PERSONAL ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 67, 13 December 1918, Page 4

PERSONAL ITEMS

The Hon. W. D. S. Mac Donald will act as Postmaster-General during the absence from New Zealand of Sir Joseph Ward. The Hon. D. II Guthrie, is going to the Manawntu district to-day. He will return to Wellington on Monday next.

A Press Association cablegram from London states that a Bar to tho Military Medal has been awarded to Sergeant P. 'Prendegast, of the First Auckland Regiment.

A private cablegram from England announces the death of Mr. E. Denis O'Rorko, late oDVuckland, and son of the late Hon. Sir Maurice O'Rorke. His death was the result of a fall from a horse. He had been resident in England for some years, and the principal part of his war work had been the purchase of horses for the British Government. ■His second son was killed in France, and his eldest son was wounded a second timo in September last. His widow is a menibcr of the well-known Rhodes family, of Canterbury.—Press i Association.

A dispatch from the Western front states that Mr. Malcolm Ross, the official war correspondent with the New Zealand Forces, is at present ill, and unable to accompany the New Zealand Division in its advance to the Rhino.

Mr. John Dineen has' been appointed officer in charge of the Boys' Probation Home (an industrial 'school), which has been'established at Zvo. D Austin Street, Wellington.

Mr. W. W. Simpson lias been appointed official assignee for Otago and Southland for the purposes of the Bankruptcy Act.

By Gazette notice Mr. A. K. S. Mackenzie lias been appointed honorary viceConsul for Spain in Wellington. Mr. I Mount, Into of St. Mary's of the Angels, Boulcott Street, has been appointed organist of St. Benedict's Church, Auckland.

At the conclusion of the winding-up meeting of the Wellington East -Group Committee, held in the Congregational Schoolroom, Cambridge Terrace, Mr. Thomas Forsyth, on behalf of the committee, presented the captain, Mr. William Foster, with a gold-mounted fountain pen, as a small token of a memorable time in the history the district and the. city, and as a tribute to the very able manner in which he had organised and supervised the work in connection with the suppression of the epidemic. Mr. Faster said that he could not follow the logic of Mr, Forsyth, who had said that the nurses did not want their names mentioned, yet they had done this. He really wished he had not come, for no one went' into work of the kind with the though of any reward, still, he thanked them all for the kindly thought which had promoted the gift. ,Mr.!W. J. Napier, of Auckland, arrived by the Main Trunk express yesterday.

Mr. J. S. Day, town cierk of Eastbourne Borough and manager of the borough. ferry service, has resigned his office and is returning to Cln'istchur:h, from which city he came two years ago. A veteran of the Maori War, Mr. Henry Honeyer, died at the Auckland Hospital on Saturday at the age of tC. He served with the Taranaki Rifle- Volunteers, holding the rank of buglermajor.

A very old coionist, Mr. Michnel Smith, .died at Okaihau last week. Deceased, who was 90 years of age and a native of County Cavan, Ireland, joined the 50th Regiment at the age. of 18, and, with his .(regiment, arrived at the Bay of Islands in tho year 1848, subsequently taking part in the Northern nnd Taranaki campaigns against the Maoris. When hostilities ceased and the regiment left for Some Mr. Smith purchased his discharge and married.

Captain Guy Gaivpt, who ig well known in Wellington, having visited this and other New Zealand ports on ii'.en-o'-wnr at different periods, has been created a Knight Commander of the Distinguished Order, of St. Michael and St. George. Captain Sir Guv Reginald Archer Gaunt, K.N., A.D.C., K C.M.G., C.8., was torn at Bollnrat, Victoria, his father being Governor of tho Goldfields and Judge of Victoria. He was educated at Melbourne Grammar School, and later joined the R.N.R., in 1895, serving in the flagship Channel Squadron. He was second in command of torpedo boat No. 02 in her famous voyage across the Atlantic. During tho rebel attack on tho town of Apia, Samoa, in 1899, lie was commanding the British Consulate there, and commanded Gaunt's Brigade during the subsequent operations. Captain Sir G«y Gaunt hos served in many parts of tho world, and on America's entry into tho big war became liason officer, with the rank of Commodore (first claps). He received (he 1911), C.B. in 1918 (given for his admirable work as Naval' Attache), and was appointed a Naval aide-de-camp to tho King also in this year.