PERSONALITIES.

Observer, Volume XI, Issue 641, 11 April 1891, Page 7

PERSONALITIES.

O'Halloran, the defaulting postmaster of Whangarei, has been arrested. Sergeant- Major Hyde, Government Drill Instructor, is on his way to Auckland. Archie Gledhill has given up all other athletio* pursuits in favour of tennis. What is the reason ? Lieut.-Colonel Hume is at present acting as UnderSecretary of Defence, vice Colonel Hume retrenched. Sir Geo. Maurice O'Rorke, who has been down to Wellington on business, returned home a f6W days ago. Police Inspector Kiely of Napier, who is wellknown in Auckland, has been transferred to Westport. Miss Parr, of Waikomiti, is to be married to Mr Jonker of Riverhead on Wednesday next, the 15th inst. Fry, alias Floyd, alias White, charged with murdering William Veitch at Wairoa South, is now in Mount Eden Goal. John Hampden, one of the persistent upholders of the flat earth theory, died a few weeks ago. He once lost a £500 bet on the flat question. Travers- Vale and a midshipman of the Orlando were nearly coming to blows a few days ago. This was rather rough on one of our future admirals. A month's leave of absence is now the holiday allowance for secretaries of local bodies. The latest happy man is Mr Oliver Mays, secretary to Waiternata County Council. Mb Leopold Buller, son of Sir Walter, has jusfc passed his final examination at Home for a barrister* He and his brother Percy are now on their way out to New Zealand. The Duke of Manchester is said to be thinking of visiting his New Zealand property at an early date. It is thought his mother will be married to Lord Hartington in his absence. Mr Henry Varley's latest crusade is against racecourse gambling. He has founded an Anti-Gambling League in Melbourne, and is now touring Tasmania on that racket, while Clampett attends to the teetotal fad Both will soon swoop down upon New Zealand. Mr Tom McEwin announces in another column that he has removed into more commodious premises immediately adjoining the Union Bank of Australia. Here he hopes to meet all old customers, and is now prepared to cater for socials, etc. On Saturday last Mr E. C. Browne, who is leaving for England on Tuesday next, was presented by his fellow employees at Smith and Caughey's with a handsome dressing oase. Mr Browne was the moving spirit in the early closing scheme. The late Mr John Burke, who occupied the position of Town Clerk at Gisborne, is the mau whom the late Mr Baldwin, journalist, libelled when he edited a Gisborne paper. Baldwin was sent to prison for six months, but being in bad health he wa3 released only to die. * 4 One Who Knows Them Well ' writes to the Observer a prophecy to the effect that at next meeting of Parliament Messrs McDonald and Fisher, the two Wellington members, will be in opposition to the Government. All we have to say in reply is— that Messrs Thos. Thompson and Frank Lawry will be a fair exchange. Mr J. M. Shera is deserving of all praise for the tact, good feeling, and public spirit shown by him in trying to arrange the bootmakers' dispute. The only regret is that his efforts have not been successful. His sole aim was not the good of the tipper classes— he worked for the weal of ami. Wm. Mackenzie Murdoch, son of Mr Alexander Murdoch, the popular Scottish poet and story-teller, is earning a solid reputation as a brilliant violinist in the land of his birth. He has been playing at the Glasgow City Hall, in company with Signor Foli, and also formed one of the orchestra that performed at the East End Industrial Exhibition two months ago. His rendering of some solo pieces was enthusiastically applauded. Admirers of Murdoch pere will be interested to learn that he is still connected with the Glasgow Mail. Capt. Mackenzie Wilson, the octogenarian librarian at the District Hospital, has been gathered to his fathers. He died on Good Friday, from a paralytic stroke which he had on the preceding day, and was buried at Waikomiti. The deceased was a man of most active yet genial temperament, of literary tastes I and methodical habits. In a letter written a short time ago he alluded to himself pathetically as 4 the last of his race.' He was descended from the Mackenzies, of Red Castle, in Ross- shire, Scotland, and was connected with the family of Lord Dundonald, while his father was a partner in the celebrated Gladstone firm. The Captain was wont to tell how be was present, as a child of three years, in a house in Liverpool at the time the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone was born in it. Capt. Mackenzie Wilson was born in the year 1806, in British Guinea, and quite an eventful career closed in honoured usefulness.