PERSONAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3878, 1 December 1928, Page 2

PERSONAL.

The Rangitikei County Council received a bombshell at its meeting on Wednesday when its engineer (Mr. S. A. R. Mair) tendered his resignation after 30 years’ service. Mr. Mair is recognised as . one of the foremost local body engineers in the Dominion. He is at present a member of the Local Bodies Loan Board, an office to which he was appointed, no doubt, in recognition of his ability to render the Government practical service in view of his long and varied , experience. Another of the oldest of the pioneers of the Wellington province passed away on Thursday in the person of Mr. Friend Hook, who died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Robert Hooker, of 30 Worcester Street, Palmerston N.; in his hundredth year. The late Mr. Hook was born in Kent in 1829, and came out to New Zealand in the Coromandel with his mother, arriving in Port Nicholson in 1840. The flag was flying from the Post Office yesterday in celebration of St. Andrew’s Day. The local banks observed a close holiday. The death occurred at Raetihi on Wednesday of Mr. Charles C. Nation, son of Mr. 1 W. C. Nation, of Levin, and proprietor of the “Ohakune Times” and “Waimarino County Call” (Raetihi).: The late Mr. Nation was born in Christchurch, and removed with his parents successively toGreytown and Shannon. At an early age he followed the tradition of his family by entering the printing and newspaper business in which his father and his grandfather had been engaged, and with Mr. W. C. Nation, he established the “Manawatu Farmer” at Shannon in 1893, also publishing there the “Foxton Telegraph.” .Three years later, they •moved to Levin anil incorporated, the then existing paper .in the “Farmer’,’ of which the “Levin Chronicle” is the present-day representative. The late Mr. Nation, iwhen the firm’s interests in Levin were disposed of, joined the staff of the “Ohakune Times,” and made such progress that he eventually purchasedl the Journal]jand also took over the “Waimarino County Call,” published in the neighbouring town of Raetihi. He carried on these papers and the associated printing offices with so much ability that he built up a substantial and prosperous business, and came to be held in general esteem by . his fellow townsmen.