All Sorts of People

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 229, 19 November 1904, Page 3

All Sorts of People

*H7I J* 111^ Loekie, the well-known U|y| builder, has been fifty years in A ' A the colonies, and he has made up his mind to celebrate the jubilee by a tup Home. He will be accompanied by his wife and one of his daughters (another Miss Lockie being already in England), and, like a shrewd, longheaded man, he has already booked passages by the P. and O. liner leaving Sydney in, March next. Young Lockie was just twenty, and "out of his time, when he packed his carpenter's kit, and set out from his native Ayrshire fifty years ago to lend a hand in. building up these colonies. He started operations in Hobart, and, after a few years there, went onto Dunedln, where many structures aie still standing to attest his skill. Twenty years ago he was putting up the south wing of the Parliamentary Buildings in Wellington, and the Legislative Council chamber is another of his monuments. So was the Church of the Sacred Heart, in Hill-street, until it was burnt down several years ago. * * • About the time we speak of, Mr. £ockie was the leading builder of the Empire City, and most of the men now prominent in the local timber and building trades were then in his employ. In recent years he has figured quite largely on the Supreme) Court bench. Not in wig and gown, though, but as assessor in compensation cases he has been in pretty constant demand, for there is no sounder authority in. Wellington on land and building valuations than James. Lockie. He is also a director of various local enterprises, notably the Kelburne Tramway Company, the Evans Bay and Miramar Estate Company, and one of our lending companies. * * * iMt. Lockie has no settled programme for his trip Home, but he is bound) to bob up serenely at his native village of Ballantrae. It is somewheie in South Ayrshire, and you may have heard of it from the fact that Robert Louis Stevenson has written a novel called "The Master of Ballantrae." Mr. Lockie made haste to possess himself of a copy when it issued from the press, but he was disappointed to find precious little about Ballantrae within the covers Lite most up-to-date Scots, he has slept in Burns' bed, and) knows all about the Burns country. * * * Still, we have a shrewd notion that he will concern himself less with Burns than with bowls when he gets across the Tweed. Mr. Lockie is the oldest of the Wellington Club skips, and at the last Association tournament he not only skipped the champion team to victory, but put up the bowl that decided the champion rink question, and also brought the inter-club pennant to Wellington. Both events denetndted on that one bowl. The skip was called upon to draw the shot — a drive wouldn't do and, Lockie in this emergency rose equal to the contract. More than that, the skip opposed to him was his own son-in-law, Mr. James Kirker, the popular manager of the South British Insurance Company- Such is the fortune of war — on the bowling green * • • While the Appropriation Bill— the last act of the session — was away getting itself sanctioned by the Governor, on Tuesday of last week, Mr. George

