PERSONAL ITEMS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 5, 1 October 1919, Page 6

PERSONAL ITEMS

Brigadier-Gener.il !R. Young, C.M.G., D.5.0., who arrived from England by the Corinthic, will take over the command of the Canterbury military district on the termination of, his leave, in about one month's time. General Young left New Zealand in October, 1914, as a major in the Wellington Battalion of the Main Body.

Major John M. ltose, M.C., Croix de •Guerre (with palm), who left Wellington as a captain of the- Wellington ltegiment of N.Z.E.F. in 1914, has returned to New Zealand after a singularly interesting war career. He was wounded many times, 60 badly in France (in 1916) that it finished his active life as a soldier, but 110 is still able to get about. ■ Ho was thrice wounded on Gallipa.i, and- was vjry badly smashed up at Flers (111 Trunco)! Subsequently he was appointed second in command at Eornchurch, whilst still undergoing medical treatment. Mrs. Itoso has, also returned to Wellington.

Mr. C. A. Lawrence, who formerly represented the Architects' Institute on the Technical College Board, has been returned'to tho board as representative of the parents of .children attending the Technical High School.

The Rev. J. li. Young, M.A., lately returned from tho war, where he served chaplain and gained the Military Cross, was instituted on Sunday evening vicar of lleathcote and St. Chad's mission district, Avonside, Christchurch.

Mr. J. W. Kinniburgh, officer in chnrgo of thi-War Funds Office (Internal Affairs Department), is retiring from that position and the public service after fortythree years' sen-ice. Mr. Kinniburgh, who retires on superannuation, proposes to go into business in Wellington. The period of service to Mr. Kinniburgh s credit extends froin 1873 to date, with one break of two years and ten months. For the first ten years ho was attached to the Post and Telegfaph and Raiiway Departments. In ISS3 ho left the Civil Service to become secretary of the. Tam-ii-ald Farmers' Co-operative Association; and after a year and a half in that post, lis went into' business in Waitara as produce and commission agent. Ho then came to .Wellington, and joined the actuarial branch of the Government Life Insurance Department, and worked under Hie late Mr. Maurice Fox until the. time of that officer's death. Mr! Kinniburghs duty was the valuation and distribution of bonuses. After spending- twenty-nine year l ; in the Insurance Department, he was asked in 1915 to take ehargo of the newly-esta'blished War Funds Office, and to l bo secretary of the, National 1 War Funds Council, of which the Minister of Internal Affairs is chairman. The office has handled under his administration a total of, roughlly, six millions sterling.

A Press 'Association message from Timaru states that Mr. Fred. Bnrkns, who lias been Timaru manager of the Now Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company for the past ten years, retired from business on Monday, after .16 years' service. The firm and the local employees bade him a cordial official farewell. Mr. Barkns will remain in Timaru. Mr. I'. 0. -May goes from the Rakaiii branch to Timaru.

Mr. H. Morgan, who has been clerk of the Court at Hawcra for''the past four years, has been appointed to a similar position at Nelson.

Mr. T. L. MneLcan, vice-president of Gaelic Society in London, secretary of the London Inverness-shin* Association, a member of the Council of the -Federated Scottish Societies in London, and also of tho London Gao'.ic Service Committee, arrived in New Zealand by tho Karamea. He is spending it fow days in Auckland, and will next visit Wellington. Ho expects to be in New Zealand for about six months. Subsequently Mr. Mac Lean will visit America and China and Japan.

A Press Association message from Gisborne slates: Advice has been received that Dr. Newton, lecturer on Imperial and Colonial History at the University of London, will visit New Zealand in March next as a special travelling commissioner for tho Koyal Colonial Institute. He 'has been invited by America and Australia to lecturo on University topics and Imperial interests. -

Tlho death occurred yesterday of Mr. W. M'Keegan, of Webb Street, one of tho best-known figures in tlhe engineering profession in Wellington. Mr. M'Keegan was boru in Waleii'ord, Ireland, and served part of his apprenticeship to the engineering trade, with the firm of-31al-conison Bros., of -that city, which firm failed through' American war ventures. Ho subsequently served three years wil'h tho Barrow-in-Furness Shipbuilding and Dock Company,, and enme to Wellington in 1873, and completed his apprenticeship with the lirm of E. W, Mills and Co. During 1878, in his spare ' hours, he bnilt two steam launches, the Vesta and Tarn, botlli wqoden vessels. The Vesta was a single cylinder craft capable of doing about seven knots, but the Lara was in those days of low pressure stoam a flyer, and could do fourteen knots per hour. She carried a steam pressure on| her boiler of ISO points to the'square inch, an abnormally lii.gh pressure for those dn.vs. After doing salvage work on the Otaki Reach for the ship Hydrabad for nearly twelve months Mr. M'Keegan got the appointment of manager and engineer for the Dispatch Foundry Co.. of Grcymouth, which position he held for over eight years. He subsequently went to sea mid qualified for a position as chief engineer. After-, wards he held the position of works mana.gc.i- and foreman for the firms <>♦ D. Robertson and Co. and W. Cablo and Co., of Wellington'. Ml'. M'Keenan was one of the old engineers who had to mnke their calculations of strains and stresses in the earliest days without the aid of "Molesworth," "Kinncar' Clarke," "Umvinor the Canterbury College, to arrivp at a. formula. He .was a pioneer in engineering formulae. He married Miss Galloway, of Dunodin, and leaves a widow and one son, Charted, of Chnst- - church, who has returned from the front badly wounded! One son, "Jack," was killed at the-Somme, and an only daughter died last year.

Mr. F, G. Sharpe, of 3lessrs. Nimmo and Blair. Dunedin, has -received a letter from the High Commissioner' for New Zealand (Sir Thomas Mackenzie), informing him of a'very gallant action performed by his brother, Lieutenant Gerald Sharpe, R.N.R., who at considerable personal risk jumped into the Thames River, with all'his clothes and his seaboots on. and rescued a .child who was in imminent danger of being drowned. As Lieutenant Sharpe departed almost immediatelv after the occurrence, and his whereabouts had no 1 ; been established until recently, over two months elapsed before the particulars of his bravei • i action" wtre placed before the Royal Hn-: mane Society. The latter was then unable to do otherwise than express its regret at its inability to officially recognise the New Zealand officer's bravery.