PERSONAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 51, 5 July 1913, Page 5

PERSONAL.

Mr T. E. Wilson, formerly of Strat- * ford, and now of Taihape, arrived in Stratford last night on a short visit.

Mr W. Birdling, of Waitara, is confined to his house through indisposition. The local paper states that Mr Birdling contemplates taking a health-recruiting trip to Australia shortly.

Mr Victor Booth, a native of Oamaru, has been appointed professor at the'Royal Academy of London. He visited New Zealand last year as examiner for the Academy, and is the first New Zealander to gain the distinction of a professorship at this musical conservatoire.

Mr Hauraki Manning, a son of the late Judge Manning, will, it is reported, contest the Northern Maori seat a tthe next general election in the interests of the Government party. Mr Manning, who is now 67 years of age, will be remembered as being at onetime foremost amongst the world's champion athletes.

Mr It. D. Harkness, who went to the Old Land for the purpose of purchasing Jersey heifers, writes from Jersey to his brother in Stratford, Mr R. F. Harkness, that he is having an enjoyable time. He had not at the time of writing dropped across either Mr N. Fulton or Mr J. Thomson, who also are on a visit to the Old Country. He intended leaving for New Zealand at the end of June.

Mr S. Percy Smith (New Plymouth) and Miss Percy Smith intend to spend a year in England, and to winter in Devonshire (states a London correspondent). Just now they are in London, and they have a number' of visits to pay to relatives and friends in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Scotland. In September Mr Percy Smith will attend the British Association meeting at Birmingham. The trip to'the Mother Country is purely in the nature of a holiday, after an absence of over 63 years.

Mr R. Williamson, of Koxburgh (Otago)j has been appointed Presbyterian Home Missionary for Toko, the Rev. Mr Pattison informs us. Mr Williamson is a young man and is unmarried. Dr. Gibb, of Wellington, in a letter to Mr Pattison, writes: "He has done very good work in Central Otago and on the West Coast, and I trust will be more than equal to ail the demands of the service in hi a new sphere."

Mr Chas. Hamblyn, one of Taranaki's. earliest settlers, passed, away yesterday. The deceased, who was born in . Holdsworthy (Devonshire) came'to New Zealand with his parents'by the Amelia Thomson in .1842, and has resided in the Taranaki district ever since, bearing his' full share of the burden in time of war and following agricultural pursuits in time of peace. Deceased, who was 79 years of age, leaves a family of seven sons and four daughters.

The recent death of Mr J. C. Ross, leader-writer to the Times, is another interesting example of the great English tradition of anonymous journalism: 1 "Although," writes the Times, "Mr 1 Ross was- unknown outside a small circle of personal and professional friends, yet hy his death a journalistic force of much power and originality is lost to the world." For the last thirty-two years, the world now learns, he has dealt night after night with current questions. For a generation the voice of the "Thunderer" on pressing matters of public concern has been the voice of Mr Ross, and no one except his colleagues and his private friends ever heard of Mr Ross. His name is not even in that singularly catholic and accommodating handbook to fame, "Who's Who."