Fisher, who had been reclining gracefully m his seat, rctee to the occasion, walked dramatically across the chamber, and took the Speakei's chair. Some, little bits of badinage weie hurled from the "Speakei" to Mr. Kaihau and back, and Mr. T. Taylor took a hand by calling for the ringing of the bell. No notice being taken of Terrible Tommy, he arose and strolled over to the table and pressed the bellbutton. Immediately "Mr. Speaker" called "Messenger! Messenger!" The messenger appeared. "Tommy Taylor migs for a beer'" said "our George " without the least regard for that veracity for which he has always been renowned. vMr. P. Heyes, the gentleman who succeeded the late Mr. McGowan as Commissioner of Taxes, is a man who looks as if he never had a trouble. The secret of his jovial and well-found appearance is m" the fact that he regards his work in the wav that most men regard- their hobbies, and so he is able to have a good time for eight or nine hours a day, and get paid for it. Who is the new Commissioner of Taxes p How did he eet the job, and 1 why? He's only been eleven years in the Civil Service, and he- jomed as an expert — commercial accountant to the Land and Income Tax Department. * * * ./Mr. Heyes is a middle-aged man, and he must have done something for a living before that. He has the unique distinction of belonging to the town of St. Helens, where Beecham's Pills and Mr. Seddon first saw the light, and he gathered in his first commercial experience by occupying a small office-stool in a corner of the vast worksiof Pilkmgton and Co., who own a town of glass manufactories and collieries in the smoky spot aforesaad. He went to Dublin, and, for a number of years, was general manager and accountant of a huge chemical works. / * \Mr. Heyes knew a St. Helens boy should have some sort of a show in New Zealand, and so he hit out for this paradise twenty-two years ago. When the Kauri Timber Company started in Auckland it got a bit tangled in its figures Mr. Heyes, as secretary and accountant, unravelled the skem, and instituted the system of accounts that obtains to this day. He successively held important positions with the Sargood Company, E. and A. Isaacs and Co., and several other impoitant commercial concerns. » * * u (sut of two hundred applicants, Mr. Heyes was chosen for the position in the Civil Service he occupied until he was recently called up highei . In the said position, it was his duty to tour the colony from the North Cape to the Bluff, to see that income tax returns were correctly made. The income tax man is not always welcome, and some business men have even been known to asseit — for purposes of taxation — that they were only marked one and nine, when, m reahtv they were of the two and threepenny variety. Once, Mr. Heyes had occasion to go to a certain business 1 department. Two of the firm received him, and the two chatted away about the weather and so on, when a third partner bounced mto the room, and demanded fiercely ■ "Are you the income tax man?" Mr. Heyes owned up. "Then you and the i Government, and so on, and etcetera, \ are the ad infinitum, asterisks, and blanks — '" The newspaper man kept it up for quite a while, and Mr Heyes, suspecting that the esteemed man of letters was really only acting a part, kept cool. However, he got close to the officeruler when the gentleman threatened to shoot him out of the window. It may be mentioned that the quietness of the income tax man prevented a catas-

trophe, and that the storm ended by effusive handshakes, and an invitation to come again. From, pernicketty business men, who have put small difficulties m his way, and fiom all over the colony, Mr. Hey-es has had sheaves of congratulatory wires and letters. It is evident the appointment is a ye' - popular one. j * * * Vfflr. Geo. R. Robertson, of the Government Life Insurance, still continues to blow the trumpet for New Zealand in the columns of "L'lndependance Beige." at Brussels. In its issue of 30th September last, Mr. Robertson occupies a column in sketching the rise, and dilating upon, the benefits and adof the New Zealand Public Tiust Office. His facts are "chiels that winna ding," because they are reinforced with the powerful logic of statistics. It is right up to Mr. Poynton to drop in upon. Mr. Robertson and crack a convivial bottle of Golden Top a propos of that advertisement on the Continong. Any fine day now he may receive an invite from Kaiser Wilhelm or the Czar to visit their Court and give private instructions in the art of Public Trust. / ''It * * * -Jlhe Lord Bishop of Wellington does not bet, but there's a story going the rounds concerning betting and a bishop. A local "metalhcaan" was rung up prior to the Wellington races', and asked : "What pnoe A for the Handicap ?" The boy answered the 'phone. "Who is speaking, please?" "Bishop." The boy excitedly rushed into the "bookieV room, and exclaimed- "Dr. Walbs wants to know what price A for the Handioap !" But, it was a Mr. Bishop who /wanted the information. \* * * Lord Charles Beresford, "England's hope in time of trouble " : — "It's a curious thing that just when everything seems up with you, when you feel you're in a devil of a tight place, it's the scallywags, the worst fellows in the 6hip, who come out the best. I'm a scallywag myself. I'd sooner have the boy who robbed the orchard with me if I got into a row than the fellow who was always first at Sunday-school." / * cncles in the city are now minus their King — Chas. H. King, of that ilk. Seems he leirt town at the end of the last week to settle, as a general storekeeper, at the township of Warea, m Taranaki. It is a big change for Charles to leave behind hum the perennial perfume of leather — he was for nineteen and a-half years in the boot factoiy of Messrs. R. Hannah and Co. — to become a grocer. Mr. King came to Wellington from the Midland counties when he was sixteen yearsi of age, and spent the whole of the subsequent itme (nearly twenty years) in the Empire City. He has always been an enthusiastic member of church choirs, and for eleven and 1 a-half years he was master of St. James's choir, at Newtown. » ♦ * jjSince the Presbyterian General Assembly started its annual session, m St. John's, last week, the town has been full of paisons. In fact, you simply can't get out of their road. You bump up against them everywhere. Therefore a few words about some of the leading; divines won't be out of place. The Moderator this year is Dr. Erwin, of Christohurch, whose brogue lets you know he hails from the North of Ireland. By the way, he has just celebrated the 21st anniversary of his pastorate of Knox Church Christchurch. He isn't of the rolling-stone variety. Sixteen years ago he refused a call from a wealthy church at Ballarat, and a> few years ago he turned a deaf ear to an offer from Dunedin. • • • \_Our own J. Kennedy Elliott, of Kent Terrace (also an Irishman), was the chief ioker of the Assembly, ana 1 , m the course of the session threw off quite

