ALL SPORTS OF PEOPLE

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 211, 16 July 1904, Page 3

ALL SPORTS OF PEOPLE

DENTIST W. Hobbs, captain commanding the Zealandia Rifles volunteer company, armed with a gingeibeer bottle, kept his merry men undei control at Godber's on Friday night Last. You see 'twas the Zealandias' annual smoke social, and ai numbei of them were glad. Volunteer social gatherings have thenuses as much as class-firing and the manual exercise, foi they give men an opportunity to cheer comrades who have scooped in the company prizes foi the year, and stii up the spirit ot emulation. # » v/ "Barney" Cowles, acting adjutant of the Wellington Battalion, who is a schoolmastei . resplendent in his scarlet uniform, bid the world to "look out it New Zealand volunteeis should ever find it necessary to withstand the attack of any combination of four or more great Powers, while smiling Lieutenant ./Corngan (who is not unknown m the D I C) wanted us to see that the Navy is' kept up to fighting, patch We shall have it done Chaplain Captain of Newtown Presbyterian Church, let his eye rove over the assembled gathering, and gave whispered instructions that the cup must only cheer, and not inebriate. That s all it did. anyhow. • * * Noticed the stalwart Courtney, captain commanding the D Battery R.NZ F A Y. (looks all light, doesn t it'), toymg with a chicken's wing, and the less lengthy, but not less stalwart Meieiaunga captain, "Bob" Levin, who is /making weight rapidly, and will ride seventeen stone three years f1 om now. Mentioned during the festivities that the Zealandias had sent twenty-seven men to Africa in various contingents, and there wei c several men there wearing the medal, although the passion for getting past the dress regulation wais responsible for one or two shooting medals that were worn • • ♦ There were songs, of course, paiticui/iarly by R Duff, who will probably be leg-roped by Mr. Williamson some day, and tihe "Cats' Parade," by the orchestra, was a marvel of caterwauling. Don't know who did the cat-work, but fanov it was Arthur Wioks, the pianist. If it wasn't, we apologise. Just a word about ex-Colour-sergeant Bunck(otherwise "good old Bunkey ), who showed signs of weariness when he had finished taking his prizes and the company's champion shooting belt. He is the crack shot of the battalion, and doesn't put on any "side." • • • Likewise, about recently -pa omoted Colour-sergeant Guy, who wears the South African ribbon, and is evidently one of the smartest soldiers in the company. His hand got tired acknowledgino bv salute tihe various prizes he gathered in. Oh, "Bunkey" is going to get mariied, and therefore a biscuit barrel and a lovely fern brooch will come in handy. Guy's brother (at least he looks like a brother) is Cornoral Guy. and his section won the prize for efficiency on points. Most of the prize-winners filed up bareheaded, and saluted No soldier ever salutes with his headgear off. Still, it's a *mall matter, and not worth a, erowl. The company's captain is orobably one of the most enthusiastic shooting men in Wellington, and that is, no doubt, +hp reason why the company excels in

the most necessaay branch of militaiy work. Befoie coming to Wellington, he was. a volunteer non-com, m the Waikato and Uppei Thames, and has been shooting consistently foi at least fifteen years. • * • Mr. Wilson, the Ameiican socialist speaker, is really not quite as> tactful as •if might be. He told a Palmeiston No! th audience the other day that New Zealand was the dearest country in the world — which is probably quite true He added that he could buy land in New York more cheaply than in Wanganui or Palmerston. "You think this colony is paradise, but you'ie a long way fiom there vet," he concluded. Just aftei that he took up the worst collection of his tour. Fact is, the people oouldn't afford him • # ♦ Ex-Commandant of New Zealand Colonel Pole-Penton, who was reported as having retired on had f -pay, is gazetted as having been appointed commandant to the Ordinance College m London. We hope no penegiinating pressmen evei invade the sanctity of the College, and that the Colouel does not refer to the students* as "curs and cowaids." • • • Charles Hanson, whose jovial countenance is well-known in Taianaki, is a Scotsman who can see a joke. "Charlie" is tickled to death at the way he has "got on" since he returned to New Zealand a troopei in New Zealand's First Contingent. He was the only New Zealand military representative at the Queen's funeral ceremonies m London, and had the especial honoui of a conversation with the then Com-mandei-in-Chief, Lord Koberts, who doesn't think too badly of this country's timely axd. • » * v/lMr. v /lMr. Hanson has, for some time, been managea- foi the Patea Grading Works, and many produce concerns have been anxaous to get his services. These have been secuied by Messis. Beattie, Lang, and Co., the well-known dairy produce exporteis, and Charles will m future represent the company in Taranaki. Eltham will be his headquarteis Although Charlie has worked in New ZeaJand foi fourteen years (barring war timel he still retains his command of the Scotch tongue, and has th© Scotch predilection for "getting on." The Hon. Ma. Can oil is slightly too previous. In pagei 9, No. 1, of this session's "Hansard," the Native Minister is repoited as saying that the late Hon. Hen are Tomoana ' passed into letirement until 1898, when he was electeld to the Upper House " Who elected him ? What for ? Why ? It is the fiist indication that we have possessed the inestimable boon of an elective Upper House. Perhaps, it was a slip of "Jimmy's." • ♦ • A Melba incident. Leading the way into amother room, the gieat singer uncovered a gramophone, from which upon pressing a button, issued the voice of Madame Melba, rising and falling m the cadenza of Ganz's "Sw r eet Bird." According to the "Daily Express," which tells the story, "no sooner did the tnll commence than a pet canary loose in the room and perched on the top of a bookcase, joined its clear note in joyous rivalry. It was, indeed, an amazing repi oduotion of an amazing voice." The interviewer asked her whether the gramophone record's would become public, and, pointing to a photograph of her old father, who is in Melbourne, Melba replied that they were only for him. She had' received hundreds of offers for the purchase of the records, and for the privilege of reproducing her voice in public, but she had refused them all. A gramophone record of a Melba interview with an hotel chef would be worth thousands.

