PERSONAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15131, 27 January 1917, Page 4

PERSONAL.

Madame Harris, of Palmerston North, mother of the late Victor Harris, the brilliant musician, is at present on a brief visit to Wanganui. Stanley Grant, representing the George Willoughby Musical' Farce Company, is at present in town making arrangements for the company’s Wanganui season. Although no definite announcements have been made as yet, there are indications that there will be a contest for the Mayoralty .of Christchurch this year (says the Evening News). The names of Dr. Thacker, M.P., and of Mr J.- McCombs, M.P., are mentioned as possible candidates. Tlie Staff sergeants-Major who have been attending the refresher course which has been held on the Wanganui Racecourse met last evening and presented Major T. Sutherland with a sil-ver-mounted walking-stick, inscribed with their names. The gift was a email appreciation of the work accomplished by Major Sutherland, who was in charge of the camp. A recently returned Taihape boy, Sergeant W. R. “Toby” Bennett, has been officially awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for bravery in- the field. “Toby” fought all through the Gallipoli campaign, and was subsequently sent to France, where he took part in the Somme offensive, and where he received wounds that caused him to be invalided home. He arrived home by the Maheno after doing two years and 68 days’ -service. The many friends of Mr Malcolm S. Stanley, late of Wanganui, and who for several years past has been extending his engineering experience ’as assistant supervisor on several, large engineering contracts in Australia^—including the large Geelong water viadifct and the Port Adelaide breakwater—will be' interested to hear that he is numbered among the many New Zealanders who have donned khaki in the Australian States. He underwent, with great credit, a, very thorough course of instruction in the Engineering Camps on' the Cricket Ground and Moore Park, Sydney, and was to have left Sydney this week as Officer Commanding the January Engineering Reinforcements—about 150 Engineers—known as “BV Company. He describes the' men in his charge as a fine body of soldiers and his association with them as a happy one. He speaks in glowing terms of the treatment accorded men in uniform across the Tasman, and makes special reference to the many kindnesses extended him during a ramble be took (swag on back) in the Kangaroo Valley, during his yearend holidays. Mr (Stanley is a keen naturalist, and has spent a great deal of his leisure time.among the Blue and other Australian mountains. He is the only son of Mr and Mrs Stanley, of Raetihi, and late of Wanganui.