Personal Notes

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 278, 28 November 1904, Page 2

Personal Notes

The Hon. W. F. Carncross, M.L.C., was hi Nc"w Plymouth on Satuiday. Mr E. G. Allsworth is expected to arrive an New Plymouth on Tuesday in order to attend the Education Board's mooting on Wednesday.

Mr P. B. Ross was to leave this morning for AVanganui, where he will confer with the officials of the swimming centre on tho details of the projected visit of R, Cavil, the Sydney champion. Word received from Christchurch on Sunday evening stated that Mr Alfred Saunders, the veteran politician, formerly ''Father of the House," who recently returned from England, underwent ia severe operation on Saturday. So fai: he is progressing favourably.

Another well-known resident, in the ijerson of Mr W. J. Shaw, passed away last evening, after an illness extending over some considerable time. Tho deceased gentleman, who wns born in 1860, had spent nearly the whole of his life, excepting a bvief interval in Aucklf,nd, in New Plymouth, where he had at one time and another taken an active part in many local matters. A' lover of music, Mr Shaw waa a strong supporter of the old Philharmonic Society, tho Town Band, and St. Mary's Choir. He was also at one time a keen volunteer, being one of the men who marched to I'arihaka on November 3rd, 1881. Mr Shaw suffered a great (leal of illness of late years, being a martyr to llright'si disease ; but was always of a bright and cheerful nature, never losing hope in what the future held in store. He had for miiny | years past been in business as a commission agent, in which his sterling honesty and business ability won him a fair measure of success. The late Mr Sliaw married, about eleven years ago, a Miss' Anderson, of Wellington, who is left with two young sons to mourn her sad loss.

Tho "freedom of the City" of Cork has been conferred on Mr Jeremiah o 'Donovan Itossa, news of whose warm welcome lo the town was cablod a few days ago. Eossa vas known as one of the leaders of the extremist or "physical force" party. I'or his connection with tho Fenian movement, i„ 1867, Ire was condemned to death, a sentence which was afterwards commuted to penal servitude for life. He spent somo years in Chatham and Portland convict prisons, and tho rigours of the confinement told severely on his health, a nd injuriously affected bis mind. For the last twenty years or so ho has livod in New York, where lie edits a B m f ,ll paper known a s tho United Irishman." His denunciation by Mr Michael Bavftt some years ago created an immense sensation O'Donovan Rossa visited irelond m the summer of 1891, and delivered a series of lectures on his prison experiences. Then, as *ow, he was accorded a great reception i® his native Cork and the other cenU'cs he visiJed. As a type of a bygone school, now obsoletofn Irish politics, an® one who had suffered much m defence of the principles he espoused, he was welcomed everywhere, even by people who had llttJo sympathy with his convictions. In latter years his writings and uttmnnces on Irish questions have been marked only by virulence, and havei j never been taken seriously by anyl section of Irish Nationalists. On Jnw,? t T !H : h ' 1«85. ho was shot while walking m a street in New Yorl; by Lucilla Ysenlt Dudley, «n «V 1 widow—who was afterwanb pronounced insane. He Is now pant the allotted spaa of life, and his present trip to Ireland is probably undertaken To have a last glimpse of the land for which the passionate, misguided struggles of his life were undertaken.