ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 44, 4 May 1901, Page 3

ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

MR E. F. ALLAN, who succeeds Mr. Chas. Wilson as President of the Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Institute of Journalists, is not so well known outside of journalistic circles as he will be before long. He is an Englishman, who has not been long in the colony, but yefc long enough to have wooed and won as helpmate one of the cleverest of New Zealand's daughters, Mrs. Allan having been Miss Stella Henderson, M.A., when, she met Mr. Allan. The new president of the pressmen was a member of the British diplomatic service in China at the time of the outbreak of hostilities between the Celestials and the Japanese, and. his health breaking down, he came to the colonies to recuperate and gain experience. He joined the literary staff of the "Evening Post," and has been a tower of strength and a fund of erudition upon foreign atiairs to that journal ever since. • * • The Rev. James Chalmers, whose fate in New Guinea is now in doubt, had many friends in Wellington and other parts of the colony. He was twice married, his first wife having been a sister of Messrs. George and John Hercus, well-known Dunedinites. The missionary's second wife died only some six or so months ago. In view of his death, a letter written by Mr. Chalmers to a friend in Australia, just before he started upon his last expedition, is of sipecial interest. In it he wrote — "There is not the .slightest chance of my coming to Australia. lamin my 60th year, and have no time to lose. The night cometh. when no man can work. We have had a good report from up the river, and everywhere the cry is — 'Return and help us.' " • * * Lieutenant F. B. Hughes, whose enlistment of men for Brabant's Horse has been meeting with some opposition in Wellington is a Christchurch old boy. When the First Contingent was raised in the colony, he was running a photographic establishment in the City of the Plains. In those days he was frequently commissioned by one or other of the local weeklies to make travelling tours with his camera on their behalf. One of these commissions brought him to Wellington to do the departure of Robin's Own, and, as he was a smart snapshooter, he got some excellent pictures. Afterwards he caught the war fevor, and tried to get out as a warrior, but failed. He has not forgotten that disappointment yet, and docs not love our Defence Office for it. • • • The Rev. J. Reed Glas&on has caused quito a mild sensation m Wellington by the fierce phiUipic he delivered from the Congregational pulpit last Sunday against one-man government. Mr. Glasson, who has been pastor at the Terrace Congregational Chruch these six years, came to Wellington from Adelaide. In that South Australian cit> ho had made quite a name for himself as a Fabian lecturer, and the Australian Socialists claimed him enthusiastically as their own. He is highly popular among his flock, and, indeed, throughout Wellington. If King Dick is the alleged one-man-government that Mr. Glasson wants to take by the throat, and throw out of the colony for ever, the parson had better think hard, and be sure of his fighting strength, before he takes on the contract. There is more safety in the gospel of peace.

Editor McKenzie, of the Kawakawa "Luminary," was in Wellington the other day, looking twenty years younger than he did twenty years ago. That pomes of running a paper in the country, where the grocer gives you oatmeal, and the baker buns, and the tailor dandy suits, and the publicans anything, and where they go round with the hat and send you on tour. "Mac" came down to Wellington in the interests of the Bay of Islands, and it may be taken for granted, from the little hints he dropped, that if the railways up there are not pushed on, and the bush felled, and roads formed, according to promise, the Rontgen rays of the "Luminary" will be remorselessly turned on the Government, and then their light will go out with a bang and a crash that will arouse the whole of the colonies. * • • The cables from the "Other Side" told us the other day that the jolly "commercials" of Australia had pitched upon Dunedin for their next camping ground, when, as delegates, they would consider the business of the United Commercial Travellers' Association of Australasia. And they further, in anticipation of that visit, paid another high compliment by electing Mr. Alex. Thomson president for next year's conference. Mr. Thomson } who is at present visiting Australiaj is one of Dunedin's best known business men, being head of the aerated waters firm of Thomson and Company, and a resident of the Southern city for over thirty years. He is a frequent visitor to the Commercial Travellers' Club here in Wellington, for he is a partner in our well-known firm of Thomson, Lewis;, and Company., the active worker in which business, and the man who has made it the prosperous business it is, being Mr. "Alf." Lewis. Mr. Thomson, like Mr. Tom Wilford, M.H.R. ; has been honoured with an official invitation to the opening of the Federal Parliament. * * * By the time the Duke and Duchess of York reach the Bluff, there will be a strong team of detectives travelling in their train. Detectives Herbert and Baillie are to accompany the Royal party from Auckland, and at each of the other three centres two more