PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 200, 3 May 1912, Page 4

PERSONAL.

Dr. John Drummond, a Dannevirke boy, who was educated at the Napier High School, and recently took his M.D. degree at Edinburgh, has just been appointed- surgeon superintendent of the Ehirlmi liospital for a term of five years. A cablegram was received in Auckland on Wednesday stating that Mrs. llerries, wife of Mr. W. 11. llerries, M.l\. died on the, way to England. Mr. and Mrs. llerries left Wellington by the lonic last month. Mrs. llerries presumably died on board between Rio de Janiero and Teneriffe.

The death occurred at Dunedin on Monday of Mr. D. S. Munro, manager of the. Dunedin branch of the Commercial Union Insurance Company. The deceased was_ at one time on the stall of the Victoria Insurance Company. He was a member of the Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows. The Prime Minister's engagements for the next few days are:—May 4, opens post oil ice at Balclutha and new Cor-< jonation Hall, and delivers a speech in the evening, followed by a banquet; May > 6 , inspects protective works at Balclutha; May 7, leaves Balclutha for Orawaire, to attend a banquet to Mr. J. C. Thomson, M.P., that evening. ) The death occurred at Waiuku, Auckland, on Tuesday, of Mr Arthur I'itehett, late of the Post and Telegraph Departj ment, and, son of the late Mr. John j Fitchett, of Ohiro road, Wellington. The I deceased, who was 05 years of age, was j an offic-cr in the Department for over ; 40 years, and only retired about two and a half years ago, since when he has been resident on his farm at Waiuku. Mr. Henry Whitton Gouger, Who died in the Old Mon's Home at New Plymouth yesterday morning, was a wdlknown resident of Stratford, where the old gentleman was for some years, and until quite, recently, in Mr. John Leyi don's office. He was a son of the late | Mr. Robert Gouger, who was actively associated with the founding 'of South . Australia, and had seen better days.

r l homas M. Gurin, who last month was admitted to the bar in Boston and is now a practising attorney, was a newsboy and continued to eell papers until his second' year in the law school. Born in kussia, lie was taken to America when four years of, age, He attended school, mastered the language, went through high school—all the while working as a newsboy—and finished with a law course in tho Y.M.C.A. Sir William Maxwell Aitken, one of the new members of the House of Commons, though many times a millionaire, began life as an insurance agent. The son of a Canadian Presbyterian minister, he was without means, and in an American college wrote insurance whenever and wherever he could to help pay his way. Persistency is the keynote of his success. Leaving college lie studied law for a time. Later he became private secretary to John R. Stair, and so got into finance, where lie speedily found himself. All his promotions liave been successful. A year or two ago he went to England on business, saw a political opening that nobody wanted, jumped in, made a whirlwind- campaign, and landed in Parliament.

Alderman 6. T. Clarke, who has been elected Lord Mayor of Sydney, defeating Alderman Milner Stephen, is an exDunedinite. He may be described as the leader of the opposition in the council, is a Victorian, and has represented the Belmore Ward for about eight years, but his municipal career began away Hack in the "seventies" in New Zealand, when he was first town clerk of South Dunedin (St. Kilda), and then Mayor of that borough, the election to the mayoral chairs in the Dominion being made by the vote of the people. He was Mayor there for two years. Soon after his arrival in New South Wales he became an alderman of the old borough of St. Leonards, and took a prominent part i» the amalgamation of the borough of St. Leonards, East St. Leonards, and Victoria. He has taken an active interest in political organisations and was idenI tided with the old Protectionist League, which led to the Dibbs-Lyne party coming into power. "The wreck of the Titanic," said Miss Hilda Spong to a Christchurch pressman, "has robbed the American stage of one of its best men. Mr. Henry B. Harris was the kindest and most beloved of the New York theatrical managers, and his place in theatrical life will be very hard to fill. He established the New, York Folios-Bergere, in what was a writable fairyland. The auditorium was filled with small tables of glass, arranged in tiers. Patrons sat at these tables and were provided with a dainty meal, during which a high-class vaudeville entertainment was given on the stage. In the circles there were boxes where dinner parties could be accommodated. With myriads of electric lights glowing, and with the tables filled with brilliantlydressed society, the Folies-Bergere was entrancing. Unhappily it failed, for two reasons. One because the prices at first were too high, and afterwrads too low, spoiling the exclusiveness of the place, and the second because the entertainment was no better than could be obtained in the high-class vaudeville theatres in New York." :'