All Sorts Of People

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 121, 25 October 1902, Page 3

All Sorts Of People

WHEN Mr. George Leslie left the "Government Life," to take up the office of Registrar of Friendly Societies, he left Mr. Percy Muter, not only mute, but muter still. For Mr. Leslie is a by-no-means mute individual, and, as he and P. M. were Mr Moms Fox's assistant actuaries, it will easily be perceived how lonesome "Percy" must have been when George was promoted to the Big Buildings. One who knows something of Mr. MutejVi aae, says he is on the sunny side ot 4U, and he looks as if the sun was a long way from setting;. Ec has been in the "Government Life" since his youth and in his time has done considerable figuring on other men's lives. He was the" first colonial to pass in succession the four examinations- of the Institute of Actuaries when the colonial examinations were first instituted. • • * Mr Morns Fox, the versatile actuary of the Government Life Insurance Department, is one of the brightest and cleverest of Wellington's leading citizens and yet in disposition he is one ot the ' most retiring of our men. In his profession, he is "way up. as brother Johnathan would put it. As a raconteur he is inimitable, and Wellington play-goers have had much enjoyment out of his skill as a comedian And as though this was not enough versatility for one man, he has even scored witih his oen upon the topic ot life^taking. Mr. Fox's brochure entitled '•Varieties of Life Insurance rocentlv published, is smartly written, and shows not only a neat turn _ of wit, but a successful effort of patient research . t t Mr. R. B. Avery, inspector of works for the Government railways at Johannesburg. South Africa, is at present in New Zealand. Three years ago, Mr. Avery was a carpenter on the Upper Thames, an enthusiastic volunteer, and one of the crack shots of his corps. He lomed the Fixst Contingent, and saw everything in tihe way of fighting to be seen up to the Diamond Hill fight When volunteers were called tor tor railway work Private Avery joined the Imperial military railways, and soon his ability won him a sergeant's stripes • • * Under the cavil administration, he was promoted to a very responsible position, and has now a very large stall under him, chief of whom is another First Contmo-erxter and Upper Tnames man (Mr. Jack Tetley). Mr. Avery recently got leave to oome to JNew Zealand " his object beiig to see his infirm father. On landin" last Saturday, he received a wire that his father was seriously ill, and, before he could sail for Nelson, where his people reside another wire told him the old gentleman had died. # t Mr. Avery is among many young New Zealanders who have sprung into prominent positions in Africa. The enormous prices ruling for board and lodeing do not touch Government employees who pay merely nominal rents. Expenses generally. however are very heaw. and the ex-New Zealander does not recommend anyone who has an assured position here to co to a land where, unless one steps into a hi<rh official billet, one gets in debt for board on a salary of £21 a month.

Who says the colony is un!:now n in foreign parts? There arrived in the North the otheT day Lieutenant-Gene-ral La Touehe, an Imperial officer on the Indian station, who is spending his furlough in New Zealand, with his lod and gun. It is highly probable that in India General La Touehe came m touch with Major-General Hogg and, the topic turning on snort, the latter recommended New Zealand enthusiastically as a fine field for rod and ™vn. General Hogg has, for some time spent his annual furlough in New Zealand enioying himself in whipping our troutladen streams. Now, cones General La To-uehe on similar mission bent After doing Okoroire and the Rotorua streams, he comes on to do the Wellington rivers Mr. E. G. B. Moss, one of the candidates for the Ohinemuri seat at the coming general elections, is essentially an original man. The barrister, whose "head is as innocent of hair as a pingpong ball, recently requested a meeting not to pass a vote of confidence in him, which was, to say the least unusual. Mr. Moss is a son of the wellknown author antd magistrate, Mr. F. Moss, and is himself no mean hand with the pen. In Paeroa, where the candidate resides, he is generally to be seen attired in an ancient suit, and a soft shirt the coat is always open like its owner's countenance, and the soft shirt aforesaid has an immense black "M very prominently set forth for the cruirlance of washerwomen and the public generally. / Mr. John Murrell, who has been appointed New Zealand agent for the New Zealand and South African Steamship Company, is well-known to the business man of" Wellington There may be some mystery concerning the people behind the company which has just secured tihe South African contract from our Gvoernment, but there is certainly no such question as ''Who is John Murrell?" He is big and genial and has been much in evidence in business and musical circles in Wellington these years past. Much sympathy was felt for him when he was so abruptly nut to one side by the Huddart-Parker Company with which firm he had been from his youth up He came to Wellington in 1893, as that company's general manager for New Zealand, and carried out the duties thereof until but a few weeks ago putting un a record that will be difficult to beat * ♦ * Mr. Murrell is a native of Williamstown (Victoria) where, be it remarked, Premier Seddon wooed and won his lifepartner what time he was an engineer in the Government workshops. Mr. Murrell, who is still on the bright side of fifty, was educated at the Scotch College — 'which might account foi his love of foregathering with the clans — and from college he went into the shipping office of Huddart, Parker and Co. He rose rapidly, and became manager of the Newcastle (New South _ Wales) branch which post he occupied for twelve years. Tn 1891, he was promoted to Hobart and two yeais later to Wellington In his youth, Mr Murrell was an athlete, and he ha® always had a good voice, and has used it much in musical societies, as musical people of this city are well aware. • • • Two very interesting ladies — Sister Elinor and Miss Jule Layton — began an extended mission in Wellington last week at the Trinity Wesley Church. Sister Elinor who is a gifted speaker is the Torrey and Miss Layton who has a rich contralto voice, is the Alexander of the mission. The ladies have been, conducting missions during the past twelve months in the South Island, and will be workinc the Wellington province up tall tihe end of the year. They are members of the Rev. Mr. Edgar's

