PERSONAL MATTERS

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 71, 24 March 1920, Page 6

PERSONAL MATTERS

Mr. ■William Stock, for many years a resident of Napier, ia dead, aged 76. Mr. A. H. A. Aitken, a member of the staff of the Public Trust Office, was to-day admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court by Mr. Justice Chapman, on the motion of Mr. G. Rose. Captain Samuel Cochrane, who was at one time in the Auckland Harbour Board service, died suddenly on Sunday meaning as the result of syncope. Captain Cochrane, who was 78 years of age, for many years had command of Auckland harbour dredges. In his younger days he served in the British, American, and Chilian navies at various intervals. Major S. Blackley, late of the Royal Air Force, and formerly well-known in the Dominion as general manager for Messrs. Turnbull and Jones, Ltd., has returned .to Wellington, where he will open up the branch office which Messrs. Vickers, Ltd., arc establishing for New Zealand, and of which ho will be managing director. During the later period of his war service Major Blackley was engaged, in important research work in the Air Ministry and was a_ member of the committee concerned with the pro-' duction of the large airplane destined for tha bombing ot Berlin. Detective-Sergeant Hollis, before being transferred to Auckland, was farewelled in the Magistrate's Courthouse at Wanganui. Mr. Wyvern .-Wilson, S.M., said he personally would be sorry to lose Detective-Sergeant Hollis, who was a very fine officer to work with, and who had done his > work well and rendered the Magistrate and Court officials much assistance. Detective-Ser-geant Hollis's work in Wanganui had vbeen very successful. The public would, never forget the raid on the Castlecliff " two-up " school, which- would find its place in the annals of petty crime of the town. The Rev. Father Bell, who has been chaplain of the Mount Magdala Home, Christ-church, for the past ten years, died at that- institution on Monday. Father/ Bell was trained for the priesthood at St. Edmond's College, 'Ware. In 1889 he joined the Society of Mary, and in the following year came out to New Zealand with the late Bishop Grimes. After some years during which he was stationed at the Christchurch Catholio Cathedral, as well as at B-eefton and Napier, he was appointed to Mount' Magdala. He was 85 years of age, and for 60 years had been in Holy Oilers. Father Bell was a scholar of no mean order, being especially noted as a student of Shakespeare. ' It is a far cry from 1876 to ,1920, and many vast changes have taken place in that period, yet it has been bridged by the service of Mr. N. M'Nicol, the weUknowa and popular chief of stores for the Union Steam Ship Company, in Wellington. Forty-four years- ago Mr. M'Nicol joined the service of the Union Company, and has since served under their flag—ashore for 36 years—but at his own request is retiring at the end of this ' month on superannuation. Mr. M'Nicol was to have retired earlier, but on the outbreak of the war he was urged by the company to 1 remain- in charge of his department- here, 'and during the past five years he has carefully watched over, the many red funnel' vessels which made Wellington their port of arrival and departure more often than in normal times. It was in .the old Wakatipu in 1876 that Mr. M'Niool came to New Zealand, having the position of chief steward on the vessel. Afterwards he held a similar position on other vessels, including the Rotomahana, the ill-fated. , Wairarapa, and the Mararoa. Later he went ashore at Port Chalmers to take charge of the stores department .there. In 1881 and the following year he was at Home fitting, out the Manapffuri and the Wairarapa, and in 1883 he furnished the Mararoa, the cra-ck Union vessel of those days. He afterwards came ashore at Wellington in charge of the stores. Sir James Mills, in a speech in 1913, stated that of those who served under the Union Company's flag from the inauguration, or in the early days of the company, only five remained. They were: Sir James Mills, Mr. David Mills (their manager at Sydney and since retired), the late Mr. John Abbott, yho was in charge of tile stores at Dune'din; Captain R. Neville, who then commanded the Willochra.; and Mt. M'Nicol, in charge of the stores at. Wellington. In his many years of service, Mr. M'Nicol has won the esteem" of all with whom he came in contact, and the capable manner hi which he has controlled the various branches of his department will be rewarded by the knowledge that he leaves behind him a record, of service which will serve as an example and a stimulus to others.