PERSONAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1124, 18 December 1914, Page 5

PERSONAL.

Tho Hon R. H. Rhodes returned from Wellington to-day. Prior to his d.parture for Dunedin the Rev J. L. Mortimer, vicar of St Stephen's, Shirley, was presented witn •a purse of sovereigns.

A Sydney " Sun " message states that Major Frederick George, formerly of New Zealand, who died at Bournemouth, left an estate of £33,524. Mr H. Cecil Smart, of London, who is touring through New Zealand, arrived in Christenurch yesterday by the second expre.s from the south.

Visitors-to town include Messrs J. A. Taylor (Wellington), J. H. Steel (Glasgow, Scotland), F. Myers (Pudsey), T. B. Clark (Bradfield), J. Webb (Auckland) and H. Nobles (New York). A Press Association telegram from Auckland states that Mr Michael Con • nolly, printer of the " Auckland Weekly News," and well known among dies? players in the Dominion, completed fifty years of unbroken service yesterday. " He was presented by tho firm with a purse of sovereigns. Dr W. Kington Fyffe, of Wellington, the well-known medical man. md organist at St Petet's Church, is going away.on active service with the second reinforcements now assembling at Trentham. Both as a surgeon of great skill and a gentleman qf soc : al qualities, Dr Fyffe will bo missed in Wellington. The report that a grandson of Charles Dickens is serving with the Red Cross in France recalls an interesting association of the great novelist with the last Franco-Pru csian war., which broke out within a few weeks of his death. Forster records that when Jules Favre went to meet _ Bismarck outs'de the walls of Paris in the fruitless hope of persuading him not to attack the city, a silent figure sat in one corner of the room, reading intently, apparently undisturbed by the discussion. It was Moltke, and the book that absorbed him was " Little Dorrit." ■

There are many German princes in tho fighting line, but probably only one Royal priest. This is Prince Max of Saxony, a brother of the King of that country. His Royal Highness must have mixed feelings regarding, the conflict in which he has been called to take his part as a man of religion and consoler of the wounded. Prince Max laboured for a time in the East End of London, and his. work among the poor in the crowded districts of Whitechapel is still held in memory. The Prince was popular in England, and was always looked upon as essentially a poor man's priest. For the last eighteen years the Wairarapa seat has " see-sawed " between Mr J. T. M. Hornsby and Mr (now Sir) Walter C. Buchanan. Mr Hornsby unsuccessfully opposed the late Hon T. Fergus for the now defunct Lakes seat, his chance being spoilt by a splitting of votes. He entered journalism, and whilst acting as sub-editor of the "New Zealand Times" in Wellington, was requested to stand for the Wairarapa seat against.Mr Buchanan, being defeated by 333 votes. In 1899 he was successful, defeating Mr Buchanan after he had held the seat for eighteen years. In 1902 be was defeated by 55 votes, and in 1905 he was again returned with a majority of 550. In 1908 ho was again displaced by Mr Buchanan, and was unequal to the task of displacing the veteran in 1911.

One of Wellington's early settlers in the person of Mr John Gallagher passed away on Wednesday, after a somewhat long illness. The deceased gentleman was born at Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland, and came to New Zealand in 1866. After landing in Wellington he proceeded to Grey town, where he joined his brother Bernard; who had left Ireland some time before to become one of Greytown's early settlers. Mr Gallagher took part later in the Maori wars and gained the New Zealand war medal. On leaving his regiment he was appointed to a post in the Prisons Department under the late Mr Macaiah Reid. He retired from the service some thirty years ago, and since then has resided in Hopper Street, being continuously in New Zealand save for a short visit to Sydney some years ago.

Master _ Haydn Beck, the young Wanganui violinist, had been studying with Cesar Thompson in Brussels for eighteen months prior to the outbreak of war, and when the city was threatened he had some adventures in making his escape from Namur, where be was spending his vacation with his friends Mr and Mrs Ellis, at Hotel Citadelle. Writing to Wanganui, he says:—"l saw the bridges on the Meuse being blown up at m dnight. The Hotel Citadeile stands on the top of a hill 20CO metres above the level of the river, and commands a view extending from fifteen to twenty or twenty-five miles in every direction—an ideal position. The Belgian Eng'neers made an awful row fixing up a wireless installation on the tower of the- hotel. The tower was blown off with dynamite by two German spies in the hotel. The night before a Zeppelin tried to drop a bomb on it, but the forts had a say in the matter, and frightened the Zeppelin away." Master Beck escaped 'from Namur with a little music and such odds and ends of clothing as could be carried in a handbag. He arrived in London with twopence in his pocket, ad is now residing with Dr Greenish (senior harmony profesor at tho Royal Academy of Music).