All Sorts of People

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 207, 18 June 1904, Page 3

All Sorts of People

MR. James A. Thomson, the successful New Zealand candidate, wiho has annexed the Rhodes Scholarship, is a young man who is physically and mentally well equipped to do honour to this oolout at the great University of Oxford. He is twenty-three, yeasrs of age, and broad all over. Broad-headed, broad-shouldeied, broadmninded , duffident to shyness, weighs thirteen stone odd, and is well over six feet tall. • ♦ • Mr. Thomson is a scientist, a footballer, a shot and. an athlete wihose learning has failed' to make him scorn even higher things, for, at the Otago University, he was a pirominieinst member of the Christian Union. Any fluency he has is kept for occasions. He certainly didn't debate to any large extent in the Lance Office. He has never beien to England, and! he leaves far the hub of the universe expecting much. In His search after knowledge, he has labcured physicaly as well as mentally. • • * As a trucker of coal at Kadtangata he was oftener black thaai white. One tome a large lump of fuel fell from the hanging wall, and hit him on the nose. He backed out of tihe zone of danger m trine to see several tons of coaJ fall on the spot he had' left. He has also been a gold-miner on the Kauri Freehold Gold Estates claims at Opitowui, where the miners regarded him as an eccentric youna giant, who was foolish enough to use valuable beer-drinking time in. the silly occupation of pedestrianism. James, with a geological hammer, dodged about the country taking samples and building up his physique, which is a credit to the treatment. ■» * * Mr. Thomson, who ought to know, thinks that the training given in New Zealand schools of mines is the best possible education for a man. To his underground experiences he hasi added a short and vigorous period of farm life, when he drove the plough, cut sicrub, hoed potatoes, and recovered from the "swat" that has never dione him much harm. He anticipates using the coming "three years at the great University in research work. As he is young and vigorous, we shall be disappointed if he doesn't stroke the dark blue eight for the University, and captain the senior football team for his college. • • • Mr. Thomson's father is aJso a. diisttimguished scholar, who imbibed the first draughts of has wide knowledge at the Edinburgh University. The eldter Mr. Thomson was for thirty years headmaster of the DunedSn Boys' High School, and founded 1 the technical classes in the Scotch city. He is also secretary for the Dunedin branch of the Australasian Society for the Advancement of Science, President of the Fish Hatcheries at Portobello, president of the Y.M.O.A. in his city, president of the Choral Society, and an enthusiast of the deepest dye in everything he undertakes. • • * The Rhodes scholar's elder brother is a medical student in 1 Dunedain, and another Thomson is loading up with science with ultimate designs on a, high position in the scientific world. There is a wee Thomson, who is yet in the public school, showing the same marked aptitude for tackling andl mastering thalngs that his elder brothers and' hi'crhily-re-speete<3 father have shown. The safld father is as proud of his boys as the boys are of him.

As a great many Welhaigtomans know, the Miramar Craiwfords, whose offer to the City Council of 497 aoias of land is being considered, aie the sons of the fust white mam — bar wbalteus — who set boot in the place that is now Wellington. Mr. J. C. Crawford, Who came to Wellington in 1838, and 1 bought the Miiainar estate from the New Zealand Land Company, was a hente-nant in the Navy He became the Empire City's first stipendiary magistrate, and for thirteen years, held 1 the position, holding the scales of justice with a firm and fearless hand. By their physical contour may ye know his three sons, Charles, the youngest, stalwart and broad-shouldered. Alexander, Ins less bulky and bearded elder brother, whose tightly gartered legs, check breeches, aaid sporting covert coat are so "well known , and Harry, the eldest, who gave a start to Kilbirnie, and for many years helped to govern Melrose. • » • But, about Charles, the dastinguishedlooking stalwart, who 'has practically evolved the schemes whereby Miramair has become something bettei than sheep country and sport for the southerly wind. He, like has brothers, was born in Wellington, and was educated at its High School, going to Edinburgh, when twelve yeaisold, and imbibing such knowledge asi Fettes College could give him He returned to his native land' at the age of twenty, and since then has beeni three times round the world . He squatted for long down South, anid was for some time chairman of the Mount Stuart (Otago) Road Boaid. Since 1890, he has been continuously on a Road Board, for he was elected to the Seatoun body in 1896. He is a sportsman of a very thorough-going order and seoietary of th© New Zealand Polo Association. He is a bit large for a Deny, but he owns some clever nags who forget he is there, and he plays a brilliant game. Likewise, he looks as if he mierht have been born on hoirseback He is a keen hand with the rodl, but, as he^s only a beginner m the art of fish fiction, he spares us any experiences. You might put Charles Crawford into Life Guards' uniform, and swear he'd always worn it. He would be a credit to a cuirass, helmet, and horsehair plume. If he had had to work for ai livinp he would have amassed money. • • • Governor-General Noithcote will be able to tell the English intervie weirs an odd story of his experiences with the ounous characters who sometimes come out on top in Australian political and municipal life. At a Melbourne banquet last week, when the guests weie all comfortably seated at table, a poitly, florid, and somewhat breathless municipal dignitary entered, with every appearance of having made a big rush to be on hand for the good things. A seat was found for him, and silence was restoied again, when suddenly the latecomer arose m his place and beckoned exca teddy to a waiter, and then, m a voice that carried distinctly to the gubernatorial seat, he said • "Hi, there, youna: fellow, couldn't you get me a seat up near the 'am?" • • • Mi*. A. W. Rutherford, the large and jocular member for Hurunui, firmly believes that King Dick is the Pooh Bah of this colony. He cheerfully informed his constituents the other day that Richard the Second to None "has all the powers of tihe Sultan of Turkey bar that of cutting off your heads." On the West Coast, however, they place Dick on a somewhat higher pedestal than the Sultan of Turkey. A Wellinarton commercial traveller, just returned from the wild and auriferous West Coast quotes, the opinion of an Irish customer as to tihe state of affairs there "We are just living by the grace of Ood and Dick Seddon, and. be iabers if anything; happens to Dick it will be all up wid us intodrely."

