PERSONAL MATTERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 142, 15 December 1908, Page 7

PERSONAL MATTERS.

Mr. W. J. Reilly, chairman of the Takaka County Council, is on a visit to Wellington. Captain Richardson, of the Defence Department, roturned from the South this morning. Mr. Dinnie, Commissioner of Police, will return frbm Taranaki at the end of tho week. ' Mr. T. Wilford, M.P., leaves at the end of tho week on a holiday trip to tho Hot Lakes. Dr. Valintine, Inspector-Genera] of Hospitals and Charitable Institutions, returned from the South this morning. Mr. R. A. Wilson, manager of the Napier branch of the firm of Ross and Glendining, is on a visit to Wellington. Messrs. Ritchie and Clifton, of the Agricultural Department, were passengers by tho Mararoa from Lyttelton this morning. Mr. G. Hogben, Inspector-General of Schools, will deliver an address at the annual distribution of prizes at the P&lmerston North District High School, to morrow. Mr. A. T. Ngata, M.P. for the Eastern Maori District, has recently undergone an operation at Auckland. He is now reported to be making good progress towards recovery. » Mr. W. Pryor, secretary of the Employers' Federation, is in Wanganui on business connected with an industrial dispute. He will return to Wellington at the end of the week. Captain Trask, staff officer to the Chiet of the General Staff, returned yesterday from a health trip to Rotorua. He leaves to-day for Nelson, and will take up his duties at the end of the month. Dr. Charles Dawson, who has been in practice at Woodville for some years, has been' appointed medical officer at the Cook Islands, and leaves for his new sphere of duties dvi ing January. The appointment' carries with it a salary of £350 a year. News was received by Mr. A. C. Pearce (ex-Mayor of Karori) this morning of tho death of his father, which took place at the family residence, Little Iliord, Essex, England, on sth November. The deceased gentleman at the time of his death was in his 65th year. The cause of death was heart failure. The late Mr. Pearce is survived by his widow, five ''daughters, and two sons. Rev. Gerard Addington D'Arcy Irvine (rector of Holy Trinity, Miller's Point, Sydney), has been selected to succeed the late Archdeacon Dixon as Archdeacon of Cumberland. He is 46 years of age, and an Englishman by birth although reared and educated in Napier, New Zealand, where his father was in charge of the local Grammar School. He went to Australia and, after a brief term in commercial life, studied for the ministry, and was duly ordained in 1836. He has spent the past 20 odd years in the neighbourhood of Sydney and in South Coast centres. The death occurred in Sydney last week of Mr. John W. Gould, who a few years back was one of the most prominent of New South Wales cricketers. Deceased began his cricket as a member of the Our Boys' Club, and was regarded as a most promising player. A fine legbreak bowler, he was a dangerous man on wickets that "did a bit." He toured New Zealand in 189-t as a member of Mr. J. C. Davis's team, other members of the combination being Noble and Mackenzie. Gould headed the batting list with 337 runs, or an average of 28.08 per innings. He was the only man to make a century, his highest score being 105 (not out). Second to Austin in the bowling average, ho did remarkable well, taking 33 wickets at an average cost of 12.03. Gould played for New South Wales against Lord Sheffield's 1892 team, and for the State against Queensland two years later. By the death of Captain John William Jennings, R.N.R., at tho advanced ago of 91, the shipping world suffers the loss of probably its oldest and most remarkable member, and one whose seafaring record was spread over 64 years of active service (writes our London correspondent). An Irishman by descent, Captain Jennings was born on 24th September, 1817, at Llanfaethlu, in Anglesey. His love for the sea was shown afc an early age, for he is reported to have run ay/ay from nome in the year 1830, to be apprenticed to Messrs. J. Moss and Co., of Liverpool. In six years, at the age of 19, he had become second officer, and then served for thiee years as mate with Messrs. Hornby. Taking nis master's certificate in 1840, when only 23, he was a captain of Messrs. Moore'^s ships for 20 years, and* subsequently for a further ten years with Messrs. Imrie, Tomllnson and Co. In 1871 Captain Jennings became a master in the White Star Eine, the Shaw, Sayill and Albion Company,- and remained in their service as active captain until his retirement in 1894 at tho extraordinary age of 77, after commanding eight of the company's steamers, and attaining a record of 54 years as active shipmaster. During his 23 years' connection vvith the White Stan Line, ho had sailed ships for three years in the Pacific, Brazil, China, Japan, and San Francisco lines, for ten years in the Atlantic, "and for another ten years from London to New Zealand. In the course of his 64 years at sea, Captain Jennings sailed 41 times round the world, and his most rapid voyage, in the ship Doric, occupied 76 clays 6 hours, and covered a distance of 25,000 miles. This unique record is rendered all the more remarkable by the fact that during all these long years he never caused a single claim to be made on th-a underwriters.