PERSONAL ITEMS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 3 April 1919, Page 4

PERSONAL ITEMS

An old identity of Marton district passed away on Friday in the person of Mr F. Floyd, in his 74th year.

Mr W. Proctor, who arrived in Poxton in 1875 (and who celebrated his golden wedding in 1910), passed away on Thursday in his 80th year.

Mr L. J. Sigley has announced that • he will be a candidate for the mayoralty of Wanganui. Mr Mackay, the retiring Mayor, is again offering hi» services. It is understood (says the Manawatu Daily Times) that Dr Paget, of Stratford, is coming to Palmerston. Mr J. D. Wills has been advised that ■ his son, Corporal Laurie Wills, is returning to New Zealand by the Willochra, which i® expected to arrive on the 15th inst. Laurie went away from New Zealand with the 6th Reinforcements, and was wounded at the first battle of Armentieres. TTia -wound, however, was not serious, and he was soon able to resume official duties. He has had nearly four years on active service in France. Mr E. G. Howard has been selected as the Labor Party's candidate for the Christchurch South seat at the general election. Mr W. H. Skinner, formerly Commissioner of Crown Lands, is leaving Christchurch this week to again take up his residence in New Plymouth. Mr Thomas Wilson Walker, who had been Town Clerk of Invercargill since 1906, and a servant of the corporation for thirty-eight years, died yesterday, aged 58 years." —Press Assn.

At last night's meeting of the New Plymouth Borough Council, a motion of* sympathy with the relatives of the late Mr J. B. Connett was moved by the Mayor, and carried in the customary manner. A cablegram has T>een received by Lady Russell from Brigadier-General Sir A. H. Russell, stating that he is - leaving for New Zealand early in April by tfhe Arawa, via Panama. Mr Claris, of Lake Road, has received a cable that his youngest son, Lance-Corporal Maurice Claris is returning by the Bhamo. due here on the 28th inst. He has been on active service over 3 years at the Western front, and comes now from serving, with the mounted police at garrisonduty on the Rhine. Yesterday evening Mr W. Morrison, of Maxwelltown, was in town, and he met a number of his old supporters. Liberal representatives of the district, we learn, were pleased to know that he had definitely decided to contest the forthcoming election, and they assured Mr Morrison of their hearty isupport.

At the advanced age of 85 years, there died on" Saturday at Pakuranga, Mr Robert Andrew. He came from England in 1842 with his parents, and spent the greater part of his life in Auckland district. Mr Andrew saw service during the Maori War.

Advice has been received that Private Fred Foden will arrive in the Dominion with the Willochra draft about April 15. Private Foden will have been on active service just on four years, and, with the exception of a brief spell in hospital, has been with hisunit the whole period. j.

The death occurred on Saturday night of Mr John Birch, a resident of 40 years' standing, in New Zealand (reports the Auckland Herald). The deceased was in his 73rd year. After residing for some time in America and Bombay, the deceased came to New Zealand in. 1879, and, except for a comparatively short residence in Fiji— where he was at one time governor of the gaol at Suva—he had lived in this country ever since. Mr Birch served in the old Armed Constabulary, and was with that force twhen, fc. 1881, Te Whiti surrendered at Parihaka . There are many in New Zealand, particularly in Dunedin and Invercargill, who will remember Miss Erie Thomson, of Half-Moon Bay, Stewart Island. Some ten years ago Miss Thomson, who possessed a lovely contralto voice, was advised by Madame Melba to go to England to complete her studies, with a view to^taking up vocalism as a profession. Acting on the diva's prompting, Miss Thomson went Home, studied, and for the past eight, or nine years she has been on the con-. cert platform in England. The war found the singer ready to dp her part, and, according to latest advice. Miss Thomson was a V.A.D. worker at Wal-ton-on-Thanies, where she was ven# popular among the patients. She: hopes to revisit New Zealand in the near future.