on an everlasting basis. Nothing less would be in accordance with the feeling of the colonies. The surest way to bring about peace was to bring more men. These are the words not only of the Chic ' Minister of a democratic colony; they express the ineradicable convictions of every true Imperialist wherever he is to be found, under oak, or palm, or pine.”

“We must insist (concludes the “Telegraph”) that, whatever the terms we grant to ths vanquished Boers, they must be such as will command»at least the acquiescence, if

not the unqualified approbation, of the loyalists of South Africa, and of every British colony which has played its part in this war.”

The Executive of the British Empira League propose to enter shortly on a campaign to educate the people of the Old Country to a proper appreciation of the desirability of establishing an Imperial Zollverein. To begin with they propose sending Lieut.-Col. Denison, President of the) Canadian branch of the British Empire League, to visit, various important provincial centres in this country, and address meetings in connection with the Chamber of Commerce and kindred bodies on the subject of tariffs and fiscal arrangements. At the end of last year Colonel Denison, who is now in London, and who will deliver his first address in the North within the next few days, was the principal speaker at various meetings in the interest of the League in Canada, when on two occasions the following resolution, moved and seconded by prominent members of both political parties, was unanimously adopted: “That this meeting to of opinion that a special duty of 5 to 10 per cent, should be imposed on every port in the British possessions on all foreign goods, the proceeds to be devoted to Imperial defence, by which each port would not only be doing Its duty towards the common defence, but at the same time be receiving a preference over the foreigner in the market of the Empire.” Colonel Denison in his addresses will deal at length with the subject-matter of this resolution.