OUR LONDON LETTER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2606, 14 September 1909, Page 2

OUR LONDON LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 30. On Friday last Sir Robert Stout, Chancellor of the University of New Zealand, proposed thb toast of the Edinburgh University at the Edinburgh Students’ Union. Ho expressed the opinion that in time it would, be necessary to have university education as free as elementary, and that without being dependant upon Carnegie gifts. This, lie said, was practically the case now in the Dominion. The Editor of the “Wellington Post,” Mr. Gresley Lukin, who was unluckily on the sick list during a considerable portion of the Imperial Press Conference, is now rapidly recovering. He will probably leave for New Zealand by the Ruapehu on August 6th. We have had a well-known New Zealander over here in the person of Mr. Ben Fuller, of the -firm of Messrs. Fuller and Sons, vaudeville entrepreneurs, who arrived in London last Sunday, accompanied by Mrs. Fuller. They left the Dominion on March 16, and travelled through America, going, from San Francisco into Texas and Mexico, anil thence, via New Orleans, to Chicago, Montreal, Quebec, Boston, and New York. They propose to spend a couple of months here, and to visit Ireland, Scotland, and the Continent. They will return to New Zealand by the Trans-Siberian route, visiting China, and Japan on the way home. His Majesty, on Wednesday, in the garden of the Palace, inspected the petty officers and men from Australia and New Zealand, prior to their leaving England, who Avere enrolled' for service in the Royal Navy, and sent to England for training. Among the colonial successes at Bisley this year, was the performance of a young Aucklfrnder, Corporal B. ’ It. Wood, of the Tonbridge School Cadets, who Spencer Cup. This competition is open to members of the public school teams shotoing for the Ashburton Shield on the same day. The conditions are seven Bhots at 500yds, and Wood scored 34 out of a possible of 35. The winner has been at Tonbridge School for the past four years, and will go thence to Oxford University, to complete his education. A most interesting announcement, so far as new ships acre concerned, is that the owners of the Otaki, the first merchant steamer driven by a combination of reciprocating engines, and a low pressure turbine have resolved to order another vessel of the same characteristics. The Otalci was Only launched last year, so that the New Zealand Shipping Company have soon made up their, minds that tlieir enterprise was justified. They, have not, it is true, given out any detailed information as to the achievements of the vessel but as she has been running side by side with steamers of practically tho same dimensions which are dependent upon reciprocating engines alone, it is clear that the comparisons must be favorable to the combination boat. It is said that the economy effected in the Otaki by the use of a low pressuro turbine is as much, ax 15 per cent.