All sorts of People

Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 867, 16 February 1917, Page 4

All sorts of People

rinHE. death at Christchurch last -**-■:' week-end ;of Mr. Robert Gillies, for many years Inspector of Police, closes the career of a man who rendered the State some-service and who as a public officer always enjoyed the esteem and confidence of all classes of the. community. He came as a young man from, the North of Ireland in 1874, landing in Auckland. Next year he enlisted as a police constable, and about 'the first important job he had a hand in.was to join in the hunt after the half-caste Winiata (Wyhyard), who was wanted for the murder of a young Englishman named. Packer, employed as a farm labourer at the residence of Mr. Cleghorn, at Epsom, halfway between the city of Auckland and the town of Onehunga. It was then that the-present writer (then a. junior reporter on the Auckland press) and detailed to assist Mr. S. Spragg (now chief reporter of - Hansard) in wliting up the murder, became acquainted with Constable Gilr lies. ■'"'-■• •.•'*'• *■.:■* . ■'*■ Winiata was employed as a farm-ser-vant at Cleghorn's. and very early one morning he, entered Packer's quarters, which were detached, from th'e resi- '''.: dence, cleft his skull open with a. toma- ; hawk, and then decamped. ;It was assumed that the motive was either re- ', venge for some fancied grievance or preference or that it was robbery. At '■, any rate, Winiata got away before any-. ; ' one was astir, and, a s it was assumed he i would make for the King Country, ": where he had relations living, the whole •; countryside was on the look-out _ foi £ him, and detectives and police, both : foot and mounted, were scounng all .; likely places for traces of him. :'' . '«-.'■» o * In spite of all this Winiata made ■' good his retreat to the King Country, 1 where "King" Tawhiao lived in high ••■• dudgeon with all the disaffected natives who had been dispossessed by the Wai-. ■:•; kat6 war. . They enjoyed the protection .•• of the powerful Ngatimaniapoto tribe, \> which did not acknowledge the; Queen s A sovereignty at that time. This King • Country was a kind of Adullam's Cave, i and there the Queen's writ did. not run '.' but stopped short at the Aukati line, j which separated the ■ "King" country from the "Queen,' or British region. Within that "King" Country, Winiata, :.. the outlaw, lived for some, years, "and. it was not considered prudent to risk an- . other Maori war by sending an armed ;; force after him. it ■•.'.-'■■' •' * ■ ® But strategy did what force found it inexpedient to attempt. As years went

CAPTAIN NEED LLOYD MACKY, M.C., ', who was wounded last Christmas Day. i : He won the Military Cross in the advance on the Somme. He is a son of Mr. ' Thomas L. Maoky and nephew of Mr. Joseph C. Macky, late head of the firm of '< Maoky, Logan and Caldwell, drowned in ''■:■ the Lusitania. This young officer's father =■ and uncle were leading members of the old Ponsonby Football Club for several.years after its formation.- The deed for which : Captain Macky was awarded the Military Cross was as follows. He was a Second Lieutenant in command of a-reserve of two platoons. When the battalion's flank was uncovered there was a slight gap between it and the unit on the right. He moved forward his command on his own initiative and engaged the enemy, who were in superior force. He not only succeeded in cheeking the enemy advance, but he and bis two platoons formed a defensive flank and held the position against all . attacks until reinforcements came up.

on the young constable Robert Gillies, who joined in that abortive hunt after, the Epsom murderer, was appointed to ■' the charge of Te Awamutu police' district, which was pretty close to the . Aukati line. There was a burly halfcaste named Barlow, who was pretty often in Winiata's company, and he offered to deliver Winiata to the police,, in return for the reward—several hundred pounds sterling—which had been offered for "Winiata's apprehension. Sergeant Gillies' contrived • the plan'' which Barlow earried out. The latter practically kidnapped Winiata, carrying' him off : on horseback. Sergeant Gillies and his men took delivery at the given place, and Barlow had to give a wide berth to.the King Country. It was a clever and-daring piece of work on Gillies's part, arid he was made Inspector in recognition of it, while the Waikato residents presented him with an illuminated address. Winiata was brought to justice and executed, and the native mind became duly impressed' with, the might of the Law and its long arm. '~..• Inspector Gillies proved himself worthy of his advancement. He was for nine years, in charge of the Thames Goldfields Sut-District, and for four years, was in charge of the Wanganui and West Coast district of' the North Island, and in>l9o2 he was promoted to the Police Inspectorship of Canterbury, where he was held in. high public regard. He retired oh superannuation in 1912. He was a genial, amiable man entirely devoid of anything approaching to ''swank" in his relations, with the public. ; ■ *•■. •■ *■ . •» ' « . Madame .Alverna, . whose musical "'turn?' in conjunction with her husband, M. Jean Laerte (the accomplished violinist and oboe player) was the

