All Sorts of People

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 224, 15 October 1904, Page 3

All Sorts of People

■mirß. Stephen King, the Mclv IYI bourne merchant, who was •** m. town last week, is a keen - faced Scot who has grown greyharred m business life in the colonies. He was at one time very closely connected with the commeicial life of Dunedin, where, for a numbei of years, he had a branch of his Victorian business, and he still keeps in, touch with New Zealand. He rounded off a sixmonths' tour of the world by a ran through our own North Island. He thinks there is no place on earth that has attractions for tourists that can outrival Maoriland's natural wonders, and wonders why we don't advertise its beauties more than we do. Although he ran through the States from Canada to 'Frisco, the Victorian merchant did not get off at St. Louis. "It wa too hot," he said, and therefore ho was not able to do justice to Mr. Donne's efforts in the publicity line. „ * * * wMr. King corroborates the stories of the enterprise of American newspaper men. Their speed m getting off the mark has been emulated by the pressmen of Canada. He had scarcely registered his name at the hotels he put up at in Montreal and Toronto before h.* was besieged by a trio of interviewers in each city. They wanted to know all about Australia and New Zealand — particularly New Zealand, "the land of experiments and Seddons." V" Any troubles in the States?" Mr. King was asked. ' Heaps, ' he replied, ' especially in labour ciicies." He went on to snow that his sympathies were with the woikeis. "For, you see, the rich men aie getting too rich, and that is where all the danger comes in. High wages* are paid, but living is terribly deal . Why, when I was in 'Frisco the other day I had to pay 16s 8d per night for a bedroom, alone! Of course, there was a separate bathroom attached, and the attention was of the best, but four dollars for a bed is steep, isn't it?" "Did you sleep any better than you are sleeping in the Royal Oak!" the Melbourne merchant was asked. "Not a wink better!" he replied.^ / ♦ vMr. S. Rowe, who was the founder of the Cuba-street produce firm which bears his and his sons' names, no longer participates in the worries of the business. In fact, he retired ten years ago, handing the management of its concei ns over to his two well-known sons, F. W. and W. J. Rowe. The business was established twenty-two years ago, the Rowe family coming out to Wellington from Cornwall to try their luck in the Greater Britain of the South. * ♦ • vThe site of the firm's mill' and l warehouse in Lower Cuba-street was the site upon whioH the famous "Barney" Rhodes's residence stood away back in 1857, when Te Aro was something of a wilderness, and the water came up to where the Town Hall now stands. The founder of the Rowe business, who now resides in Newtown, and bears his seventy-three years more brightly than many another man of fifty, is one of the be«t iudges of horses in the colony, and has frequently acted! as judge of draughts at the A. and P. shows. His sons are keen men of business, and know how many beans make five feeds for the other fellow and his horse.