detectives will join in. * * # That was a lengthy list of commissions in the colony's militia which was published in last week's Gazette. There are a few points of interest to Lance readers in that list. The Premier's son is given the rank of captain, the Rev. Mr. Tuckey's son (and Architect Chatfield'b brother-in-law), H. P. Tuckey, has gone up to a similar rank. Mr. C. P. Powles>'s son, C. G. Powles, who went away as a sergeant-major, becomes a lieutenant, and another Welhngtonian, Quartermaster-Sergeant E. Y. Sanderson, gets the militia rank of quartermaster and lieutenant, while Sergeant T. J. Gardiner, who is well known in the Worser Bay district, obtains a lieutenant's commission. * * * New Zealand's little army for the peaceful conquest of the Commonwealth had no less than seventeen officers! and it was in charge of Major Alphabetical Smith, a graduate of the Christchurch College Rifles, who went to South Africa in charge of that miss-fire experiment, the Hotchkiss Battery. The rise of this officer has been so rapid that the Commandant of the Forces will have to take care lest the lengthy one does not aspire to the colonelcy. The Defence Minister missed an opportunity in not sending the Federal Contingent in charge of one of the South African decorated officers. Major Smith is neither impressive in appearance nor in name. Captain Hughes, D.5.0., would have looked well on horseback and in print. An interesting and striking figure in the Contingent was Sergeant Hamilton, of Blenheim, who was a member of the Queen's Jubillee Contingent, the First Contingent to South Africa, and the first Commonwealth Contingent.

The titles won. by some of our boys in South Africa will have a rather bizarre effect should the warriors return to the business they followed before they enlisted. For instance, Mr. Crawshaw, who secured leave from the South Canterbury Education Board to go to the war with the Second Contingent, went away as lieutenant, has won the captaincy of a company, and has now been gazetted a major in the militia. Timaru is now getting excited over the homecoming of this young man, who is returning with Colonel Robin. But, when he resumes his post as teacher of the Fourth Standard boys in the Timaru Main School, imagine the humour of the situation — Major Crawshaw, teacher of a class of small boys! * * ♦ A Mr. C. A. Macfarlane, said to be "well-known in New Zealand journalistic circles," is a candidate for Dundas in the Westralian State Parliament. The fact that he does not seem to be so well known in New Zealand as he apparently is in Westralia, of course, may be but another illustration of the trite proverb that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. However, Macfarlane seems to be getting on among the Sandgropers. He ran the "Esperance Chronicle" for several years, then tried his hand on the Perth "Herald," and just at present has thrown down the pen to reach for the member's honorarium and gold pass. * * * /The member for Clutha (Mr. J. W. Thomson) showed an assembly of Gore farmers, the other day, how closely he had been in touch with their district in the early days of settlement. He claimed to have trodden those parts earlier than anyone present, for he was over the ground more than forty years ago. In the year 1860 he walked from Popotunoa to the Mataura River, having had to wade that stretch of water just opposite the Hokonui Hills. Thence he tramped on to Mataura, to Riverton, and through to Invercargill. Later, he tramped back again across the Mataura to Popotunoa, and pulled up at South Clutha, where he took up his lcsidence permanently. And, as a member of Parliament, he is a patient plodder still. * ♦ • «', The health of Mr. Arthur Morrison, M.H.R. for Cayersham, is now almost restored, and his burly and familiar figure is once more filling up a fairsized space in the Dunedin landscape. The Wellington bowlers are highly pleased to hear that the genial Caversham skip is getting into form again for next season s chasing of the "kitty," but the Opposition are rather inclined to look down their noses as they read that Morrisons tongue promises to be next session as supple and limber as ever it was. They are hoping, however, he will let it have the full advantage of the early-closing movement. * • • - Mr. Francis John McDonald, the new mayor of beautiful Karori, is a young man, a native of the colony, and a comparatively recent acquisition to Wellington. He was born in Dunedin, in October, 1860. McDonald pere was a wool and grain merchant in the Edinburgh of the South Pacific, and McDonald fils went straight from school to his sire's office and warehouse, to learn the same line of business. He came to Wellington four years ago, and launched out for himself as a merchant in wool and grain, and an exporter thereof. He also took up his residence in Karori, and very soon imbibed an interest for local polities. He was elected to the Borough Council at a bye-election in 1899, his opponent- on that occasion, by a co-incidence, being the very same Mr. Henderson whom the has just beaten for the mayoralty. At his first election Mr. McDonald won by the narrow majority of six votes. He was re-elected in 1900 at the head of the poll, and now he has been returned as mayor by a majority of two votes. Mr. McDonald is an energetic worker, and there i& no fear of Karori forgetting the time o' day while he is in charge.

