PERSONAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 67, 12 November 1912, Page 5

PERSONAL.

Mr. J. McCliiggage left by tliemr.il train this morning for We.Jington. Mrs. Cramp, the popular l.ostess of the Kailway Hotel, Eltham, for soma years, will enter into possession of tha Commercial Hotel, Wave Hoy, in a fortnight’s time. Mr. J). L. A. Astbury has not yet quite recovered from the operation which ho recently had to undergo for appendicitis, and his friends will oe sorry to hear that he has songat farther treatment in a private hospital at Eltham.

Mr. T. C. Truer was last night unanimously elected Mayor of Eketahnna by the Council, thorn filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. Page, owing to his appointment as Stipendiary Magistrate.—Press Association.

John Meehan, the originator of the quick-lunch counter in New Work, died in that city last week. By the irony of fate this man’s death was due to acute indigestion. Meehan had amassed a big fortune, and died worth £200,000. ‘ ,

Mr. W. H. Could, at one time seb teacher at Waione, and afterwards far a number of years headmaster at Pongaroa, but now first assistant at To Aro School, Wellington, has been ap pointed To the position of Principal of the Royal College and Director of Education at Tonga. Mr. Gould takes up his new duties early next year. Dr. Woodrow Wilson, United States President-elect, is. of quite recent Scottish, descent, and that descent links him on to Scottish Congregationalism. His grandmother was the daughter of Robert Williamson, of Glasgow, who in 1903 helped to found Dr. Ralph Wardlaw’s church, now known as Elkin Place. Mr. Williamson’s wife, on "the other hand, was a Keith, aunt of the late Rev. Patrick Keith, D.D.. of Hamilton, who was the grandfather of the present Archbishop of York.

The Prime Minister (Hon. W. F. Massey) left Wellington for Auckland by the Main Trunk express on Sunday evening. He will be entertained by citizens of Auckland on November 19th, and will spend a few days in his electorate while in the north. After attending the official opening of the new Post Office at Auckland on the. 20th ho will return to Wellington in time to be present at the opening of the new Post Office at Wellington on the 26th. The Hons. A. L. Herd man, W. H. Herries, Dr. Fomare and the Minister of Marine remain in Wellington for the present. The Hon. James Allen left for south on Saturday. The Hon. W. H. Herries will nrnbably leave for Auckland at the end of this week.

Mr. William Brown, known locally as Farmer Brown, celebrated his 102nd birthday last month. Ho lives at Mottingharn Farm, near Eltharn, England, and is in excellent health—fit, so lie said, to get up and “box.” Mr. Brown’s memory is as sound as his health. He recalls that he earned his first 5s when, at the age of eleven years, he worked on the construction of the first railway from Chester to Liverpool, his chief being George Stephenson. He was a keen and industrious worker, and later, as a contractor, he laid a line of railway from Frith to Woolwich. “I also laid a single line at llochestor,” he added. “There was a canal where the entrance to the station is now, and we had to drive the water back. But the lines were very different from what they are now.” Mr. Brown is very proud of the fact that he rose entirely without influence, by his own unaided efforts. He took Mottingharn ■Farm in 1832. Thirty years ago he started a “beggars’ rest,” where he gave a bight’s lodging to destitute wayfarers. Mr. Brown has many friends. On his last birthday he received 200 letters of congratulation, one of them from the King. Mr. Frank A. Munsey, owner of ‘Munsey’s Magazine’ and half a dozen other monthlies, has recently acquired the ‘New York Press,” a rimming daily, and in it is vigorously supparting the Presidential candidature of Mr. Theodore Roosevelt. Recently the statement was published in New York that in the event of “Teddy’s” defeat ho would become the editor of the ‘Press’ at a salary of 50,000 dollars (about £10,000) a year. This piquant rumour (writes a San Francisco correspondent) was denied by ‘Munsey,’ but in such a way as to lend colour to the belief that there is no insuperable obstacle to the rumour being converted into' a fact. “It goes without saying that if Colonel Roosevelt is not elected to the Presidency,” said Mr. Munsey, “nothing would please me so much as to secure a man of his ability for any one of mynewspapers. T do not mind saying in this connection that the salary lias been mentioned—so,ooo dollars a year —wouldn’t stand in the way. Indeed, I think I could make money in my publishing business on Mr. Roosevelt at a salary of 100,000 dollars a year.” As contributing editor to ‘The Outlook,’ the New York weekly, Mr. Roosevelt is said to receive 20,000 dollars a year.