ABOUT PEOPLE

Southland Times, Issue 22450, 10 December 1934, Page 6

ABOUT PEOPLE

Mr J. Kearney, of Dunedin, who has been on a visit to Invercargill, returned north by the express last evening. Miss Norah Adamson, late of the Wallace County Hospital, Riverton, has left to take a position on the staff of the Greymouth Hospital.

Mr R. McKay, secretary of the Royal Agricultural and Pastoral Society of New Zealand and of the Clydesdale Breeders' Association and the Ayrshire Breeders’ Association is in Invercargill for the Royal Show. Guests at the Grand Hotel at present include Messrs W. S. Bennett (Wellington), C. E. Robertson (Lower Hutt), J. Donald (Featherston), H. Burrell (Feilding), R. Parsons (Mayfield), R. Adair (Mayfield). Mr T. H. Mills, who has been managing the Invercargill branch of the National Insurance Company, has received advice of his transfer to the managership of the Christchurch branch. Mr Mills leaves Invercargill at the end of the week to take up his new appointment.

The Mayor of Bluff (Mr T. F. Doyle) has received advice from the secretary of the New Zealand Labour Party that he has been officially endorsed as Labour candidate for the Awarua electorate. Mr Doyle will open his campaign towards the end of January next, when Mr Peter Fraser, M.P., will arrive in the south to further his candidature. A Christchurch Press Association message announces the death of Mr Robert William Brown, aged 85 years, the last member of the pioneer Dunedin family and one of the first pupils at the Otago Boys’ High School and Nelson College. He had resided for a long period in Christchurch and was the founder of the Farmers’ Co-operative Insurance Association of New Zealand, being the secretary for thirty years. He was an Otago representative footballer in his youth and latterly was a prominent bowler. He was .officebearer of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church. The late Mr Brown was bom in Scotland.

News has been received in Auckland of the death in Johannesburg, South Africa, of Mr Beit Avery, a successful Rand architect and honorary representative for New Zealand in the great mining centre. Mr Avery, in 1899, was one of several Ohinemuri men (including Mr G. R. Bradford, the first New Zealander killed in South Africa) who joined the Ist New Zealand Mounted Rifles for service in the Boer War. Mr Avery, who was a builder in Paeroa, served as a non-commissioned officer during the duration of the South African War, and subsequently settled in Johannesburg, where he lived for almost thirty years. He became one of the best known architects, and many of the modem buildings there remain as evidence of his skill. Mr Avery visited New Zealand some years ago, together with a son, and was then given the post of New Zealand representative in Johannesburg.

The secretary of the Marine Department has advised the Bluff Harbour Board that Mr William B. Dixon, of Bluff, has been appointed a member of the board in pursuance of the provisions of section 38 of the Harbour Act. Mr Dixon has been a prominent figure at Bluff over a long period of years and previously was a member of the Harbour Board for 13 years, being chairman for two years. His local activities have been many and varied and include a term of 17 years as a Borough Councillor, while he has long been known as a strong supporter of sporting and other bodies. As managing director for the last 30 years of the firm of Messrs Dixon Bros., he is of course thoroughly conversant with the fish and oyster trade and has an intimate knowledge of Bluff Harbour and the coast about Southland. Early in life Mr Dixon went to sea and holds a Home trade master’s certificate of competency and in addition a second class oil engine (seagoing) certificate of competency.