Deep » egret is felt among a wide circle of friends, at the death of Mis. Eustace Brandon, which, took place rathei unexpectedly a fortnight ago, at the residence of her son-in-law, m Tmakoiri Road. The deceased ladywas the vv idow of Mr. Eustace d>e Bathe Brandon, eldest son of the Hon. Alfred! de Bathe Brandon, who* was one of the first members of the Legislative Council. The Brandons have been identified with Wellington from its earliest history. For very many years the corner of Lambton Quay and Bowenstreeit, opposite the Government House ground's, was known simply as "Brandon's Coiner." It was there that the Hon. Alfred Brandon established his law office, and carried on for many yeais his practice as barrister and solicitor ♦ • • He was twice married, and the present Mr. Alfred de Bathe Brandon is the eldest son of the second family. Upon his admission to the business the style of the fhm changed 1 to Brandon and Brandon. Mr. Eustace Brandlon was chief clerk of the Stamp Department, which position he held in conjunction with the appointments of clerk of private bills and examiner of private bills to the General Assembly, and his aitistic tastes and temperament are reflected in numerous pictures in oils amd water-colours which he left behind him. He died in 1886, and hivs father's decease followed only six weeks later. Mrs Eustace Brandon, who was a niece of Mr. Howorth (examiner of titles in the Land Transfer Office) was left, with a young family of six children. She was a gentle and most amiable lady, devoted to her family, and beloved by all who knew her. • • • Rev. Heibert Maisey, a Southland clergyman, has been on a trip to England, and he says there are rich people tlheie, and poor. He tells how he saw a lady pay a call. She drove to the door in a motor-car, a chauffeur on the box, and a footman in attendance. One man laid down a carpet that she might not soul her shoes, another brought an umbrella, yet another held the door open, and, altogether, seven men were engaged in getting this one woman into" her friend's house. And yet dire poverty and sore distress are rampant through the land. Wellington elite dlon't do the tiling in such style as this, but wouldn't it be lovely to be able ? * • • Greneral Lord Kitchener, at a public dinner at Simla — "I should certainly like to visut both Australia and New Zealand, the soldiers of which countries I have a specially high estimation of, but I am very much afraid' the fuss that those good people make of men who have been fortunate emough to achieve high positions would quite rob me of any pleasure I might otherwise get from such a visit." But, then, Kitchener isn't Sandow, or Wilson Bairre<tt, on even. Melba. • * • Stipendiary Magistrate Kettle agrees that the mercenary police spy, who is paid to secure convictions for sly-grog selling, is an undesirable pen-son. He said' he considered that if a man were given £1 to purchase grog in a certain shanty for the purpose of bringing a cha,rge, such an action would be as wrong as placing temptation in the way of a clerk to test his honesty. He admitted that the practice existed! in the King Country, but it was opposed to his idea of fair play to entrap a man into an offence, and punish him for it afterwards. Also, Mr. Kettle scathed the common practice the police have fallen into of "shepherding" a prohibited pei - son from behind adjacent doors, hoping that he may break the law by applying •for drinks. He thinks the police are for the prevention of crime evidently. A propos of the sneaking habit, the first official maxim for the guidance of iuvenile "bobbies" is • "Constables are placed in authority to protect, not to oppress, the public."

