People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 1 June 1916, Page 37

People We Hear About

Field-Marshal Sir Evelyn-Wood, V.C.,-who has written a new book, made numerous recruiting speeches, and marched with the City National Guard to Hyde Park recently, is 77 years of age. He won the Y.C. as long ago as 1858. ' ’ A well-known American Catholic recently passed away in the person of Mr. Thomas Maurice Mulry, K.S.G.,who died from pneumonia in Manhattan. For over a quarter of a century he had been an active member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, was a director of the Ozanam Association, and on the Executive Committee of the New York Conference of Charities. He belonged to many Catholic clubs and societies. Although well advanced in years, his Lordship Bishop Dunne, of Bathurst, is extremely fond of walking as an exercise and healthful pastime (says the Catholic Press). He scorns to . ride in motor cars or other vehicles when walking is practicable, and often indulges in long rambles around the Bathurst district. It is by no means an uncommon occurrence for, Bishop Dunne, when visiting St. Joseph’s Convent, Perthville, a distance of seven miles from the city, to walk there and back on the same day, reciting his rosary on the way. ■ . ' The Right Hon. Andrew Fisher, ex-Prime Minister of Australia, who has come to London to take up the duties of High Commissioner for the Commonwealth in succession to Sir George Reid, is 54 years of age (says a Home paper). He began life as a pit-boy at ten, with his father, who was a working collier. He practically educated himself, and, as the years went by, worked so earnestly for the betterment of* the conditions under which his fellow-workers labored, that he aroused the antagonism of employers, was blacklisted and forced to emigrate to obtain employment. This was in 1885, when he was 23. Eight years later he entered the Queensland Parliament after working in the goldfields, where his sterling character earned for him much popularity among the diggers. A keen debater, organiser, and labor student, he steadily climbed the ladder of political fame and success, culminating in his appointment as Prime Minister of Australia in 1910. To his labor friends, however, he is still Andy, the pit-boy of Kilmarnock, and although his native country did not treat him kindly, Mr. Fisher cherishes no bitter feelings against it. He still loves the land of ‘ banks and braes,’ and dotes on Burns. The Queen of the Netherlands, as Wilhelmina, Queen of Holland, is commonly called, is one of the most interesting women in the world. She is also the only woman in the world who is a reigning sovereign, and has been such since her tenth year, in 1890, upon the death of her father, the former king. . Her Majesty and her mother spend much time at her lovely country seat, known as Het Loo. Here they pursue sylvan pleasures without attendants of any kind. Queen Wil-, helmina is typically Dutch. She has a round Dutch profile, a Dutch depth of shoulder, a Dutch suavity of manner: things are* going her way —and a marvellously graceful Dutch way of skating, and she positively adores everything Dutch. Her Majesty is the richest sovereign in Europe in her own right, her income being enormous from the crown lands and from her vast colonies. That vast income is used for the benefit of her beloved Dutch subjects, in the way of public buildings of every kind—such as hospitals, theatres, lecture-halls, music-halls, gymnasiums, public bathhouses, and so on, to say nothing of charming and numerous parks that rich and poor alike may enjoy. Do you wonder Holland adores its queen ? She enjoys prodigious personal popularity with every class of her subjects, and because of this she can do almost anything in the way of eccentricity, that would not always be tolerated in.another queen.