PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XV, 9 April 1904, Page 43

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, February 20.

Mr. C. I*. Skerrett, the well-known Wellington barrister, arrived in Ixmdon a few days ago. He travelled Home by the F and O liner Himalaya, leaving the vessel, however, at Marseilles, and coming overland to Calais. Mr. Skerrett lias come to London to take several New Zealand appeals to the Privy Council, chief among them being the Newtown licensing case. Owing, however, to the indisposition of Lord Davey, these appeals cannot be reaehed until the middle of April. Until his cases are disposed of Mr. Skerrett must remain in the vicinity of London, and at present he has made no further plans.

Mr. Wm. Randall, of Auckland, is at present in London, this being his second visit to the Old Country within the last six months. He left London for New Zealand last July, and set sail again from the colony in November, travelling via Cape Horn by the Wakanui. Mr. Randall is a colonist of over 40 years’ standing, but he has encircled the globe a number of times since first landing in New Zealand, and is much at home in London as in the colony. Last year alone he spent no fewer than 150 days on the water in the course of his travels. It is unlikely that Mr. Randall will return to live in New Zealand, although he may pay the colony another visit.

Mr. Samuel Vaile, of Auckland, is the subject of a paragraph in the “Daily News” this week, as the chief prophet of the zone system of railway fares in New Zealand, and the originator of the scheme which Hungary adopted in 1889, as a result of Baron Hubner’s visit to New Zealand. “The plan,” adds the “Daily News,” “has been nearly adopted in the colony several times, but its chance seems less now than in the eighties, the opposition of the railways and the apathy of the people having increased.”

Callers at the Agent-General’s this week included: Mr. H. A. Reid, M.R.C.V.S., Miss Carrie Craig (Wellington), Mr. C. P. Skerrett (Wellington), Mr. Wm. Randall (Auckland), Mr. Jas. Balfour (Christchurch), and Mr. ChasCross (Christchurch).

Mr James Balfour, well known in New Zealand as manager of the Bank of New South Wales’ Hesterton station at Dunsandel, near Christchurch, is on a holiday visit to the Old Country. En route he spent a week in New South Wales and a week in Victoria, arriving in London on February 12th. Mr Balfour expects to stay in this country about three months, during which time he will visit friends in Edinburgh, Fife, the Channel Islands, and the Midland Counties. Then, after a run across to Paris, he proceeds to Canada, where he purposes spending about four months before returning to New Zealand. Having been connected with the frozen meat industry in New Zealand for many years, Mr Balfour has naturally been interested in seeing something of the disposal of the meat in Great Britain. With that object in view lie has been a frequent visitor to Smithfield, and has also had many conversations with the meat salesmen. “I am surprised,” he says, "at the uneven quality of much of the Canterbury meat seen at Smithfield. I find that ‘prime Canterbury’ is fast losing its name—so much so that few buyers are now impressed by what were once reliable brands. Buyers now purchase mutton and lamb according to the quality it exhibits at Smithfield, entirely ignoring the brand. I need not remind Canterbury shippers of the reason of this. They know quite as well as I do, and they have the remedy in their own hands. I should like to advise them, however, to make an effort to breed a better j-lass of sheep, and also, when they do freeze coarser sorts, to see that they are not sent here as ‘prime Canterbury.’ ” Mr Balfour tells me that during his seven years’ management of the Hesterton station he took sixty prises at

various agricultural shows, while Hesterton lambs and sheep have "topped” the Addington market year after year. The sale of the station seemed to him to afford a suitable opportunity for a holiday, henee his visit to London.

Sir Westby Percival was the principal speaker at a meeting of the Tariff Reform League at Ealing last night. He was confident that the two shilling tax on foreign corn, which Mr Chamberlain proposed, would not raise the price of bread a fraction of a penny, for the preference given to colonial wheat would enormously extend the wheat-growing area in the colonies, and It was after all the supply which governed the price. Sir Westby does not think the policy of fiscal reform will become law for the next few years, but he is confident of its ultimate success.

Dr. A. N. Fell's selection to play at three-quarters for Scotland against Ireland next week occasions a good deal of adverse comment in the land of cakes, the general disposition being to regard the New Zealander as a “baek number” boeause of his year’s absence from “serious” football. Last Saturday his detractors were given cause to reconsider their attitude towards the old international. Playing for Edinburgh University against the Watson’s College XV., Mr Fell played a wonderful game, annexing the only try' obtained in the first half, and scoring another ere the second had been in progress many minutes. He was thus responsible for six of the dozen points by which the Watsonians had to acknowledge defeat, and it is very evident that he retains most of his old-time

The R.M.s. Rimutaka. of the New Zealand Shipping Company’s fleet, which leaves Plymouth to-morrow for the Cape and New Zealand ports, takes out a fairly large number of passengers, including the following: Misses C. Bussell, M. Cock, M. G. Handyside, Daniels, E. S. Drake, V. Grant, G. J. Guthrie, J. L. Craydon, and Watkins; Mesdames St. Hill, Hoyle, Rawbone, A. G. Thomson, Fisher, C. H. Furness, M. MacLeod, A. Monro, B. Rawling, and Wallis; Dr. G. Browne, Dr. 11. G. Walker, Rev. B. Waugh, Rev. T. Fisher, Lt. H. Heal, O.pt. M. Rawbone, Messrs. W. 11. WankIvn, H. G- Seay, G. de C. Hamilton, C. 11. St. Hill, J. S. Hoyle, F. Kilvert, W. Moore, H. Plumb, S. C. Arnold, P. T. Cairns, J. Cameron, F. H. Grange. A. G. R. Loughborough, D- Magan, G. C. Petley, A. Pragnell, S. Traves, C. Wallis, F. Weir, A. W. Westgate, the Masters Furness (3), and a large number in the steerage.

Mr W. H. E. Wanklyn, secretary of the Christchurch Jockey Club, who has been paying a brief visit to England for his health, leaves on his return voyage by the R.M.s. Rimutaka from Plymouth to-morrow.

Miss Elsie Hall, the Australian pianist gave a recital at the Steinway Hall this week, playing Beethoven’s “Thirtytwo variations in C. Minor,” and a group of Chopin pieces. According to the “Standard.” Miss Hall’s rendering of the Beethoven music “evinced a perception of the spirit of the music which, combined with technical skill, made the performance attractive.” With Chopin she was not so successful, but the opening of the Ballade in A Flat was poetically played. The “Times” describes Miss Hal! as “one of those fortunate or unfortunate people who are always said to be improving, and who yet never manage to get to a very high point ot artistic development.”

Mr. James Paterson, formerly wool and produce manager of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, has opened an agency in London for Messrs. A. S. Paterson and Co., of New Zealand.