PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 131, 12 September 1910, Page 4

PERSONAL.

Mr. W. Snell, of Waitara, underwent a serious operation in New Plymouth yesterday. A Press Association cablegram from Ottawa says that Earl Grey will make . a tour of the West Indies in January. I Of the six ministers now in thp | Taranaki Presbytery, four of them —the I Revs. Mr. Howes, Mr. Mclvor, Mr. Thomson and! Mr Shore—were fellow ' students during part of their course in Otago. I , Mr. J. P. Dugdale, who recently resigned from the Valuation Department, | Wellington, has been appointed secretary of the Hawera County Electric Light Company. There were sixty applicants for the position. | Mr. J. O'Dea, who has been appointed a dairy instructor, was farewelled by the settlers of Pihama on Thursday evening and presented with a handsome 18 carat gold watch. Mrs. O'Dea was presented with a set of cutlery. j Mr. James Grove, an old settler in New Zealand, died on Thursday. He ;was a native of Birmingham, and arj rived in Nelson over fifty years ago, and [ for some years conducted a school in the district. Later on he settled in the Lower Hutt, and still more recently resided in Wellington. The deceased was 81 years of age. ! By theatregoers in New Zealand the jname of Mr. Walter Bentley is always | remembered with interest. It is now 'announced (writes a London correspondent) that he is going out to New Zealand again, but chiefly for his health; it is hoped that a course of baths at Rotorua will thoroughly restore him to ! strength. According to present plaqs, ! Mr. Bentley will not return to the stage. He will instead devote himself to teaching. Whether New Zealand or Australia will be his place of residence has not yet ■been decided. It will be remembered that Mr. Bentley was due in Melbourne last year to appear in "Hamlet," but throat trouble compelled him to cancel his engagement. Mrs. Amelia Harris, who arrived in Wellington from England by the ship Alma in 1857, has just died at Onehunga, aged eighty-two years. Her husband, 'hearing of the Collingwood rush, went to try and win the gold, but his venture was unsuccessful, and they went to _ Picton,, arriving there in 1860. Here deceased remained for many years,, undergoing many nerve-racking experiences, at times having to hold a loaded rifle in defence of her home and children (says the Auckland Herald). The Maori troubles were at their height, and yet her kindly arid sympathetic nature had good effect in making many friends, especially of one Maori woman, who had been left to die by her tribe, and whom the deceased ted.y nursed back to health. From 1860 to 1891, she witnessed many changes, and shortly after the death of her husband, left Picton for Onehunga, where she had since remained. The funeral of the late Mr. William Foreman took place at New Plymouth on Saturday. The deceased was born in 1820 in Kent, and lived under five sovereigns. He remembered Queen Victoria as a girl who was a regular attendant with her mother, the Duchess of Kent, at the ploughing matches. The late Mr. Foreman Arrived in Taranaki in May, 1856. He went through the trouble with the Maoris, having his house on one occasion iburnt by the natives. In 1867 he removed to Wanganui, and later came on to Patea. In 1874 the deceased purchased land in the Alton district, where he resided until a few months ago, when he went to Hawera. He leaves a family of two sons and four daughters, namely, Mr. R. W. Foreman (Hawera), Mrs. J. G. Sharpe (Wanganui), Miss Foreman (Hawera), Mrs. T. Allen (Alton), Mi's. G. A. Marohant (Cardiff), T. Foreman (Alton). His wife predeceased him a number of years ago at JTew Plymouth. Ex-Sergeant O'Neill, for many years one of the most-respected and bestknown police officers in Otago, died at Dunedin on Tuesday last, agen seventytwo years. He was born in Killarney, and served in the Irish Royal Constabulary. On coming out to New Zealand he joined the police force here about 1870. For some years he was stationed at Clyde, and it was while he was in that district that the sensational robbery of a large quantity of gold was effected from the police' station. Subsequently he was in charge of the North Dunedin station, and later was promoted to the Dunedin Central station. He retired from the force in June, 1001, and since then has lived in retirement in Dunedin. His wife predeceased him about twelve months ago. He leaves a family of five, there being three sons. One is Dr. O'Neill, of Dunedin, and the other two the Rev. D. O'Neill, of South Dunedin, and the Rev. P. J. O'Neill, of Wray'9 Bush, Southland. One of the deceased's two daughters is a Dominican nun.