Mr. George Frost, the twice-elected Mayor of Melrose, belies his name. No chilling frost has played upon his undertakings. On the contrary, he is quite willing to confess that he has always kept his weather eye lifting for squalls, and steered for sunny skies. Mr. Frost was raised in New Zealand. His father was one of the Canterbury Pilgrims, and the future Mayor of Melrose was born m Rangiora just forty years ago, and got his schooling there. Seventeen years ago he came to Wellington as a journeyman carpenter, and plied the mallet and chisel, the saw and the plane, to such good purpose that, after six years' steady graft, he was able to start for himself as a builder and carpenter. In that line he has been prosperously engaged ever since. • * * Four and a half years ago he made his first bid for municipal honours. He stood as a candidate for the Ohiro Ward seat in the Melrose Borough Council, and, although his opponent, Mr. Fullford, was about that time the best fullback Melrose could put on the field of football, he was not able in municipal football to prevent Frost potting a goal in that election. And he has been scoring ever since. After sitting for three years as councillor, he stood for the mayoralty, against Councillor J. M. Walter, and beat him practically two to one. That was eighteen months ago. Thia time Mr. Frost stood up for mayoral honours against Messrs. Reid, Baylis,\and Fullford, and waltzed in with a majority of 159. • * • Mr. Frost has devoted considerable attention to the question of street lighting. When he first assumed oihce as mayor, Melrose, at night, was quite lost in the dark ages. Now, it is more brilliantly lighted than even Wellington itself, or any other city in the colony. The Empire City is quite content to grope its nocturnal way with electric lights of 20-^candle power. Melrose is far more enlightened than that. It has illuminated itself with lamps of 70-candle power, of which it has forty-five now, and still there's more to follow. Island Bay will be lit up within the next six months. The Mayor has also got Ins eye on the tramways, and does not intend that Melrose shall be left out in the cold, even although it gets on so well under a Frost. i ♦ • • In Mr. Orton Stevens, the burgesses of the Lower Hutt have secured a mayor who will, without a doubt, fill the chair most generously. He is a man both of weight and of substance. He is also a live man, and just as wide-awake and up to date a specimen as you would stumble across in a day's march. Mr. Stevens is a, colonial product. He came to light at Forbes, New South Wales, in 186b, and, at the age of seventeen, he entered the service of the Mutual Life Association of Victoria. He joined its Sydney branch, and steadily worked his way forward to the position of accountant. In 1894, he was appointed manager of the Brisbane branch, and, upon the Mutual of Victoria amalgamating with the National Mutual of Australasia, he became assistant secretary at Brisbane. • • * In May, 1898, Mr. Stevens arrived in Wellington, to take up the position of general manager of his company in New Zealand. Since that time he has established a brilliant record for the National Mutual in the amount of new or extra business he has put on every year since he came here. The Lower Hutt took to him from the very first. He had only been a resident there for four months when he wab persuaded to contest a vacant seat in the Council, against so old a hand as Mr. George Cudby, the well-known livery stable keepei . The polling resulted in a dead heat, and the returning officer gave his casting vote for Mr. Cudby, who was accordingly re-elected. The recent contest was Mr. Stevens's only try for the mayoralty, and, to the surprise- of his opponents, he scored a bull's-eye with his first shot.

