People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 3, 6 August 1908, Page 28

People We Hear About

Mr. Joseph Chamberlain celebrated the 72nd anniversary of his birthday on July 6. Replying to- congratulations -sent to him, he declared that victory for tariff reform in England was . certain, and was coming very soon.

Mr. T. P. O'Connor, two years ago," severed his connection - with ' M.A.P.,' an organ which he founded, and established ' P.T.O.' Negotiations have been proceeding for some time between Messrs. Pearson and Mr. O'Connor, and these have now been brought to a satisfactory conclusion, with the result that Mr. O'Connor has resumed the editorship of ' M.A.P.,' with which ' P.T.O.' will be amalgamated. He is also responsible now for the editorship of ' T.P.s Weekly ' and of the '"Era.' Lord Petre died on June 9at Thorndon Hall, Essex. The

deceased, who was the fourteenth baron, was 50 years of .age. He belonged to a well-known Catholic family. The first baron's father was a principal Secretary of State under Henry VIII.,

Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. _ "-The fourth baron was committed to the Tower at the time of Oates's plot in 1678, and died there in 1683. The deceased peer is succeeded by his brother, Hon. Philip ' Petre. Lord Petre had been ill for nearly a year, and spent the winter at Mentone.

Admiral Charles Stillman Sperry, who commands the American Fleet, which lias arrived at Auckland, has worked through all branches of the service. He is 61- years of age. When 19 he graduated at the United States Naval Acactemy,-, and received the rank of ensign two years later. In March, . 1,869, he was made a master, and after various promotions was made, a captain in July, 1900, and a rear-admiral in May, 1906. He was president of the United States War College in 1903. In addition to his wide naval knowledge, he has a diplomatic reputation, and has been entrusted with most important missions. In 1906, when a conference was held at Geneva! for a revision of the Geneva Convention for the treatment of the sick and wounded in war, Rear-Admiral Sperry was one of the delegates from the United States. In the following year he attended the Peace Conference at the Hague as a representative of the United States Government.

Throughout his life King Edward has given far more time than most of us are aware of to the study of French customs and institutions, and the characteristics of the people of France (says ' M.A.P.'); and President Fallieres has gone back to Paris with an opinion of his recent Royal host practically identical with that expressed by General Boulanger after a notable interview with tiis Majesty^ (then Prince of Wales) at Lord Randolph Churchill's, house in London many years ' ago. ' His ■ Royal Highness,' confided the French soldier-statesman to a' friend, 1 knows the -political history of France more intimately, than many of the statesmen of the country, and can speak Ffench better than most of us. He knows our leading men and their records, their strength, and their weakness. He could form a French Ministry that would be as near perfection as it is possible for an}' Ministry to be.' The birth of a son and heir to the Duke of Norfolk recalls the fact that this distinguished Catholic nobleman. can trace hi., descent back to a century before the Norman conquest, to the days of Hereward the Wake, for the name Howard is a corruption of Hereward. His full list of. titles is : Duke of' Norfolk, Earl of Arundel, Baron Fitzalan, _ Baron Oswaldestre, Earl of Surrey, Earl of Norfolk, Baron Clun, Baron Maltravers. They dukedom and the earldom of Surrey were created in 1483, and the dignity 'of Earl Marshal in 1672. A fresh creation of the dukedom in 15 14 commemorated the English victory at.Flodden, when, curiously, Lord Herries, an ancestor of the duchess, was I killed among the Scots. The great wealth of the ..family is •said to have begun with the appropriation during Henry VIII. 's reign of the property of the Bishopric of Norwich. To-day^the Duke of Norfolk owns 50,000 acres. The Duke's property ostween the Thames and the Strand is known by the repetition of his Grace's various titles in the names' of the streets and the blocks. The" revenues are said to be bound up to be used only for the improvement of the Arundel estate.' At any rate, some .£600,000 was spent last century on that beautiful home. ' From Sheffield the' Duke draws, at least t^36;ooo a year. When the market tolls were commuted the city paid down, and the present duke inherited from sales of land in Sheffield.