PERSONAL ITEMS

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 29 July 1932, Page 4

PERSONAL ITEMS

The retirement is announced of Mr J. E. Gamble, accountant to the Wellington Harbour Board, after 48J years’ service. He has been accountant since 1909. Mr A. W. O. Travers succeeds Mr Gamble. Advice has been received by. the New Zealand Olympic Association that the president of the International Olympic Council, Count Baillet Latour, will arrive at Auckland in the middle of September, says a Press Association message. He is a Belgian nobleman and the Government will extend to him the courtesies usually extended to distinguished visitors. Mrs. C. Benton, Auroa, who some time ago was appointed a justice of the peace, acted in that capacity at a sitting of the Opunake Police Court vesterdav for the first occasion. It was also the initial appearance of a woman justice on the Bench at Opunake. The death has occurred of Lady Ranfurly, wife of Earl Ranfurly, exGovernor of New Zealand, reports the Press Association from London. Lady Ranfurly, who was the Hon. Constance Elizabeth Caulfield, the oldest child of the seventh Viscount Oharlemont. married .Earl Ranfurly in’ 1880 and had one son and two daughters. Earl Ranfurly was Governor and Commander-in-Chief of New Zealand from 1897 to 1904. The Ranfurly Shield for competition amongst provincial Rugby teams was presented by him. The retirement after 40 years’ service of Mr A. G. Holland, a judge of the Native Land Court, is announced. Mr Holland, who is the youngest son of the late Mr J. J. Holland, a. former Mayor of Auckland, and member of Parliament for Auckland East, entered the Government service inj 1892 as a cadet in the Native Land 1 Court in Auckland. In 1895 _be was appointed clerk of the court. In 1906 Mr Holland was appointed registrar of the court in Auckland after having acted for two years as deputy-regis-trar. Upon the introduction of the Native Land Court scheme in 1910 he was appointed a judge, in charge of the Waikato-Maniapoto district, and in 1917 he was transferred to the Tokerau. North Auckland district. He* remained in charge there until 1924, when he was transferred to the Waiariki, Rotorua, districts where he has since remained. Mr Holland is a. proficient Maori linguist with a wide knowledge of Maori customs and usage. With one exception he has the longest service of any officer in the Native Affairs Department. The Rev. Brother Benignus, Auckland, has been appointed provincial of bhe Marist Brothers in New Zealand, in succession to the Rev. Brother Justin, whose term of office expired this year. Brother Benignus is the first New Zealand-born brother to hold the office of provincial in the Australian or New Zealand provinces. Brother Benignus has taken an active part in the administration of the affairs of the New Zealand province since it ivas formed into a separate province in 1917. In 1903 he was on the staff of Sacred Heart College, which opened Chat year, hut shortly afterwards lie was transferred to Australia on account of ill-health. On his health improving he was placed in charge .of the junior novitiate, then at St. Joseph’s College, Hunter’s Hill, Sydney. In 1912 Brother Benignus returned to New Zealand and again took up duties at Sacred Heart College, Auckland. In 1916 he was appointed director of the college, in succession to. the Rev. Brother Clement, now assistantgeneral. From 1922 to 1925 Brother Benignus was director of the Brothers’ Training College at Tuakau, and returned to Sacred Heart College in 1926 for his second period as director.

The death occurred at Dunedin, on Wednesday after a brief illness of Mr. Peter Walker Aitken, 1 one of the most brilliant students . who have passed through Otago University in the past decade. Mr. Aitken, who was born in 1803, was educated at the Otago Boys’ High School, of which he was dux in 1921. Entering Gtago University as the holder of a scholarship, he took a' science course, and in 1925 was awarded the Sir George Grey scholarship in experimental science, obtaining the degree of M.Sc., and being award-, ed the Lubecki Scholarship for applied science in the following year. In 1927 he was Otago nominee for a Rhodes Scholarship, and he devoted the two succeeding years to flax research in the Manawatu district for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. He went to England in 1930, and for 12 months studied chemical engineering at the University of London. On his return to New Zealand he was appointed assistant manager and chief chemist of the Dominion Fertiliser Company’s works at Ravensbourne, a position he held at the time of his death. As an athlete lie was a member of the university first fifteen, and represented Otago in boxing at the annual inter-university tournament. Mr. Aitken was married only four months ago to Dr. Pauline Witherow, a gradoate of Otago University.