As mayor of a suburban borough Mr. Orton Stevens is no novice with his lesson to learn. His experience as manager of an institution with large investments to make has brought him consireable knowledge of roads and roadmaking, through having to arrange about laying off roads to lands acquired, and he has thoroughly well-informed himself about tramway systems and all other municipal conveniences. In Brisbane, too, he was identified with the Royal Agricultural Society. Mr. Stevens's policy is distinctly progressive. He is convinced that the Lower Hutt has a great future before it, and he means to put his shoulder to the wheel and start it on a forward movement. So far as he can make out, it is no further ahead now than it was twenty-five years ago, and his mission is to liven things up, and get a move on. • • • It is expected that a small army of journalists will accompany the Royal visitors on their tour to this colony, and the Wellington Journalists' Institute has decided to prepare the social way for the coming scribes. Under such circumstances, Mr. Allan will be just the man for the occasion, and the visitors may expect to have a good time whon they reach the Empire City. A Reception Committee is to consider the form of entertainment that is to be offered the English and Australian pressmen who cross the Tasman Sea in this direction next month. * • • Quite a number of well-known Aucklanders have been "doing the block," and seeing the sights of Wellington this week. First and -foremost, there is Mr. Alfred Kidd, the popular host of the Commercial Hotel, who, for the last eighteen or nineteen years has played a prominent part in the civic affairs of the Queen City of the North. In the long space of twenty years, only two citizens have presided over the Streets Committee. The first of these was the late Mr. William Crowther, M.H.R., who held the position until he became Mayor. He was succeeded by Mr. Alfred Kidd, who has been chairman ever since. # * » He is now the oldest member (in service) of the Auckland City Council. At various intervals during recent years he has been ActingMayor, and several months ago he was elected chairman of the Auckland Harbour Board for a two-years' term. Since his accession to the chair an expenditure of £54,000 has been entered upon, and Mr. Kidd is looking around just now with keen eyes, and making mental notes of notions and wrinkles that may be of advantage either to Auckland's Harbour Board or City Council. He is the guest of Mr. Allan Mdguire, who, in his day, has carried out some of the largest harbour works they have had up North. • • • Most of the other Aucklanders who have been with us during the week, lending quite a Queen-street aspect to Lambton Quay, were leisurely returning from the annual meeting — oh, beg pardon, "communication," of course — of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand Masonry, at Christchurch. There were, for instance, Mr. Geo. H. Powley, a well-known past officer of the Grand Lodge, and Mr. Malcolm Niccol, who unsuccessfully contested the Eden seat with Mr. John Bollard at the last election, but very nearly made a dead heat of it. And there were also Mr. W. H. Cooper, and Dr. Walker, who ha& seen a lot of service on the City Schools Committee, and physicked no end of young and old Aucklanders into good health. • • • Congratulations to Lieutenant>Colonel Stuart Newall upon his decoration of "Companion of the Bath." Although it came to him in recognition of his services as commanding officer of the Fourth Contingent, it was fairly won long before by long and arduous and faithful service during turbulent times in the colony's chequered history. As a young man, he served in the militia during the Waikato war, thirty-six years ago. At its close he joined the Armed Constabulary, and took part in the expedition against Titokowaru, as well as m the Urewera expedition of 1860. On his leturn from this latter expedition, he received his first commission as sub-inspector. He was subsequently engaged in the operations against Te Kooti, and, in 1871, he was employed to prepare a military report and sketch map of the Waikato, for which the New Zealand Government honoured him with the presentation of a handsome gold watch. * * » In 187.1, Sub-Inspector Newall was present at the opening of the Ohinemuri goldfield, and conducted exploring and road-making operations in that virgin district. In 1879, he was ordered to Taranaki, in consequence of native troubles there, and in 1881 he was present at the arrest of Te Whiti, at Panhaka In 1883, he was transferred tf> the permanent staff of the New Zealand Militia, and became distiict adjutant of the Canterbury Vol-