bright particular gem in the vaudeville programme at His Majesty's last week (they started for Dunedin on Saturday night), is a Southland girl. Her father was a farmer, in the Mataura district, but the times were mighty hard for small farmers in the Far South 30 years ago, and Madame Alverna's father sold out and went to Victoria. The family made their home in Mai- ; vern,/ a Melbourne suburb, and "Malvern" is near enough to "Alverna" in sound to suggest the etymology of Madame's Italian stage name. « •» ' » ' '* ■' When she grew up to woman's es-, tate she married Mynheer Wielaert, a. young musician from Amsterdam, who was visiting Australia, and Mr. and Mrs. Wielaert settled down in Auckland as teachers of singing and music generally, and gradually became known throughout the whole Dominion. In Auckland and Wellington particularly Madame Alverna became an established, favourite .by reason ,of her accomplishments as a singer and her own gracious personality.■" M. .lean. Laerte also excels as a violinist, and he is admittedly the finest oboe- player in New Zealand. This talented pair are a great acquisition to the Fuller Circuit, and the success of their turn shows that vaudeville audiences relish and appreciate good music well. done. e «• » ■» Mr. Geo. A. Gribben, of Aucklandof the legal firm of Nicholson and Gribben, was in Wellington this week to see his second son, Raymond, who is enlisted in the 22rids. The young fellow is barely 20, but full of military ardour arid determination at the earliest opportunity, to do his bit for his country. Mr. Gribben's eldest son is one of the telegraph operators at cable station, Nelson, where the desire among the lightning-jerkers to get to the front is, very keenly developed, but the Government's cable necessities are a barrier in the young men's way. As this difficulty may not be understood by the public outside it would have been better for the Government to have allowed

THE NEW ZEALAND MEDICAL CORPS IN CAMP ATAWAPUN,!. '' ■

their cable telegraphists xto enlist and then put them into khaki and detailed them for duty at the cable station; Naturally they don't liko to lie uncief the suspicion that they are not ' inclined to go to the front. '■*'." • ' ''.•'.• ■ ■* '■' Mr. Gribben informs us' that Trevor N. Holmden, of Wellington, formerly of

the firm of Webb and Holmden and afterwards in law practice in Auckland, is now Captain Holmden of the Indian Army. Trevor Holmden didn't bother his head about'a commission, but enlisted as a full private in the Exepditionary 'Force. Before he went away he was promoted to - be sergeant, and in Egypt he was given' a commission as lieutenant in -the Indian' Army. His services have evidently won recognition, for he ia now advanced to the rank of captain. . > ' '' * «• # «• Andrew Carnegie is once"' more busy on the hopeless task of ridding himself of his superfluous millions. He is still .on the education ! tack; and his latest stunt is a scheme for encouraging British composers in the practice of their, art. Second Lieut. W. Lindo Waddel, of the'3rd New Zealand Machine Gun Company , who has just been reported wounded, is the eldest son of Mr. Wm. Waddel, Deputy-Superintendent of the State Advances JJepartment. He went into Trentham. Gamp in September, 191fi. obtained his commission in February, 1910, and left New Zealand with the 13th Reinforcements at the end of May. On arrival at Sling Camp he, at his own reauest, elected to. take on the machine gun section, and moved on to the Harrowby Gun School at Grantham for further instruction \ and training. At the school he was very successful, haying headed the list, in the written examination and the tests. •_ <* ■ .• . * *. •■ W. M. Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia, speaking at York in May last when he received the freedom of the ancient city, said: "The men who went out and made our Empire had no doubts, no hesitation; they had confidence in themselves and in - the justice of their cause; England inspired their every act, and it is in that spirit Britain must go out to war to-day. You cannot war in a half-hearted, hesitating spirit; your acts should be such as to inspire your enemy with fear. There

