PERSONAL ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3032, 20 March 1917, Page 4

PERSONAL ITEMS

Sir Francis Bell, who has been in the South Island, has returned to Wellington. The Hon. \V. C. P. CarncToss has been rcappointed to the Legislative Council. Sir James Allen has consented to preside at the returned , soldiers' gathering to be held at the Grand Opera House on Anzao Day. Admiral Sir David Beatty, G.C.8., K.C.V.0., has accepted the vicepresidency of the British an 3 Foreign Sailors' Society. The Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, is expected to arrive from Auckland to-day, lb is possible that he may sentence some prisoners at Wellington on Thursday. His Honour .Mr. Justice Chapman, left for Masterton yesterday morning. The Defence authorities advise that Captain John Campbell MacDiarmid, N.G.M.0., died at 9.30 p.m. en Sunday in Davis Street Private Hospital. The certified cause of death was appendicitis and peritonitis. The deceased officer was a son of Dr. B. 0. MacDiarmid, of Huntly. A Press Association message from Sydney states that Mr. Richard Teece, general manager of the Australian Mutual Provident Society, a New Zealander, retires at tho end of April. Mr. J. H. Gunson, Mayor of Auckland, and a member of tho National Efficiency Board, arrived in Wellington yesterday. On March 01 Mr. W. V. M'Girr, chief overseer at the Government Printing Office, will retire on superannuation after having completed forty years of continuous service. Mr. M'Girr is one of the best-known members of the printing trado in Wellington. He was born in Victoria in 1859, and recoived his initial education at the Model School, Melbourne. Afterwards he went with his family to Adelaide, and then migrated to New Zealand, sottling in tlio Thames in 1868. Ho left for Clutha, Otago, in 1872, in which year his father started the Balclutha "Leader," and it was there that Mr. M'Girr first learnt tho printing business. Mr. M'Girr spent six months ou tlio Chrislchurch "Press," and then camo on to Wellington, entering the ' Government Printing Offico in March, 1877. He has remained in thn Government establinlinionf, pvnr .since, gradually wnrkiiij; Im wsiv ii|> I" Hip position W iiiin h01d,.. .Mr. M'Girr lias been granted throe months' Uave of absence on full pay, and purposes taking a. trip to. Australia j

Mr. Ales. R. Hislop, jun., who wenlf Homo on business last August, had joined the Royal Field Artillery, and been granted a commission. Mr. .Hislop, junior, was for some years in the D Battery of artillery, and passed with distinction the examinations in connection with the military school established in Wellington by Colonel Oweil long before the war broke out. :

The death occurred yesterday at Rotorua of Mr. J. Noble-Beasley, son of the late Mr. B. T. Noble-Beasley, and brother of Mr. G. N. Noble-Beas-ley and Lieutenant T. H. Noble-Beas-ley, of Wellington. The deceased, who was a marned man, had been connected with the Magistrate's Court at Rotorua for the past two years, and had been in failing health for about six months.

The Wellington Centre of the RoyaJ Life-Saving Society in. its annual Teporb says:—"The centre mourns the loss of. Messrs. W. H. Ellis, S. P. Chapman. J. Geddes, and H. Morris, who hare been killed in action. All of theso, particularly Mr. Ellis, have done yeonian service in our cause. We extend to their relatives our sincere sympathy. We regret to eay that Mt. W. G. Morpeth, who -was always a champion, in the society's work, has received grievous wounds, which have deprived him [of tho use of. one eye. Among the many members of the centre on active sernce we mark 'particularly Messrs. 0. G- Hedge and J. F. Waters, who, up to tho time of their enlisting, were members of the Executive Committee." Lieut. Maurice Sprott, son. of the jLnglican Bishop of Wellington (Dr. Sprott), who was mentioned in dispatches some time ago, has now been, awarded the Military Cross. Lieut. Sprott was -wounded , in the Sbmnw offensive, and as soon as ho recovered returned to the fighting line, where he has won his latest honour.