vJVfr. Charles Archibald, who was marned last week to Muss Rebecca Orr, the youngest daughter of one of Wellington's oldest oitizeDS, is a Wellington bom and bred boy. His father, who died recently, was well-known in piintenan and bowling circles. "Charlie/ though, still looked upon by his old f i tends as a youngster, is only so _in looks, for he has risen to the position of senior clerk in the Wellington district office of the Lands and Survey Departmeat. He ha® taken a great interest in naval matters during recent years, and; has wo iked himself up to the captaincy of the Petone Navals, having succeeded another enthusiast, Mr. R. C Kirk, in that position. * * * i^Miss Orr, like other members of the family, was for years a useful member of the Terrace Congiegational Church. — of which church also Mr. Archibald is a member — and last year she was one of the Terrace church's delegates at the Congregational Union's meetings in Dunedm. * * * \ZGreat delight was expiessed m military circles in the city last week when it was announced that the Premier had! again shown his influence with the Home authorities by prevailing upon them to allow Master-Gunner Richardson to stay some years longer in New Zealand. The Master-Gunner is perhaps the best-informed and most unobtrusive military man ever imported into our colony, and he is exceedingly popular with the officers, non-coms., and men of the volunteer service from Auckland 1 to the Bluff. -■ * * * vFt is not generally kniown that no one in the colony has a better opinion of the Royal Artillei yman than General Babinerton, who has had a wide experience of the British soldier, and recognises in the Master-Gunner "one of the best." The Master-Gunner, as he says, "Thinks guns, dreams guns, and talks guns, an d has himself invented extremely accurate appliances by which the big guns can, be worked 1 without the necessity of shelling the surrounding ocean." * « « Vylt has been 1 mentioned that Mr. A. D. Willis, the printer-politician of Wanganui, intends taking "a run Home" as soon as the House concludes its present session. Mr. Willis has long been one of the most enterprising of New Zealand's printers, with an experience of colonial printerdom which dates back to Canterbury's very earliest days. As a publisher, he has also been venturesome, with success. Then, again, he is a bookseller, and he has on several occasions had the enterprise to bring out diiect to the colony big shipment® of popular books, and he has been well re^ warded in his testing of the reading taste of New Zealand's book-lovers. * * ■» \Every visitor m the legion of South Wellington is attracted by the handsome pile of buildings erected on the northern portion of the Hospital grounds as the Nurses' Home for the Hospital staff. "What building is that?" asks the visitor, and he or she is very much surprised when informed. "Why, I thought it was the Hospital! What a handsome building for nurses!" "Oh, we have handsome nurses for the Home!" exclaims the Welhngtonian. "Have you?" retorts the astonished visitor, who probably does not mean to be uncomplimentary to the best staff of nuises this, or any other, side of the Line. The Home, which is built in contemplation of a very large staff — for there are seventy-three bedrooms under its 1 oof — will be in charge of Miss Payne, one of the most experienced and capable hospital matrons in the colony. The Home had this remarkable feature in its constructive artists • It had a Lamb for its master bricklayer, and a Carpenter for its painter and decorator

It is> rather late in the day, still we offei congratulations just the same, and they are hearty, though late. Who to? Last week Councillor John Smith was bixty-five years old. It toot him all his time to convince his many acquaintances that he was within five years of the allotted span of life, for he certainly doesn't look it, does he? But, there is a still moie lemarkable record in Councillor Smith's life, and that is the fact that he has spent no fewer than sixty-two years of his life in this Empire City of ours! * * ♦ imagine a three - year - old Johnny Smith sitting on Wellington's beach, and watching thereafter the growth of the city. Sixtytwo years in Wellington. Why, John Smith surely has some claim to being called a father of Wellington — if he wasn't so young-looking as to make the term impossible of application m his case. To get a rear view of John scorching along on a bike one would exclaim "Some of these youngsters will break their neoks some day, but boys will be boys!" / v^Kegret is felt amongst Anglicans of South Wellington because Mr. F. W. Rowley has resigned his charge of the oigan at St. Thomas's Church. Mr. Rowley, who is a young New Zealandier, had occupied the position with great credit to himself for some five or six yeais with an interregnum of a year during which time he was in London studying the higher branches of music. He was successful in passing with honours) at the College of Organists. He has only recently returned from Home. Mr. Rowley is a member of the clerical staff of the head office of the Department of Labour. * * * * i^Students of Victoria College read the "Spike" as a matter of course. Other people will read it, if they can be persuaded I—it1 — it is a literary production worth their attention. The "Foundation" number is mainly a thanksgiving number for the blessings of a growing building, of which the future students wiil be proud, and which will add dignity to the> city. Mr. S. MoKenzie, sub-editor of the "Spike," is the said "Spike's" poet, and that review should be glad. His ode on the laying of the foundation-stone is graceful and sonorous Its literary merit may be judged by the following selection: — Ring of a charger's tsnaffle, roar of a cannonade , Years ago on a Spanish field, Blind) with the stab of a summer sun , Flash of the hate of the bayonets, breach where the battei ies played, Galloping hoofs when the bugle pealed , Swinging line, and the silenced gun — Many a thanks, O Wellington ! Many a thanks for the fight you won, Years ago on the Spanish field ; Telling us bo to play the game Here on the heights that inherit the name. .. There is a closely argued article w hiob seems to point out that the "New Zealand Times" is not the only pebble on the shore, the personal element showing a little. The "Dislocated Note in the Sunny North," by Professor Kirk, is written in good English, and is gently satirical and humorous, not to say a trifle imaginative in spots. The usual facetious reports of various functions of interest to students, some poetry (not by McKenzie), and a letter on the subject of the proposed! "Chair of Journalism," in which it is shown that, as ethics would enter as a pass subject into the degree of 8.J., the "Times" football scribe wouldn't get the chair. Altogether, men and things are discussed with refreshing freedom _ in the "Spike," the sub-editor even going to the length of referring to a portrait of the editor (Mr. De la Mare) as a "block."

