PERSONAL ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2930, 16 November 1916, Page 4

PERSONAL ITEMS

Sir James Mills, chairman of directors of the Union Steam Ship Company, arrived in Wellington this week from Auckland. Sir James, who has been in England for the past two years, has come to Now Zealand primarily for the purpose of presiding at the annual meeting of directors of the company, which takes place in Duncdin in the first week of December. Messrs. H. A. Knight and Teschemaker, directors of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company, and Mr. William Murray, general manager, arrived from Wanganui yesterday evening. Mr. Bernard Pago, Wellington City Organist, was taken ill last Saturday, and though his condition caused some anxiety for a few days, ho is now reported to bo progressing well. Last evening the Victoria College Council resolved, oil the suggestion of Dr. C. Prendergast-Knight. to send letters of condolence .to the relatives of Captain M'Dougall and Lieut. Hudson, two Wellington Rhodes scholars, who have fallen in the war. Captain B. M. Aldwell, late of Hospital Ship Marama, accompanied by Mrs. Aldwell, left by the express for Rotorua yesterday* The casualty list published this morning contains news of the death from wounds of Rifleman W. W. Isitt, son of Mr. L. M. Isitt, M.P. Mr. A. D. Donald and Mr. H. A. Beach'croft, of Ceylon, arrived in Wellington by the Riverina a few days ago to make a tour of New Zealand. Among the callers at the Wellington Tourist Bureau in the last few days were Messrs. W. P. Hudson, Brisbane; A. 0. Catt, South Australia; Mrs. Bignall, Melbourne; Miss R. Pay, Hobart; ,and Mr. and l Mrs. W. R. Blow, Sydney.

Cabled advice has been received' that Lieut. E. F. J. Reeves, formerly of the Public Trust Office staff, is at the Command Depot, Codford, England, "recovering from debility." Lieut. Reeves has had several service in the trenches at 'the , French front, and lias for the past few weeks been on sick leave in England.

Mr. J. B. Clarkson arrived from the south on Tuesday morning, and will be remaining in Wellington for some days. Dr. R. H. Makgill, who has been district health officer at Auckland during the past fifteen years, has accepted a position on the Medical Services staff, and will be occupied principally on matters relating to the conditions in all the military camps' affecting the health of the forces in training. Dr. Makgill, who recently returned to New Zealand after service in Britain and Egypt, wiTT leave for Wellington today.

Early in September Mr. George Watts, foreman in the news room of the Hawera "Star" Office, was advised that his brother, Private Isaac Watts, of the 51st Battalion of the Australian Infantry Force, had been killed in action on the 3rd of that month. This week, however, he received a German military post-card dated from Dulmen, in Wostplialia, on September 18, in his brother's own handwriting, stating that the writer was a prisoner of war, and stationed at Dulmen. Such incidents have their painful associations, but wrong reports like that of Private Watts's death are in the nature of things not uncommon in' connection

with a great war. Mr. W. W. Cook, who has been for the past _ ten (years, has been appointed RegistrarGeneral, vice Mr. F. W. Mansfield, retired. Mr. Cook, who was born at Port Chalmers in 1876, is the son of the late, Mr. James Cook, whose last' appointment wfcis manager of tho National Bank at Blenheim. The new RegistrarGeneral, who is a solicitor, received his education at the Te Aro School and Wellington College, and entered the head office in Wellington • in March, 1895. Since then he has gradually risen to his present position. He had been an energetic secretary of the_ Wellington College Old Boys' Association for four years, and has played cricket for the Wellington, Excelsior, and Old Boys' Clubs, and football for Wellington and Old Boys. Mr. H. Coloman, well known as as-

sistant to Mr. Joseph Lewis, secretary of the N.Z. Patriotic Society, has_ on■listed, and went into camp yesterday 'with the Twenty-third, Reinforcements. Advice has been received that Sergeant J. E. Fraser, of Auckland, who is on the French frontier with the NewZealand Expeditionary Force, has been awarded the Military Medal. Sergeant Fraser, who is a; son of Mr. P. R. Fraser, of the New Zealand In6uranco Company's 6taff, was in charge of a department in the warehouse of Messrs. John Burns and Co., Ltd., prior to his enlistment. He took part m the warfaro at Gallipoli, and was one of tho last boatload of Now Zealanders to leave the peninsula. Though specific particulars of the deed which gained himVlistinction are not yet available, it is known that Sergeant Fraser received his present, stripes on the field for gallant behaviour-'