PERSONAL ITEMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24554, 9 April 1943, Page 4

PERSONAL ITEMS

Mr. T. U. Wells travelled to ington last night. The Hon. P. C. Webb, Minister of Mines, returned to Wellington yesterday. Mr. Justice Callan left la6t night for Wellington on business of the Aliens' Tribunal. Mr. H. B. Smith, chief clerk of the Transport Department, returned to Wellington last night. Mr. L. H Warne, chief assistant to the Trade Commissioner for Australia, and Mr. 0. Conibear, of the Ministry of Supply, have returned from Australia, where they were engaged in negotiations with the Commonwealth Government. Mr. Conibear left last for Wellington.

GOVERNOR OF FIJI The Governor of Fiji, LieutenantGeneral Sir Phillip Mitchell, arrived in Auckland from Wellington yesterday. SKILL AS NAVIGATOR FLYING MEDAL AWARDED (p.A.) WELLINGTON, Thursday Tributes to his skill as a navigator and bomb aimer are paid in the citation accompanving the award of the D.F.M. to Sergeant lan Armstrong Blaikie, a member of the JR.N.Z.A.F., serving overseas. Official _ notification of the award has been received from London. Before the war Sergeant Blaikie lived in Napier. His father. Mr. J. Blaikie, lives at Greenmeadows, Napier. During the last six months,- Sergeant Blaikie has been engaged on operational living, and in all his aerial assignments he displayed coolness • and courage, states the" citation. It was in a large measure due to his skilful navigation and bomb aiming that many successes had been achieved.

A landscape gardener in civil life, Sergeant Blaikie was born in Christchurch in 1918. He was educated at the Greendale School, Canterbury, and the Bovs' High School, Napier. Applying for Air Force service early in 1940. be commenced his New Zealand training as an air observer later in the same vear.

EPSOM NORMAL SCHOOL

FAREWELL TO HEADMASTER A change in the status of the Epsom School will be effective from next Monday, when the building will be usvxl as a Normal School and is to be under the control of the Auckland Education Board. The school was opened in 1886 and was destroyed by fire in 1923, the present building being erected a year later. It is expected that eventually there will be 600 pupils, but. until additional classrooms are built. som£ of the students will attend the Newmarket and Mount Eden schools.

A ceremony is to be held at the school this afternoon to farewell Mr. T. N. Hewlett, who has been headmaster for four and a-half years. Mr. Hewlett has been transferred tempiprarily to the staff of the Auckland Training College and he will be succeeded by Mr. J. W. Fawcett, present headmaster of the Normal School. Two other teachers, Miss M. E. H. Parry and Mrs. B. V. Danks, will also bte farewelled this afternoon. An address on the history of the school will be given bv Mrs. E. McNair, who has been chairman of the Epsom School Committee for the past six years.

i OBITUARY ) MRS. C. K. PLUMMER The death occurred recently or Mrs. ' Clara Knott Phimmer, of City Road. She was the eldest daughter of Mr. . | William Crowther, a former Mayor of ' Auckland and member of Parliament | for Auckland East. Her grandparents arrived in New Zealand by the Duchess of Argyll in 1842., Mrs. Plummer was interested in many charitable and social ; activities, being a founder and past president of the Sunbeams Kindergari ten and president of the Auckland ; Grammar School Old Girls' Association. She was also a member of the Hard of Hearing League. She is survived by her husband and three daughters. MR. FRANK HORSPOOL The death has occurred of Mr. Frank Horspool, of Grafton, formerly a member of the commercial printing department of the New Zealand Herald. Born in England in 1874. Mr. Horspool came to New Zealand with his parents at the age of nine, and two years later began work in the office of the Northern Advertiser, Dargaville. He joined the staff of the Hkrald in IS9I as a compositor. In 1941 he became the eleventh employee to complete 50 vears' continuous service with the firm. He is survived by his wife and three children. DRY AND SUNNY MARCH RAIN MUCH BELOW AVERAGE Reporting on the weather in March the Dominion meteorologist says that for most of New Zealand the month was dry, sunny and cool. The prolonged dry spell further adversely affected dairy production in the Auckland Province, and the lack of apprecitt rain, especially in Auckland, liawke s Bay, Wairarapa and Wellington, made the winter feed outlook very serious. In the more southern districts changeable weather interrupted harvesting, but pastures and root crops had made good progress. .of Westport and Ashburton the deficiency of rainfall had been general At few places in that region was naif the average fall approached. Masterton and several localities in southern Hawke's Bay had no measurable rain during the month. At numerous stations in the North Island the totals were new low records. The rains setting in from the north at-the close of the month later became extensive | and gave a fairly general measure of I relipf ARMY'S MOBILE LIBRARY "There has been a most enthusiastic response to our mobile library service," said Major W. E. Alexander, addressing a conference of unit education officers at Auckland University College yesterday. In its first five Says the service had distributed to soldiers 635 books and 802 paper-backed publications and magazines. In addition, 750 books and 500 magazines were despatched to outlying units. A request service is maintained to secure special books asked for by soldiers, and in this period over 80 requests had been dealt with. The service had met with its most enthusiastic reception in unit* beyond the city limits. DEAF CHILDREN ~SOCIETY Gratitude to the Government for tin* benefactions bestowed on the society from the art union funds was expressed in a resolution passed at the annua! meeting of the Auckland Society for Deaf Children last evening. The resolution also expressed the hope that the benefactions would be maintained for the welfare of the many institutions that bad been helped and which had done effective work by that aid. Appreciation of the personal interest of the Hon. W. E. Parry, Minister of Internal Affairs, in the society, was expressed by the president. Mr. J. C. Kay. It was decided to invest £SOO of the hostel fund in war bonds. Officers elected were:—President. .Mr. Kay; vice-president. Dr. J. Hardie Neil; honorarv secretary and treasurer, Miss M. L. Clare.

t Sunshine was remarkably good in Nelson and Marlborough ancl the North Island. Many places had, in contrast to February, the equivalent of one or two hours a day above the average and several new March records irere established.