People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 26 June 1913, Page 41

People We Hear About

Mr. Theobald Mathew, son of the late Lord Justice Mathew, and the brother-in-law of Mr. John Dillon, has been appointed Recorder of Margate. Born in 1866, educated at the Oratory, and afterwards at Oxford, Mr. Mathew was called to the Bar in 1890, and has had a distinguished legal career. c The Duke of Norfolk holds two Papal Orders which are possessed by no other subject of the British Crown. One of these is the noble Order of Christ, which was founded in 1318, after the dissolution of the Order of the Temple, by the then King of Portugal. The other is the Order of the Golden Spur, restored by the present Pope in 1905. Rev. Father Bernard Vaughan, S.J. (says London Opinion) was once asked by a fashionably dressed lady, ‘ Would you really describe the world as a vale of tears?’ Father Vaughan thought for a moment before replying: No, 1 do not think I should. I should be inclined to describe it as a home for incurables.’ Then, as she looked puzzled, he continued: ‘ So very few have ever been known to leave it alive.’ Mr. Asquith, who completed five years as Prime Minister on April 8, has every prospect of achieving the distinction of presiding over an administration for a longer period than any other Liberal statesman during the last half-century.- He has already been in power longer than any Liberal Prime Minister since - the Redistribution, and before members adjourn for their summer recess he will have occupied the position for a term exceeding either of Mr. Gladstone’s first two administrations—five years and two months from 1868 to 1874, and a few days less than that period from 1880 to 1885, the only ones during the half-century to the credit of a Liberal Prime Minister that Mr. Asquith has not yet eclipsed. By the death of Sir Tatton Sykes, the famous North-country Baronet (says the Universe), another Catholic is added to the roll of Catholic titled people in England. The late Baronet is succeeded by his son. Colonel Mark Sykes, who is the Member of ‘Parliament for Central Hull. The new Baronet was born in 1879, ; and married a daughter of Sir John Gorst. He is a man of exceptional ability and of experience in many directions. After serving in the South African War he was private secretary to the Chief Secretary for Ireland, in 1904-5. His attempts to secure Parliamentary honors were at first unsuccessful, but on the death of the late Lord Nunburnholme, the succession of the sitting member for Central Hull to the Peerage allowed Colonel Sykes to contest the seat, which he did with success. The new Baronet is a member of the Territorial Association of the North and East Ridings, a Justice of the Peace, and a County Councillor for the East Riding.

At the present time several civil servants in New Zealand, who are close on their sixty-fifth • year, have been notified that they will be retired on reaching' the age-limit. In the United Kingdom a public official or politician is supposed to be at his best at sixty-five. Lord Alverstone says that the judges are at their best from sixty-five to eighty. Sir George Birdwood, eightyone this year, says he cannot understand why .people imagine that this is the day of young men. Now, more than ever, it is the day of the old man with vitality. Lord Alverstone is perfectly right when he says that a judge is at his best from the age of sixtyfive to eighty.’ He contends that ‘an able man’s brain goes on developing right up to ninety and overonly his body decays.’ Provided he is quite fit, ‘the older a man is the better he is intellectually the broader his vision, the saner and wiser his outlook, and the more mature his opinions.’ The following are a few of the old men of vitality to-day:Lord Wemyss 94; Lord Strathcona, 92; Lord Halsbury, 87; Lord Roberts, 80; Lord Morley, 74; Mr. Thomas Hardy 72; Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, 90; Sir Hiram Maxim) I O .