a volume of sparkling impromptus to keep the Fathers and Brethren from falling asleep. One of his samples was a State scholar's definition of a moderator : "A man who believes in a moderate use of liquor." \ The Rev. David Borne, late of NorthEast Valley, Dunedin, is the ModeratorElect. You could easily pick him by his long beard, broad Scotch voice, and his goodly appearance. He was the hrst student to pass through the Theological Hall. By the way, Mr. Borne was willing to stand down in favour of Mr. Don, who directs the Chinese Mission in Otago, awl was formerly the missionary himself. According to Mr. Borne the Rev. Mr. Don has a strange penchant for nobbling the Borrie hat at church conventions. He felt sure, however, that if Mr. Don had taken the Moderator's hat from, him, he would have worn it well ! This neat-ly-put phrase brought down the church. The Presbyterian Assembly contained more giants than any other convention 01 conference in this colony. The men who easily exceed the six-feet standard include Dr. Gibb, his successor in Knox Church, Dunedin (Dr. Nesbit, late of South Australia), Mr. Hewitsom, Mr. Borrie, and there are "solid' Muldoons" galore. There were aggressive little fighters like the Rev. J. H. Mackenzie, of Nelson, the Rev. P. B. Fraser, of the Clutha, and Elder John McLean (of Wellington), who, despite his eightyfour years, would stand by the flag of Presbytenainism. and cry "no surrender," even, if the flag was blown away. * ♦ • Bruce Presbytery sent a lively octogenarian in Mr. J. Adams, of Tokomarriro. As a member of the historic no-license Licensing Committee of the Bruce electorate, this youthful Scot of eighty-three sumniei-s had something to say "agin the Government." It was a crying shame, he exclaimed, the way the Bruce peoole had been treated after the emphatic way they voted for Prohibition. "Why, we actually voted a five-fifths majority — and then had something to the good!" The shout of laughter that followed! this "bull" from a kailyard mad© the rafters of St. John's ring. s » * * j/The Rev. W. Gray-Dixon, of St. David's Church, Auckland, was the best-dressed! member of the Presbytenan Assembly. He was always* well-groom-ed, and looked as plump as a partridge in top condition. Prior to joining the Church — which he did later in life than usual — Mr. Gray-Dixon was a professor in a university in Japan, being at that time, as he admitted himself, a pagan, looking with unprejudiced eyes upon the Christian world. Certainly he does not look as if he had! ever been anything else than the pastor of a sleek Presbytenan pasturage. He shocked the Assembly by declaring that he decided to settle within the fold of John Knox because he thought it the least objectionable of all the sects! Before going to Auckland, Mr. GrayDixon had a church in Victoria. 7 v'The Mayor of Wellington did not spread himself as an orator at the sittings of the Presbyterian Assembly, though his fellow Scots always gave him enough encouragement to do a lot of talking by heartily applauding him when he did mount the rostrum. One evening, however, our bachelor mayor caused a roar of laughter all unwii>tingly. "I want to tell the Assembly what a young lady said to me in the vestibule of the church just now !" exclaimed Mr. Aitken. It is strange how unanimous is the thought that ladies are always proposing marriage to Mr. Aitken. The Assembly showed it by indulging in laughter. He explained that the lady had only requested him to make an announcement regarding a teameeting!

