PERSONAL

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 292, 4 December 1908, Page 2

PERSONAL

Madame Melba proposes touring Xew Zealand ia April and May of next year, and will give a concert at New "Plymouth early in May. A cable message' states that Ladv tiydenham C. Clarke is suffering from pneumonia, and that her conduUm ~ very serious. The Hon. W. Hall-Jones was presented by officers of the Public Works Department with an address contained in a .massive rinui frame as a mark of esteem. At the head of the address was 'an excellent coloured picture of the Ruuriinu railway spiral. The Premier and the Hon. J. A. Millar and Hon. ,1. MeGowan and nearly every head of a department in the Civil Service attended at the Cabinet room to say farewell to Mr. Hall-Jones. Appropriate reference was made to his many qualifications, ht was mentioned that wh.-n he had become Minister for Railways the annual expenditure had been £700,000, but last year it had .C 1,1)00,000.

A pleasant interlude marked the proceed ngs of tin- Philosophical Institute of Canterbury on Wednesday evening. It was introduced by Dr. Farr, wlio referred to the latest distinction wiihh had been gained liv Professor Rutln'rford, an old Canterbury College studcat.. The speaker said that the professor would be recognised as one of the greatest scienlilie experimentalists that ever lived. He had a splendid sciont-iju imagination, which seemed to gt'iidfc lihu in his experiments, and the results lie clothed in 11 language which was sin plicity itself. Dr. Far/ suggested tin; ■while the institute might convey its con ,gratulations to Professor Rutherford : n lengthy and dignified terms, lie wouKI propose, a departure from that course in this instance. He moved that the Institute cable its congratulations to Professor Rutherford, and also telegraph t message to the professor's parents at Pungarchu, the cost to be subscribed in the rooms. The idea was taken in heurtily, and a tarpaulin muster produced the coin necessary for the cabl= messages. (Professor Rutherford was recently awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.)