PERSONAL ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2408, 13 March 1915, Page 7

PERSONAL ITEMS

The Hon. J. Allen leaves Wellington for Auckland by tho express to-morrow night. The Hon. Wm, Pitt, the Melbourne architect, who specialises in theatreplanning, left for Sydney by the Ulimaroa last evening. His visit to Wellington has been in connection with the Grand Opera House. Captain C. H. Weston, Crown Solicitor at New Plymouth, lias been given a commission in tho 6th Reinforcements (Wellington Regiment), and is going into camp at Trent-ham on Monday. Mr. Judah Myers, the head of the firm of J. Myers and Co., of Wellington, who has been a resident of Wellington for about forty years, celebrated his eighty-fourth birthday yesterday. He received telegrams and messages of congratulation from all parts of tho Dominion. At least two of the present members of the City Council will not be candidates at next month's election. These are Mr. T. C. A. Hislop who is leaving for the front, and Mr. Edward; Tregear, who was one of Lahour s nominees two years ago. News has been received in Wellington that Mr. Daniel Ryan, Auckland, manager for the Huddart-Parker Comi pany,°is making good progress towards ! recovery from his recent severe ulncßS. He has been in Rotorua for the past fortnight. ' Mr. J. Harry Lang, Y.M.C.A. secretary, from' Hyderabad, India, is in town. Mr. Lang will spend some days with the troops at Trentham. Detective Lewis, of tho local detective offico, has been promoted to tho rank of detective-sergeant-. Mr. W. Wilton, son of Mr. J. Wilton, of Pahiatua, has been appointed manager of a sanatarium at Warburton, Victoria. Mr- C. E. Daniell has decided to offer himself for re-election as representative of the Wairarapa on the Wellington Harbour Board. Mr. and Mrs. Guy Sherwood, of Melbourne, who have been touring New Zealand, left for Sydney by the Ulimaroa yesterday evening. Mr. W. T. Hildreth, Mayor of Karori, will be a candidato for the City Council and Harbour Board next month. He will not stand for the Karon Mayoralty this year. . Mr. T, A. Dibbs, the octogenarian •general manager of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, and Mrs. and Miss Dibbs, who have been touring New Zealand, left for Sydney hy tho Ulimaroa yesterday. i Messrs. B. G. H. Burn and J. W. Henderson, both members of the Karori Borough Council, are mentioned as likely candidates for the Mayoralty of the borough. Mr. Vincent Pyke, manager of the Bank of New Zealand' a,t Gisborne, and formerly of Gore, will retire from the bank on Maroh 31, after 35 years' service with the institution. Mr. Nicholas Reid, of Wellington, is now the oldest member of the Incorporation of Maltmen of Glasgow, having been admitted as far back as August 5, 1853. Since. June 3 of that year he has been a burgess of Glasgow. The Florence Young Company arrive in town to-day. . ' Lieutenant Vf. A. Burn, N.Z.S.G., who is at present adjutant of the Third .(Auckland) Regiment, has been instructed to' report himself at Wellington, where, it is understood, he will receive orders to proceed to. England to take service with -the Royal Flying Corps. Lieutenant Burn, who is a Uhristchurch man, was the New Zealand officer chosen for special training at Home in aviation. He had left for New Zealand justbefore war broken out.. One of the officers of the new battleship Queen Elizabeth, which is engaged in the operations in the Dardanelles,''is Lieutenant M'Cullock,. of Pohanmna County (Wanganui). Lieutenant M'Cullock wis farming there when war broke out, hut, having previously seen service in the Navy, he volunteered for active service, and ..was accepted.: Lieutenant Edmund A. Hill, whose name appears amongst the list of missing officers who were on board the illfated Formidable, was an officer on H.M.S. Philomel before she was recommissoined in July last. He made many friends in all parts of the Dominion. Mr. John Swift, a member of the headquarters civil staff of.the Defence Department, and a very old.public servant, died yesterday in a. private hospital from an attack of blood poisoning, ftlr. Swift entered the Public Service as far back as June 1, 1883, as a clerk in tho Justice Department, and saw service in quite a number of Government Departments up to the present date, and as he only left his office on Friday afternoon lie may be said to have practically died in harness. For 13 years he was a member of the audit staff, and for the last 4£ years he has been a clerk in the Defence Department. Li his long experience in many different Departments, Mr. Swift never failed to impress those with whom he had official relations, as a painstaking and courteous public servant. He was a delightful raconteur of service stories of 20 to 30 years ago, who could on occasions delve /into the treasury of his Public Servico reminiscences, gathered in many Departments, under many chiefs, and he could touch on the social and genial side of the many officials he had served ! under or otherwise came in contact with, j with a master hand. As an enthusiastic member of the Star Boating Olub, when that club may be said to have been at its zeftith as an amateur rowing and boating club, he was a familiar and frelcome figure, and retained his interest in tho club's affairs all through. Mr. Swift was one of the original members of the Wellesley Club, and his connection with that institution dates buck to 1893.- He will;-he remembered in the kindliest light as one of the kindliest members whose name has adorned the club's membership roll. A funeral servico will be held at St. Mark's Church at 3 p.m. to-morrow. Mr. Irvine Elston, manager of \the Grand Picture Palace at Dunedin, is about to proceed to London on behalf of a private company to arrange _ for supplies of the best films for exhibition throughout New Zealand. Mr. Elston proceeds by the Niagara to Vancouver on the 23rd instant, from Auckland, and will remain for a fcir weeks in New York in the company's interests, and then go on to London, which he will make his headquarters. It is considered that the immense development of tho kinematograph industry in Now Zealand warrants such a step, and Mr. Elston, after eight years' experience of the moving-picture business in the Dominion, will be able, in the heart of the world as it were, to obtain speoial films to suit the public of New Zealand. It will be Mr. Els ton's aim to secure films of interest, such as war views, sconics, and other educational pictures, as well as light and heavy dramas of merit, and the best class of comics.