ought to know that the Valuer-General is Mr. G F. C. Campbell, but everybody doesn't know as much about him as the Lance. You'll find him in a veiy well-worn office on the ground-floor of the "biggest wooden building in the world." There is nothing sumptuous about the office, and there isn't anything very "stand-offish" about the Valuer-General. He fe> a keen-looking man, with a good, pushing nose, and a clean-shaven face except for a trifling sideboard. He has been bumped veiy hard at football •some tune or other, and the rifht corner of the mouth has been scaned by having a tooth pushed through. • * * jtn the intervals of telephone silence, he tells how he is a bred and bom colonial—a Nelson College boy, who joined the Civil Service thmty years ago, and who has served successively m the Public Works, Justice, Land Tax, and Pioperty Tax Departments, holding the position of Deputy Commissioner ot Taxes until he was called up higher, bo, from the time Sir George Grey got h & Land Tax Act passed, in 18/B— it was repealed in favour of the Pi operty Tax Act of 1879— he has delved in the dry-as-dust atmosphere he still thrives m - V^But the brighter side. He was a footballer in fact once He is a footballer in heart still. Were not he and James Allen (non the redoubtable member for B' uce) the two best forwards in New Zealand in the eighties? And wasn't Mr. Campbell approached' unsuccessfully to captain the fir-t New Zealand team for Sydney, m 1884? Where are now his football conterapoi anes Well. "Jimmy" Wood is manager ot a life ' insurance company, at Chrifitchurch. D G. A. Cooper is Reon*brar of the Supreme Court, and is n+ a-ra-n after - recent bout of illness. And there are others who have all played a "forward" "arne i i life. A * • * v/Mi Campbell remembers when people yachted and boated w.th vigour in Wellington. He had the racing yacht Isca once, and boating people used to boat in all weatheis then. There were no comforts, but moi c enjoyment They used to push old whaleboat^ about, and boating " clubs weren't gentlemen s clubs, and then they produced handy men. One morning in those strenuous days thene was a civil servant missing The said servant had a yacht im the harbour. He didn't turn up It wa,s feared that the "southerly buster" had perhaps swept him off the deck Would Mr. Campbell make one of a whaleboat crew to brave the oeuls of the harbour and rescue the civil servant if he needed it? He would They had a larce, muscular contract to get to the yacht but eventual!- pulled alono^ide and mad© fast. Mr. Campbell got aboard removed the hatchway. and peered down. The civil pervant was in his bunk, fast asleep. There were refreshments of the "medical comfort" lond there, and he had probably been having a remarkaibly pood time. He wsis returned to his sorrowing office sound and whole. / xA'nother experience. He and two others hired the "Day'= Bay," in the dim long ago, owner Charlie Pressman. There was a pnr'-west t?ale blowmg and it looked like rood fun. The "Day's Bay" wasn't clipper built and her gear wasn't exactly new When they got out into the middle of the harbour — they had all sail set — the maist« went by the board. Nobody seemed to care mu".h. and so they dropped anchor on that Saturday niorht. and put in a rather damp time. Captain Bendall, from Oriental Bay. thowht he'd have a look at the caft on Sunday mornine, and so pulled out and rescued the crew. A couple of very slopnv adventurers splashed up the Quay iust as Wellington and his wife were bound for devotional exercises on the wet Sabbath morn. What became of the boat? Well she took a load of railway iron to rhe reclamation mnde for the Wellinp-ton-Man*>watu railway, and she foundered. She's down there off the Thorndon Baths vet. a. «ort of Pee^ottv's hou^e-boat, for Charlie and Sam have lived there ever since / \An Mr. Campbells early footballing days there were two clubs in Wellington — the Wellington F.C. and the Armed Constabulary Club, and they played m the Basin Reserve. The drain over which there was so much bungle recently was then open, and. went through the middle of the Reserve. It was considered excellent play to bump the fellow with the ball into the eight-feet deep ditch, and the man who got the ball before it was washed out to sea was doing all right. There was a dancing stage behind the goal-posts then, and the ball used to get under it. The smartest crawler scored the most tries ' • • • vMr. Campbell founded, the Athletic Football Club in 1878. The ValuerGeneral has a very high repute as a garrison artillery officer, and has been an ardent volunteer since 1887. He is Lieutenant-colonel Commanding the

