PERSONAL MATTERS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1913, Page 7

PERSONAL MATTE RS

- VICE-REGAL. j The Governor and the Countess of Liverpool, Miss J. Foljambe, and Captain Hutfcon, A.D.C., left this morning I for Taihape, en route for a lengthened stay in Auckland. Captain l Shawe (Military Secretary), Captain Eastwood i (A.D.C.). Mr. Gavin Hamilton (Private Secretary), and about twenty members of the household will leave for Auckland' to-morrow. Mr. A. C. Day will remain in Wellington. I Tho Hon. W. Fraser 18 at Gore, and the Hon. F. M. B. Fisher at Auckland. The other Cabinet Ministers are in Weilington. ' Mr. H. A. Atmore, M.P. for Nelson, is on a visit to Wellington. Mr, 3. Lomas, Secretary for Labotii', returned yesterday from a business visit to Auckland. Mr. Alex. Macintosh, superintendent j in New Zealand for Dalgety and Co., Ltd., returned from Sydney to-day. Sir G«o. Clifford was among the passengers who arrived in* Wellington from the South by the Maori this mornirig. Constable P. Doyle, orderly at the j Wellington Magistrate's Court, will leave Wellington early next week for Wanganui, whither he has been transferred. Mr. W. W. Scott, accountant in tho Auckland branch* of the United Insurance Company^ has arrived in Wellington to take up a similar position in the local office. At last night's meeting of the Karori Borough Council the Mayor (Mr. C. Cathie) and Councillor Burn were appointed to tho Reception Committee Of the Wellington Citizens' Carnival. Mr. Alfred Dillon, ex-M.P., was entertained last night and presented with an illuminated address by the Mayor. Mrs. Dillon was presented with a silver tea and coffee service (states a Press Association telegram from Waipawa). Mr. H. W. Northcroft, the recentlyappointed Resident Commissioner of the Cook Islands, leaves for Rarotonga on Friday. Mr. Ralfe, who has been at>J pointed to assist him in the administration of the Islands, will not be able to leave for some weeks. Mr. Benjamin Wilson, who for many years, and up to the time of his retirement, was overseer of the piece room in the Government Printing Office, passed away yesterday afternoon at his residence, Tinakori-road. The late Mr. Wilson, who was born in the city of Derry (of "No-surrender" fame), in the North of Ireland, arrived in Auckland with his newly-married wife during the troublous time of the Maori War in the early sixties, secured a position ou the Southern Cross, which was then one of the leading journals in Auckland, its editors including at least three members of Parliament— the late Sir Julius Vogel, R. J. Creighton, and ' D. M. Luckie. Some years afterwards, in the palmy days of the Thames goldfield, Mr. Wilson became connected with the Thames Advertiser, and later on removed to Wellington to take up a position in the Government Printing Office, where he was much esteemed by his superior officers and by the very numerous contingent of compositors who came to this city year after year during the sessions of Parliament. Mr. Wilson, who was seventy years of age, is survived by Mrs. Wilson and a family of three sons and three daughters. Professor Percival, of Freiburg University, is at present in Sydney, en route to New Zealand, to study volcanic action. He has just come from Java (writes The Post's Sydney correspondent). He is a Professor of Geology, "and," he said, "I am interested in volcanoes, particularly from a geological point of vipw. There is more to be learned from volcanoes than from any geological phenomena, because they are responsible for more changes on the surface of the earth than any other agency." The times of eruptions and earth storms could, he declared, be" easily calculated by the position of the sun and the moon, and not only forwards but backwards as well. Ono c6uld pretty accurately foretell, by astronomical calculation, when any active volcano would burst out. There could be no eruptions at a point situated at any distance from the region of water. None of tho old volcanoes round Auckland were, ever likely to become active. The whole tendency of volcanic agency was towards coming to an end. The thermal phenomena at Rotorua. would slowly cease. It was not likely that there would ever be another T&rawera eruption. Professor Percival will leave Sydney by the Wimmera for Auckland to«da'y.