All Sorts of People

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 195, 26 March 1904, Page 3

All Sorts of People

MR William Henry Peter Barber, M.H.R. for the beerless southern suburb of Wellington, loyally waited until Mr. Aitken had quite decided not to fill the mayoral breach for another year, and then, yielded to the deputation which wanted him to stand. Mr. Barber is a gentleman who has had many honours thrust upon him, and who assumes' new burdens as to the manner born. The candidate for the mayoialty is a Welhngtoman — ne was born in Willis-street, about forty-three years ago, and he has climbed up without treading on anybody much. • » ♦ When William. Henry was but a few years old, he imbibed a taste for journalism, and sold "Evening Posts." His business acumen showed itself even m this lowly occupation. By the way, he went to school before that. There weren't any State schools so long ago, but Willie used to take his Is 8d a week along to the late Mr. W. R. Holmes, who schoolma~tered St. Peter's scat of learning m the early days. Mr. Holmes' son is now clerk of the court in tins city, and his son-in-law was that popular clerk of the court who is now Stipendiary Magistrate W. P. James, of tht Wairarapa. In earlier yachting days he was plain "Billy James." • ♦ • Mr. Barber was first lieutenant of the school cadets, the late schoolmast?i being captain. "Bill" Balhnger, since a famous shot, was second lieutenant. That old cadet corps also turned out George Howe, a prominent figure at present-day butts. Mr. Barbei hadn't been living very long before he began to dye, and he has been at it ever since, succeeding his father when that hale old gentleman went in for f aiming at the Upper Hutt. W. H. P. has been continuously a city councillor for thirteen years, haviner been called to represent the Te iro Ward in the days when A W. Brown, the mayor of sad memory, took hi= bag away, and left mystery behind — and little else. Mr. Barber was a struggling young chap then, and he and Mr. Brown were cu-guarantors for the Mokau Coal Company. When Mr. Brown retired from public view, Mr. Barber's whole wealth vas seized on, and he was left penniless, with a big deficit to wipe off, and less love for ex-Mayor Brown. He went to London with Dr. Porritt once, and had an in'eresting time carving his way throuerh the fog. Dr. Porritt is the son of the bushy eye-browed cleric of that name, and a brother of Lieut. -Col. Porritt, an Upper Thames barrister. • » « Mr. Barber remembers that they charge separately for each edible in London boarding-houses, and only give you breakfast if you order it over-night. Also, that disputes are common as to whether a boarder has consumed one or more of the potatoes charged for in the bill. We like the potato impression lather better than the oft-repeated assertion, of New Zealanders who have seen London that the metropolitan policeman is a marvel. It is charming tj have something new. Why not try Mr. Barber? • • • Mr. McCarthy, Oxford graduate, son of the eminent astronomer and scientist, and brother of Miss Lillah McCarthy, Wilson Barrett's leading lady, keeps the Rovnl Hotel, Johannesburg.