Wellington Division, and is a fiim believer in the utility of volunteenng. "Every young fellow should undergo a couise of volunteer training, foi not only does he owe this service to the Empire, but for recreative purposes volunteering offers the finest field of exercise for those engaged in sedentaiy pursuits." He is on the committee of the local branch of the Navy League, and an office-better in many sports societies, so that it will be seen he has, a pretty strenuous time. y Voister Mildred, who was accepted as a deaconess by the Presbyterian Assembly last week, is well (and populai ly) known in Dune-dm as one of the' brightest and' most cultured' of the Southern city's daughters. In private life she is known as Miss R. Mildied Davev. M.A. She ha® had a brilliant career at the Otago University, and has always been religiously inclined. Her first, desire was to so abroad as a missionary, but her church wais not then looking for missionaries. Later, Mi c s Davev was emgaeed to marry a young minister in the South, but his death intervened For some years she was a RucceNsful teacher in a large college for girls in Dunedin, and resigned 1 that position to take up reihenous work in connection with her church m South Dunedin. The Presbyterians are delighted in getting so talented a lady to devote her life to relieious work as a deaconess. / * * * vThe surprise packet amongst the King's Birthday honours-, announced last week, must have been the CM G.lng of Major Alexander. Not that there were any objections to the bestowal of this honour upon the Ma^oi , for Lord Ranfurly's private secretary was the most popular official oui Government House has known m recent years. But it has been so unusual to confer birthday honours upon the hardworkers of official life that New Zealanders all must have exclaimed on reading the item "What ! Maior Alexander, C.M.G. '" This will "be some consolation to the gallant Major for the keen disappointment that was his when his services for the South African campaign were declined because his services in New Zealandl were too valuable. Congratulations to the new Companion of St. Michael and St George. z v The Roman, Catholic congregations of the colony are not the only ones which treat their pastors liberally when the latter desire a holiday. The Rev. Wm Hewitson, who succeeded the venerable Dr. Stuart m Knox Church, Dunedin. some fourteen or fifteen years ago, applied to his church managers

the other day for a year's leave of absence, to be spent abioad. The church granted the application, and not only decided to pay Mr. Hewitson his full salary for the year and to pay foi all supplies to the pulpit, but presented £500 to Mrs. Hewitson to enable her to accompany her husband on the tour. The Rev. Andrew Cameron, of the Anderson Bay Church, makes the tour of the world with Mr. and Mrs. Hewitson. The tour started from the Bluff this week. / >JThe press was represented amongst the Presbyterian Assembly's delegates by Mr. A. H. Grinhng, of the reporting staff of the "Otago Daily Times." Mr. Grinding is an elder of the church, and a member of the Dunedm Presbytery. Some years aigo he was set apart bv the "Otago Daily Times" proprietors to subedit the "Outlook," the weekly organ of the Presbyterians of New Zealand, and which -journal is published bv the "Otaeo Daily Times" office Since Dr. Gibb's removaJ from Dunedin to Wellington, Mr. Gnnhng has acted as working editor of the "Outlook," the editor-in-ohief being the Rev. Rutherford Waddell. Mr. Chas. H. Grinlmer. who is the editor of an English railway magazine, and who us the author of a series of interesting articles on "The Ways of Our Railways " now running- through the "Wi^rfcor Magazine." is n bi other of the editor of the "Outlook."