PERSONAL ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2655, 29 December 1915, Page 4

PERSONAL ITEMS

The Right Hon. W. F. Massey. Prima Minister, is in Auckland, and will probably return to Wellington on Thursday. i '

The Minister of Defence (the Hon.Jas. Allen), who has bean in the south for the past few days, returns to Wellington'by Thursday morning's boat.

Mr. M. D, Hornsby, Mayor of Carter, ton, son of Mr. J.' T. M. Hornfcby, . M.P.j is seriously ill. An operation was "" performed on Christmas Day, and, according to a Press Association telegram, his condition is critical.

A cable message was received in Wellington on Monday night announoing ttie death in Has el Tin Military Hospital, Alexandria, of Major W. H. &. Levin} A! few days ago information was sent to the Defence, authorities here that' Major Levin, who went away with' the 2n<l Reinforcements, had been wounded in action, |ind was suffering from a compound fracture of the jaw and from complicated fracture of the elbow. His condition was then' described as fair. The deceased, who was 35 years of age, and very popular, was a native of Wellington, and the second son of the lata Mr. William Hort Levin, merchant, of this city. Mr. Robert Levin, of Feilding, is his elder brother. Major Levin attended the Wanganui Collegiate School, agd completed his education at Oxford. .'He then joined the,,4th Dragoon Guards, and' went through £iei 'South African ,War. _ Wlien hostilities ceased lie resigned .'his commission and returned to New Zealand, settling'nearGreatford, where he went in for sheep farming. He has left a widow (a daughter of the Hon. C. J. Johnston, M.L.C.), and four children.

Captain William Pitt was'adjutait of the Tahiti oil her nui from Suez to Port Chalmers. Mrs. Pitt went to Egypt to be near her husband, and wlulst tlier» a child was bom—the first Maori in tho land of tha Pharoahs.

Lieut. : Colonel Hardie Neil, N.Z.M.CV is at present in Auckland, where he wil remain during , the New Year holidays. He will then go to tW training camp-at Palmerston Nortb{ Liout.-'Colonel Neil has been at Duncdm 1 in connection witli the establishment "of a training school for officers of the New Zealand Medical Corps.

Mr. Andrew Clunies-Ross, owner ol Cocos Island, dropped dead .of heart disease at' his residence, Picton, on Christinas morniflg. The late Mr. Rosa was fifty-eight years; of age._ He had recently gone to reside, in Picton, until the conclusion of the war. A son, Capt. Clunies-Ross, is in command of the Union Company's s.s. Karitane, now on her way from Sydney to the Wsst Coast of Tasmania. The Cocos Islands are situated in the Indian Ocean, about 700 miles south-west of Sumatra. They export large quantities of coconuts and oil; but they will ever be remembered as the scene of the last of the German raider Emdcn, which was destroyed .by. H.M.A.S. Sydney on November 9, 1914. Mr. Lance Lewin, formerly well known in musical circles at Christchurch, joined the Ceylon Planters' Rifle Corps when war broke out. When the corps arrived in Egypt, as there were only 100 members, some fifty were drafted out as officers for the Indian regiments. Private Lewin refused a commission in ordor to join the New Zealand Artillery (No. a Battery), and has since been granted a commission in that body.

An old colonist in the person of Mh W S Collins died at his residence at I'onsonby on Sunday. The deceased gentleman arrived m; New Zealand m 1860, and saw service in the Maori \\ ar„ He was a'well-known commercial traveller, having been in tlie service of Messrs. Heather, Robertson, Ltd., for the past 14 years. He was also-a prominent Freemason, being one of the two oldest members of- Lodge Prince of Wales. He leaves a widow and a family of two sons and two daughters.