PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 202, 15 January 1913, Page 5

PERSONAL.

♦ —- t Mr. and Mrs. D. E. Mutton and family have left on a visit for Auckland. A cablegram from Ottawa states that the Duchess of Connaught is steadily improving in health. A cablegram from St. Petersburg says that the Tsarevitch is confined to his bed. Mr. A. Fobson was yesterday elected president of the New Zealand Pharmacy Board for the current year. / The death is announced at Wanganjii of Mrs. A. Ireson Jones, aged 84,.wfi», ' with her late husband, was one of the ' pioneers of Wanganui. Mr. R. Larsen, who has been master of the school at Mako Mako for' the past three years, and who is leaving to take up an appointment under the TaranaUi Board, was given a send-off by the settlers of the district on Wednesday even™g- - •• ' r*' '"""" 1 The Hon. John Bryce, one of Wanganui's most distinguished pioneers, iefdaflgerously ill. Some ten days ago Mr. Bryce, who has been in failing health for some time, sustained a strode, and since then he has been growinsr more and more enfeebled. At ,1 late' hour ladt night, Mr. Bryce was unconscious, anfl the end was hourly expected (says yesterday's Wanganui Chronicle). ' ' : It is understood that when the hefJ to the British throne starts on his grand tour next year he will not travel aj Prince of Wales, but will use an incogT nito title. It is a curious fact thai* his present Majesty, who has journeyed more extensively over the habitable glob| than any living Royal personage, haj4 never himself made use of an incognito! but travelled either as Prince GGorgC Duke of Cornwall and Yoik, Princsj of Wales, or George V. > v 4 The centenary of the biith of Sir Tbaac Pitman was celebrated in London ,qn. the Srdinst. Sir Isaac was the inventor'of'Pitman's system of shorthand, was; jborn at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, in 1813,'wherehis father was a factory oversea*;™ His first book -on stenographic sounfikfland was issued in 1837 arid a nccond yfi'cfttion: followed jii 1840. Five ye.iTS latei£g&emises for the sale of PitmaK's opened in London. In IS9O it w&Vfestimated that 1,370,000 copies of lifejnprincipal book, "The Phonographic Te*acner," had been sold. It is cakulate/J it jthat 95 per cent, of the repoiters in Great Britain, America, and their colonies l use Pitman's method, and that the number of persons in the world who vriijj his shorthand is considerably moie than half a million. The system lia* been adAted to several foreign language*. ( Rev. J. E. Watts-Ditchlield reception in London after hiS' -nine months' tour in Australasia and Agjjttica. Although ho did not reach his paj'isjh in Bethnal Green until midnight, Hhe throngs in the streets were so great thai repeated stops had'to be made -that'ttHJ crowd might demonstrate their heartywelcome. A torch-light procession was formed, and the scene outsTde'lhe vicap- - age was one not easily to be' forgotten. Rockets were fired _. and., c he? r .&™«A vere raised, and slknce, anojthe crowd joined,he'artily in. th« of the Do'xology, MfrV WjjttsDitchfield gave v se crowd"'his blesjing. On Sunday large -rramftCTs" aWffiWerl at the early celebrations, the church being crowded morning and evening, and in the afternoon it was filled with men. Meetings were hclcTntgh'tTy pans'U] during the vrcbk, and the utmost enthul lasra was manifested 'byUhe* peopled h s return,, strong rind;' vigorous,., up his work aiming tlipm again. , , LL '' i"' f'f'^'H-' 0 " 1 '