central Mission, of Melbourne, which, during; recent years, has been sending out lady missioners (in pairs) who are gifted with, the powers of speech and song. Miss Lavton, who is much the youneer of the two missionaries, is a 'Victorian . Mr. W. H. P. Barber, one of the candidates for Newtown, has placed many parts. In his boyhood days he was a runner on the old "Independent," and he occasionally refers to the days when he "ran the 'Evening Post.' " He also started very young as a musician, being; quite an artist, with the cymbals, and, later he became a proficient "blower" of the euphonium, not to mention his membership of St. Peter's oh oar. He was o~ie of the foundation members of the Wellington Rowing Club, and everyone knows that he is an enthusiast in horticultural matters. Mr. Barber was also one of the earliest riders of a bike in Wellington, being the proud possessor of one of the old "bone-shakers." He was always on the spot with some new scheme, and in the days of his youth he tried very hard to induce the members of the Guards' Band to take a touring trip through the Wairarapa districts, giving concerts and camping on the route. A student of city men says that Mr. Barber "is always in a hurry." That's Barber ' * * * In his speech at Newtown last week, Candidate Barber made a reference to his lieutenancy in the Te Aro School Cadets. The cadet corps is one of Wellington's oldest institutions. At the time when Mr. Barber went to school, there were three school companies • The College Cadets, then located on the Terrace; the Croft on Cadets, a hieih school corps at Kaiwarra, under the headmastersbip of the Rev. C. H. St. Hill • and the Te Aro Cadets (Barber's Own') under the charge of Mr. W. H. Holmes, who died a few years back. These companies were armed with the old-fashioned muzzle-loading: carbines. In addition to these companies, flourishing companies of cadet® were attached to tihe T> Battery of Artillery then known as the Wellington Artillery"! and to the City Rifle Company, then under the command of Captain Crowe. * * * The "Journalist," a well-known American, weekly paper, published m New York has paid a compliment to a Wellington journalist. It has published in full tlie paper on "Journalism and the Law of Libel," written by Mr. E. F. Allan of the "Evening Post," and read before the local branch of the Institute of Journalists. The first instalment of the article occupies two of the "Journalist's" twelve pages. Mr. Allan's paper us a very valuable contribution upon, a subject which, from the legal point of view is all too unfamiliar even to those who write profession ally for the press. The article, a copy of which was sent to every editor in New Zealand, inspired not a few editorials all of which had nothing but nraise for Mr. Allan's ability. * * » In the Supreme Court the other day an action was begun m which Mr. Archibald Stafford Walker sought a compulsory dissolution of his partnership in the Glendonald Estate, with Mr. Charles Edwin Cockburn Hood. After Lawyers Skerrett (for Walker) and H. D. Bell (for Hood) had gone to a great deal of trouble in swatting up and opening the case, it was, after a da^'s sitting dropped by mutual consent, and an amicable settlement come to. The principals m this case, which has to do with a very large estate just outside of Masterton, are first cousins. Mr. Hood has grown grey in his residence in the colony, and in running the estate, but Mr. Walker — whose address had long been "Walker London," but is now Auckland — is practically a new-chum.

