People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 14 March 1912, Page 41

People We Hear About

Mr. George Gfoss’mith, who died in London last week, belonged to a family of actors. He started life as a journalist, but eventually left the newspaper office for the stage. He was received into the Church about five years ago. Right Rev. Mgr. Mannix, President of Maynooth College, is in his forty-ninth year. He was educated at St. Colman’s, Ferinoy, and at Maynooth, where he was subsequently Professor, Vice-President, and President in turn. He was a Senator of the Royal University in Ireland till his appointment .in 1908 to the Senate of the National University, and is on the Governing Body of University College, Dublin, reconstituted in that year. ’ Lord Pirrie, who has been forbidden by the Ulster Unionist Council to speak in Belfast, is head of the great shipbuilding firm of Harland and Wolff, which employs from ten to twelve thousand hands, and pays in wages something like ,£20,000 weekly. Thirty;years ago the suburb of Ballymacarrett had a population; of only a few thousands, who lived in wretchedly insanitary conditions. To-day nearly 100,000 people live in the district in vastly improved surroundings. A great deal of this increase is due. to the magnificent .works of Messrs. Harland and Wolff, whose business owes its enormous development to Lord Pirrie’s genius. Lord Pirrie is also largely, interested in the White. Star, American, Leyland, and Dominion Lines .'ln addition, he is further interested, along with Sir Owen Phillipps, in the fleets of steamers connected with Messrs. Elder Dempster and Co., Messrs. Lamport and Holt, and the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. Lord -Pirrie was Lord Mayor of Belfast 1896-7, High Sheriff of County Antrim in 1898, and of County Down in 1899. He is the first honorary freeman of the City of Belfast, that honor having been conferred upon him in 1898. He was created a "Knight of St. Patrick and a Privy Councillor in 1897, and is D.L. for the County of the City ofBelfast. Mr. John Dillon, M.P., headed the list of Irish members in respect to the length of their speeches delivered in the House of Commons last session—measured in columns of the official reports. He spoke 116 columns. Mr. T. M. Healy came next with 91, while Mr. W. O Brien was third, with 56, which is one more column than the number spoken by ’ Mr. Birrell. Referring to this a writer in the Independent says :—‘ Mr. Dillon’s record as the most prolific orator , of ..the Session would not necessarily mean that he had absorbed more Parliamentary time than other members. . His rapid articulation enables him to drop a great many words through the hour-glass. If speeches be taken by time Mr. LloydGeorge, ordinarily one of the most concise, stands out as one of the few present-day Parliamentarians , who have held the floor in open defiance of the clock. '. Expoundmg the Budget that brought on the avalanche he occupied four hours— length to which Gladstone ran while introducing the first Home Rule Bill. Of course Spring Rice holds the British palm. On O’Connell’s motion for Repeal of the Union he spread himself over seven hours. The American Senate is famed for its brevity But two years ago it endured an eighteen-and-a-half hours’ speech from 'Mr. La Follette, his aim being obstruction rather than conviction. A legislator in British Columbia, one Mr. De Cosmo, is the world’s champion. At nine in the morning he rose to “offer a few remarks.” He was still offering them at nine the next morning. At twelve he fell on the floor exhausted naving talked for twenty-seven hours, during which the Speaker would not allow him to sit down, take food or repeat himself.’ f ~ ./ • -,; •; * .■ ’