Everybody knows that Federal Premier Watson,, who is so charming and polisihed a main, has had 1 tough tames, and. has boiled a billy with rag wads m it on many a weedy billabong. Likewise, has he interviewed tihe station storekeeper for a "pmch o' tea, a panmkini o1o 1 dust, and a bit o' fore-quarter." But "Billy" Hughes, the Federal Minister for External Affairs, some years ago was engaged in the lordly occupation of an itinerant umbrella-mender. • • • Last month, the ex-gamp-tinker, acted as cicerone to the new GovernorGeneral and Lady Northcote, on their visit to Sydney, presented! Acting-Pre-mier Wise, of New South Wailes to His Excellency, also introduced Chief Justice Darley, and took precedence over a)ll the State functionaries a/t the big official dinner. And people who once thrust the umbrella-mender from their doors in disdain were glad to cringe to him for favours when he came back in his new war-paint. • # • Again the facetious Rutherford, M.H.R. —"All these great thinkers — George Laurenson, Herbert Spencer, and Henry George — " he staid, "have been men who did not own land." • • • Dr. yon Kerekhoff, who is visiting New Zealand on a tour, possibly won't be missed in Java, where he, together with four hundred and ninety-nuie other doctors employed by the Dutch Government, see to 'the yellow fever that is always surging about. Seems to us Java would be a jolly place for a stranded, oase-less sawbones to drop into. Also, it seems to us that "Dr." Wright might really get the quote marks erased on application to the Dutch, authorities. Theie's luck in odd numbers. Then, the salary ! Some of those five hundred doctors get as much as £125 a year ' IF * * Prohibition Ashburton's Parliamentany representative, Mi*. McLachlan, in sketching the opening of Parliament for tihe benefit of his constituent®, remarked the other day thai the Governor's speech was a useless fanfare, but that the occasion gave eager ladies unexampled! opportunities for bonnet display. It would obviously be cruel to do away with the reading by the Governor of tihe stale news of the bygone year. Mr. McLachlan, speaking of the 999 years' lease, was asked, with the utmost gravity, if the lessee had the right of renewal. The lessee would probaiblv require some little renovation himself after tilling the soil for a thousand years bar one. • * • Old Paul Kruger is a marvel. Reparted 1 that he has entirely recovered lias mental and physical balance. A bit of the latter thrown in the South African scale would be welcomed just now. • * • King Edward's cigars axe each worth more money than you spend on groceries for a week, and tihe band! round them is stamped with the royal arms. Related tha* this band is always torn, to shreds on its removal, because a waiter once sold a complete one to a curio hunter for £5. The said hunter fitted it to a cigar, and wemfc around 1 telling people that the monairch had begged him to accept it. King Dick, when he used 1 to smoke cigars, used to smoke anything that turned up. His own private supply dioWt cost more than 25b each. Kaiser Wilhelm's favourite smoke costs three a penny. • • • Pierpont Morgan is buying a set of Dickens' works He reckons to pay 130,000 dollars for it, and we expect! they'll be so very superb, and so very fine and large and illuminated 1 , that the average man wouldn't dare to read of the crime and suffering and poverty that Dickens often attributed to the ultra rich. The "set" is to be in one hundred and thirty volumes, at 1000 dollars a book.

