PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 5 November 1907, Page 2

PERSONAL.

Mr. Findleson, of Dunedin', is at present staying at the Criterion Hotel. Mr D. O'Brien cabled yesterd.iy that he is leaving Sydney on Saturday on his return from Australia. A flag was flying yesterday above the local office of the U.S.S. Co. in honor of the return of Sir James Mills, managing director of the company, to New Zealand by the new steamer Marama. Mr Percy Mitchell, of the Lands and Survey Oiliee in New Plymouth, has been transferred to Auckland after ten years' srvice in New Plymouth. MiLindsay Jackson, of the Auckland field staff, succeeds Mr Mitchell. The directors o! the Taranaki Petro- | leum Co., Ltd., met yesterday afternoon and unanimously re-elected Mr D. Berry chairman. He'wns voted £SO, or half of the £IOO voted to the dirctors. by the annual meeting. Another of early New Plymouth s

business men passed over to the great majority yesterday morning in the person of Mr S. W. Jackson. .Born at Leeds, England, the late Mr Jackson was brought to New Zealand at the early ago of four years, and was brought up in the Nelson and West

Coast districts. He entered the boot business, and was for some years with Messrs Lightband, Allan and Co., in a shop in Brougham street. Thirty years I ago a branch was opened in Devon street, managed by Mr Grayson, and this was purchased fourteen years ago by Messrs Grayson and Cock. Later, he commenced business in Currie street and then in Egrnont street near the Alexandra Hall. About five or six years ago he retired to private life. The late Mr Jackson was for some years a

familiar figure in bowling circles, and took an active interest in the welfare of the community. He leaves a family of seven—three sons and four daughters. They are Mesdauies C. X. Mills, Elliot, C. H. Kingsley, and Misß L. Jackson, and Messrs F. W. and L. Jackson, of New Plymouth, and Mr Percy Jackson, who is in the service of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency. The. interment takes place on Wednes-, day, and will be private. The death is .umounced of Mr Thomas Nicholas., licensee of. the Grosvenor Hotel. The deceased was born in Penzance, Cornwall, in 1841, and started as an assaycr in the tin and copp:r mines. He came to the colony in 1875, and Ms first business venture was in the grocery line at Wanganui. Then he came to New Plymouth, and conducted an auctioneering business In Brougham street, where the New Zealand Insurance Co.'s buildings now stand. His next move was into the hotel trade, and his first hotel was the old Imperial at Normanby, where he earned an excellent name as host. The license of the Imperial was afterwards moved to Elthain. Messrs Nicholas and Wrisberg conducted the Egmont Hotel for some years in Hawera, and made it one of the leading houses in Taranaki. He was licensee of Hastie's Hotel at. Feilding at tlie time of the fatal fire, which was a severe loss to him by reason of the loss of so many personal effects and mementoes. This reverse affected Mr Nicholas' health, and he has frequently been ailing of late. He took over the Grosvenor Hotel sixteen months ago, and in the short period which has since elapsed he has become very popular and highly respected as a genial and capable host. He was an enthusiastic bowler at Hawera, and Was president of the Hawera Bowling Club. It wn-3 but natural that he should follow the game in New Plymouth-, and he was a member of the town club. Mr Nicholas was at one time president of the Taranaki Licensed Victuallers' Association. He was also a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity. He leaves a widow, a son, and a daughter, who have received many expressions of sympathy from friends in all parts of the colony. '