Personal Items

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24741, 5 December 1945, Page 6

Personal Items

Air Commodore G. N. Roberts, A.F.C., of Auckland, formerly commander of the New Zealand air task force in the Pacific, has been released from the R.N.Z.A.F. and transferred to the reserve. He represented New Zealand at the Japanese surrender ceremonies in the Solomons and Bismarck areas in September, returning to' New Zealand the following month. His outstanding services in the Pacific were recently recognised in the award of the United States Legion of Merit.— (P.A.)

Dr. A. L. M. Perry, of the Christchurch Boys’ High School, has been appointed rector of the Waimate High School, and will commence duty when the new term opens on February 2. There were 49 applicants for the position, which became vacant when Mr M. Leadbetter received an appointment as rector of. the Southland Boys’ High School.

Advice has been received by the parents of Mr and Mrs Arthur Wicks (Kumara Junction) that their son, Alex. Wicks, who is still in England with the Royal Air Force, has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. A former pupil of the Greymouth _ Technical High School, Mr Wicks is 23 years of age and has been overseas for the last four years serving as a pilot. Mr J. W. Beagley, physicist at the Christchurch ’ Magnetic Observatory, has been appointed director of the Apia Magnetic Observatory, Samoa. He will leave by air to-day to take up his new appointment, Mr Beagley. who has been on the staff of the Christchurch Magnetic Observatory since 1928, was appointed physicist in 1940. He was engaged on the magnet resurvey of New Zealand in its initial stage, and in 1933 carried out geophysical surveys of the West Coast, Nelson and Marlborough. For the last 10 years he has operated the cosmic ray meter in the Botanic Gardens, on behalf of the Carnegie Institution, Washington. Mr Beagley_ will be responsible for the geophysical programme of the Apia Observatory. This will include terrestrial magnetism, seismology, and tidal observations.