PERSONAL MATTERS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1914, Page 7

PERSONAL MATTERS

The Right Hon. W. F. Massey is at Dunedin, the Hon. W. H. Herries is in the Poverty Bay district, the Hon. A. L. Herdman and the Hon. J. Allen are at Rotorua, and the other Ministers are in Wellington. Mr. W. Isbister has resigned his appointment as a Justice of the Peace. Mr. A. Gow, of the Railway Department's staff, is gazetted postmaster and telephonist at Ngahauranga. Mr. J. D. Holmes, Assistamfc-Engineer, Public Works Department, having passed the qualifying examination has been elected an Associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers. Mr. R. C. Robinson, superintendent nurseryman for the South Island, will in June attend a forestry conference to be held in Scotland. Afterwards he will study afforestation methods in America, Europe, and India. The Rev. C. L. Carp leaves by express on Sunday evening for" Auckland, where he will catch the Sydney boat en route for Melbourne. He expects to take up his new duties at* Palmerston North on Sunday, 19th April. There is (telegraphs the Dunedin correspondent of The Post) some talk of Mr. J. E. Watson, a prominent Invercargill merchant, standing in the Reform interests against the sitting member for Wallace (Mr. J. C. Thomson). The resignation of Miss E. M. Johnston from the Girls' High School staff was accepted by the Wellington College Board of Governors" to-day. Miss Allan was appointed to the vacant position, and Mies Macdiarmid was granted a temporary 'appointment in place of Mifis Rowley who has gone to England on leave. Miss Sucho was appointed instructress in drill and games. An adventurous career was brought to a close at Brisbane a few days ago by the death of Ca.ptain John Mackay, 1.5.0. Captain Mackay was born at Inverness in 1839, and was in turn navigator, explorer, miner, station-holder, and writer, and prior to his death had been for years the Brisbane portmaster and chairman of the Queensland Marine Board. A well-educated man, he early evinced a love for the sea, to which he was attached in one way or another for practically the whole of his life. He first arrived in Australia in 1854. In 1859, when only 20 years of age, he was chosen to lead an expedition to search for grazing country in Queensland. After many months of travel and hardship, during which the number of the band was reduced considerably by death, they arrived at what is now known as the prosperous town of Mackay. The deceased made another journey with cattle and horses and opened up a big station, thus paving the way for the thousands who came after him. He again went to sea, however, and in the sixties and seventies was a successful and respected commander of various vessels engaged in the South Sea and New Zea.land trade. He commenced his connection with the Queensland Marine Department in 1882, and in 1902 was appointed head of the Department. Captain Mackay was a writer, generally under a nom-de-plume, of no mean merit, and. wrote many stories and reminiscences of sea life for Australian papers and English magazines.