OUR LONDON LETTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8373, 7 March 1907, Page 7

OUR LONDON LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 25, 1907.. News reaches me from Cairo of i;he death there of Mr John Roderick Dodd, of Reading, formerly of Wellington, and Singapore, at the age •of 81. An immense and magnificent Exhibition will be held; next year, in the neighbourhood of Shepherd's Bush. Shepherd's Bash is the terminus of the "Twopenny Tube" running from the Bank of England, past Tottenham Court Road and Bayswater, of several railways, and of the vast network of trams running to Hampton Court, Kew, Hounslow, :etc. The first sod was cut by Count H. de Manneville, representing the French Ambassador, among others present being the Duke of Argyll, the Mayor of Hammersmith, Sir W. Bul'l, M.P., and Sir J. Cockburn. It is safe to asy that the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 will be the most splendid and spacious pleasure house that London has ever seen. The Olympian games will be held there, v a motor racing course will encircle the grounds, and such a round of, ,j attractions will be provided as - should make all roads lead to the I Bush. No effort will be spared to -j make it a fitting testimony .to the friendship of two great nations. New Zealand should be worthily represented in such an interesting display, which will be visited by travellers from all corners of the earth. lam told that Canada intends to make full use of the occasion. Money has been •provided and space secured for an ex> ' hibition of her products and of her vast resources. 1

Missing relatives.—l take the following names from a weekly contemporary, relatives over here are seeking news: —James Cannon, who left London in 1373 for New .Zealand, —brother Willie asks. Ernest A. Crook, went to Wellington in 1905 — mother asks. George Marchant, last known to be in New Zealand in 1880 —sister Harriet asks. H. Willis, ■ of Hurley, went to Wellington 34 years ago—brother Tom asks. All New Zealanders will learn with regret of the death of Mrs Godley, ilate of Christchurch, whose :late husband, Mr John Godley., will be so well remembered. The death occurred at her residence at Gloucester; Place. Mr John Robert Godley, the ■eldest son of Mr John Godley, of. Killegar, county Leitrim, was the; leading spirit of the "Canterbury" ! Association, under whose auspices ' the province which bears that name i was founded. Mr Godley himself ; went out, as the representative of ; the association and leader of the: colonists, to New Zealand, in the year 1849, and lived there, chiefly at Port Lyttelton, for about three years. He is generally regarded as the founder of the province, and his statue, by Woolner, stands in the Cathedral Square at Christchurch. Mrs Godley accompanied her husband, and in her own sphere exercised a most beneficial influence on the early developments of society there. Although she returned to the Old Country more than fifty years ago,. she took the keenest interest in the affairs of New Zealand. She survived her husband by 45 years, and died, after a short illness, at the age of 85, having retained her faculties almost unimpaired to the end. She leaves a son —Sir Arthur Godley, Under-Secre-tary of State for India—and three daughters. From the columns of a Continenta 1 contemporary I learn that the New Zealand Government, which presented some rare wild animals to the Imperial Austrian t menagerie, will receive in exchange some specimens of the Austrian chamois, which, it is thought, may become acclimatised. Two bucks and six does are to be shipped this month, under care of an Austrian official as far as London. The chamois have been slowly habituated to the. diet which it will be necessary during the long voyage to New Zealand. ! Mrs Emma Bennett, who died at her residence, "Ashburton," Barnes, at the age of 67, was the widow of the late Mr George Bennett, of Nelson. The greater -part of her youth was passed in Nelson, and her eldest son, Mr G. W. Bennett, is now re • siding in Christchurch. The Earl of Ranfurly, G.C.M.G., has become a Vice-President of the Central Emigration Board. This is a Board which has been formed to encourage and assist in promoting the emigration of desirahle and suitable persons from the United Kingdom to the British colonies. The work will be conducted in strict accordance with the immigration laws, rules and regulations in force in the several colonies, and the Board's machinery will be open to all classes of the community desirous to settle in the colonies. The Board is an administrative and advisory body, neither commercial, philanthropic, nor denominational in origin. It is "national in purpose, and founded on lines of public utility and the welfare of the individual."