Fioni a careful peiusal of journalistic opinion throughout t lie colony we are convinced — That Mr. Seddon is ill , that he is not ill, that he will work ■fchnough the session, that he uon't do anything of the kind, that lie will ietiie, that he has no notion ot retiring, but that, as he certainly won't woik any move he is to be given a compassionate allowance of £12,000. He will take a high position m England, and ■wall remain in Wellington to spend the compassionate allowance,,, he 11 losing weight, and gaming flesh he is looking particularly well, but quite haigeaid, and not his old self at a.ll. We know it, because we've lead all about it. PLr* -wnght and acto>\ Gillette, 10centlv asked why lie didn't write a new and thrilling play, dad so these and thon — on the back of a menu eaad Hee it i s "Seene — a drawmg-iootm. Mained lady seated', vouns; man m diess suit ait her "feet. Fold 11°; doors at back open Piscoveis hu-banrl with a sixchambered revolvei . He fires and kills married lady and young man. Husband then advances and contemplates victims. After a pause, he exolanms 'A thousand pardons I'm in the wi cmg fiat Slow curtain " * * * Admiral Sir Hairy Hanson, who is, of course, always descnbed as a blurt old sea-dog is particularly fond of childien. A Wellington lady, who is on visiting terms with Governors and the hieh and mighty generally, recently visited Australia, Sid incidentally the Victorian Governor. With her she took hei little six-year-old daughter. She now lelatesto a friend, who told it to someone else, and so on, that the little girl one day looked quizzically at the Govei - nor ' "You're an old sea-do 2;, ajn t you?" she asked. "Yes," said Sir Harry. "Won't you bark for me please?" But Sir Harry only roared. F * * * Malcolm Ross, the eternally youthful pressman, who iode the iinst high bike in New Zealand thirty years ago, and looki about twent>-fne now, combats the asset tion, or supposition, or fa'lacy that princes, pee is, and governors have a ooMjfainual picnic, and no washing up. Malcolm has been with the viceregal party on its extended trips, and describes how mail bags stare. His Excellency in the face at every bend of the road, how mounted policeman chased him with telegrams, telegram boys, on roller skates, stuck him up at even rise, and motor eais, with kingly despatches, reared their heads f 1 om o-i eiA hollow. • * • When you read that the Governoi is "resting"' at Dunedin, 01 spending "a quiet day at the Bluff " you m.iy generally take it for granted that, both he and his private secretary are wOl king "eyes out" at despatches and private and official correspondence. Malcolm, ■who was at Government House during tine Royail Tour, remembers how when the newspapeirs announoed that the Dukei of York spent a quiet evening at Government House, he amd his staff, as well as the Governor and his staff, were working till long afteT midnight. It's a shame. All their salaries should be raised. Upon our word, the high and mighty seem to work like common pressmen for their paltry thousands a year. • • • John L. Sulhvan, the American pugilist, who used to be the hero of his country, m a recent magazine article says- — "I suppose _ that I have been more admired by the young men of America than any other man that ever lived, excepting possibly George Washington and Dewey " But, George Washington never told a he, and Dewey — well, Dewey fired guns at Spanish ships that were sunk at their moorings by their own officers. The American youths' adoration is not particularly admirable. * * * Although "Saint Andrew" Rutherford, M.H.R., is not often serious, he isn't likely to get bumped' out of has Hurunui seat while he possesses the kind heart and ready wit for which he is noted. 'Tis said that Mr. Rutherfoi d's many employees — he is a wealthy pastoralist — are better looked after than almost any others in New Zealand. Speaking at a banquet tendered to him by his Hanmer constituents, the member for Hurunui said he could only claim to have got them a daily mail service during the winter, and two flags for the Spa. In fact, he had got them little more than promises. If they rewarded "him in such a manner for promises, he trembled to think what they would do when they heard the railway whistle or saw the whole plains a State forest. * * * Whem they had electric tramways and lighting, water supply and drainage systems, and bands playing, oj- when heaven and Hanmer would be interchangeable terms, they might give him posthumous recognition, and his spirit, hovering over Hanmer, might gaze, on the magnificent creation in marble of himself, or they might canonise him and add his name to the list of saints, and the statue might be known as that of Good St Andrew, patron saint of Hanmer.

The Hon. Chailes Mills, de^ciibed bj Mr. Rutherfoud, M H.R. — A gentleman much given to making promises which his colleagues find it convenient to ignore." Sir Gordon Spngg, ex-Premiiieii of Cape Colony, who soi admned oui own unique Piemier -when. King Dick wah m Africa stopping the war, is about to rub shouldeis again. He will probably be hard at woik learning things political in Wellington -swthin the next few months. » ♦ ♦ The Rev. H. Dewsbury has been taking a gentle rise out of the caeduJous Victorian Methodists. He w " in Melbourne leoenfcly, attending a general confeience of his church, was invited to speak at a "swarry," and, with the vision of strong tea thickened with Gippsland cream still before him, launched out in condemn ati on of the cup that inebriates. He informed his hearers that the New Zealand legislation regarding the liquor traffic wais a much superior airticle to that in use in Victoria. _ We do not know precisely what the Victorian legislation is, but if it is worse than ours, it must be pretty bad, and, on the principle that dirty waten is better than no water Mr Dewsbury may have been right in recommending a change. • # -w It appears that Charlie Skeaiett, the wide-awake luminary who spoke a piece to the Lords of the Pi ivy Council, and convinced them of the monetary suffeiings of the poor, lone brewers, is not to get £10,000 for it aftei all The latest authority names £1750 as the sum. A propos of Newtown licensing matters, lie overheard the following conversation the other Sunday in that salubrious suburb — "Come' and have a drink !" Where?" "Oh, any of the pubs'" "My dear chap, there ain't a blooming publican in Newtown who would give you a thimbleful of grog on Sunday if yer eyeballs was sticking out like gooseberries and yer tongue hanging on yer waistcoat." Terse, if not graceful.