PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 4 November 1907, Page 2

PERSONAL.

Sir John Logan Campbell, Auckland's "Grand Old Man," celebrated his 91st birthday yesterday. .Mr. G. E. Tolhurst, inspector of the L'uiou Bank of Australia, has returned to Wellington from a trip to England. The deatli look place on Saturday last of .Mr. N. Ellis-Mc'faggart, of Sentry Hill. Deceased was ;i!) years of age. The interment, which will be of a private nature, takes place this afternoon at the Lepperton cemetery. Opportunity was taken in Court at Napier on Saturday (says a Tress Association wire) to take formal leave of Mr. Brabant, S.M., who is retiring from magisterial duties. There was a full

attendance, of the Bar, Mr, (Jomforil, Crown Prosecutor, expressed on behalf of the Law Society their best wishes for lit', Brabant's enjoyment of wellearned retirement after thirty-six years' active magisterial work. In acknowledging the compliment, Mr. Brabant mentioned that he was the oldest occupant of the Bench iii New Zealand, and the oldest Native Land Court Judge.

Speaking to a Sydney gentleman recently, "a Times reporter elicited the opinion that Mr. J. C. Watson, ex-Com-monwealth Premier, and leader of the Labor Party, had retired from polities because he was "dog-tired" at the inefl'ccliveness of his very strenuous work. It had been rumored fn Sydney that an important insurance company had approached Mr. Watson, offering him the general managership of the company. Mr. Watson is not, as is sometimes understood, a particularly poor man, and is able to live in modest comfort without occupation. He is said to have £20,000 invested in property in the State. I

At twelve years of age Mr ICeir Hardie, whose health has necessitated an extensive sea voyage, could neither read nor write, and the only kind of schooling he received was a rough drilling in the elements of reading, which he obtained by studying books and notices in shop windows. Writing and shorthand Mr Hardie taught himself, practising the latter in the coal mine with the aid of a white stone blackened with smoke from his pit-lamp, and used as a tablet upon which he scratched the symbols with a pin. At twenty-two he left the pits and became secretary of a miners' union, and two years later he obtained a position as sub-editor of a local newspaper at Cumnock, the town in which his present home is situated.

Mr. Harry Drummond, who injured himself internally through colliding with a seat in the Nairn-street reserve while playing cricket with the Boys' Institute club, of which he was president, died in Nurse Dixon's private hospital (states a Press Association telegram from Wellington). The accident occurred three weeks ago. Mr. Drummond underwent an operation soon after his admission to the hospital, and he was doing splendidly until yesterday morning, when his condition changed for the worse. The deceased was a son of Mr. Peter Drummond, of Willis-street, and was born in Wellington. His age was about 32, and he has left a widow and child. Ho was a painter by trade. For some years he had taken an interest in philanthropic work, and was very closely identified with the affairs of the Boys' Institute. He was exceedingly popular with the lads, and his services were greatly valued by the other officers of the Institute.