SECOND EDITION. PERSONAL ITEMS.

Mataura Ensign, 6 November 1912, Page 5

SECOND EDITION. PERSONAL ITEMS.

Jt is officially announced that Ma-jor-General Sir " Harry Barron (Governor of Tasmania) has been appointed Governor of West Australia in succession to Sir Gerald Strickland, who will assume the Governorship of New South Wales on the retirement of Lord Chelmsford in .March (states a Jxmdon Press Association cable). The Tait management of theatrical entrepreneurs has arranged with Madame Clara Butt (the famous contralto) .•mil her husband (Mr Kennedy Humlord) and Mr John McCormack (the well-known vocalist) to visit Australia next year and Harry Lauder (the Scottish comedian) in 1914 (state* a London Press Association cable). Of the present Cabinet distinctly the most popular man is the Minister for Public Works, familiarly known as "Waki" (abbreviation lor Wakatipu) J' raser (states the Wellington correspondent Of the 'Lyttelton Times'). Like a school the House has always its nicknames for those it esteenw, but "Waki'' Eraser is a universal favorite. Even when he grows peppery—and he can at times be peppery—the members attacked smile indulgently. They know the kind heart and genuine goodness that underlies the surface rulHe. As one man said this week, even the Opposition is always throwing bouquets to the Minister for Public Works. He is the one man in Parliament who, a keen jwlitieian, yet invariably does justice to his opponents and is prepared to admit that good can come out of Nazareth.