vMessrs. Arthur Hoby (piesadent) and Percy Blundell (secretary), of the Wellington Lawn. Tennis Club, may beieckoned as making foi successful management of that body. Despite and perhaps because of his busy life as a popular dentist, and an active churchman — for he has charge of the young men's class at the Baptist Church — Mr. Hoby is a behevei in outdoor spcxrt. Likewise is lie a member of the. "reform" Licensing Bench. He is as active as his own son, and an equally good player in the hockey contests on Saturdays, and mi summer time is an enthusiastic wi elder of the racquet. • ♦ » vilr. Blundell, who is the second son of the senior partner in the "Evening Post" business, has many opportunities of serving his club in the seoretanal capacity. The members of the Wellington Lawn Tennis Club did the best thing possible for themselves at their annual meeting by re-electing Messrs. Hoby and Blundell to them- respective positions for yet another term, ■r * * \/M.x J. T. M. Homsby, one-time editor of the "New Zealand) Times," and who enjoyed for a brief season the M.H.R.-slnp of the Wairarapa, has been in retnement since Mr. Buchanan came to what he looks upon as his own again. Mi. Hornsby has been lying by quietly in the backwaters of country journalism, helping (his son. in the publication of the "Leadei," at Oa,iterton. But, with a general election only a year and a few months away, J. T. M. H. is astir again, and his name is once more in the mouths of men. • • • The Liberal Association asked him the other day whether he would accept nomination for the seat? Did he refuse? Well — not yet. Then, again, we notice that the ex-member has been lecturing on poets ; and, more solidly complimentary for him, the Carterton Borough Council chose Mr. Hornsby as its assessor in a compensation case with the Bank of New Zealand conoernang a strm of land taken for street-improving purposes. The Buchanan had better beware — perhaps ! Paderekswi says he could not play the piano coming to Australia, on account of the rough weather. It is usually the linger who is distressed by the high C's. v^/bnce a man of enterprise and enthusiasm begins to take an active paat in life's affairs, there is no end to his pasisibilaties. A short time ago, Mr. Fred Townsend dropped out of Wellington'^ Me, and took the whole world as his oyster. He enjoyed the opening of it, and then leturned to Harris-street. But does he spend all his time m such succulent surroundings? NotF. T. With in the space of a few months he has become a peisonage, a man of affairs. Now-a-days he tucks his legs under the mahogany of the Harboui Board the Seatoun Doad Board, the Hutt County Council, the Hospital Board, the Mrramar Steam Ferry and Land Companies, and, latest honour and responsibility of all, he was recently elected president of the Victoria. Bowling Olub. Here's to you, Fred. • ♦ ♦ Bob Sieviei , the bookmaker who has been getting himself disliked at Home, was better known m Melbourne as Bob Sutton. At the time 'that he assaulted Lord Dcci hurst, people could talk of little else, and the action of Mr. Panton the P.M., who presided over the deliberations of the Melbourne justices, was the cause of many heated discussions. Messrs. Brough and Boueicault were at that time playing a burlesque at the Melbourne Opera House, into which the following atrooiouis gags were introduced • — The Caliph • "Deerhurst (darest) thou defy me?" Ganem ■ "Suttrnly." Caliph (aside): "I'm Panton to give him 14 days."

