PERSONAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11625, 12 April 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

PERSONAL.

Oue Thames correspondent, telegraphs that Colonel and Mrs. Eraser celebrated their golden wedding on Mar. 27. They were married at Inverness by special license from the Bishop of Moray and Ross on March 27, 1851.

Sir G. M. O'Rorke, nominated by the Hon. W. T. .Vnnings, M.L.C., and Mr. Frank Lawry, M.H.R., has been appointed to the Auckland Grammar School Board of Governors as the House of Representatives' member. r ' ."■

On Wednesday, April 3, Mr. T. E. Clough. the popular postmaster at Te Aroha, who is being removed to Waipawa, was presented with an address and purse of sovereigns, on behalf of the residents of the town and district.

On the 2nd of April a number of friends of Mr. A. E. Cooke, the originator and late instructor of the Onehunga Town Band, met in the Foresters' Hall, for the purpose of making a presentation to that gentleman, in recognition of his valued services to the ■town. The presentation consisted of a gold albert and pendant. The Government has appointed Mr. John Graham Gow, formerly commercial traveller of Dunedin, to make a tour of the principal ports of the world with the object of ascertaining what- are the channels of trade and markets for New Zealand products. Mr. Gow will be attached to the Department of Commerce and Industries.

1 The Wakanui, which arrived at Wellington on March 29, brought seven out of the 11 veterinary surgeons selected by Mr. Gilruth in England and Scotland for the Agricultural i Department. Their names are: Messrs. McHattie, Banks, Nuthall, Paterson, Lyons, Towers, and Kerrigan. The other four are en voyage by the Paparoa. New Zealand will be represented at the annual conference of officers of the Australasian railways,' to be held at Melbourne on May 6, by Mr. Coom (chief engineer), Mr. Beattie (locomotive foreman), and Mr. Fife (chief accountant). Mr.' Ronayne (general manager) will attend the annual conference or commissioners and managers. A pleasing ceremony took place on the Ist of April at the office of Mr. Edward Mahony, solicitor, when Mr. Chas. W. Harvey, who for many years past has been engaged- in legal work, was presented by the staff with a handsome writing desk and silver cruet, as a mark of esteem on the eve of his marriage. A Christchurch Press Association telegram states that Mr. Charles Hioms, the retiring manager of the Press Company, has been presented with a gold watch from the company and employees. It is officially stated that Mr. P. Selig, late editor of the. Referee, has been selected as the new manager, and Mr. Charles Earle, late assistant editor of the Press, has been appointed editor of the Referee. ■A very interesting ceremony took place on the second of April at the warehouse of Mr. Arthur H. Nathan, when Mr. T. C. Schnackenberg received a handsome gift from the employees of the firm, in view of his approaching marriage. The presentation took the form of a massive marble clock with gold inscription plate, accompanied with the best wishes of the staff for his future welfare and happiness. Mr. James Muir, lately hydropathic specialist at Te Aroha, sent to the Duke of Cornwall his book on the Rotorua and Te Aroha baths, and has received the following acknowledgment: —" Osborne, February 6. Dear Sir, — am desired by H.R.H. the Duke of Cornwall and York to thank you for the copy of your book on how to take the baths and drinking waters at Rotoruaand Te Aroha, which His Royal Highness has received safely.Yours faithfully, Charles Cttst."

Mr. James Park, after a residence of 12 years at the Thames, during the first six of which he was director of the Thames School of Mines, and the latter six in the employ of the Anglo-Continental Gold Syndicate of London, left the Thames for Auckland on March 30, en route to Dunedin, where he is going to take up the duties as professor of mining at the Otago University School of Mines. Mr. Park's departure from the Thames is regretted very much, as he took a deep interest in the mining industry. The elecaion of a member to the Auckland Education Board in place of Mr. Theo. Cooper, who resigned when he, was elevated to the Supreme Court Bench, took place on April 10. There was 1763 persons entitled to vote, and the secretary of the Board (Mr. Vincent E. Rice) received 1497 voting papers', the result being as under:—James Muir, 788; Richard Hobbs, 658; informal, 51. Mr. Muir, the successful candidate, has previously served on the Board, and has acted as chairman.

A pleasing ceremonv took place in the reporters' room of the Herald Office on April 4 when a presentation, consisting of a handsome silver tea and coffee service, and case of spoons, was made to Mr. R. M. Hacket (chief reporter), on the occasion of his approaching marriage. The presentation was made by Mr. Berry (editor). Later on Mr. Joseph Graham " father of the chapel," on behalf of the Herald staff of the news room, presented Mr. Hacket with a silver toast rack and butter knife, as a token of esteem on the part of the men. His Excellency Dr. Solf, German Governor of Samoa, at the request of the merchants and others in the Saraoan Group, has decided to establish a pigeon post service, which will bring all the outlying islands into direct communication with Apia, the capital of the group. While in Wellington His Excellency laid the matter before Mr. William Babine, and requested him to arrange, a scheme for the working of the service from a business standpoint, and on His Excellency's return to Samoa the matter will be placed in the hands of the local postal authorities.

Our Paeroa correspondent telegraphs : — Mr. H. S. Booker, who has acted for the last four years as storeman at the local sheds of the Northern .Steamship Company, has been transferred to Auckland. He was tendered a farewell banquet at the Masonic Hall on March 30. The Rev. W. H. Wilson presided, and during the evening; presented Mr. Hooker, on behalf of his friends, with a handsomely illuminated address. ' Mr. F. Cock, local agent of the Northern Company, also presented Mr. Booker with a case of handsomely-mounted silver pipes, as a parting gift from his fellow employees at the wharf. A young* man named W. Alfred Wallace, who is well known, and employed in the Union Waihi mine, mysteriously disappeared on Saturday morning. March 23, and nothing has since been heard of him. On the previous night, Friday, Wallace came home about eleven o'clock, and appeared to be in Ills usual spirits. In the morning he left the hut, which he and his half -brother, Joseph Tait, occupied, at the usual hour of half-past six, presumably to go to work, as he remarked to Tait as he was leaving, "So long ; I'm oft' to work." This was the last Tait saw of him. He was dressed in his working clothes, all his other things being left untouched in the hut, besides his wages foil three weeks' work in the Union, where he had been employed since the end of January. Sir John Hall being about to pay a visit to the Home country, the members of the Yorkshire Society of Canterbury assembled to bid him good-bye. • Sir John Hall said he was not leaving New Zealand because he was tired of it, though he had worked for 50 years in it. There were family reasons for his visiting the Home Country; but there was one great reason, and that was that he wanted to see the old land and his old friends once more, and at his time of liftnigh four scoreif he wanted to do that, there was but little time to lose. He was one of those old! settlers whose heartstrings were pulled in two directions. They had come from a land they loved as home, but they had seen the land of their adoption grow to be the home of many, and they could not help having a love for the land of their adoption. Mr. Coleridge Fair left on March 21 by s.s. Takapuna for Wellington. He has Dean taking a series of magnetic observations in the northern part of this island, and «ias visited Parengarenga and Cape Maria v r an Diemen. The object of these observations is to obtain a map of the magnetic conditions of New Zealand, with a view to improve the magnetic charts of the Southern Hemisphere. Magnetic observations have been very much neglected south of the line, as is evidenced by the fact that there are only three magnetic observatories south of the equator, and some 70 to the north. The observations taken by Mr. Farr, in connection with those > taken by Professors McAulay and Hogg in Tasmania, will also assist in solving the very interesting problem of what is the cause of the magnetism of the earth. A new magnetic observatory is to be erected iii Christchurch, in this colony, and the in struments are exnected from Lon < '"i shortly.