Personal.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 76, 21 July 1914, Page 5

Personal.

To-day (July 21) is the anniversary of the death of Kobert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, who died near Ayr in 1796. Mr John Heslop, of Eltham, intends to visit Scotland, Ireland, and the Continent before returning to NewZealand, states a London correspondent writing on June 14. Mr F. G. Txeweek, who for six years held the positiion of secretary of the Egmont A. and P. Association, was voted a bonus of £2O, and elect«d a life member of the Association. Miss J. Tolley, M.A., has been appointed science mistress at the New Plymouth Girls' High School during the absence of Miss Cross in England. Mr J. F. Warren, who has been in charge of the Waipbri Falls (Otago) power station for over five years, has been appointed electrical engineer for Napier, at a salary of £6OO. a year. There were nineteen applications. * A very popular and pretty wedding waß celebrated at All Saints Church, Eltham, last Wednesday (states the Argus). ' The contracting parties were Mr F. Coates, third son of Mr Wm. Coates, Lowgarth, and Miss Inez Astbury, eldest daughter of Mr D. Astbury, Mangatoki. Mr W. McEwan, who has been for the past two years manager of the Te Boti branch cheese factory of the Eltham Company, has been appointed manager of the Featherston cheese fatory. which is one of the largest in the Wairarapa. Princess Pocahontas, to whose memory -the women of Virginia recently erected a memorial at Gravesend (England)' was a daughter of an Indian chief, and in 1607, when an English expedition, exploring for food, was captured, Captain John Smith, one of the leaders, was taken before the chief, and his head was laid on a stone in readiness for the beating out of hia brains with clubs. Princess Pocahonatas, who was then quite a young girl, finding entreaty of no avail, laid her arms about the head of Captain Smith, and, placing her head over his, saved his life. Two years later she again saved his life. Eventually she married an Englishman (John Rolfe), became a Christian, and went for , some months to England. She embarked for Virginia in 1617, but died t off Gravesend. She left one son, from whom several Virginian families claim descent.

The death of Mr Templer, school.master, at Tarata occurred with startling suddenness. At the inquest held at Tarata on Sunday, Mrs Templer gave evidence that her husband had always enjoyed good health, but recently, owing to an old injury to one of his feet he underwent an operation for the removal of the toes of his left foot. The foot had healed and he was making rapid progress towards recovery. On Friday night he went to bed in, apparently, good health, but on Saturday morning witness was awakened by her husband groaning. She got up ad spoke to him, asked if he were in pain, and he said no. Deceased then got out of bed and sat on the side of the bed and then collapsed. Dr. Nutting was summoned but long before his arrival deceased was dead.— Dr. Nutting gave evidence that on receiving instructions from the coroner he made a post mortem of the body. There were no marks of violence and death was due to a diseased heart, —The jury, without retiring, returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence. •>

A Sydney cablegram states that heavy general rain is being experienced and that the bitter cold continues.-.-

A Wellington Press Associatibn telegram to-day states: —lt has now been ascertained that the woman who was at first supopsed to be in the Ngahauranga fire was in Wellington at the time of the outbreak.

On Friday night, the school at Huirangi which is eleven miles east of New Plymouth, was destroyed by fire. With the building went a .church organ, books of various kinds, and •* small museum. The origin of the outbreak is a mystery.

The Commonwealth has decided to

award £BOO compensation to a West Australian cadet gunner, Walter Cann, who was permanently injured on mili-

tary service. Cann had attended the general artillery muster when Sir lan • Hamilton inspected the forces of West Australia. He was directed to mount a horse at the military depot, Guildford. The horse., bolted into the bush, and he was kicked off, sustaining serious permanent spinal injury. Under the military regulations, the amount

claimable by Cann is £355, but under the special circumstances, he 'being the son of a widow, the Minister for Defence has approved of a compensatory grant of £BOO.

A function which is in every sense a complimentary one will take place on Thursday at Midhirst, where, by the way, the residents are accustomed to do things well. Mr Alex. Brown will be the guest of the even-

ing, and the settlers of Midhirst are making every effort to give their (yFriend a bumper banquet. Mr Brown has long been a resident in the district, but is leaving shortly, and it is for the purpose of showing how much Mr Brown is appreciated that the banquet hasibeen arranged. Mr G. S. Ferguson is the secretary, and has charge of the function, and it is anticipated that a large gathering will be present,