PERSONAL ITEMS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1433, 7 May 1912, Page 4

PERSONAL ITEMS.

The Primo Minister (tile Hon. T. Mackenzie) is at Balclutha, the Hon. W. D. 8. Mncdonald at Wenheim, the Hon. J. A. Kalian en routo for Southland, and tho Hon. T. Buxton at Temnka. Tho other Cabinet Ministers are in toivn.

The Minister for Public Works (the Hon. W. D. S. Mncdonnld) is expected to return to tow n from the Marlborough district in time lo go on to Tnranaki tomorrow.

The Hon. To liangihiron goes to Wanganui to-day to attend a meeting of the Wanganui Maori Council. Jie will not return to town until about tho end of tho week.

Mr. Edward Newman, M.P. (Rangitilcei), h in Wellington, on business connected with his constituency.

Mr. l'\ W. Furkert, Inspecting Engineer in the Public Works .Department, is in Otngo with tlie Prime Minister, and will in«pcct .several works in tha (district before returning to Wellington.

_ Lieutenant Pennell, H.N., of Captain Scott's exploring vessel, the Terra jSova, is at present in Wellington. Ho called on Mr, Donald Robertson, Secretary of the l'ost and Telegraph Department, yesterday afternoon. In tho course of conversation with a reporter. Lieutenant I'ennell mentioned in connection with meteorological observation that as New Zealand gained sonio sort of clue from South Africa as to the weather to bo expected, Mr. Simpson, of the Indian Geological Department, who had been to the Antarctic with them, had told him that in India they had by experience found tho weather of South America tho host aid to them in prognosticating weather conditions in India. During his trip to tho south, Mr. Simpson had taken many observations, and it was his intention to endeavour to correct their data by what he had learned in the Antarctic.

Mr. Frank Hay, assistant engineer in the head office of tho Public Works Department, is a passenger on tho Zealandia, duo from Vancouver to-day. Mr. Hay is returning from an extended tour in Europe and America.

The Hon. J. A. Hanan, Minister for Education, left for .the south lost night in order to attend a banquet to Mr. J. C. Thomson, M.P., at Otautau to-morrow, and another at Orawai on Thursday. Ho will then return to Wellington, but will stop on the way to receive deputations on educational and other matters at Duncdin, Timaru, and Christchureh. If ho is still in Christchureli on Tuesday, Hay It, ho will open the musical and elocutionary competitions on that date.

Mr. John Wood, who has been transferred from Westport, where he was assistant engineer in charge, left Wellington for the north on Saturday to take up his new position as Resident 'Engineer at Whangarei in the Public Works Department. Mr. J. K. W. M'Knnis, who vacates that position to succeed Mr. 1\ W. Furkert as District Engineer at Dunedin, will leave shortly for the south.

The Auckland unions affiliated to tho Federation of Labour will be represented at tho coming conference by Messrs. J. E. Duncan (Waikato miners), W. E. Parry and 11. Kennedy (Waihi miners), P. Fraser and J. B. King (Auckland general labourers), E. Canham {Auckland waterside worker), P. Richardson and A. Bos6er (Auckland tramway employees).

Word has boen received in Wellington of tho death last night of Mrs. Cashman, tho wife of Captain Cashman, of the Defoncs steamer Lady jßoberts (Auckland), and late of the Union Company, Wellington. The death also took place of their child.

Cable word has been received of tho death in London of Mr. Robert Stains, one of' the founders of the' firm of Kirkcaldie and Stains. The deceased gentleman, who was 77 years of age, died at his residence, Westwood Lodge, Upper Norwood (Loudon), on Friday last. MrStains was born in Beptford,_Kent, and after serving an apprenticeship to the drapery trade in Ixmdou, and gaining experience in the metropolis, left there for Sydney in 1861, and there made tho acquaintance of Mr. John Kirkcaldie, with whom lie worked for a time. They decided to come to New Zealand, and opened on Lambton Quay, opposite Barrett's Hotel, on December 9, ISG3, Starting in a small way, the young firm prospered, and as the city grew the business grew with it. Their's was the first building to be erected on the reclaimed land in Lambton Quay. Tho two-story wooden building demolished only ten years ago to make way for a larger and more substantial structure, was in its day considered a credit to the architecture of the town. The partnership lasted for twentythroe years, until September, 18S8, when Mr. Stains disposed of his interests to Mr. Kirkcaldie, ami left to reside in London. For the past two or three years Mr. Stains had been in very frail health. Mrs. Stains died on December ,1, 1910, leaving a son and three daughters. Kirkcaldie and Stains's premises were closed between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. yesterday, as a mark of respect to tho deceased.

At the funeral of Hcmi Matenga oa Sunday (states a Press Association telegram from Nelson) over two thousand people were present, including the Hon. G. Laurenson, the Hon. W. B. S. M'Donald, Mr. Atmore, M.P., the Mayor of Nelson, and representative citizens. The body was buried at a lonely spot alongside that of his wife, Huria Matenga, New Zealand's Grace Darling. The spot ig near where thc-y together rescucd tho shipwrecked sailors at a time when bad feeling existed between tho two races.