The lumour that "Pat" Dwyer, of the Victoria Hotel, Abel Smith-stieet is studying for the ministiy lacks confirmation. Mr. Dwyer, who has been dispensing the hospitality of that house for ten years, is going to take out another license shortly for the Scots Church, a little further up the street, on the other side. You shudder P Fact is, "Pat" has bought Mr. Thomson's ex-church, also the manse appertaining thereto, and if he has any luck he is going to make a public hall of it. Seems that the church was offered to a lehgious organisation who kept the matter in abeyance for some time, and who finally desided that the price was too bis:. The fact is, the burden on the church was too heavy for the congregation, which, although good, was poor, and the church authorities 1 were obliged to sell. It was offered first to the Church of Christ, and was next offered to a wellknown gentleman, who, by the way. is a strict prohibitionist, who verbally agieed to purchase, but, for financial leasons, could not implement his promise. Then Mr. Dwyer came on the scene. ♦ • • It struck "Pat" that if no other church wanted it, he ought to get it, and so he is now the pioud possessor of a church of his own. Mr Dwyer is not a typical publican, except that he has a rich Irish brogue and a hearty laugh. We asked him to tell us about the time' when he was in the Armed Constabulary. "How the dickens did ye know I was in ut?" he asked. We didn't, but just guessed it, from his accent and other things. It is a fact that the owner of the Scots Church carlied the musket for eight years. Revertme to Soots Chuich, most people in Wellington must have some knowledge of its brief and eventful histoiv. Its founder was the Rev. William Thomson who, for some years was the Presbyterian minister at Palmerston North. He had some difference of opinion w.th the Pie-bytery and came down to Wellington, and directed his efforts to raising funds foi erecting a Peace Memorial Chuich at Thorndon. The Thorndon idea did not take concrete form, but Scots Church went up <n Abel-Smith Stieet instead, Mr. Thomson labouring with charactenst.c eneigy to collect subscriptions in town and country for the purpose. • «" * He sought no assistance from the Piesbytery and made' it clearly evident from the first, that so far as they were concerned he was "on his own." The clrurch was just finished when General S)> Hector Macdonald came alon^ and Mr. Thomson won a larere advertisement by getting that distinguished soldier to foimally open the tabernacle that was to be a memorial for the men who had fallen in the Boer war. Since then it 1 as had the further distinction of having wbrated to a d scouise bv the Patron Saint of Taranaki, the Hon Mr. HallJones, the holidaying Minister for Public Works. The last advertisement ol Scots Church services appeared in print on January 30th last, when on the following Sunday evening Mr Tlmmdon was announced to speak on "The Impending War Between Russia and Japan. If Russia were vic L orious, what then?" And there was to be a special collection in aid of the Salvation Army Reserve Work. Which goes to show that theie was no nar owness of spirit about Scots Church. It is apparent that tr hab't of turning churches into places of amusement is growing. His Majest-'b Tl'eatre, wherein now the roof resounds to secular melody, once reverberated to tJ c hymns of praise sent along by a lccal congregation. * * * Punted earnestly that the original name of the Guinnesses of "stout" fame, and a noble scion of which family will shoitlv rule us, was McGinnis. ' Also, the "Newsletter" remarks- — "It looks like a rebuke to New Zealand temperance people to have a representative of the brewing interest as a political figurehead."

