People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 26, 28 June 1906, Page 10

People We Hear About

The death is announced ..of. Sir Edward Elgar's father, Mr. W. H. Elgar, who was for. many years . organist at St. George s Catholic Church, Worcester He died at eighty. . - " - The Victoria Cross was instituted 50 years ago January 29. Since then only 520 persons have received it— sl7 of "them soldkrs^ or sailors, and three of -them civilians, who were acting in a military capacity when they won the cross. Lord Chief Baron Palles, of Dublin,' who was raised to the Bench in 187*4 by Mr. Gladstone, is enioyinc excellent health still, although far advanced in years. Ihe Master of the Rolls is the only o.tber iudee appointed by Mr. Gladstone, and he also is both hale and hearty. - Mr. Patrick J. Meehan, of Jersey City; N. J., editor of the 'Irish-American,' of New York, the oldest Irish newspaper in the United States with the exception of the 'Pilot ' of Boston, died on. April 20. He had edited the paper since 1858. Mr. Meehan was born in tlie city of Limerick, Ireland, in 1330. The late Lord Currie, British Ambassador at Rome worked his way upward in the diplomatic service from a clerkship in the Foreign Office. He was formerly Sir Philip wodchouse, and was created Bar O n seven years ?§°', £ c WaS P rivale secretary lo Lord Salisbury when the latter was Foreign Secretary and was engaged in many diplomatic missions in one capacity or another the most famous Lemg the Berlin Treaty and the Turkish Convention at the close of the Russian war. Mr. 11. G. Shee, K.C., who too!c so prominent a part great meetin S of Protest against the E-ducation Bill of the Catholics of London al tine Albert Hall on May 5, is the son of Mr. Serjeant Shee, who was Member for Kilkenny in the fifties of the last century and an enthusiastic ally of C harlcs Gavan Duffy and Lucas in the League of North and South and in the expulsion from power oE Lord John Russell for his insult to the Catholic Church embodied in the notorious Durham letter. The most sensational event of the Olympic Games at Athens was the victory of H. D. Herring in the Marathon Race (says the "Freeman's Journal '). The distance was 26 miles, and the \iclor came in ten minutes ahead of all his competitors. According to the special correspondent of the ' Birmingham Post 'in Toronto Mr. Herring's Aictcry has been greeted there, and all over Canada, with great enthusiasm, and the athlete will be accorded a great reception on his return. It is then added—' He is widely Inown as a member of St Patrick's Amateur Athletic Club, and is very popular among Canadian athletes.' O'Connor andLeahy have already been s-et down as ' British. Fortunately for Mr. Herring, of St Patrick s Amateur Athletic Club— a Canadian-Irishman presumably—he is a Canadian. However, the Celts whose motherland is Ireland ha\e held their own at the Olympic Games probably better th?n the representatives of any other race, t along into consideration the number of them who competed. .The announcement that Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel, will soon be sold by auction in London, recalls the fact that the place was once picked up as a ' ioib lot by a well-known Irishman, Sir Vere Hunt, Bart the grandfather of the late Avlbrey de Vere, the eminent Catholic poet. Sir Vere Hunt, who was a man of droll turns at times, was walking through a London street one day when the sounds of an auction in progress attracted hiim. He enquired what was beine-sold and on /being told it was Lundy Island he went in to the auction room. He knew nothing whatever about Lundv Island, but when the auctioneer dilated on its advantages, that it had neither tax nor tithe, owed no allegiance to King or Parliament, and knew no law civil or ecclesiastical; ha was tempted to -bid for it, and w a s declared the purchaser. Nor was it a bad speculation Sir Vere Hunt repaid himself for the Durchase by selling rabbits. He planted a small Irish colony .in Lundy and laid down an elaborate code of laws for their tniidance He sometimes , retired there for meditation Seventy years ago the island pissed to the Heaven ~ family, who are now selling the place.