PERSONAL.

Evening Star, Issue 12866, 16 July 1906, Page 4

PERSONAL.

At the service of the Methodist Central Mission last night the Rev. W. A. Sinclair referred to his recent call to St. Albans r Hd explained that the call had been accompanied by much affectionate pressure from friends in the .north. Last Monday he received no fewer than seven telegrams urging him to accept the call; but in deference to the strongly-expressed wishes of the friends in Dunedin be bad decided to remain. The office-bearers bad pledged themselves to assist to the utmost in the work of the mission. He had been relieved from some of the work that pressed most heavily on his time. He urged members and supporters of the mission to help on the work with heartiness, lie thanked them for the assistance and sympathy they had shown him during the seven years and more of his work here.

King Edward will meet the German Emperor near Kolberg (a coastal town) in August. Miss Ella B. Hutton, of Ravensboume, has been appointed mistress of Moeraki School in succession to Miss Andrew, who was recently appointed to the Maori Hill School.

On Saturday the staff and workmen of the Dnnedin Drainage and Sewerage Board presented Mr Jas. Cullens, who has been in the service of the Boani during the past four years os assistant engineer, with a gold chain and pendant. Mr A. Slinger, drainage engineer, on behalf of the donators, mode the presentation. Mr Cullens joins the staff of the Christchurch Drainage Board as assistant engineer.

The late Michael Davitt was buried at Straide, County Mayo, where he was born. He had given express instructions as to his interment, and had directed that under no circumstances should there he any public ceremony. Mr Davitt’s will is an interesting document. After making his widow sole legatee, the will proceeds Should I die in Ireland I would wish to be buried at Straide, County Mayo, without any funeral demonstration. If I die in America I must bo buried in my mother’s grave at Manayunk, near Philadelphia, and on no account be brought back to Ireland. If in any other country outside of Great Britain, to bo buried in the nearest graveyard to where I may die, with the simplest possible ceremony. Should I die in Great - Britain I must be buried at Straide, County Mayo. My diaries are not to be published as such, and in no instance without my wife’s permission; hut on no account must anything harsh or censorious written in the said diaries by me about any person, dead or alive, who has ever worked for Ireland, be printed, published, or used so as to give pain to any friend or relative. To all my friends I leave kind thoughts; to my enemies, the fullest possible foregxveness ; and to Ireland the undying prayer for the absolute freedom and independence which it was my life’s ambition to try and obtain for her. Mr W. B. I.effingwell of Chicago, writing of th> late Mr Seddon to the editor ol the ‘Lyttelton Times,’ says.:—“He was really a great man—greater than most of your people imagine—and history will relate of him that ho has done as much for Ins country as perhaps any man ever did for his. I really believe that Mr Soddon did as much for Few Zealand as Lincoln or Washington did for this country; as Bismarck did for Germany; or as 'any of the great men did for their country. Of course, your country will go on just the same, but as time rolls along all you people will see tbo very groat things ho did for you, and will realise then fully the very great things be would have done had ho been spared to live among you." Tbo many admirers of the Rev. S. Baring Gould, the novelist, will rejoice to hear that the announcement of his death at sea was a canard. The confusion arose through a cousin of the same name having died in South Africa. The novelist has never been out of England, and is enjoying the best of health.

Mr W. Davidson proceeded to Wellington to-day to attend the quarterly meeting of (be Teachers’ Superannuation Board.

From Ij,ome advices Messrs A. and T. Burt are informed that Mr N. M. Kirkcaldy, of the firm of Messrs Bnrfc and Kirkcaldy, consulting engineers, London, has been admitted an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. At present Mr Kirkcaldy is engaged in engineering and prospecting concessions on the firm’s account in West Africa.

Mr D. C. Hutton was on Saturday presented by a few of his day pupils with a travelling bag and a Roslyn rug, and a rug was handed to Mrs Hutton. Mr and Mrs Hutton leave on Wednesday for the Old Country on a holiday after thirty-five years’ residence in Otago. Lady Plunket is expected to arrive at Hastings to-night. Lord Plunket will reach there to-morrow to attend a ball in aid of the Veteran’s Home to-morrow night