PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 April 1922, Page 4

PERSONAL.

Mr. Will Hutchens has been appointed conductor of the Wanganui Orchestral Society. Mr. W. T. Jennings, M.P. for Waitomo, is visiting Auckland. He is interviewing the local heads of Government departments regarding soldier settlements, education, and land matters.

The parishioners of the Eltham Anglican Church tendered a farewell to the Rev. J. G. Castle and his wife on Wednesday evening, and presented them with a wallet and cheque. Mr. Caetle takes up teaching at the Palmerston North High School.

The Rev. W. Bullock, who arrived from England some months ago to take up the position of general secretary of the Church of England Men’s Society, has been appointed vicar of Masterton, in the Diocese of Wellington. The former vicar, the Rev. J. Walker, M.A., leaves shortly for England.

The Governor-General (Lord Jellicoe) has telegraphed as follows to the Mayor (Mr. F. E. Wilson) :—“I learn with the greatest regret of the death of Mr. Percy Smith, to whom I wrote onlytwo days ago. I shall be grateful if you will convey an expression of my sincere sympathy to his relatives.” At the meeting of the Taranaki Rugby Union management committee last night a resolution of sympathy was passed with the relatives of late Mr. T. Duffy, the young Opunake footballer, who lost his life as the result of a motor accident when proceeding home from Manaia on Saturday, April

'Archbishop Redwood, of Wellington, enjoys the honor of being the oldest bishop in the world and the creditable record of 50 years’ work in the church in New Zealand. His Grace has reached the age of 82 years, and is still active for his years, as was demonstrated by hie presence at the opening of the new convent school at Kaponga yesterday, where he displayed interest and vigor surprising in one* of his age. His Grace returned to Hawera last night.

The death of Mr. S. Percy Smith at the ripe age of 81 years closes the career of a public servant of whom New Zealand may well be proud (says the Dominion). The late Mr. Smith was not a New Zealander by birth, for the first nine years of his life were apent in Britain; but his parents were among the pioneers of Taranaki, and as long ago as 1557 he had begun exploring the terra incognita of the North lalantf hinterland. In his forty-five yeans in the Lands Department he rendered yeoman service to the community, and wefi earned his promotion to the post of Surveyor-Ge neral and Secretary of Lands. An even greater debt of gratitude was owed to Mr. Smith by hiA fellow-countrymen for hi« labors in recording the history and tradition# of the Maori nvo and for his mimaro.ui and valuable contributions to the Journal of the Polynesian Society during the past thirty yeans. Tn these days, when attempts arc being made to inveigle Public Servants into alliances with organisations of revolutionary tendencire. they may. perhaps, in contemplating such careers ns that of the late Mr. S. Percy Smiji. reflect that the tradition* built up in the service by such man os him are worth preserving.