PERSONAL ITEMS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16267, 18 July 1918, Page 6

PERSONAL ITEMS.

Captain Kirlrwood and Captain Patton were passengers from Wellington by yesterday s ferry steamer. At the annual conference of the Council of Agriculture, Mr G. A. MacDonald, of Orari, was elected president for the ensuing year. A cable message has been received in Christchurch, stating that the grandson of Mrs Marriner, fighting in tne Australian Forces in Franco, has been awarded the Military Medal, Mr B. E. Murphy, M.A., B. Com., LL.JJ., has been appointed lecturer m economics at Victoria Colloge, W«l----linc;ton. Mr Murphy is a partner in the legal firm of Mclntyro and Murphy, of Feliding. The Wellington Education Board yesterday passed a resolution regretting tho retirement of the Hon. J. G. W. Aitken, M.L.C., from the Board, and expressing appreciation of his great services as chairman. Private Ralph S. Murphy, who, in January last, was invalided from the front to England on account of trench fever, and who is well-known in the wool trade in Napier and elsewhere, has been chosen from those permanently unfit for further field service as instructor in to convalescent soldiers in England. At tho meeting of the North Canterbury Acclimatisation Society last night, very feeling reference was ma ie to the late Mr S. C. Farr, who f or about a quarter of a century had worked hard and successfully to forward the interests of acclimatisation in Canterbury. A motion of sympathy with tho rolatives of the late Mr Farr was passed by the Council, and it was stated that his life work and labours would alwavs be enshrined in the records of the Canterbury and kindred societies, i

Mr R. M. McKnight, who has been manager of the Palmcrston North branch of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., Ltd., since its inception 23 years ago, and who has been transferred to Christchurch in a similar capacity, was entertained at a farewell gathering at Palmcrston North on Monday night. The Mayor (31r J. A. Nash), who presided, referred in eulogistic terms to Mr McKnight's business ability and his connexion with the A. and P. Association and patriotic organisations, and on behalf of town and country friends presented him with an illuminated address. Other speakers also eulogised Mr McKnight's worth. In the oourso of his reply, Mr McKnight, who has been 37 years in the service of the company, gave some interesting reminisccnces of the early days of Palmcrston North, and predicted a prosperous future for the district.