PERSONAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19239, 28 November 1930, Page 5

PERSONAL.

Sir Cyril Ward arrived from the north this morning. Sir Walter Stringer is staying at the United Service Hotel. The Hon G. J. Anderson and Mr D. .M’Dougall were passengers from the north this morning. Mr Oscar Garden and Captain F. W. Haig will arrive in Christchurch tomorrow, and will stay at Warner’s Hotel. * Messrs A. W. Duncan and W. Norwood (Wellington), J. W. Harding and G. T. Granger (Auckland) and T. R. Boccard (Masterton) are guests at Warner’s Hotel. Mr John Fuller, of John Fuller and Sons, Ltd., returned to Wellington by the ferry steamer last evening. He will leave in a few days on his return to Australia. Mr M. Barnett, of London, has decided, for private reasons, not to accept the office of second minister to the Jewish community of Wellington, so that the posts of first and second ministers still remain unfilled. Negotiations are now proceeding with Australia. A well-known and widely respected resident of Dunedin, Mr William Henry Duke, aged seventy-four, died on Wednesday night after a long illness. He was employed by the firm of Butterworth Brothers for over fifty years, and retired from business in 1926. He was twice married. Ilis second wife is still living, also one son, Mr Charles R. Duke, architect (Nelson), and one daughter, Mrs Erichsen (Adelaide). The Rev L. A. North, who has been called to the pastorate of the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, will commence his ministry on December 1. A public welcome meeting will be held in the church on Tuesday, December 2, at 7.30 p.m., at which the Mayor (the Rev J. K. Archer), Dr J. J. North and other well-known ministers will speak. A day of ceremonies celebrating the completion of twenty-five years of priesthood by Father Gondringer, who was ordained at his present parish church of Hastings, was held at Hastings on Wednesday. Father Gondringer has been priest at Hastings for nine months, one of his greatest achievements so far having been his success in bringing almost to a conclusion a proposal to build a new Catholic school at a cost of £II,OOO. The building is likely to be completed next year, and Father Gondringer on Wednesday handed the school building fund a cheque presented to him b}' the children of the parish. In the evening Father Gondringer received a presentation at a gathering of Catholics. Thanksgiving Mass was celebrated in the morning, and various gatherings, including a picnic and a gathering of clergy at dinner, followed throughout the day. Father Gondringer was formerly on the staff of St Patrick’s College, Wellington, and revived the school magazine, “Blue and White,” in 190 S. Father Gondringer was born in Luxembourg in 1880, and was educated there and in France, and

besss®®®®®ms®®®®®®®® also in Devon, England. lie came tc New Zealand in 1903, and entered Meeanee Seminary. He took a leading part in organising the jubilee celebra tions of Archbishop Redwood.