Sir Tea Lipton, who is a bosom friend of King Edward, who goes yachting with him now and then, is doing all right. Recently, he dined with the King and Queen of Italy, and was made a knight of the Order of the Gown of Italy, amd little things like that, with stars and nbbons galore. The tea and rasher trade is certainly looking up when one ooaisaders that Tommy used to wear am apion, sweep the shop, and handle pounds of sugar. One ha® to believe that even royalty is becoming democi atised I—wheai1 — wheai its lowly friends have yachts and money. • • • Mr. Bedel-Sivnght, the skipper of the English football team which will shortly tour New Zealand, was runner-up for the amateur boxing championship of Scotland, and six of the team are connected with the medical profession. A broken limb is therefore a small matter to the Britishers. • • • The Mayor was called upon, at the recent Island Bay "loan" meeting, to fill up an interval with a stump^sipeeoh, but the happy bachelor didn't respond. The lively Jennings, of Brooklyn, then asked Messrs. Aitken and Barber, as parliamentarians, to explain the provisions of the Midwives Bill, which had been introduced that day into the House. The member for Newtowrn blushed like an incurved chrysanthemum, and 1 the Mayor hid his face with his. hands, after observing that it had been many a long day since he was in the hands of a midwife. Father Hill, of the Bay, created shouts of laughter by raising a protest that the question was a most improper one to put to a bachelor mayor, and again "Cupid" hid his blushes behind his hands * • • -"Andy" Smart, whose expansive smile is a feature of the dress circle landing at the Opera House, and who is "Lorgnette," of the "Times," has been appointed by the J. J. Miller Printing Company, of Melbourne, agent for the acting rights of Samuel French's (London) plays. It is up to someone to see that acting rights in the country are always paid for. # * * y^Mx. Edward 1 Newman, who was appointed by the Farmers' Union Conference last week to be its Parliamentary watch-dog, is no stranger to Wellington, though he is a farmer. As a matter of fact, he and his family have been for the past year or two residents of the West End of the Empire City. Mr. Newman, who runs a station in the Rangitikei district, come out to the colony from Scotland 1 twenty-two years ago, what time he was a boy, and for the past twenty years has been farming in the Manawatu country. He has taken an active part in the public life of the colony, having for several years occupied a seat on the Rangitikei County Council, the Wangaraui Education Board 1 , and the Charitable Aid Boaid, and is still connected with those bodies. A cultured gentleman, enthusiastic in matters which interest him, and still youner, there are possibilities in the life of Mr. Edward Newman. The two most talkative gentlemen at last week's conference of Fairmers' TTmon delegates were Mr. Cooper, exbootmaker, and now tenant near Masrferton, and 1 Mr. McQueen, the pastoral tin.sc of Southland. There was not a subjeot brought up upon which Mr. Cooper did not speak, and the Southland pastora. ~b was a good, or bad, second, who would second' a motion pro forma, and speak against it for sheer pleasure of talking. Mr. McQueen excelled himself on the third day of the session of the Conference by demanding, and even exercising, his right of reply regarding an unimportant motion which had actually been carried on the voices before he had risen to reply ! Wonder if he is going for Parliament?

