PERSONAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 62, 4 July 1914, Page 5

PERSONAL.

Mr John Macßae, a well-known settler of Weraiti, who gave £IOOO this week to the Y.M.C.A. funds, died yesterday morning at the age of 55 years. Bishop Crossley, formerly of Auckland, is improving ■•in'-health-, states the Church Chronicle. Be has taken - several confirmations in the diocese of- St. Alhans during the iiiness of the Bishop. ,„ Mr J. S. Pipe, who has occupied the position of clerk to the Magistrate's Court at Eltham for a number of years, retires on superannuation on 31st October. He received advice of , -ij»his in a letter from the Magistrate yesterday morning. MugifKenrick referred in complimentary terms to Mr Pipe's lengthy and valuable services, and also notified him that he had been granted three months' holiday. The Argus says Mr Pipe is well known in Eltham, where he has made numerous friends, and all will join with us in .congratulating him' on his well earned holiday, and wishing him many years in which to enjoy his retirement;. ~ .

The death of the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, at the age of 77, removes one of the most noted figures in Imperial politics during recent years. He was born at Camberwell, and went into business in Birmingham, but retired from it' before tofl ■ was forty, and threw himself into Acal politics as an advanced Radical. He had a remarkable influence on the civic life of Birmingham, and after being thrice elected Mayor he was returned to Parliament as a Liberal. Four years later he became President of the Board of Trade. He quitted *• the Liberal Party in 1886 over Home Rule, and became Secretary for the Colonies in 1895, and carried on the negotiations with the South African Republics before the Boer war. In May, 1903, he propounded a scheme 'of fiscal reform, with which his name will long be associated. He resigned office in September, 1903, in order to prosecute this campaign with indeJ pendence. On his 70th birthday he had a striking public reception, and immediately afterwards the collapse of his health necessitated his temporary retirement from public life. A cablegram to-day states that Mr Chamberlain died peacefully at his London residence in the presence of his family.