PERSONAL MATTERS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 14, 16 July 1918, Page 2

PERSONAL MATTERS

The Hon. J. A. Hanan left for Auckland yesterday. Dr. Brittin, formerly of Christohurch, has died at Te Puke at the age of 74. Mr. H. A. Beauohamp left last evening on a visit to the South Island. Mr. Bernard F. Page, City Oi'ganist, has been rejected as ineligible for active service. Mr. John Runciman, Who arrived by the Philip Laing in 1859, has died in Dunedin at the age 82. Captain L. A. Macindoe, secretary of the Merchant Service Guild, is leaving for Auckland to-day on guild business. He expects to be away about ten daya. The Post's Masterton correspondent telegraphs : An old identity in Masterton, in the person of Mrs. James M'Gregor, senior, who arrived in Wellington in 1865, died last n<ght, at the age of 77. Mr! R. A. Wright, M.P. for Wellington Suburbs, returned yesterday from a five weeks' vi6it to Australia. His itinerary included Sydney, .Melbourne, and Adelaide. « . Private Ralph S. Murphy, formerly of Napier; and well known in the wool business, has been chosen from those permanently unfit for field service as instructor in wool-classing, etc., to convalescent soldiers in England. Mr. S. Mitchell, who returned from the front some time ago, has been appointed branch manager for Messrs. Wright, Stephenson, and Company at Pahiatua. He has recently been stock agent for the firm at Dannevirke. Lieutenant' W. Cecil Leys, who has been on active service for the last two or thres^years, in connection with motortransport operations on thfa Salonika, French, and Mesopotamia fronts, returned to Auckland yesterday. Mr. F. W. OaMey, of Day's Bay, has received advice that his son, Gunner Gordon Oakley, who has been in the Walton-on-Thames Hospital for some. time past, is now on the staff of the Pay Office, with the rank of sergeant. The Rev. G. Knowles Smith, Superintendent of the Wellington Methodist Central Mission, has accepted a cordial invitation from the management board to remain in hie present position for a further term. Rugby enthusiasts were high in their praise of the work done by Mr. W. F. Hornig, a leading member of of the Oriental Club, at a farewell party given in his honour at Scott's .tea rooms. Mr. Hornig will enter camp shortly, and presentations were made to him on be< half of the members o£ his club and the Rugby Union. ;.'■•.'

Mr. Arthur Charles Atkin, formerly of the firm of Coui.ins and Atkin, coachbuilders. Auckland, who arrived in New Zealand in 1862, died suddenly at Hamilton on Friday, aged 57, He was president of the Waikato A. and P. Association, and' a member of the Hamilton Borough Council. Mr. 0. A. Banner, agricultural instructor to the primary schools in the southern portion of the Wanganui Educatiop Roard's district, who was offered ah appointment to the Hamilton High School, has decided to remain in the Wanganui district, in compliance with the wishes of the local educational authorities . • At the quarterly meeting of the manj agement board of the Methodisjt Central i Mission, the Chairman (Rev. G. Knowles [ Smith) referred to the loss the. mission I had sustained in the death of Mr. Enoch | Tonks, and a motion appreciative of the deceased, gentleman's long services and 1 of sympathy with his family was unanimously adopted. . Sympathy was also expressed with the relatives of . Mr. G. Stevens, of Porirua, .an old, official. in the former Webb-street Primitive; Methodist circuit, and with Mr. Jeffreys in his unfortunate accident. . ' , I Lieutenant (Acting-Captain) James Ferrand Dearden, D.5.0., M.C., who has been awarded a bar to his Military Cross, is an Ashburton County man, and j was born at Lowcliffe 21 years ago, his mother being a sister of Mr. John Grigg, of Longbeach. His brother, Midshipman Percy Dearden, was on board the Queen Elizabeth when the battleship was operating around Gallipoli. Subsequently he served on the Queen Mary, and was on board when the vessel was blown up. Midshipman Dearden was rescued by a German destroyer, and- for 18 months was a prisoner of war in Germany, but is now interned in Holland. ; ■ Sergeant S. A. M'Namara, brother of Miss May M'Namara, Tjouieville 3 St. Heliers Bay, Auckland, had been awarded the D.C.M. for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in, a hand-to-hand combat with a squad of enemy cavalry. Sergeant M'Namara, who is 20 years of age, is the. youngest of three brothers who left with the 3rd Reinforcement. He was wounded last November., His eldest brother, Sergeant Harry 'M'Namara, was. killed on 9th January, 1917, and Trooper F. W. M'Namara, who was twise wounded, haa been invalided home,; His youngest brother, Private R. M'Namara, is about to leave New Zealand.. • * ■

The death of Mr. Fred Stott occurred on Monday at his residence, Roseneath, after a rather long illness, the result of a, strain. Previous to coming to New Zealand in 1908, Mr. Stott was. a member of the Warrington (Lancashire) Countyborough Council in the Labour interest. Ho was also a Justice of•the Peace in the same borough. He waV secretary of the Warrington Trades and Labour Council and local secretary of the Warrington branch of A.S.E. Since coming to the Dominion Mr. Stott had been for many years president of the Wellington. GeneraJ ' Labourers' Union, a position which he still held at the time of his death. He leaves a widow and five children, and a host of friends to moiim their less. •'.... Mr.. S. C. Farr, whoso death was j reported' from Christchurch yesterday, was born in Baldock, Hertfordshire, m 1827. He left London in November, 1849, in the barque The Monarch for Auckland. On the stli March, 1850, while in the Tasman Sea, the rudder carried away, and . while repairs were being made the vessel drifted to south of Stewart Island. When repairs were effected a start was made up the East Coast, but the rudder, again carried away, and on tho 2nd April, 1850, the vessel managed to make Akaroa, and there Mr. Fan" landed. Mr. Farr was engaged to Miss Pavitt, a fellow passenger, and they decided to wed immediately on landiug. Divers obstacles presented themselves, hb there was no official to perform the ceremony, and a ring was wanted. Mr.' Farr fashioned a ring out of a half-sovereign, but they had to wait until 15th June until a. Re-, gistrar of Marriages wap appointed, before the Ceremony could take place. So the first marriage celebrated in Canterbury was appropriately associated with elements of romance. Mr. Fan was an architect by profession, and designed the first English' Church in Akaroa, and also the Akaroa Monument. In ltj&i Mr. Farr'removed to Christehurch, and there are many, public and private buildings thora designed by him, including the Normal School and St. Paul's Presbyterian Church. For 22 years he was secretary to the Canterbury Acclimatistttuih Society. He established the first Sunday School Union in Christchurch,' in 1869, and was president for the first seven years. The first side channels for the streets of Christchurch were designed by him and constructed under his supervision. Mr. Farr leaves a son (Mr. Fan 1, of this city), and a daughter, wife of Dr. F. Macßeait Stewart, of Christchurch. '