PERSONAL ITEMS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 6 November 1918, Page 4

PERSONAL ITEMS.

fiJ5 e + M^°l (Mr E- Dixon> i» conlined to his home with influenza. Lieut. A E. Byrne, son of Mr F. M. Byrne, formerly of Manaia, who has been awarded the Military Cross at a J?urnahst by profession, and left New Zealand with the 14th Eeinforcemente- After a few months' service on the Western front he receivedh2 commission, and was subsequently aDpointed musketry instructor at Slini »Camp At his own request he was transferred to France, .and has .«££ takeh part m several severe engage-

Mrs T F. Reeve, of High- street, Hawera, has received a sympathetic telegram from the Minister of Defence notifying that her husband, Private T. £. .Reeve, was admitted to hospital in prance on October 26, suffering from tne effects of gas. A -verdict of accidental death, win no blame attachable to anyone,, was returned at an inquest conoernin c the death of Frank Salmon Druryf'who mcd as the result of injuries sustained vi an accident at the Taranaki Oil Co. s works at Moturoa on October 29

Friends of Mr T. E. Bickford^ of . Mokoia, who has been with the Rifle Brigade at the front for about three and a hair years, will be interested to learn that cable advice tells of his- being 2 nd w.ell and in London on leave This, it may be added, is the first leave he had had for twelve months, during which time he had been ! continuously on duty in the field. tktOut M4 maia correspondent writes: Mrs L. P. Landers has received word trom the Minister of Defence stating B tnat her husband, Trooper L. P. Landers, is seriously ill with malaria in ■Egypt and admitted to hospital. His , very many friends will wish him a speedy recovery. ' *I.Mr ASi IX 01"**11 ' who ha* been on the staff of Mr F. Gillanders for a number of years, went into camp this morning He was presented by the ! staff with a wristlet watch and fountain pen. After forty years of service in the police? force, Constable John McDonnell gaoler at Nelson, has been granted three months' leave of absence prior to retiring on superannuation, says the i Colonist. Many incidents of an exciting nature have marked his experiences :n the force, in the North Island during native troubles and on the West Coast of this island at times when industrial disputes ,were in progress, and when large bodies of men were engaged m railway construction. Constable McDonnell, who is a native of Auckland joined the Armed Constabulary in 1879 ! at the time of the .Maori disturbances on . the Waimate Plains. He spent a few i years in the Constabulary, and was then , transferred to the police force and star I turned at Greymouth. Since then Constable McDonnell has been stationed at several places in the South Island

Mr. Thomas O'Keefe, who recently died in Chratchurch, was a Maori war veteran. He was born in Limerick, Ireland, 79 years ago. He arrived in Auckland in 1862. At that time ihere was considerable trouble with the Maoris, and when the call came for volunteers to fight them, Mr O'Keefe responded, and was enrolled in the Military Settlers' Brigade where he speedily rose to the rank 'of sergeant He took part in many of the principai fights m the Auckland district and was later sent to Taranaki, where he ™rther assisted in quelling the risings. While in this district he and his family had a very narrow escape from beine included in the White Cliffs massacre, when the Rev. John Whiteley, Lieut. Uascoyne and his wife and family, and KicJiards and Milne were done to death by the Maoris.

It will be noticed with, regret that an obituary announcement notifies the death of Mrs Donald Buchanan, of BOawera, one of. the oldest settler® in the distinct. Mr and Mrs Buchanan came to Hawera about 1878 or 1879 and *U P «ne of the native leases'eastward of Hawera. Native matters were c till very unsettled in those days and in respect of both life and property the early settlers had to take considerable risks. Though he held a lease approv«d by the chiefs of the hapus, Mr Buchanan's tenure probably was not very secure, and t like several others, he used the land mainly for rough grazing. It was not until after the West Coast Commission had sat and adjudicated on the leases that any satisfactory tenure could be hoped for wen by those settlers whose leases the Commission recommended for compensation. So the Buchanan family lived in Hawera, though the farm was several miles out; but subsequently when the tenure was definite they built and lived on the farm till Mr Buchanan died, since when Ma\& Buchanan had again lived in Hawera. Of late years she had been very feeble, and well past the allotted span of human, life her passing away will hardly come asg a surprise, though sorrow -will be ielE by many at the severance of another link with the past. She leaves a family of tfour—two sons, Messrs J. and D. Buchanan, who are farming in the Wairarapa, and two daughters.