\/Professor Kirk, Government biologist, in "A Dislocated Note in the Sunny North, )f says that travelling in the North is delightful in summer, but your horse sinks to the hooks (local people say to the girths) at almost every step for miles together ; or, if the road be on clay and there is not much traffic, he slides about as if he were on ice. A golden rule that often suffices for safety, though not for comfort, is this • — "Keep off the road." * • itTalking about "taihoa," the Professor is vivid, and a little imaginative: — "You ride into a little place that has seen better days — a place situated on a low spur running down to Hokianga harbour. You are going up the harbour (the 'river' it is called). You take up your quarters at the hotel, make the acquaintance of the groom (Maori), and 1 go with him to feed your horse. You say ■ 'Now, Bene, I am going up the river. Here's half-a-crown, look after mv horse well. G-ive him tibrree feedla a day, and put plenty of oats in. When I come back you'll get another halfcrown.' He grins, and gives you) to understand that your confidence is well placed. ♦ ♦ ♦ "You go away, and come back two days after. As you land 1 on the little pier, iust in time for lunch, you look up the street, and see your horse hanging h'^ head over the paddock fence. He sees you, and trumpets loudly — a note that has expectation in it as well as pleasant welcome, perhaps more of the former than the latter. You find: the ecroom. 'Well, Bene, has my horse had! his breakfast this morning?' He smiles- 'Oh, not vet' Plenty time 1 !' The man has 'taihoa,' chronic 'taihoa.'" ♦ * • \ Mr. David Pirani, who was brother Fied's right-hand man during the years the late member for Palmerston ran the "Manawatu Standlard," has decided to emulate his brother, and own a newspaper of his own. He has decided to start a paper at Cambridge, which is likely to become a second Nelson for people who desire to live to a ripe old age. Cambridge threatens to be the Mecca of the open-air ourists. » • * v Mr. Pirani, who intends calling his paper the "Waikato Independent" — the Piranis are all Left-wingers — worked for some years in the composing-room of the Government Printing Office, in the days when that State Department was run on the site whereupon the Hotel Cecil now stands 1 . When he dropped out of the Palmerston "Standard" it was the intention of Mr. Pirani to retire — a rare experience for a printer — but apparently he feels 1 too young for a "has been," hence his coming activities in the Waikato. * • » Mr. "Willie" Stead, of "Review of Reviews^ notoriety, went out of his way recently to attack the stage, and particularly actresses. Well, there arose a champion, who is just about as skilful at ink-slinging as the noted journalist. Mr. Bernard Shaw counterblasts thus: "As to the talk about 'immoral actresses,' what do you mean, you foolish William Stead ? There are hundreds of women on the stage whose fastidious refir ement and self-contarol would be wrecked by 'one week of ordinary plutocratic fat-feeding and self-indulg-ence.' If the average British matron could be made half as refined as the average actress, there would be an enormous improvement in the national manners and morals." "When you sit in the stalls," he exhorts Mr. Stead in conclusion, "turn your eyes from the stifling grove of fat, naked! shoulders round you to the decent and refined lady on the stage, and humble your bumptious spirit with a new sense of the extreme perversity and wicknedhess of that uncharitable Philistine bringingup of yours."

