PERSONAL ITEMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24878, 27 April 1944, Page 6

PERSONAL ITEMS

Mr. W. J. Broadfoot, M.P. for W a ; tomo, is afc the Star Hotel. Mr. Stronach Paterson returned to Wellington by air yesterday. The Hon. T. G. de L. D'Alton, Hish Commissioner for Australia in New Zealand, left for Wellington yesterday afternoon. J Mr. V. J. Wise, district manner «.+ Invercargill for the A.M.P. Society, h as boon appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. W. *R. j Smythe, district manager at Auckland" .Mr. W. A. Scott, district manager at .\cu- Plymouth, has been transferred to Dunedin to fill the vacancy caused bv the retirement of ?.lr. G. \V. G. Davie's. METHODIST CONFERENCE OPENING SESSION FUTURE OF THE CHURCH "In the planned society that must come after the war the Church, to survive, must shed all inertia and organise all its resources In the work of world transformation," said the Rev. R. B. Tinsley, the incoming president, in his inaugural address at the opening session of the emergency committee of the Conference of the Methodist Church of New Zealand in the Pitt Street Church last night. Mr. Tinsley said he deplored the tendency of the Church to isolate itself from the great problems of the day.

The Rev. C. H. Olds presided at th® start of the session. The Rev. W. 6. Slade, of Dunedin, was appointed secretary and Mr. C. E. Beilringer, of New Plymouth, wa-s elected vice-presi-dent of the conference. _ ■ ■ Sessions of the conference will be held throughout the remainder of the week, beginning with a Communion ser« vice at nine o'clock this morning. Ona of the major matters will be the stationing of ministers. On Sunday afternoon the Revs. L, R. M. Gilmore, J- B. Dawson, H. C. Dixon, A. O. Jones and L. Greenslade will be ordained at a special service in the Pitt Street Church. OBITUARY MR. EDWIN NORTON The death occurred yesterday after a brief illness of, Mr. Edwin Hcrton, a son of the late Mr. A. G. Horton, who was a founder of Wilson and Hoi-ion, Limited. Mr. Edwin Horton was boril in 1878 and was educated at Prince Albert College, Adelaide. As \ young man he was farming in the Waikato, first at Walton and later at Matamata, and then he was on a station in New South Wales. In 1903 Mr. Horton became a partner in the firm of Messrs. .Wilson and Horton, and later a director of Wilson and Horton. Limited. In 1930 he left for Great Britain and he was there until after war broke out. Mr. Horton was a keen and expert angler and was a former captain of the Auckland Golf Club. Mr. Horton is survived by his widow, Mrs. C. H. Horton. of 297 St. Heliers Bay Road, and their four young children, and by two children of his former marriage, Wir g-Commander I. C. Horton and Mrs. Denis Lawford. DEATH IN TUNISIA FORMER AUCKLAND ARTIST A varied career of unusual interest has closed with the death, at Beja, Tunisia, of Madame Bene Vernon, known in earlier years as Beatrix Dohie, a New Zealand painter of horses and landscape. She was a daughter of the late Mr. H. B. Dobie, of Epsom, and was born at Whangarei in 1887. Some years before the last Avar she went to London and studied there under noted painters. In 1914 she joined the British Bed Cross, and did hospital service at Malta and elsewhere, but later was transferred to the New Zealand canteen at Codford, England.

Later, while painting in sb» married Captain Rene Vernon, of the French Army, .and made her home ill Tunisia. From there she sent pictures to exhibitions in London and else-vii ere, including the Empire Exhibition of 1937. It was typical of her spirit thau when fighting raged around her horns at Beja, 60 miles from Bizerta, she declined to leave. She kept open house to Allied servicemen, including Zealanders. , Examples of Madame Vernon's wor.i are in the Auckland Art Gallery and at Wellington, Christchurch and p al \' edin. She is survived by her husband# and a son. Her mother and a number of relatives reside in Auckland. VISITS BY MINISTERS THAMES INTERESTS (0.C.) THAMES, Wednesday The Minister of tba Hon. C. F. Skinner, and the Minister , of Health, the Hon. A. H. Nordmever, will visit Thames next month. -\'r. Skinner will visit areas in the distnc in which post-war development ma » take place, and the Chamber of Oommerce, in conjunction with other i - terested bodies, has decided to P| a before him the matter of land develop f vnent and settlement in the district. _ Mr. Xordmeyer will meet the " OS P' a tal Board and local body fives to discuss the proposal or Thames Hospital Board to raise > sterling as tno first instalment ot a » for hospital rebuilding, to which the seven contributing bodies objected.