Mr. Walker knew practically nothing of i\e\v Zealand until, in 1896, he became sole legatee of his brother, Mr. John Cockburn Walker, of New Zealand. J. C. W. left A. S. W. a big interest in the Glendonald Estate, but he could not bequeath his pastoral experience to his London brother. Therefore, Cousin Hood had to bear the responsibility of running the concern. Prior to the death of his brother, A. S. W. was a wool merchant in London, and ever smice he has been a gentleman of leisure. Mr. Hood has a large, robust personality, whilst his. cousin is of the smalll and oarefully-groomed order of gentleman. Mr. Hood has had, aaid still has, political aspirations, and has ventured upon the hustings at least once in his life, and may be expected there again some day sooner or later. * * • When "Old Tom" Munt decided to relinquish his business into the hands of his sons — literally handing over tihe reins, for he had been in the oarrving business in Wellington since 1872 — ihe thouo-ht his decision concerned no on© but himself and his family. Therefore, he went quietly on board the Westralia to besrin a quiet jaunt "on his own" around the world. But, he had reckoned witihofut his old "hands." Great was his surprise to see a big party of men coming along the Queen's Wharf, and hailin" him, say they could not let their old "boss" go without, some slight tokens of esteem and regard. "What do you want?" asked the ex-boss, thinking, a.t first that an Arbitration Court order had come tip against him. "Haven't I been a good boss to you ?" "Oh. tihe very best of bosses!" was tihe reply "and that's why we want to show you a thine or two." * * * When the "old man" was made to understand that he was to be the subject of a presentation, he grew bashful, and, to the delight of the crowd— which suddenly grew larger! — lie exclaimed, "Well, you'd better come along up tihe road, and have one with me, boys!" And they had several, and "Old Tom" Munt fairly broke down, and words altogether failed him after the several presentations had been made. However, he was effective enough in his oratory to get the partjy to have another with him. Then, they all went down the wharf again, and gave "one of the best bosses in Wellington" a rousing send-off as he left on the first stage of his voyage to Canada and America. * * • Does the resignation of the position of Crown Prosecutor, bv Mr. H. Gully, mean that that genial gentleman of the bar is about to bid good-bye to New Zealand for ever? It is but a short time since Mr. Gully returned from am extended trip abroad, and now it is announced that he is about to return Home. For good? If this should prove so, the Welington bar will lose a sound leader, and the Empire City Society will be minus a very popular bachelor. True, the undulations of Lambton Quay will be one Gully the less, but his eroing will have a depressing effect, rather than the creation of another depression. Though hating hills and hollows we would that a Gully were always with us. * • • Mr. John Vale the secretary of the Victorian Alliance, who began his part in the no-license campaign in Wellington last week, is no stranger to New Zealand. He spent a health-recruiting fourteen weeks here in 1898, travelling from the Bluff to Auckland, and giving lectures en route. Mr. Vale is a solemn-looking, tall, spare man, with a touch of the zealot in his face during speech. He makes no attempt at flights of oratory, but "talks" more than he "orates." He is hardheaded in argument, has a memory as long as the Temperance movement, and gets off many touches of humour unon a