A merry old man is recently-retired head railway accountant, Mr A. 0. Fife. ' Life amuses him vastly, and his ruddy face, furnished with white "muttonchop" whiskers, lights up with pleasure wren he draws forth a massive gold watch, heavy chain, and chased Maltese cross pendant. You see, Mr. Fife has been a lailway accountant for nearly forty years, and Ins staff, and lots of railway men who were not on his staff, thought that it would be nice of them to say something to him, and give him that fine present. According to Mr. Fife's self, nothing much has happened to him since he left railway work in Scotland in the "sixties," to come to New Zea'ard. * * • He had a good education, and so, when he got to New Zealand, he became a schoolmaster. His unusual mathematical ability made the educational people, anxious to retain his services, but his heart was with the railways, and he joined them as an accountant, and obtained the position he held for thirty-one years after five years' service. Talking about gold watches, leminds us that in 1873 Mr. Fife got a beauty. The Literary Institute of Christchurch, of which he was secretary, gave it to him, and, although he wears the new one now the old one is much valued still. * * * We asked Mr. Fife if he didn't feel_ a wee bit like a fish out of water in retiring into private life after so long and strenuous a career. "I have plenty of books" he answered simply. Mr. Fife is a Mason, and a hale, hearty old man, who has many thousands of chuckles left in him. He has r two daughters and four sons, and we daresay they are a trifle proud of father. * * IT Mr. Seddon (where have we heard that name before?) was in the boggy backb'ocks of Owaka, the other day. There was a bullock dray standing in the mud at the side of the road, and somebody suggested that King Dick should get up on it, and be photographed It was a chance not to be missed, for, as you know, his appearances "in camera" are rare. He mounted the dray, and seized the whip. "Come here, Strawberry way back Nugget'" he called, and Messrs. J. W. Thomson and T. Mackenzie, Ms.H.R., accordingly stood to the pole, and waited patiently for the yokes and chains Cracking the whip, and striking an attitude, the Premier exclaimed, "The exhausted members under the lash." the "fiend" squeezed his bulb, and the scene was "took." Mr. Seddon wouldn't have been any sort of success as a "bullocky." His language is devoid of the necessary expletives. * * * Mr. H. J. Crowther, who has been agitating an auditorial nib for the Customs Department for about fifteen years at Wellington, and who went away to Westport last Saturday to become collector of Customs, runs to length — about seventy-four inches of it we should say. He has been something of an office humourist, and has a dry way w.th him that proclaims the fact that a severe accident in earlier life hasn't worried him permanently. If it hadn't been for the accident, Mr. Ciowther was threatening to become a doctor. * * * He was born in Tasmania, and in 187«j the young Tasmanian, who is a son of the then Premier, tossed up a penny, "Heads for New Zealand ; tails for Japan." And the coin turned up head. For two days he was out of a billet, and then he got into the Customs and stayed there. He has had a few of the "slings 1 and arrows" to bear up against, but doesn't expatiate thereon. Says he is going to leave Mrs. Crowther and the three children in Wellington, in order to "pave the way" at Westport, "if only in coals." It's gratifying to know that his removal to Westport means substantial promotion.

Dr H. D. Bamford of Auckland, NewZealand's youngest doctor of laws, and who represented th-S country at a recent Universities' Conference in London, has been appointed examiner for New Zealand, in New Zealaid and general law for solicitors and barristers from elsewhere who apply for permission to practice here. The idea of the twentyfive years old doctor "passing" a sexagenarian stranger seems quaint, but no lawyer in New Zealand has distinguished himself academically at so young an age in the same degree as "Harry." * • • v " Mr. "Walter Kirby, the soulful and silvery tenor, who was last here along with Madame Melba, and then went Home to complete his training, seems to be pretty well, thank you. He says that he is training in London under the son of the renowned Garcia, who advises 1 1m to devote himself to grand opera, for which he says he is eminently fitted. If so. he will have to study his exits and his entrances a bit more, and manage his legs, and arms to greater stage effect than he did in Wellington. * * » Walter gives his word for it that he has met some great celebrities in London, who have been quite struck with him. For instance, Mary Anderson, the lovely ex-actress, and he came across each other at a charity concert at the East End. Mary did not know who Walter was, for his name was unannounced but she walked straight up to him, introduced herself, and said • "You have a lovely voice ; I don't know who you are, but don't let your teachers spoil it, and undo that sympathetic ring m your notes." Even this is mot all. According to Mr. Kirby, his voice has also charmed no less a personage in the theatrical world than Miss Edna May, who overheard him singing somewhere. \ Dr. Shand, the cheery young New Zealand medico, who took his degree in this country three years ago, and who has been gathering up a stock of knowledge in London for three years, will be nailing up his shingle quite soon. Dr. Shand was alleged to be in possession of a large quantity of radium, and quite a number of persons assembled to see the arrival of the dray on which the precious substance entered Wellington. As a matter of fact, Dr. Shand hasn't any radium, mainly because he doesn't believe in the marvels of the stuff that is going to revolutionise medicine, and turn things topsy-turvey. * ♦ * Dr. Shand has been doing the round of London hospitals, and has experimented much with the awesome mineral, and he's not a worshipper at its shrine. Radium has been much overwritten. It has been magnificent "copy" to journalists, and its potentialities (to journalists) are still great. The blue-eyed clean-shaven, young fellow, in a very new hat and a London "frocker," is an enthusiastic X-ray student and user, and he has a very fine apparatus for the treatment of disease by this modern means. He has also brought back a weird contrivance known as a "high frequency" apparatus, which, attached to a nervous person, pumps sparks in a continuous blue flame into him, and casts out the devil eventually. The astonishment of a patient when he sees himself on fire is exquisitely funny — to the other fellow. * # * Dr. Shand is about to be married to Miss Bessie Hislop (daughter of the Hon. T. W. Hislop), and settle down in Wellington. By the way, Miss Hislop has also studied medicine, but not to the extent of taking a degree. We expect the recent large increase of doctors ra^ ther frightens many people into the belief that diseases are increas ng too. It is eviden.ce to the thoughtful that the noblest of all callings is attracting more recruits, that medical skill is growing, and that the larger proportion of medical men a community has. the better for the health of the said community.