unteers. In 1891, he was placed in command of the Wanganui and Taranaki district, with the rank of Lieuten-ant-Colonel, and shortly afterwards ho was transferred to a similar position in Wellington. • • • It was at the end of March last year that Lieutenant-Colonel Newall loft New Zealand for South Africa, in command of our Fourth Contingent, and, although he was back again in February) yet, in the interval, he was under fire repeatedly. In fact, the Fourth Contingent has, on the whole, seen much more of the storm and stress of actual campaigning than any of the prior Contingents. Colonel Newall richly deserves his C.B. distinction. May he live long to wear it. * # •* Among the other New Zealanders v, ho have been honoured for their services in the field, the names of Major Madocks, Capt. "Jack" Hughes, and Capt. Major stand out prominently. There was a natural feeling of surprise and disappointment when Major Madocks' name was missed from the list of honours, but the fact that he has gained a majority in the Imperial service shows that his ''plucky exploit along with Captain Hughes on New Zealand Hill was not overlooked. His promotion has been rapid. He came to New Zealand in 1890, with the rank of lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. Last year, while serving in the field, he became captain by seniority in the usual way. And now, in being advanced to the rank of major, he leaps over some 170 captains in the army list. No one who has even heard about him, let alone those who know him, will doubt that Captain "Jack" Hughes has most worthily won his way into the Distinguished Service Order. "Jack" owes nothing to rank. Although adjutant at Napier, he went out to the war as an ordinary trooper, and sheer grit and pluck brought him on top. Captain Major .was, perhaps, the smartest adjutant they have ever had in Auckland. He resigned his position as a master in King's College, Auckland, to accept a captaincy in the Fifth Contingent, and it was confidently predicted, when he went away, that, given a fair chance, he was bound to win honourable recognition in the profession of arms. And so he has. • • * The Federal "Hansard" staff has been enrolled over on the other side, and none of the New Zealand applicants

have found a place in it. Of course, ft was only to be expected that, other things being equal, shorthand writers actually resident and employed in one or other of the federating States would receive the preference. And there was no lack of good material to select from. Mr. B. H. Friend, who has been appointed leader of the Federal "Hansard," was third man on the New South Wales staff, while Mr. D. F. Lumsden, who becomes second in command, hails from the Victorian "Hansard," to which post he graduated from the Adelaide "Register." Another Victorian appointee is William Marlowe Admans, chief reporter on the Melbourne "Age" staff, while New South Wales furnishes two other pencil-scorchers in the persons of S. K. Johnson and H. P. C Robinson. • • • E. Besant Scott is a young English journalist, who married Mrs. Annie Besant's only daughter, came out to Australia recommended by W. T. Stead, took a berth on the Melbourne "Serai d," and eventually progressed to the Victorian "Hansard." Oscar Bailey has won a reputation as the smartest stenographer in Adelaide. J. Burnays is a popular contribution from the Queensland "Hansard," and Charles George is Westraha's representative on the Federal "Hansard." George came out from England under agreement to the Melbourne "Argus." Later on he joined the Sydney "Telegraph" staff, and, finally, he accepted a billet on the Westralian "Hansard." The ordinary members of the Federal "Hansard" receive salaries of £500 a year, and, of course, the leader and deputy-leader are paid on a still higher scale. • * ■» Mrs. Ada Foye's lectures on Spiritualism have been attracting large audiences to the New Century Hall since last week, and her tests have been deepening the popular wonder and amazement. In the great majority of cases it is the unbelievers who have been receiving the messages from departed friends, and many who went to scoff have returned in the spirit of earnest inquiry. Some of them confess they are perfectly astonished at the messages they have received, and puzzled how to account for them. People, of course, will differ in opinion how it is all done, but those who have been attending these lectures warmly praise Mrs. Foye's powers as a lecturer, and freely acknowledge that her "tests" could not be achieved by mere trickery.