PERSONAL ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2533, 6 August 1915, Page 4

PERSONAL ITEMS

Cable advice has been received by Sirs. F. B. Smedley, Park Terrace, Wellington, that her son, Lieutenant Olias. P. Smedley, of the Auckland Mounted Rifles, who was admitted to a_ hospital in Alexandria on July 8, having been in the firing line at the Dardanelles since the beginning of May, is progressing favourably. Lieutenant Smedley left New .Zealand with tlio Slain Expeditionary Force in October last, and prior to that was the officer com-, manding the machine-gun section of the North Auckland Mounted Rifles. Mr. Alex. Boyle, president of the Canterbury Branch of the New Zealand Moderate League, arrives from the south this morning. The City Council last night promoted Mr. Bert. Hill, at present custodian of Kelbnrn Park, to tlio position of Town Belt Forester, rendered vacant by the death of Mr. M'Pherson. Mr. Hill was second in the final selection at the time applications wero invited for the position two years ago. ~ The Yen. Archdeacon Harper, who has resigned the vicarship -of St. Peter's Church, "Wellington, 111 ordei to settle in England, will, with Sirs. Harper and family, be entertained by the parishioners in the Gliuznee Street Schoolroom next-Monday evening. Tlio Ruahine. by which they have booked passages, is to leave Wellington for London about-the end of next week. Mr. A. L. D. Eraser arrived in Wellington last evening. 'He will represent the East Coast Branches of the New Zealand Moderate League at the conference to be held to-day and the deputation to the Prime Minister to-morrow. Mr. Norman Christie has been appointed an inspector of certain scenic reserves in the Makotuku and Karioi .Survey Distriots. Mr. R. Hampton, of Addiugton Railway Workshops, has been appointed president of the A.S.R.S., to succeed Mr. W. T. Wilson. He was elected to tlio last conference of tlio society as one of the workshops' delegates, and lias for many years been prominent in the society's affairs. Sir. A. 0. Wheatley, who has been associated with the' commercial department of 'The Dominion since ,it.s Jnceptioii, has been appointed accountant to tlie New Plymouth Borough Council, and leaves Wellington shortly to take up his now duties. - . The members of the "Court Cards," with the exception of Miss Winifred Mitchell (violinist) and Miss Renee Maudo (soprano), left for Sydney by the Uliniaroa' yesterday, to fulfil an engagement with Mr. Hugh D. M'lntosh, managing director of the Tivoli Theatres in Australia. Mr. J. O'Sullivan, late manager of the '.'Court Cards," and Miss Winifred Mitchell will probably leave for Sydney next week. Miss Maude is at present staying in War.ganui. The death oocurred at his residence, Roseneathj last evening of Mr. David Pickering, in his seventy-first year. The interment, will, take place at Masterton. Coropral T. Oscar Ross, Ist Canadian Contingent, the first man to win the D.C.M. (for conspicuous bravery on the Hold of battle of Ypres), is well known iu Hawke's Bay. Ho arrived there at the age of 15, and worked for the Hon. J. D. Ormord and Mr. R. D. M'Lean. After about ten years in that district he left for Canada-, where, immediately after war broke out, he enlisted. Corporal Ross comes of a family of fighters and explorers. His grandfather was lost while with the St. John Franklyn Expedition. to the North-West Passage. Mr. George Fache, an old and muchrespected resident of Central Otago_, died at Queenstown recently, aged 80 years. The deceased gentleman was born in London and went out to Australia in the 'fifties. After trying his luck on the Ballarat, Bendigo, and other Victorian goldfields, he was attracted to Otago in 1862 by the news of the rich discoveries at Gabriel's Gully. From there he went to tlio West Coast, and after some time returned to Central Otago. He established himself in business at the Dunstan, and until 1896 lie was one of the most prominent men in that part of the Dominion._ He was for a number of years proprietor of tho Dunstan "Times," and also carried on an auctioneering business at Clyde. In 1896 he removed to Wellington, and remaiud here for three years, when he again went back to. Central Otago. For a considerable time ho was secretary to the Dunstan Hospital. Mrs. Facho died some years ago. Tlie family consists of three sons and four daughters. The eldest son is Mr. George Facho, Commissioner of Pensions, and tho youngest is in tlio Dardanelles, where ho was recently wounded.

THE BS,A—FAVOURITE WITHMILITARY DISPATCH EIDEES-AND It has sometimes been said, with much truth that the business testis the best test of any motor. War is the grimmest business of mankind, and the military motor-cyclist stakes his life, very often, upon the reliability of his mount. Hera ifTVhat Sergeant R. E. Schoficld E E., senior instructor of the Motor-cycle Section nt Aldershot, has to say:—"Nearly every dispatch rider that has cone to the front has passed through my hands, and X am therefore in a position to judge how the different makes of machine are in favour. The B.S.A. is by far away the favourite, -and it has yet to happen tliat a B.S.A. has failed to act up to its well-earned repute. . . . I may state that 50 per cent, of the machines here are B S A.'s." A .motor-cyclist with, the Second Cavalry Division, British Expeditionary Force, iritis in a private letter: "The roads are hellish. . . - My B.S.A. is the goods. I never havo to touch it. They are tho bikes, my boy. They knock the — and any other make you like to mention into a cocked hat." There are plenty of other letters from the front, all to the eaino effect. We are landing 20 of • the latest modol B.S.A.'s ex s.s. Marlborough this week, and can give immediate delivery. They are ideal machines for either solo or side-car service, and their reliability is famous. The h.p. is 4}, and tho three-speed countershaft gear is foolproof and wonderfully efficient. Adams, Ltd., Christchurob, Waneanui, Palmerston North; Sutherland and Eankine, Wellington; Tourist Motor Co., Hastings, igents for 8.8J.. Motors,—AdTt.