Finished acrobatism in a person, over fifty yeais of age is unusual, but tram travelleis at Constable-street. last Monday witnessed Mich an exhibition. A cyclist crossed the stieet intersection just as the ear came along. If he had kept straight on all would have been well. He didn't know whether to get off or stay on, so he apparently tried to stand on his head on the saddle. His wheels zig-zagged violently, so did his leg^. For several seconds he endeavoured to do a difficult balancing feat, ax.d then ignommiously tumbled on the line just as the car stopped. * * • "When you're going to do that again j ou might ring up the office, will you ? asked the driver, as he mopped his pallid brow. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" asked the cyclist. "Didn't you see the man with a red fl ig in front ?" retorted the driver. ' We always send a man ahead of each car at a slow walk, to wave a flag.' Whereof the- moral is "Cyclists, hug the kerb. * * * Dowie is compelled to ascertain if his followers are still insane, for as soon as Zion wakes up in its right mind so soon will Elijah have to flee He recently asked his faithful cranks if they firmly believed that he could cause seven hundred million dollar* to rain fiom Heaven on Zion. With one united voice his patients yelled "Yes'" * * * Mr. Alfred Harmsworth, who owns a sheaf of London journals the profits of which probably pay him at least a livinp wage — they aie valued at two and a-half millions— is just the sort of man who has the power to squelch the palmisr and psychometric fraud, who fattens oa the credulity of the masses exactly as their New Zealand kindred do. Cabled that he is proceeding against several of the people whom he alleges to be frauds. It remains to be seen what name the courts will give them. • » » That the army of fortune-telling humbugs in New Zealand ought to be moved on there can be no two opinions, for, highly educated as we believe ourselves to be, many of us will solemnly hold our hands out for examination by people who trade upon popular credulity. An enormous amount of injury is done to credulous people, who accept the advice of these frauds, and act accordingly. It is conceivable that the police have shifted several of these gentry out of Wellington, but the army of them is ever inreasing in the country. * * * Mr. Rigg has introduced a bill into the House providing that every child under sixteen convicted of smoking shall be fined 10s, recoverable through Irs parents. You thought the Juvenile Smoking Prevention Act was introduced bv Mr. Field ? So it was. We're talking about Mr. Rigff, of the House of Commons. Whom do you mean? VThe brass bands which are to take part m the contest to be held at Hastings early next month are to have Mr. W. S. King, of Christchuroh, for judge. Mr. King is well-known to bandsmen throughout the colony. He was for many years in charge of the Oamaru Garrison Band, in the days when that band was one of the best. He is not only a gifted musician, but he is also an expert rifleman, and an exchampion of the colony. A printer by trade, he forsook the "case" on the Oamaru "Mail" to become a; writer on the staff of the "Canterbury Times" some two -"-ears ago, looking after musical and shooting matters particularly. As "Trigger," on the "Times," he is the rival of "Bull's-eye," of the 'Tress." * • * Mr. Taylor, who is Colonial Secretary for Westralia, explained in the House lately that he had given permission for the playing of "The Sign of the Cross" on Sunday because it was a "religious" play. He wouldn't allow "Two Little Vagabonds" to be played because it wasn't religious. With all due respect to the late author, "The Sign of the Cross" is about as religious as "Nana." The Westrahaa Colonial Secretary would probably "shoo" the "Cross" off if ite events were written round modern people. WjVlissioner Nicholas Turner, who has oeen prominently before Wellingtonians recently as the promoter of the Prisoners' Aid Society, and the organiser of the movement which has resulted in the establishment of the Home of Hope for discharged! prisoners at Makara, is well-known not only in Wellington, but in Christchurch and Melbourne. He had much experience in social reform work as an officer of the Salvation Army. He has been of late years an active worker in religious circles in Wellington as the head of the Central Mission, is a mmber of the Ministers' Association, and acting-secre-tary of the Council of Chmrches. Mr. Turner has been a photographic enthusiast for some twenty years, and for some time prior to comma; to 1 Wellington toured the South Island 1 with his camera on behalf of the "Canterbury Times."

The Rev. William Booth, Commander-m-Chief of the Salvation Army, about whom so much has been heard lately, wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father was a poor house agent, a "jobber" in a very small way. He wasn't a success as a business man. Sometimes the juvenile Booths wanted a cnust they couldn't get. Young Willies soul revolted, and. it has been revolting ever since against poverty, and trying to lift it for the people. * * * If Muss Krupp, chief proprietor of the famous gunworks at Essen, Germany, should' refuse to supply any country with guns, that country would be in a bad way as a military power. The entire artillery of Russia, Japan, France, Germany, and Italy was manufactured at the Krupp works, and England has mode large purchases there. Nearly all the other countries of Europe arc partly dependent on these works for their equipment. The young woman who owns them is a fair young Teuton maiden scarcely out of her teens. She wields her immense power with discretion and generosity. The city of Essen, with its 100,000 inhabitants, is practically her private property, so that she possesses almost despotic power over her employees and their families.