OUR LONDON LETTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8373, 6 March 1907, Page 5

OUR LONDON LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent)

! GENERAL NOTES. LONDON, January 25, 1907. Miss Daisy Davidson, the New Zealand soprano, was one of the artistes at the Empress Theatre, Brixton, the week before last. She sang Sullivan's "Once Again" and other ballads. Mr Cecil Towsey, the well-known musician of Wellington, whom I mentioned in a former letter had been very ill, is now, I am glad to say, quite convalescent, and has left the nursing home. Several of the suffragists have been visiting the Agents-General of Australia, endeavouring to ['enlist their services in their cause., Last week Miss Pankhurst, L.L.8., called to see Mr Reeves and had a very interesting chat. Of course the High Commissioner, like the Agents-General, would not commit himself in any way. Mr Charles Wotherspoon, late of Christchurcli; has been interesting himself in Edalji, who was sentenced to seven years penal servitude for mutilation of cattle. Similar outrages have occurred in New Zealand, and he was very forcibly struck by the resemblance. Mr Edalji, who was a solicitor practising in Birmingham, and the son of the vicar of Great Wyrley, has lately been released, and from letters and other matters which have been made public, it is thought that he did not commit the crimes, but that they were attributed to him by some persons who had a deadly enmity to the Edalji family, and who caused the police to entertain false suspicions; moreover, he Was convicted on circumstantial evidence only, and that of the faintest character. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame, has taken the matter up strenuously, and his conclusions, which are of a striking nature, have occupied a large space every day in the Daily Telegraph. He it was who suggested the visit of Mr Wotherspoon to the High Commissioner, and from the similarity of the outrages in your colony it is thought that he may be instrumental in helning to a clue to the real offenders.

There was an exciting incident in connection with the departure of the White Star liner lonic at Plymouth for New Zealand. As the steamer began to move, a small boat, with three occupants, pulled across her course. The lonic immediately went astern, and the bluffy of her bow grazed the frail craft. Fearing disaster, one of the occupants, a visitor from Liverpool, jumped into the sea, and kept herself afloat till rescued by a passenger, who leaped from the liner's deck to save her. Inman, the billiard player, is, I understand, to leave early in April for New Zealand. His itinerary includes Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, and New Zealand. I learn that Major A. Long, D.5.0., A.S.C., has been selected for a tour of inspection of meat packing establishments in South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Professor Ruthex-ford h among the New Zealanders who have distinguished themselves here. On leaving the Newj Zealand University, he went to Cambridge as an 1851 Exhibition scholar. He has recently filled the position of Macdonald Professor of Physics in McGill University, Montreal, but has now been appointed Professor of Physics and Director of Physical Laboratories at the University of Manchester. I understand that he has already resigned the former position, although he does not take up the latter until October. The professor was one of the pioneers of wireless telegraphy, and made a name by his experimental work in radio-activity. . Mr J. Arthur Cook, of Ashburton —the son of Mr William Cook, of the Bank of New Zealand there —has obtained an appointment with Messrs Bruce Peebles, of Edinburgh. He was some time with a firm of marine engineers of Aberdeen. Ho then came to London, and studied electrical work, at the Finsbury Technical College, where he completed the course with great success, It is now definitely arranged tha*; Madame Clara Butt, and her husband, Mr Kennerley Rumford, will sail in July for Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. The contract was fixed up last May with a well-known firm of agents in Melbourne, and it specifies a six months' itinerary, fifty concerts being guaranteed. Madame Butt, who has, of course, sung before the King, is increasing in popularity, and her agents, Messrs Ibbs and Tillett, inform me that her receipts, nof late, have beaten all records. This will be her first visit to the Antipodes. The date of her farewell concert at the Albert Hall has not yet been fixed.

[ Madame Albani, the famous Cana- ; dian soprano, is also, I am informed, j about to visit New Zealand. Mr William Green, tenor, Miss! Myrtle Meggy, the Australian pianist, and Mr Hadyn Wood, violinist, will form part of her company. Mr Walter W." Read, the wellknown cricketer, passed away on the 6th instant,at his residence in Addiscombe Park. To New Zealanders, as to all the cricket world, his name was a household word. "W.W.," as he was affectionately called, was in his fifty-second year, and was the greatest of Surrey batsmen, and the mainstay of the Surrey team as a run-getter—unrivalled except, perhaps, by Dr. W. G. Grace. He was assisting his father as a schoolmaster at Reigate when he was given his first trial for Surrey, in 1873, at the Ocal, against Yorkshire. Four years later he had mounted to the top of the tree. In 1881 hel[was appointed to an official post at the Oval, and from that time forward he played regularly for his team until 1897, when the Surrey C.C.C. Committee created for him the post of advisor and coach. The innings of hisMife was his memorable 117 for England against Australia at the Oval in 1884. He was tenth on the English order of batting, and only the stubborn defence of Scotton at the other end enabled him to make such a score. Even after the lapse of twenty-two years his magnificent hitting on that occasion, against the bowling of Spofforth, Palmer and Giffen, is vividly recalled and often talked about. His highest score in first-class matches was 338 for Sur-i-ey against Oxford University at the Oval in 1888. He went twice to

Australia, with the Hon. Ivo Bligh's team in 1882 and with Mr G. F. Vernon's team in 1887. Mr Read was a wonderfully punishing player, very forward in style. In the latter part of his career he brought the art of pulling to a very high pitch, but carried it a little too far, and his batting, once a model of orthodoxy, suffered in consequence. His cheery presence was one of the pleasures of a visit to the Oval; indeed, the Surrey pavilion will seem incomplete without the familiar figure. Many a younger player can testify to the value of his help and advice and his loss will be felt by countless admirers, known and unknown, whereever the game of cricket is played.