PERSONAL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16608, 4 December 1919, Page 2

PERSONAL.

Mr. Cecil Gray is on a short visit to New Plymouth.

Mr. B. Gillbanks has been advised that his sou, Gunner R. J. Gillbanks, is returning by the Rirautaka, due in Wellington December 27. Mr. 11. W. Forster, Parliamentary secretary to the British War Office, has re.signed owing to ill-health, and has been given a peerage.

The Wellington Post of November 2” records the death of Mr. J. N. Davis, late chief draftsman of the Survey Department. Tho deceased .gentleman was, over 30 years ago a draftsman in the local Survey Office, and took the photos of tho summit of Mount Egmout, which gave non-climhcrs an idea of what the top of that gigantic heap of stone- was like. He in conjunction with Mr. Pellet Carrington, made the first survey ot tho summit.

Ninety-six years’ residence- in Now Zealand was the record established by Alas. .Marianne Davies, widow of the late Rev. C, P. Davies, who died at Napier recently, at the age of OS). Mrs. Davies was tho oldest daughter of the lute Archdeacon Henry Williams, of the Bay of Islands, and sister of the late Archdeacon Samuel Williams, of To Ante, Hawke’s Bay. She. was born at Cheltenham, England, on April 28, 1820. Her father left England on September 17, 1822, on board the ship Lord Sidmouth, with his wife and three children, for Hobart, reaching that port on .February 10, 1523. There they met the late Rev. Samuel Marsdon, who took the family to Parramatta, where they resided for some time, and left Sydney for New Zealand on board the ship Brampton in company with Mr. Marsden. They arrived at the Bay of Islands on August 3, 1523, and Air. Williams was stationed at Paihiti, and formed a mission station there. Mrs. Davies was married on February 9, 1543, to the Rev. C. P. Davies, who was a Doctor of Medicine, and a little later joined the Church Alissionary Society. They resided at Bishop’s College, Wuiruate, Bay of Islands, for some months. In ISJ-1 Air. Davies was transferred to Tauranga, and in 1852 to Opotiki, where he carried on his mission work, and Airs. Davies bad a -Maori girls’ school. In 1855,’owing to the illness of Mr. Davies, she returned to the Bay of Islands, whore ho died in IS6I. Airs. Davies was present when the Treaty of Waitaugi was signed by Governor Hobson in 1870; She led a very active life, and up to the last took the keenest interest ui all passing events,_ her mind and memory remaining perfectly clear. Two .sens and one daughter are living. Air. C. P. Davies, of Gisborne, Air. T. AI. Davies, in London, and Aliss Davies, of Napier, 16 grandchildren, and 15 greatgrandchildren.