ABOUT PEOPLE

Southland Times, Issue 18860, 28 June 1920, Page 5

ABOUT PEOPLE

Mr A. B. Taylor, clerk of the Treasury, Wellington, has been appointed to a similar position at Samoa. A London Press Association cable states that the King entertained Sir. Thomas Mackenzie at luncheon at Buckingham Palace. Madame Calve is to retire from the concert platform and grand opera next year ai.d establish an “academy of song” in Paris. A Sydney Press Association cable states that the Rev. Father O’Farrell, Vice-Rector of St. John’s College, Sydney, has been appointed Roman Catholic Bishop of Bathurst. Mr Horace Hunt, the well-known exWellington pianist, who, during the war was a prisoner in Germany, is at present touring New Zealand as a member of the Gertrude Johnson Concert Company. Mr T. S. Tomlinson, accountant in the local branch of the Bank of New Zealand, has been advised of his promotion to the position of accountant in the Auckland branch, and will leave to take up his new position in about six weeks. At a congregational meeting of Knox Church last night, it was decided that no obstacle he placed in the way of the Rev. Hector Maclean accepting the call to St. Andrew’s Church, Dunedin. A resolution was also carried appreciating the good work done by Mr Maclean in Knox Church, and stating that if he accepted the call the good wishes of the congregation would go with him. Mr R, T. Sadd (chairman) and Dr Cockayne, members of hte Royal Commission on Land Tenures, were passengers for Wellington on Friday (says the Otago Daily Times). They will present the report of the commission to the Government. Messrs A. J. Murray (Kaikoura), W. B. Buckhurst (Christchurch I, and A. Mclnnis (Oamaru) also went north, .while Mr D. Jardine (Southland) also returned home. The labours of the commission have covered the period from April 12, and before dispersing the members passed hearty votes of thanks to the chairman and to Dr Cockayne for his services in editing the report of tne commission. The death occurred last week of one of the Thames pioneers, Mr John Grigg, F.R.A.S., at the age of 82. He was born in the Isle of Thanet in 1838, and after receiving a musical and scientific education left England by the ship Annie Wilson in 1863, coming to Thames in 1868. For ten years he was employed as a singing teacher under the Auckland Board of Education, and wrote and composed a number of songs, including the well-known “My Own New Zealand Home,” sung in all schools. His observations on the transits and planets and photographs of cornels earned him a fellowship in the Royal Astronomical Society, and he discovered a comet in 1902, a second in 1903, and a third in 1907, and was awarded two medals for this by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, He secured the only successful photograph in the world of the 1901 comet, and copies of this were being used as a record by the Astronomical Society for some years.