PERSONAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22568, 11 May 1935, Page 14

PERSONAL

Mr R. H. Purton was a passenger by thj express for the north yesterday, en route for Wellington. Dr G. Craig, who recently retired from the position of Comptroller of Customs, has left Wellington on a trip to England.

A Press Association message from Timaru states, that Mr W. Angland has announced that he will contest the Timaru electorate as an Independent candidate at the general election against the Rev. Clyde Carr, the sitting Labour member. Captain M. E. Johnson and Staff-sergeant-major W. R. C. Whyte left Dunedin yesterday morning for Kelso to attend a camp of mounted rifles there. Mr J. B. I. Cook has been appointed secretary of the Wellington Hospital Board. Mr Cook has been acting secretary since the retirement of Mr R. Brown about six months ago. Mr W. A. Brown, headmaster of the West End School, New Plymouth, is to be transferred to the Kaikorai School as headmaster. He will replace Mr H. Fawcett, who has been appointed headmaster of the Carterton District High School. Mr J. Purvis, formerly of Dunedin, has been elected to the Upper Hutt Borough Council and also to the Wellington Hospital Board as the representative of the Upper Hutt and the Hutt County. Commissioner James Hay, Commis-sioner-in-Chief of the Salvation Army in Canada, is to settle in Melbourne upon his retirement in June. He has had 52 years' service with the Army, and was Commander-in-Chief in Australia from 1909 to 1921. Commissioner Hay was in charge of the Salvation Army work in New Zealand for four years, from 1926 onwards.. After the weekly practice of the Mornington Presbyterian Church choir on May 2, a pleasant function took place in the choir room, to mark the eightieth birthday of Mr W. Mearns, the oldest member of the choir. Mr Mearns has been a member of the Mornington congregation for over 50 years, and is still one its most prominent members. During the evening the youngest member of the choir, Miss Ida M'Millan, presented Mr Mearns with a buttonhole. Born in Banff, Scotland, Mr Mearns commenced his musical career at the age of 10 years, blnging alto in the church choir in that town. Arriving in New Zealand in 1874, he joined - the choir of Knox Church, under the conductorship of the late Mr G. M. Thomson. Mr Mearns very early became a member of the Choral Society, and first sang in the " Messiah" on October 5, 1878. He joined the Mornington congregation in 1881. It ib interesting to note that a grandniece and a grandnephew of Mr G. M. Thomson are now associated with Mr Mearns in the Mornington cLoir.