'✓. is 'no way by which we can conquer in this war save by arming ourselves, with every weapon in oiiiv arnioury——the armoury of civilised man. I should think it a disgraceful thing that the laurels of victory should crown our brow if; we had to;steep our hands in crime, though that was - done under " : . cover of war, and pursue the course of action • of murderers; and pirates. We, at least, shall abstain from that, . : _ but short of it we ought; do; everything '■■'.'■ possible to civilised man,' *; wage ' !war, with our'whole heart and>squliand" strength, confident: in the justice of ' our cause, believing in ourselves, and in . .our power to conquer." , ' '"-■'*" '.-.,.'* - O;G^V/'« : >- ; ; ■ .';'-"■■ And yet after these- brave words he went back to Australia and took a . referendum of the people whether Australia', by means or the conscription, should "wage war with her whole heart and soul and and Australia ' meanly turned the patriotic patriotism down, and has been suffering ever since from cold feet. Infinitely better would . it have been for Premier Billy Hughes' reputation had he been as brave as his \own "Vbrds and followed New Zealand by trying to put a Military Service Bill through Parliament even though, he lost power and pay in the" effort. \ ■«• '■'".■■'•'■'• /«.'■ ■ '*' ■.- '."'•' '. Lady Scott, widow of Captain Scott, the British naval officer who died a hero's death in frozen Antarctica, is now one of thousands of British women -;. who, are making munitions., She evi- r dently finds great consolation' in the experience of helping. In her own words: "It is not right or fair or decent that any . sel£-respecting girl or woman should be having a good time while her menfolk are facing and suffering what we hear of—and much, too, that we do riot. It is nix~small moral comfort days to feel yourself clear of the disgrace of leisure." #■:"..■'*. . *. ■' : --.'.-. '.■» ■• Fokker, the inventor of the German - . airship that wears his name, is a native of Holland. He is quite a young fellow, not more than twenty-six years ■• of age/ He learned to fly in 1910 or 1911 in Germany, becoming naturalised two or three years afterwards. ' ; ''• • ■ : * .".'■»■ ;"■ ■» Rosalind, Countess of Carlisle, who' has just distinguished herself by having; / a thousand bottles of wine from the / famous Castle Howard cellar destroyed, v is what the French would call a maitresse femme. She has always been a most intemperate. temperance advo-' cate. Many years ago, at Castle Howard, on the occasion or some. schoolboy ailment of Lord Morpeth, her eldest son, she. was asked.: "If the doctor told you a spoonful of brandy might save Lord Morpeth's life, would you let him have" it?" "No," " she answered, "I wouldn't." * *~.——■ -it . •» A double calamity has fallen upontne Queen of Roumania. Not only did she and her court have to make a. hurried flit from the royal household "in Bucharest, but she has just recently lost her four-year-old son, Prince Mircea. She was in the midst of. her war-work, when he/was'stricken with typhoid. She nursed him to the end with a devotion that should be natural to-all mothers./ The princeling, was her youngest, and a great, grandson of the late Queen Victoria-—a grandson of the late Diike of Edinburgh! ...-_■ ■■"••• * . ' 9 ' .«'-■'..' The daily newspaper, report that the late Hon. Dr. Robert McNab. had lost . four brothers in early childhood through poisoning by sheep-dip was incorrect. The fact of the matter is this: When the late Hon. Dr. McNab was seven years of age a scourge of dysentery or British cholera struck the district in" which his father was a farmer. Mr. Mc-

Nab, sen., was one qf Southland pioneer farmers. The McNab household was laid up with it, and it was from this malady that the four brothers and a sister also died. The Hon. Dr. McNab was stricken down at the'same time, but pulled through after a close shave. It is presumably this same sort of sickness—often called Rummer sickness — from which many Wellingtonians were suffering during. spell of hot weather. Evidently it doesn't do. to take any risks with it. y f:\ & - %e ' . & A familiar figure along the Wellington waterfront has been by the death of Captain John A. Hay ward, local Deputy-Harbourmaster. His death was a great shock to - all who knew him, for he was still in the prime. of life and apparently as hjile and well as the best of us. A week or so ago he entered a private hospital to be oper-. ated upon. for some mtei-nal growth. At the time, he jokingly .mentioned to his friends that he was being laid up for about six weeks for repairs. Little did he think he was going so soon to his last, long rest: I ' Captain Hay ward was an Otago boy. He was the son of the late Captain J. A; Hayward, for many years harbourmaster at Catlins River. It was only natural that he should wish to be a mariner bold Jike his father. % He started on' his seafaring career at fifteen years of age as a cabin-boy or.in some such .capacity~on ; a ".windjammer." From cabin-boy he - gradually climbed up, taking his second mate's ticket in the Old Country. Later r signed on as mate on the Bank, a clipper, ship trading out of Liverpool to Java. Next he entered the Mediter r ranean steam passenger service. After a varied experience gained in many seas in different parts of the world he shipped as master of the. barque Auriga, trading between London and New Zealand. He then joined the Union Company, and was skipper of the old Herald, when he stepped ashore in--1904 to accept an appointment as pilot on the Wellington Harbour Board's staff. ■■•"•■■ Captain Hayward leaves a ; widow and a young son-—the apple of his eye. He hasvfour brothers, all of whom are associated with the firm of Messrs. C. and W. Hayward, of Dunedin, and two sisters, Mrs. Tait.(wife of Dr. Tait, now on active service), and Miss Hayward, of. Napier. Another.., brother.. was drowned along with his father in a small vessel wrecked near Catlins and a married sister (Mrs. Plckerihg) died in Wellington . a couple of years ago: One of the brothers, Mr. C. Hayward,. is a member of the= Dunedin City Council. A sincere, good-living, righteous man. Captain Hayward's death will be deeply regretted. . ! - '. <■,