Mr. J. Grattan Grey, foimerly head of the New Zealand "Hansard' staff, left Melbourne for Perth a fortnight ago, to accept the editorial chair of the "West Australian Record." The "Pictures of Continental Travel," which Mr. and Mrs. Grey have been, contributing for over a year past to the "Catholio Advocate," in Melbourne, will be continued, with a view to re-publication in book form. The Continental series, embracing France, Holland, and Germany, Austna-HungaTv, Italy, Switzerland, the Rhine, and Belgium, will run into three volumes, and "America and the Americans" is to follow. * * Mr. Geo. Robertson, the local manager of the Government Life Insurance, continues to keep New Zealand under the limelight in the columns of that widely-circulated Continental paper, "Llndependance Beige." We notice i P its issue of the 3rd February last a long and interesting article descriptive of the Government Life Insurance Department, and 1 its marked progress smce it was started in 1870. Mr. Robertson also mentions the Government Accident Insurance and the authority given by Parliament for the establishment of a fire insurance office as well. As no other country in the world can boast of these lines of business being made a State concern, the article published in the Belgian paper is bound to attract considerable interest on the Continent. Mr. Robertson intends to review the other departments of the State m their turn, and will also put the scenic attractions of the color- on his lantern screen in Brussells. * • Dr. Gordon the Fitzgerald strong man gave a country saddler a fine ad. the other day. The saddler handed him up an English leather strap. The strong man broke it by chest expansion. Then, he handed him one of his own patent leather locally-made ones. Gordon swelled up three times, but the strap held. Then he said a man couldn't be expected to break "a strap that would hold a locomotive and fifty cars." # Mr. Seddon "rated the Otago volunteers soundly" the other day for disdaining his arrangements. They couldn t get a muster, as they only had three weeks in which to prepare. King Dick said if they didn't take care he'd cut down their capitation. Not, of course, that it would matter about asking Parliament to do so. The other day m Wellington, when the Submarine Miners did muster, without three weeks' notice, they had to disperse because a Minister was using the boat that was to take them to the forts. But. that was not the Minister's fault , it was sombody else's blunder. ♦ * * A distinguished-looking personage, with an immense portmanteau depending from one hand, and a carved bamboo stick attached to the other, caught a tram at Panama-street corner the other day. He wore spectacles, and a short moustache of the chevaux de frise variety, and he was unmistakably Japanese. We enquired' about him. "He's off to the front!" remarked one man, who was gazing intently at him. "Oh, that's Hikokonutto Sizapenni, ambassador to the court of King Dick !" volunteered a business 1 man. "Not it ; he's Admiral Watto Chee Bompas, come to New Zealand to find out how to run a navy!" said the nautical-looking gent. "Go on , why that's the Primeer of Japan. He's here to see Mr. E. M. Smith about the ironsand deposits on the West Coast of Nippon'" explained a local ironmaster. The Jap climbed into the car, and all the people who knew him vanished. • • • S.M. Haselden is a humourist. The other day, at Christchurch, a man who had been convicted with much regularity since 1894, remarked plaintively to his Worship, "I want to turn over a new leaf, sir." "Certainly," replied the magistrate. "I see you've got down to the foot of the page." The S.M. turned the leaf of the court record, and entered another conviction. Awfully obliging people these magistrates. * • • Mrs. Neligan, wife of the Anglican Bishop of Auckland, has inaugurated a "Guild of Courtesy," an organisation aiming at teaching school children courtesy, generosity, gentleness, and similar virtues. The boys undertake to refrain from swearing, smoking, disrespect, and disobed'ence, and the girls to be obedient and respectful, and to encourage others to be so also. A grownup guild on similar lines wouldn't hurt in any big city. Undoubtedly, the art of courtesy is very shaky m New Zealand. • • • Mr. Laurenson, M.H.R., who has been away to Australia to see the "ashes" carted home to dear old England, says that Australian crowds are not as black as they are painted. He says that when the Britishers won the final test match the cheers that rent the air were terrific. It is only the "shillingy" crowd that isn't fair. One larrikin with a chunk of road metal has oftentimes taken away Australia's character for fairness. There are larrikins even in New Zealand.

