PERSONAL ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 218, 11 June 1929, Page 13

PERSONAL ITEMS

The Prime Minister (Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward) returned to Wellington yesterday from Auckland. . The Minister of Defence (Hon. T. M. Wilford) is due back in Wellington to-day from Masterton. The Minister of Internal Affairs (Hon. P. A. de la Perrelle) will return to Wellington to-day from Invercargill. The Minister of Health (Hon. A. J. Stallworthy) will open the Otaki Hospital to-morrow. The Minister of Lands (Hon. G. W. Forbes) is expected to return to Wellington to-day from the north. The Leader of the Opposition (Right Hon. J. G. Coates) and Mrs. Coates arrived at Dunedin yesterday afternoon (states a Press Association message). Mr. Justice Adam? left Christchurch for the West Coast yesterday.

■ Mr. Justice Smith will arrive in Christchurch to-day to conduct a sitting of the Supreme Court.

Mr. James Duncan, son of Mr. lan Duncan, of Wellington, left for England by the Tamaroa on Saturday.

Brigadier-General A. W. Andrew, C.M.G., New Zealand Boy Scout Commissioner, who has been visiting Wellington, has returned to Christchurch.

Mr. T. B. McNeil, S.M., is at present indisposed and is in a private hospital. The late Mr. George Wilson, whose death was recorded yesterday, was a member of the Munitions Board during the war, not of the Board’s Advisory Committee as was stated in error.

At last night’s meeting of the Upper Hutt Borough Council Mr. L. F. Grimstone, town clerk of the borough, tendered his resignation stating that after August he would take up-.a position with a Wellington firm. Mr. Grimstone thanked the council for its courteous treatment.

Members of the Lower Hutt Borough Council expressed regret at their meeting last night at hearing of the illness of a former Mayor of the borough, Mr. E. P. Rishwonth, and a resolution was passed hoping that he would have a full and speedy recovery.

The health of the Rev. Father B. J. Ryan, Rector of SC Patrick’s College, is at present giving his many friends in Wellington grave, t .ncern. About a week ago Father Ryan was suddenly stricken! with a malady which his medical advisers had'some difficulty in diagnosing. Little anxiety was felt for some days, but yesterday the medical reports were not nearly so reassuring. A consultation is to be held this morning. Father Ryan assumed the Rectorship of St. Patrick’s College about eighteen months ago. The death of Mr. James Stewart Leach,, a well-known identity at the age of 96 years, of which 70 were spent in New Zealand, is announced by a Press Association telegram from Gisborne. Mr. Leach had an adventurous life. He was born in Monmouthshire in 1833, and went to sea at an early age. Soon after he joined in the search for gold in California. Resuming his sea life he was wrecked on the Peruvian coast. He joined the navy in 1853, and was engaged in transporting troops to the Crimea. Later' he, became a soldier, and served at Sebastopol' and in India at the time of the mutiny. He rejoined the navy in 1858, and was assigned to. the troopship Tamar, which he left at Russell on Christmas Day, 1858. Subsequently he went to Poverty Bay, whefe he served as a shepherd on Whangara Station for many years.