PERSONAL MATTERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 123, 25 May 1908, Page 7

PERSONAL MATTERS.

Sir James Mills arrived from the south by the Maori yesterday. The Hon. Dr. Collins went south by the Mararoa on Saturday nigßt. The Hon. R. M'Nab returned to Wellington from the couth by tho Maori yesterday morning. Mr. W. A. Boucher, Government Pomologist, returned to Wellington from Auckland on Saturday. Mr. Hamilton Hodges, of Auckland, is in Wellington en. route to Christchurch to sing in "Hiawatha." Mr. T. E. Pearson, head gardener to the Tourist Department, has been appointed landscape gardener by the Auckland City Council. The Hon. R. M'Nab will leave for Ohingaiti to-morrow to inspect some properties with a view to their acquisition for closer settlement. Mr. Frank Allen, late general manager in New Zealand of the Commercial Union Assurance Company, Mrs." Allen, and family left for England by the lonic to-day. Mr. Frank Beamish, who was a noncommissioned officer in the 6th New Zealand Contingent, has been elected lieutenant of the Post and Telegraph Rifles. Mr. Beamish is writing a history of the part taken by New Zealand soldiers in the Boer war." The Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, left this morning on a visit to the Taranaki district. He will speak at Patea to-night, open a courthouse and a technical school at Eltham on Tuesday, and open the new post office at New Plymouth on Wednesday, retutrning to the city on Thursday. The Hon. J. Carroll, who is to, b& present at the opening of the Willow Crossing station of the Gisborne-Motu railway, will leave for Gisborne by the Waikare this afternoon. The Hon. J. M'Gowan, who has also accepted an invitation to attend the function, will leave Wellington by to-morrow's express train. A private cable message from Capetown announces the death in that city of Mrs. Eleanor Comerford, wife of Mr. H. W. Comerford, general manager of the Standard Oil Company in South Africa. The deceased lady, who was a native of New Zealand, was the eldest daughter of Mr. Anthony Stubbs, of Northland, Wellington (formerly of the Railway Department). News has been received in Wellington ot the success of a former resident of this city, Mr. G. E. Butler. Writing of the exhibition of the Fine Arts Academy in that city, the Bristol Observer says : — "Much water has passed underneath Bristol bridge since first I saw and heard the minister of Highbury Chapel, the Rev. H- Arnold Thomas, M.A., and I was glad to get a glimpse of his portrait, which I at one© decided was a capital likeness. I do not hesitate to say it is a striking portrait, showing restraint and refinement, so as to preserve the rare personality and character of the sitter. The artist is Mr. G. E. Butler, a New Zealander, who I find upon enquiry has settled in Bristol." Other exhibitors were such wellknown artists as J. S. Sargeant, R.A., Alfred East, A.R.A., Arthur Hacker, A.R.A., John Hassell, R.1., Frank Spenlovo Spenlove, Tom Mostyn, and Sigismund Goetze.