Most people have heard about Max Adeler, and have read 1 his two most funny books, "Elbow Room" and "Out of the Hurly-Burly." His name in private life is Charles Heber Clark, and when the last mail left he was dying at his home in Pennsylvania, at the age of sixty-three. When his books brought him wide popularity, he gave up humorous work for trade journalism, and for ten years was secretary of the Philadelphia Manufacturers' Club, and an authority on woollen goods. * « ♦ Little Harry Bedford, who is world wandering and picking up scraps of thunderbolts for local hurling, isn't much impressed 1 with the New Zealand Parliament, and still less with the Hawaiian Parliament quartered at Honolulu. Harry tells the world that a member of the Senate conceived it necessary, in the interest of the great Parliament he illumined, to get the latitude of Honolulu altered for trade reasons. Four days were consumed with a bitter debate on the way to spell "forty," the Opposition, contention being that, as there was a "u" in "four," that vowel should also be allowed to "forty." A bill was- introduced to dispense with the ebb of the tide on account of the convenience to shipping of having a tide aways at the flood! But then, of course, little Harry may be "pulling the leg" of the people of these dark islands. * • * Dr. James McLaren, a geologist under the Indian Government, drawing a salary of £1000 a year, refused to come to New Zealand for £600! Don't you think "Jimmy" is a wee bit disloyal ? Several months ago, when the news was circulated that Dr. "Jim" was to be offered' the billet, the Lance remarked that it wasn't exactly human nature for a person to cast aside a veritable nabobship in a country where living is cheap, servants many, and social position a considerable item (not to mention £400 a year, which would keep two families of working people in New Zealand in the usual hand-to-mouth way that prevails). Doubtless, the Government were pained at the refusal by a youne New Zealander (he is about thir-ty-two) to grasp its offer. Dr. McLaren will probably go on being a nabob as long as his liver permits, and, as he isn't in the least addicted to brandy pawnee (which, and not the sun, is India's curse), he'll go on earning his £1000 a year until he's an old man.

The great white Willie Stead, of 'Review of Reviews" fame, who recently went to Africa to stir up race hatred, in launching his new daily paper dropped lots of little cheques out of a balloon over London. Only a few of the cheques were presented foT payment. Sort of a "tribute to Modern Babylon." Suggested by a serious London print that William wouldn't do the things he does if his mental and physical health were sounder. • • • The Hon. Thomas Bent, Victoria's new Premier, doesn't satisfy everybody. One politician, who isn't Premier, and who probably won't be, in referring to the profession from which the Premier sprang, says : — "He is always a cabbage gadener ; he will always be the cabbage gardener. He cannot rise out of the appurtenances of the cabbage garden. Why hang it, the fellow would grow nothing but cabbages in the Garden, of Eden!"