PERSONAL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12546, 13 April 1904, Page 6

PERSONAL ITEMS.

Miss Towxsexd. of the Wailii hospital, was a passenger to Sydney by the mail steamer Sonoma yesterday. Colonel Messenger, formerly in charge of the Permanent Artillery in Wellington, is about to take up bis residence in Taranaki. ' ' Mr, Paul M. Hansen, managing director of the Auckland Electric Tramways Company, intends to pay a visit to England in a ; few" weeks' . time. He will travel by the iJk'.l 'Frisco route. Mr. M. M. McCallum, of Wingate and Co., who has been confined to his bed tor \ some* weeks with a severe illness, is makl- 1 ing a good recovery, and was in town for . an hour yesterday. f'/t' Bandmaster Percy Calkin, well known in Whangarei musical circles, left for Wanganai yesterday. A -number of his old friends were at the Whacgarc-i railway station to wish him good-bye. Mr. John Sinclair, late chief engineer of the Union Company's steamer Moana, who Ijss been on a visit to Europe and America, was a passenger from San Francisco to Sydney bv the mail steamer Sonoma yesterday. i Mr." S. A'. Setehell, of the University of California, has come to New Zealand with the object of inquiring into the subject of ■ .plant life existing in the thermal districts as a temperature above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and. into the seaweeds of the New ' Zealand coasts. Mr. J. Webster, town clerk of the Borough ofJDevonport, has lately been laid aside with on attack of pleurisy, and is now suffering from an attack of influenza. In consequence of Mr. Webster's illness^ the ordinary meeting of the Borough Council was last night adjourned for a week. Qur Te Aroha correspondent writes: — Mr. CottereS. secretary to the Manawaru Dairy Company, has tendered his resignation. Many of the shareholders recognising his .value have requested him to regain his iiituation, since the concern has continued to prosper under his vigorous management. Mr. -Henry H. Roget, divinity student of Prince Albert College, proceeds to Fiji as a missionary next Wednesday, by direc- • - tion of the Methodist -Mission Board of iSvdnev. He is to be ordained this even- '* > ing in' the . Pitt-street Church, by the '' imposition of hands." The Rev. • Slade [late of Fiji) will 1 deliver the ordination charge. ■ At the tea table after the cricket match at Awbitu, on April 2, a p.easant surprise was made, by making Mrs. Biddick a present" of a silver and glass butter dish by t-he OoehuDga Club, who made the act more graceful by placing it on the table without any demonstration. The gift was a token of appreciation of the lady's hospitality. The Onehunga team often enjoy • a blow across the Manukau to play their games with the Awhitu Cricket Club, on the paddock of Mr. Biddick, which he has " always cheerfully placed at their disposal. Our London correspondent writes:— Rev. T. j ? ussell Wilford, who has been appointed vicar of Waikari, in the Christchurch diocese, in New Zealand, matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge, in - 1896, and bad a very successful university 'career." In 1897 he . won the Carus great test prize—open to the whole university— and also the Ridout theology prize of his own' college. He graduated B.A. in 1899, 'with honours in the theological tripos. He was ordained to the diaconate in 1900, and took priest's orders a year later, in the diocese of Norwich. From the time of bis ordination as deacon he was curate under the Rev. St. Vncent Beechy, rector of Denver and rural dean. Writing to m; about him, Mr. Beechy says:—"The first Sunday "iter his ordination he went up into the pulpit without book oi note, and addressed the congregation fluently and impressively. -He it a good and earnest extempore preacher. He is also, and this in my ex- ' perience a rare combination, a hard worker and diligent writer, originating work for himself, especially in the way of cottage services, etc., in out-of-the-way parts of the parish. He has been conspicuously successful in a tin miners' mission (Salter's Lode mine), which was under his special charge, working up a good congregation and a Sunday-school. Last Shrove Tuesday the people of that district, quite of their own initiation," invited him and Mrs. llford to an. entertainment and made them ' several presentations in gratitude for their . work in several branches. lam very sorry to lose him. He will make an excellent colonial' parson, and ought, to be brought . forward in connection with diocesan work at headquarters." Mr. Wilford is a crack - . cricketer, and has. headed the batting average of the local Denver ulub for three years past, while last year he headed the bowling average as well, taking 20 wickets for only 45 runs, i.e., at the very small cost of 2.2 runs per wicket. His batting averages were respectively 20, 13, and 17. So , ,he should give Waikari cricket "a lilt." - •