ABOUT PEOPLE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1232, 14 April 1914, Page 4

ABOUT PEOPLE.

WHERE THEY MET,

There is one good story told by General Smuts, who is one of those responsible for the deportation o f the Labour leaders. During nis visit to England he was present at an official reception, and in the course of the evening he found himself next to a rather high and mighty young officer.

“ Let me see,” remarked the latter, staring at General Smuts rather superciliously through his monocle, “ haven’t we —ah —met somewhere ?”

“ Yes,” replied the General. “Thought so,” remarked the officer ; adding with a bored air : “ One meets so many people ; let me see, where did we meet?”

“In South Africa!” retorted the General curtly. “ You surrendered to me during the war !”

COMMONWEALTH GO VERNOR-GENERAL.

Writing of Sir Muuro Ferguson, the London correspondent iu the Liverpool Daily Post, says that the other day at the Reform Club someone asked what be had done to be made Governor-General of Australia. The answer came that he bad planted thousands of trees in Scotland. As a matter of fact, he was really one of Lord Rosebery’s young men of the Whig type, but be never seemed to be able to let himself go. He is muchliked by those who know him intimately, but bis circle of friends is limited. However, he has quite the official manner, which is an essential for his new post. His wife, who was a daughter of the late Lord Dufferin, is nice-looking, a little difficult to talk to, aud all her opinions are as assorted as they are exemplary. The couple are peacefully happy, highly decorous, aud iu Australia will do nothing in particular particularly well. SIR EDWARD CLARKE. Sir Edward Clarke, the great advocate, was seventy-three in February, Sir Edward’s name stands about twelfth in chronological order iu the list of K.C.’s contained in the newly-published volume of the “Law List” for 1914, and he has been a banister in all lor fitly years. He was Solicitor-General in the Conservative Government of 1886101892, since that lime the political fates have not been very kind to him. Sir Edward is regarded by bis fellows at the bar with the greatest liking aud esteem, no less on account of his ability than of his own personal virtues. He is probably the finest living cross-ex-aminer, There was a story told many years ago of the late Mr Justice Charles, that he once persuaded Sir Edward Clarke, then only a stuff gownsman, to take a brief for the defence iu a murder trial at Maidstone Assizes, “If you don’t take it,” urged the judge, “some stupid barrister will put a wrong question, and the woman be banged.” Sir Edward, who always declined to be engaged iu a capital case if he could avoid it, allowed himself to be persuaded by thejudge’s flattering argument, aud secured his client’s acquittal as predicted.

THE BABY IN THE DRAWER. Mr J. Howard Parnell, the Dublin City Marshal, is writing his reminiscences ot his famous brother. How a mother’s forgetfulness nearly lost Ireland the man who made Home Rule a burning question is told in the following anecdote: “Our mother,” writes Mr Parnell, “was nursing him when a visitor was suddenly announced. She hastily stowed away the future Irish leader in a drawer, which she closed without thinking and hurried to the drawing-room.

“When the visitor left she found that she had clean forgotten what she had done with Charley, and a frantic search was made until muffled howls from the drawer where he was imprisoned resulted in bis release.”

A JUDGE WHO NEVER ' JOKED. The funny sayings of a judge who never joked form one of the finest collections of judicial humour ever published. This is “Ar&biuiana,” a selection of the dicta of Sergeant William Arabiu, who sat as a judge at the Old Bailey from 1830-1839. They savour somewhat of Sir Boyle Roche. For instance, his remark to counsel, “If you can show precisely at what moment the offence was committed, and prove that the prisoner was not there when he did it, he could not possibly have done it.” Aud he sagely added as an afterthought, “We cannot divest ourselves of common-sense in a court of justice.” Another axiom he delivered himself of has been fathered by many other occupants of the Bench : “If ever there was a case of clearer evidence than this case, this case is that case.” LABOUR’S PLUMS. Mr John Burns is not the only trade unionist who has done quite well iu the British Government service, though no one else has touched the ,£5,000 mark. Mr D. J. Shackletou, sometime President of the Weavers’ Amalgamation, and Labour member for the Clitheroe Division of Lancashire, is an Insurance Commissioner at ,£t,ooo a year. Mr Richard Bell, who started life as a railway guard, aud was afterwards secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, aud M.P. for Derby, is an officer of the labour exchanges at ,£4OO to ,£6OO a year. Mr Isaac Mitchell, who used to be secretary of the General Federation of Trades Unions, and Mr D. C. Cummings, once secretary of the Boilermakers, are Assistant Industrial Commissioners under the Board of Trade. Mr Mitchell’s salary is ,£7OO to ,£9OO a year, and Mr Cummings’ ,£SOO to ,£7OO. There ate obviously worse things iu these days than being a trade union official.