PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 317, 2 June 1911, Page 4

PERSONAL.

A London cable states that Sir Joseph Ward aud Sir Wm. Hall-Jonea were guests at the Canada Club dinner. Sir Robert Stout goes to Rurotonga by the Aorangi from Auckland to-mor-ow on Supreme Court business, and will return to New Zealand about the end of June. A London, cablegram states that evidence at the inquest showed that .Sir W. S. Gilbert's death was caused !iy symcope due to his exertion in swimming to assist a lady bather in distress* The directors of the Stratford Dairy Company have appointed Mr. Wm. M. Kirkaan, of Franktoa Junction, to the position of factory manager. A large number of applications was received. Mr. W. H. Skinner, lor some yeare past chief draughtsman at New Plymouth, has received the appointment of chief surveyor and Crown Lands Commissioner at Blenheim. He will take up his duties in October next.

Captain P. J. Stopford, who has acceded Captain Blunt in command of H.M.S. Pioneer, is visiting Wellington for the first time, the warship having arrived on Tuesday from Golden Bay, where the crew have been undergoing their annual gun-laying tests. Mrs. Stopford is visiting New Zealand at the present time. Lieutenant Lancaster lias succeeded Lieutenant Cooke as navigating officer on the Pioneer. Another change has been made on the Encounter, where Captain S. A. Hiokey is relieving Captain Colomb.

Mr. M. Rudd, the popular manager at New Plymouth for the Union Steam Ship Co., has been promoted to the Auckland office, and will leave shortly for his new home. Apart from the very satisfactory manner in which Mr. Rudd has represented the Red Funnel proprietary in New Plymouth, he will be much missed in social and musical circles, whilst by his departure the young people's movement in connection with the Whiteley Church will lose a prominent worker. Mr. G. Holdsworth, at present acting-sub-manager at Lyttelton, wiH relieve temporarily at New Plymouth.

Bishop Crossley, of Aucklwd, will pay his first visit to the Tanuaki portion of his diocese to-day. His programme "• , a . s , followS! -Arrives Stratford tonight by mail train, meets parishioners at 8 o'clock; Saturday, leaves Stratford to hold confirmation service at Puranni motoring thence to New Plymouth, reaching here at 1.30, when he dines with the clergy of Taranaki at the White Hart Hotel; in the evening at 8 o clock he will meet the churchwardens, vestry and members of St. Mary's at St. Mary's hall; on Sunday morning he will celebrate Holy Communion at 8 oclock; will motor to Waitara, reachin* there at 10.45 a.m.; will hold confirmation service in St. Mary's, New Plymouth, at 2.30, preaching in the church m the evening at 7 p.m.; leaves New Plymouth by mail train on Monday for Wellington.

In some- personal notes of Gabriel's Gully miners, the Dunedin Star says:— Mr. Samuel Dixon, of Hawera, reach*! ,o», r,el T ß . from Wpllin gt°n in July of 1881. His mates were Wm. Tustin and \\m . Gawlthy Mr. Dixon brought out the fact thaf some of the sinking in the fully was as deep as 40ft, and had to he worked with a winch, ttot forty yards from that spot one could get the color just under the sods. Mr. Dixon can also speak from the ovidence of his diary as to the prices the gold brought. He sold his first parcel to a storekeeper at £3 10s per ounce; six weeks Inter he 8 ~1 f- 12s; then tlle P rice was to *S los, and in October it went to £3 1<» «d. There was only one case of stealing whilst he was there, and only one fight, and that was not the result of a quarrel, but a regular match between "the Sydney Pet" and "the Weilington Chicken." The diggers were not at all jealous of new arrivals.

The death of William Schwcnck Gilbert will cause regret wherever the English language is spoken, and wherever, in any land, there is a feeling of appreciation of clean mirth" and honest fun. But Gilbert will be remembered not only as a fun-maker a humorist. As a dramatist he ranked high among his contemporaries, and as a writer of humorous vcrs« he was perhaps not excelled in his genhv S 'hT - • H f /" ■f onorabl y distinguished by the absolute cleanliness of his productions. It might b e said of him that he wrote nothing that the young and pureminded ™R ht ™t read. Though his akmg-off was sudden, he was* «JS stricken in years," for he was born irr London m 1830, and was therefore fn hU scventy-flfth year. He took his B A de««\called to the Bar at the Inner TeaI?e >n 1804. He was clerk in the Pr " Council from 1857 to 1862. His fy& dramatic piece, "Dulcamara," was ro..m, atjSt.lames' Theatre] n Tnl » falr - v , comed y. "The Palace of irntn, was produced in 1870, and "Pr». nialion and Galatea" in 1871, while the bnliant series of work in which h name 8 associated with Sir Arthur Sulli™ began with "Trial by Jurv" !„ «7ft Thent followed "The 'Soree^r,"'" H MS Pinafore "Pirates of Penzance," <vl vTa' , I °l ant]le '' " Pri nees s Ida" "The he Guard" and "The Gondoliers." The for St W " Pr f/ lnced in 18 », »"d ran for eighteen months. In 1892 he oollabornted with Mr. Alfred Cellier to 'The Mountebanks" and in the nex "JJ* « h.s co-operation with Sir £.