PERSONALIA

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7976, 6 December 1911, Page 6

PERSONALIA

Mr H. H. Eay ward returned yesterday from a visit to Auckland. Mr Baxter Buckley, of Goro, is visiting Wellington for a day or two. Mr Buckley contemplates taking up his residence in the city after the New Year. A Press Association message states that Sir John Kirk, director of the Shaftesbury Society, London, was accorded a civic welcome at Christchurch yesterday. Sir John will be tendered a Mayoral reception in the Wellington Council Chamber by the Mayor and councillors on i’riday morning. Mr E. i). Halstead, well known as a veterinary surgeon, died at Auckland on Sunday, aged sixty-three years. Mr Halstead came to New Zealand about fifty years ago, and for many years was well known to farmers the Auckland province. Some seven years ago he contracted anthrax while engaged in his profession, and suffered from the after effects up to tho time of his death.

Messrs Norman B. Brookes and Eod Heath, of Victoria, two Australian defenders of the Davis Cup, arrived in Wellington from Auckland by tho Main Trunk express yesterday afternoon, and go on to Christchurch by this evening's steamer. Mr Horace Eice, another Australian representative, arrives from Sydney by the Moeraki to-day. Mr Gerald T. Baker, chairman of the principal office board of the Colonial Mutual Lite office, will arrive from Melbourne to-day by the Moeraki,on his first visit to Now Zealand. He is accompanied by Mr Adam G. Melville, the sub-manager of the society in Melbourne. Both gentlemen are accompanied by their wives, and the party will tour throughout tho DominionAs briefly recorded in our issue of Saturday, it was December 3rd, 1,851, the Eureka fight took place between the diggers and the 14th Regiment at the Eureka stockade, Ballarat. Twenty-five of the diggers lost their lives and thirteen soldiers. There is still one man living in Wellington who was present in the stockade when it was attacked by the troops, namely. Captain John Simmonds, living in Adelaide road, Newtown. He was within a few yards of Peter Lalor when he was shot down. Mr J. Brown, of Upper Hutt, attended many of the diggers’ meetings that led up to the riot.

The death is announced from Ormondville of Hr Robert Head Groom, aged sixty-five years. The late Mr Groom was born in Hartford, Kent, in 1846, and was educated in his native place and at the Church of England school in London, lie subsequently served an apprenticeship to the milling trade with an uncle, and in 187-1 came to New Zealand. Landing at Napier, Mr Groom went to Waipawa, where he remained until 1876, when 'he settled in Ormondvilie and started one of the first stores there. Mr Groom was (says the ‘‘Telegraph") chairman of the Ormondvilie Town Board from 18SG until 1808; and had been a Justice of the Peace since the former year. He was . appointed Government nominee on the Hawse's Bay Land Board on June 23rd, 1894, and had not missed a meeting until quite recently, when the illness which resulted in his death prevented him being present. A cable message from New York announces the death from heart disease of Rear-Admiral Wilde, late of the United States navy, which he entered in 1860, and from which he retired in 1905. In 1885-88 he commanded the U.S.S. Dolphin, making a cruise round the world; the Dolphin being the first steel vessel of th© American nary to circumnavigate the globe. He introduced gas buoys on the great lakes, established an electric light vessel off Diamond Shoal, Cape Hatteras, and introduced a telephone to light vessels from the shore. In IS9S he landed the first American marines ever landed in China, and sent them to Pekin, where they guarded the Legation. He captured and occupied the citv of Iloilo, in the Philippines, in February, 1899, and Vigau in February, 1900.

Busy men cannot spare time to develop and print their plates and films, and to them the knowledge that this work can safely be left to others must be welcome. Shariand and Co., Ltd., Photo Dealers, Lambton quay, employ skilled hands m this department, and amateurs can leave their plates or films with them, knowing that the best results possible will bo obtained.