not-expectin^-it audience. He is a plain-spoken Englishman, who, during the whole of his stay in Viotona (some twenty years )has been secretary of the Alliance for the Suppression of the laquor Tralhe. Just now, he also occupies the office of District Ruler for Victoria of the Rechabites. * * * Time was when no political campaign in. Wellington was completely organised unless Mr. Peter Russell had a large hand m the machinery on behalf of the Government Party. But, Mr. Russell has chosen to leave the colony just before the battle of 1902. He was farewelled at a banquet, given by his friends last week, and left last Saturday for South Africa and England, v a Australia. For something over a generation of time Mr. Russell was foreman in Mr. Wiggins's saddlery warehouse, on the Quay, and politics was his hobby. He was one of the promoters of the New Zealand branch of the Knights of Labour — a one-time powerful American order — and among its adherents was the late Premier (John Ballanoe). The influence of the Knights of Labour was given a fictitious value by Premier Ballance, and it on several occasions threatened to land Mr. Russell in the Legislative Council. __ The Knights of Labour Association is dead — and almost forgotten. ♦ • * Mr. Russell during the latter portion of the war period, acted as saddlery expert to our Customs Department. After an absence of twenty-eight years, he is about to revisit the scenes of his youth in Scotland and the North of England. En route, he intends having a look at South Africa with an eve to business possibilities. For, business, as well as pleasure is the obiect of Mr. Russell's tour and it may be that, after a couple of year®' absence, Wellington will see him once again — perhaps, in business for himself fhis time Mr. Tom Mann, who, during his recent visit to Wellington particularly, and the colony generally, did not set the place on fire is being treated with a great amount of respect "on the other side." Probably, that is because of Tom's contribution to the pages of the "Nineteenth Century" upon the condition of things in New Zealand. For, if he cannot speak well of New Zealand, what hope have Australians of a good word from the ex-Labour leader? It takes a writer of force or standing to get into' the pages of the "Nineteenth Century," and. therefore, Australians must treat Tom well. Probably, had New Zealand played "See the Conquering Hero Comes," when Tom Mann arrived, his observations in print would have been "somewhat different." "Come out to New Zealand, Tom," said Andrew Qollins to him what time Andrew was Home, "and you will boss the whole show!" Tom came, and saw, but he found that Dick had conquered, so he left before the King returned to his own! • • • Tom Mann has had one peculiar experience in Melbourne. He was in time to help the Victorian Labour Parfcv celebrate its victories a* the general elections. Tom was chosen aB one of the soeakers at the demonstration. On the same platform was Mr. H. H. Ohanipioii, another ex-leader of London workers, and a one-time prominent figure in Socialist circles at Home. Messrs. Champion and Mann had) botlb stood side by side in the big labour struggles in Britain up to the early nineties. Strange to say, Mr. Champion came of a well-connected and wealtihy famil^. and he held a commiis-

sion in a crack resciment ot Hussais. All these things he forsook to take up tlhe cause of Labour. His people cut him off without even the proverbial shilling, and he came out to Australia, to start living in earnest. The Australian labourites did not believe in his sincerity, and they would not take him up. Then, he took to journalism, and he has since been a leader-wnter on the Melbourne "Age." Ec is now-a-days a hopeless cripple. * * * The incident of tihe deputation of Te Aro business-men to the Acting-Premier to urge the erection of an up-to-date poet office somewhere m their district reminds us* that one of the- first telephone offices opened in _ the colom- \vas> that still iin use in the Te Aro Post Office in Cuba-street. That was away back in the beginning of 1883. Tb-da,v, there are over 800 telephone bureaux in the colony. The Te Aro Post Office was run in connection with his book-selling business by Mr. Herbert BailJie from 1883 until 1901, when he left the business to take charge of the Free Public Library at Newtown. Mention of Mr. H. Bailhe reminds one of his brother John, who, according to all accounts, is managing to make botih meat and jam in a business-way in London. It will be remembered that, when living in Wellington, Mr. John Badllie was always a keein amateur dramaticusi, and was frequently seen on thie stage. This dramatic taste has broken out in a fresh place in the big city. He is secretary of a party of enthusiasts' who are making an effort to revive the production of miracle plays in England. It is proposed to produce a Nativity play during the coming English winter in London, and in Oxford. The plays are to be uroduced before subscribers only, on the (juinea. subscription basis, and, if the movement is

successful, the season will open about the 13th December next. r * • Richard Seddon won the Premiership of New Zealand with 4oz gloves, and his development when he v on it was such tihat Sandow might burst every 1 utton oni his waistcoat with envy. The Detroit "News Tribune," of August 10th, says so, and Dick's picture, with a 36in. biceps, cannot lie. We mentioned these facts in passing previously, but there is another ruhaise the Detroit paper explains — "To-day the Hon. Badhard Seddon. is a great friend of the United States, and is active in smirring on commerce between, the two countries. Besides almost controlling Parliament, and making the laws of New Zealand, Mr. Sed'don manages the telephones, teleora^hs, savings banks, life insurance companies and a score of otiher interests controlled by the State. He may be said to have the commercial welfare of Australia in the palm of his hand 1 , and it could not be in a steadier. * * * "He still retains the great size which stood him so well when lie was a young mjaai. His head is set on a massive neck and shoulders. Hisi face is strong and characteristic. He is a mine of energy and tangles with life and ambition. He is a rapid and fluent talker, unlike most men who are either talkers or workers, but not both. Coming from behind, the piles of letters and documents 1 which surround him, he can throw business off his mind and talk freely on any subject. He has attained polish and address. When the Duke and Duchess of York visited Australia, on tiheir recent tour, they were received by the Premier, the one-time foundryboy, who was not in the least abashed. 'Dick' Seddon is too big a man for that. He is big inside and out, and in his strenuous, cheerful life gires little thought to exterior conditions."