ABOUT PEOPLE

Southland Times, Issue 21836, 13 October 1932, Page 4

ABOUT PEOPLE

Mr D. S. Mackenzie, Gore, left for Christchurch by car yesterday afternoon.

Miss Gee and Mrs J. L. Mathieson, Gore, are visiting their sister, Mrs G. P. Deal, Waipukerau.

Mr A. A. Hume, instructor in agriculture, who has been on holiday leave, resumed duty yesterday.

Mrs Andrew Gray, who has been attending the jubilee celebrations of the St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Gore, returned to Dunedin yesterday. Mr and Mrs H. Halbert and Mr and Mrs H. P. Campbell leave by car this morning for Dunedin to attend the Szigeti recital there this evening. The Rev. J. M. Simpson, who has been taking part in the jubilee functions of the Presbyterian Church at Gore during the week-end, returned to Dunedin yesterday. The Rev. Father N. Collins, of Dunedin, who has been in Invercargill m connection with the jubilee celebrations of the Dominican Convent, left on his return by yesterday afternoons express.

The death occurred at Oamaru on Tuesday last of Mrs Dunlop, wife of Mr F. F. Dunlop, a former resident of Arrowtown. Deceased, who was 49 years of age, had been in ill-health for some considerable time past. She is survived by her husband and a family of three daughters and one son.

The Rev. James Milne, M.A., at a meeting of the Waikato Presbytery, tendered his resignation of the Thames charge, to take effect at the end of January next. The Presbytery acquiesced ■in the resignation. Mr Milne has been in charge of Thames for 24 years, having been inducted in 1908. Dr. P. C. Fenwick, C.M.G., Honorary Dominion Chief Commissioner of Boy Scouts, and Major W. E. S. Furby, Dominion Headquarters Commissioner for Organization, are expected to arrive in Invercargill by the express this evening. They will attend the scouts’ and guides’ rally at Rugby Park on Saturday. Probate has been granted in the Supreme Court of the will of the late Major John Whitney, founder and chairman of directors of the Colonial Ammunition Company, whose estate is valued for probate at under £25,000, says an Auckland Press Association message. Major Whitney died on September 6 at the age of 96. His estate is disposed of to relatives. Honour to Mr W. J. Penn was paid by printers and Pressmen from all parts of Taranaki at a reunion, when they made a presentation of an illuminated address signed by the editors of all the Taranaki newspapers, also a silver mounted walking stick. Mr Penn, owing to ill-health, has relinquished the position of editor of the Taranaki Herald after having been associated with the journal for 47 years. Failing health has compelled Mr James Young, curator of the Christchurch Botanic Gardens for the past 25 years, to tender his resignation to the Domains Board, and at a meeting of the board last week the resignation was accepted with regret. It was decided that Mr Young should remain in office until his successor assumes control. On the appointment of his successor Mr Young will become sports superintendent under the board. On Monday afternoon the staff of Messrs John Mill and Company’s Bluff branch assembled in the office for the purpose of making a presentation to Mr B. J. Macdonald, a member of the staff, on the eve of his wedding. In asking Mr Macdonald’s acceptance of a set of stainless cutlery on behalf of those present, the manager, Mr J. Entwistle, referred in felicitous terms to the recipient’s many good qualities and wished the young couple every happiness in their married life. Other members of the staff also expressed their esteem and good wishes, Mr Macdonald suitably replying.

The funeral of Mrs John Fisher took place at Otautau yesterday, when a large number assembled to pay their last respects. The Rev. W. H. Howes conducted the services at the house and graveside. The late Mrs Fisher was born at Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland, and received her education at Miss Moutar’s private school in that town, finishing at the Watson Academy in Edinburgh. With her father and the rest of the family she arrived in Port Chalmers by the ship Loch Fergus on August 1, 1881, and after a stay of two years in Dunedin, the family settled in Timaru. In 1906 she married Mr John Fisher, and with, the exception of brief periods had resided in Otautau ever since.

The unusual distinction of having lived through almost the full period of New Zealand’s history as a British possession belonged to Mrs I. J. Hargraves, who died at Epsom, Auckland, recently. Mrs Hargraves was born in 1840 at Oihi, the old mission station at the Bay of Islands, and was a granddaughter of Mr John King, one of the lay missionaries who accompanied the Rev. Samuel Marsden to New Zealand in 1814. The King family had an intimate association wtih the early history of the colony. Mrs John King was the daughter of Captain Hansen, commander of the brig Active, which brought the Rev. Samuel Marsden’s party to New Zealand; and Mrs Hargraves's mother (Mrs Philip King), who was a daughter of Captain Fiske, of the East India service, came to New Zealand in 1840. Life in those days was both difficult and dangerous. In John King’s time there were still relics of cannibalism among the Maoris. The King family awoke one morning to find the fence outside their home bearing the impaled heads of the victims of the latest feast. Mrs Hargraves’s parents had different but equally thrilling experiences. When Hone Heke cut the British flagstaff and made his historic attack on Russell, Mr and Mrs Philip King were compelled to remove their young family to Auckland. From the time of her marriage Mrs Hargraves lived at Waimate until recently.