/ A conspicuous absentee fiom the Fanners' Union. Conference, held in Wellington recently, wa& that quaintly humourous, long-bearded northerner, Mr. T. W. P Smith, who was the fiist president of the first branch of the Union, and who was wont to 1 egale past conferences with hair- raising stories of the vicissitudes of early .settlers, and even latter-day stragglers, on the land away north of Auckland. Anothei absentee was Organiser Glass, the volcanic and irrepressible backwoodsman, who boomed the Union in the days when that institution went up with a bang from its hundreds to its 1 thousands of members. Mr. Glaiss has gone back with care, to his little settlement beyond Auckland, and 1 ha.s been succeeded by ex-tele graph ist McCurdy, an organiser who is equally enthusiastic and expressive with tongue or pen. • ♦ • / When one mentions' the Farmers' vUnion, the personality which immediate!" rises to the mind is that of Mi J. G. Wilson, who has a fairm well-tilled at Bulls (Rangitikei)), who was at one tame M H.R. for that district, and who has been the national president of the Union since the formation of the Council three years ago. It was freely stated for months prior to the sitting of the Conference last week, that the Union was going to have a change of president for the 1904-5 term, as it was thought that the South Island was feeling jealous of the North Island monopoly of the presidency. The names mentioned in connection with the change of office were those of Mr. W. G. Leadley, of Ashburton, who has kept the vice-presidency during the whole term that Mr. Wilson has been in the chair, and Mr. John McQueen, a non-magnetic land magnate, who has had a finger in every financiail pie worth in Southland and Otago for the past generation. • ♦ • Apparently, Messrs. McQueen and Leadley became co-conspirators, because, when it came to the election of officers last Wednesday, these supposed rivals were the men who declared that the Union could not do without Mi. Wilson as its leader, and they were the movers of the motion, carried by hearty acclamation, that the Rangitikei man should continue in office. Mr. Wilson, who had made up his mind, with something like relief, that a change would surely take place, was probably the most surprised man of all the surprised northerners when the southern conspiracy was sprung upon the Confeirence. • * (/Needless to say, everybody was dekghted 1 , and. in returning thanks, Mr. Wilson eonfe^ed, in the language of Lady Plunket's father (Lord Dufferin), when the latter made his maiden speech in Ireland, that he was "flattered' and gratified'" The apt quotation was reoeived with shouts of laughter, Mr. Wilson having heightened the effect by nodding towards Government House, which was neht opposite the place of meeting, when he quoted Lard Dufferm. • • ♦ Having so sensationally settled the presidency, Mr. McQueen gave further • evidence of self-abnegation and goodfellowship by proposing" the re-election of the Ashburton farmer to the vice-pie-sidency, declaring, amid laughter, that Mr. Leadley was the second 1 best man obtainable at the Conference. Mr. Wilson added a quota of eulogy upon his "Vice," and stated! that Mr. Leadley, although one of the busiest farmers in New Zealand, had proved himself an effective writer on agricultural topics during the year by winininig _am essay contest, and coming mighty near to winning a second, having been disqualified through the great length of his composition. Verbosity is not the Leadley failing in speech. • * * y. Amongst the new faces and voices seen and heard at the Confeiemce 1 were those of Mr. J. Studliolme, of North Canterbury, a nephew of that Studholme, of South Canterbury, after whom the well-known railway junction is named : Mr. Donald Reid, a goodlooking Milton lawyer, with a handsome beard and a soft voice, who now represents Taierii m the House of Representatives, Mr. J. Clark, a codelegate with Mr. Redd, from the Otaffo Provincial Conference, a crentlemjan, with a turn for surprising gusts of humour, surprise packets in the way of stories, and author of the phrase that "the 999-year lease is an illegitimate freehold" ; and Mr. J. C. Cooper, of Maurioeville (Masterton), who is now a Crown settler,, and a past and 1 future rival of Mr. Hogg for the Masterton seat in the House. Mr. Cooper, who is the chosen lecturer of the Union on the freehold question, was only a few years ago, working at the bench as a shoemaker, and was a member of the Christ - churoh Bootmakers' Union. • • • Mr. D. Jones — we think his name is Davy Jones, and he has his looker neai Ashburton. — was another newcomer, and he was probably the best speaker at the Conference, a man of few words, but with much sense, and a very effective

way of expressing his opinions. Then, there was Mr. W. Harding, a comfort-able-looking gentleman, who must have had much practice as a Sunday Sohooil superintendent, for he spoke with unotion and very frequently. He is also an aident prohibitionist. ♦ » • k/'Mx. Harding was manager of the fii st dairy factory established in the South Island, and he told a story of the keenness of his smell of "foreigners" m milk. He picked out a tobacco taint in a cheese which ihad been manufactured in his factory, and, upon making inquiries, he found that one of the men who delivered milk at the factory smoked an occasional pipe! The Conference, when this story was told, dad not know whicb to appreciate most — the Sherlock Holmes astuteness of Mr. Harding, or that gentleman's lack of the delights of My Lady Nlcotane. * • ■» Victorian Premier "Tommy" Bent remarked, in that .soft whisper of his, t(he other day, that the Labour Party had secured their majority by drdying barmaids to the poll in motor-cais. It either shows that there is a large preponderance of Hebes in the Australian population, or that Bent has a bias for stretching things. • • • We don't mind helping the police. Any time they want a Lance they can get it (threepence at all booksellers and stationers). They didn't tell us they were police, of course, but the office detective knew by the way they waxed their moustaches that they were sleuthhounds. Had we got a Lance containing the caricatures of principals and witnesses in the Kaiwarra slander case? We had. The detectives took a copy, and paid for it! There was a picture of a "deaf witness" among them. A man named Charles Frederick Smith was, on July 9th, committed to the Supreme Court sittings for alleged robbery of a young- lady's rings and money with violence at Khandallah. The detectives gathered him in, after carefully examining the Lance picture, from which he had been identified as being one and the same as the deaf witness.