PERSONAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17957, 8 December 1932, Page 5

PERSONAL

Tiie Rev. Brother Fergus, of the Marist High School staff, (Weymouth, lias received notice of his transfer to South Africa,

Mr. T. J. Thomas, a former wellknown resident of Gisborne, is revisiting this, town after an absence of seven years in England and Western Australia. Among the passengers by tlm Runbine, which arrived at Wellington from Home, was Mr. S. Porter, ail English naturalist, who has come out to study tho native bird life of the Dominion. Mr. L. A\. Reeves, who was one of the young men comprising tho crew of 11 1 0 ketch Water Lily, which recently made a cruise of the iSouili Sea. Islands, lias returned to New Zealand to join the staff of the Christchurch Press. Miss Irene Meek lias tendered her resignation from the position of town clerk to the Temuka Borough Council. She is the only woman town clerk in New Zealand anil when she took office was also the youngest in the Dominion. An old (,'avtertou identity, Mrs. Martha Jane Diamond, has celebrated her ninetieth birthday. Fifty-eight years ago she and her husband, the. late Mr. Joseph Diamond, arrived at Port Nicholson in the ship Port William.

The Rev. 7. V. Gillillan, son of -Mr. and Mrs. 11. Giliillan, Auckland, returned by the RViahine. From 1920 to 1930 he was a Church of England missionary in Peking. China, and since then he has been at Home. He intends to spend about three months with his parents. The Rev, C. T. Parkinson, ALA., son of the late Mr. W. A. Parkinson, of Hawora, has been appointed headmaster of The King’s School, Sydney. Mr. Parkinson is chaplain and senior housemaster of Christ’s Hospital, England —more generally known as the Bluecoat School.

Mr Graham Mirfield, who for the past three years has been associated with the business of Messrs. Carpenters’, Limited, in the mandated territory of New Guinea, is spending a furlough in New Zealand, and returned to Gisborne last evening. He is accompanied Ivy ‘Mrs Mirfield, who was formerly Miss. Brjigcttc. Schmidt, a member of a Rabaul family. Mr and Mrs Mirfield expect to spend the U-hristmas and New Year holidays in the district, before continuing their holiday tour of New Zealand.

Discussing President Hoover's future, after his Presidential term is up, an American correspondent writes:—“lt would not prove surprising if he were drawn into the enormous task of organising and conserving the nation’s oil production. Unsuccessful efforts have been made for years to get the oil production industry upon a sounder basis, with production controlled for the general benefit, and unwise competition in distribution regulated. The post of czar of the American oil industry is _one for which President Hoover’s engineering knowledge', organising ability and prestige might specially lit him. Invercargill has its youthful musical prodigy in Orna Halbert, a seven-year-old violinist whose technique and execution are regarded as revealing unusual gifts. Tiio boy is a son of Mr. Hoani Halbert, formerly of Gisborne, who has a musical academy in the Southland town, and who has received from many competent judges tho highest compliments upon the rapid advance of his son. Orna Halbert is naturally lefthanded, but plays with remarkable ease of technique and lingering with either hand.

An interesting visitor to Gisborne is Mr.. F. M. Hpimlle, whoso family name is familiar to most of the older generation in Poverty Hay. He is a relative of the late Mr. Ted. Spurdlo, formerly a line athlete and , notably successful as an oarsman of. the Gisborne Rowing l'job. Mr. F. M. Spindle is himself a rowing enthusiast, and has been associated with several highly successful crews, liis principal hobby being the coaching of regatta fours. Me lias taken a keen interest in the work of crews now competing in the respective club serins in Gisborne, and incidentally lias formed definite and not entirely favorable impressions of the standard of oarsmanship displayed.