PERSONAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 90, 11 December 1912, Page 5

PERSONAL.

Mr and Mrs N, F. Dunlop returned to Stratford last night from a holiday in Christchurch. Mr 1). F. Collins, the New Zealander who performed so creditably at the Cambridge University, is a passenger, to New Zealand by the Oronto, states a cablegram from Fremantle.

Mr George Smith, who was announced as a partner in the firm ot Webster, Dobson and Co., will not join the new firm. His services will be retained by Mr Newton King. Mr J. G. Mcßae, formerly with the First Gordon Highlanders, has been appointed Regimental QuartermasterSergeant of the 2nd Queen Alexandra Mounted Rifles. He is attached to the permanent staff, with headquarters at Hawera. ! Rev. Father Cognet, of Otaki, is seriously ill at the Catholic Presbytery, Wellington. Rev. Father De Lach, from tne same district, who has also gone to Wellington for treatment, is almost well again. The Rev. Father Paul Genist, a recent arrival from France, is doing duty at Otaki at present. Mr Davey, livery stable keeper, has* bought out Mr Fred Gooch, and will' take possession of the property on tiie, 17th of this month, conducting both businesses until January 10th, when! Mr Newton King 'will take over the. Royal Mail Stables. Mr Davey in- 1 tends to enlarge considerably his new acquisition, the land being freehold. |

Mr Willis, Speaker of the New South Wales Parliament, with Mrs Willis and their 27-year-old son intend spending the whole of next January in touring New Zealand. Air Geoige Black, a journalist of note, and a Labour member of the N.S.W. Parliament, who was responsible for placing Mr Willis in the Speaker’s chair, will also probably visit New Zealand, uitn his wife, early in the New Year. Mr Alex. Aiken, of Marion, and Mr Clethero, an officer in the Egyptian railway service, from Cairo, have been visiting Mr and Mrs N. Fulton, at Stratford. They have now gone to view the oil industry at Motorua. Air Clethero speaks very highly of Rotorua, Waitomo Caves, and the Wanganui river as pleasure resorts. He intends to tour the South Island before sailing from New Zealand on the 27th instant.

“The King and Queen are look ng in splendid healtli after their sojourn in the north, and much comment is being passed on Her Majesty’s comely looks. Since the King has come to the throne her position has developed her many fine characteristics, and her beauty lias increased in a remarkable manner. She is,” adds the Sheffield Telegraph’s London correspondent, “one of the women with whom success agrees. Her Majesty is said to be ideally happy, and, like all women who are happy, she looks beautiful.”

Father Geancy, S.M., who was a prominent member of St. Patrick s Col-, lege fifteen in 1908, has just finished ? his studies at the Gregorian University, Rome. About three years ago Father Geaney left New Zealand, after spending several years at St. Marys, Meanee. He has since been studying under such eminent theologians a 9 Cardinal Billot. Father Geaney is (says Blue and White, the journal of St. Patrick’s College), the first old boy of the college to take out the degree of Doctor of Divinity at Rome. During the last few months Dr Geariev has been travelling in Europe. He visited Turin, Milan, Lourdes, Lyons, Touvs, Paris, and at the time of writing was in London, and intending to visit Ireland. He is leaving London for New Zealad late in December, and should arrive early in the New Year.

The Rev. D. Egan (late of Auckland, and now in London), has for some time been very closely occupied with an ecclesiastical publication, A Dictionary of the Saints,” which ho hopes to'bring out in the early part of 1914. His appointment to superintend and revise the research work in connection with this publication has necessitated his residence in proximity to the British Museum, where most of his time is now spent. Dr Egan spent 21 years on mission work in Auckland, and he is very well known throughout New Zealand so numerous friends will be interested to hear of Ills appointment and of his field of work. Dr Egan is in splendid health, and he states that he finds “prospecting” among the treasures of the British Museum very fascinating.

Tne late Father Venning, the unfortunate victim of a cycling accident in Wellington, was a native of Timaru, and a suggestion has been made in Timaru among his friends that a memorial should be established to perpetuate his memory as the first nativeborn priest of Timaru. One gentleman who is an old schoolfellow of the Rev. Father has shown his interest in the proposal by starting the fund with a guinea, which he has forwarded to the Herald Office, and suggested that a subscription list should bo kept at that office, the fund to be eventually handed over to the Rev. Dean Tubman.' The writer further suggests (states the Herald), that the memorial might fittingly take the form of a stained-glass window in the new Catholic Church.

The late Sir George Darwin was born in 1845, and has been Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge since 1883. He had a distinguished uniersity career, and was Senior \\ rangier and Smith’s Prizeman at Cambridge in 1868, in which year he was elected a Fellow of Trinity College. In 1905 he was elected president of the British Association, having previously been president of_ the Riya. Astronomical Society. Sir George also contributed extensively to the scientific reviews on mathema'd si.ojects. Of the family of two daugnters and five sons left by Charles Daray., four of the sons have become prominent in the scientific world—Sir George ; Francis (born 1848), the distinguish I botanist; Leonard (born 1850), a major in the Royal Engineers, ard afterwards well known as an economist: and Horace (horn 1851), civil engineer. Two of the sons, Sir Georg* and Major Leonard, have .been president of the British Association in different years. The Darwin family furnish exceptionally interesting material for a study in heredity. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1801), great-grand-father of Sir George, was a web known English man of science and poet. Robert Waring Darwin (1766-1819). his third son by his first marriage, a doctor at Shrewsbury, was Die father ot the famous Charles Darwin ; and \ ioletta, his eldest daughter by bus second marriage, was the .nothcr of t ic Into Sir Charles Gallon, the founder o the present eugenic movement, and a leading authority on heredity.