PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 178, 26 January 1912, Page 4

PERSONAL.

Mr. John Mitchell, an old resident of Masterton, died in the "hospital there on Monday night after a Jong illness. Mr. W. Armstrong, < Commissioner of Crown Lands, ha,d. severe paralytic stroke 1 on Tuesday evening and his condition yesterday had not improved.

The Post states that , Mr. F, Walde,grave, Commissioner of Police, .is retiring from the service on March 31. Mr. W&ldegrave, who has been 38 years in the service, leaves for England in April. •Mr. H. A. Cornea, of Parnell, has been appointed, junior assistant master at the Gisborne High School. Mr. Colin M. Littlejohn, 8.A., of Milton, has been appointed first assistant at the same school.

The Rev. A. H. Colville, vicar-elect of; St. Marys, New Plymouth, arrived in Wellington by the Tainui from Plymouth on Wednesday, and came nn to New Plymouth yesterday. He will be instituted in his new .charge by the Bishop of Auckland to-night. ■ ! Mr. James Edmiston, a very old and esteemed resident of Auckland, died at his residence in street, Ponsonby, on Monday. The deceased gentleman, who was in his eighty-fourth year, was born at Paisley, and came out to New Zealand a,bout 50 years ago. At the time of his death he; was one of Auckland's oldest bowlers. The deceased vpas a member of the St. Andrew's Society.

■ Mr. C. A. Pownall, barrister and solicitor, of Masterton, and several times Mayor of that town, whose death is just reported, was born in Auckland. He was educated first at the public scb.ools there and then at Wellington College. He became a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court in 1886, and after' serving as managing clerk in the office of Mr. H. 3. (now Judge) Edwards, commenced the practice of his profession in Masterton in' 1887. The first occasion on which he was elected Mayor of Masterton was in 1890. He unsuccessfully opposed Mr. W. .|or in Parliament in 1893. His motK'er, Mrs. C. Pownall. resides at Karaka Bay. Three brothers, Messrs. Fred Pownail, A. B. Pownall and Robert Pownall, and a sister, Mrs. Oscar Kember, live in Wellington. The late Mr. Pownall was only 47 years of age, and was very popular throughout the Wairarapa. Mrs. Pownall died about ,a year ago.

Another from the ranks of the fast disappearing band of pioneer settlers passed away at the New Plymouth Hospital on Wednesday in the person oij Mr. Sam Adam, who for nearly forty years was a resident of Hawera. Deceased was a native of Clasgow, and early in life enlisted in the 42nd Highlanders, but was afterwards bought out by his father. Later he came to Australia and then to New Zealand, going first to the East Coast, where he served in the colonial forces under Colonel Whitmore, in the chase of Te Kooti'. He also served in the Titokowaru war on this coast. * Finally he took up his residence here. He was employed by Mr. James Livingston for a good many years, and from time to time by other settlers. He had a strange mixture of qualities, and stories of which' he was the centre would make good "copy" of the "Barrack-room Ballad" class if there were a New Zealand Kipling with the insight and the sympathy to give them a setting. Some time ago he was persuaded to go to the Old Men's Home at New Plymouth, but only on the promise made by a gentleman who had long befriended him that when the end came his remains should be brought down to rest in the Hawera district, where he had lived so longStar.