PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 5, 6 June 1913, Page 4

PERSONAL.

The death is announced of Sergeant Beattie, of Tailiape, after a long illness.

Mr. G. A. McDonald, of Westport, has been appointed engineer to the Gonvills Town Board.

Mr. W. -Ritchie has been re-elected chairman of the Wanganui Hospital and Charitable Aid Board,

At a meeting of the' Southland Presbytery this week a call from Te Awamutu to the Rev. J. D. Shaw, of Lumsden, was sustained, and the .recipient indicated his intention of accepting it. Mr. T. U. Hirst, manager of the Plymouth branch of tue Bank of Australasia, is at present relieving at Rotorua. He is to undergo medical treatment at the same time.

In the latest District Orders by Colonel E. W. Chaytor. 0.C.. ui the Wellington district, the under-mentioned officers of the 11th Regiment Taranaki Rifles appear as qualified in the subject stated:—-Examination "D," Captain L. J.. Short, 11th Regiment; Examination "A." Second Lieutenants C. W. Crutch and W. L Narbey. Mr. R. J. McLennan, who was knowa throughout the Bush, Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay and Majiawatu districts, died at Pahiatua on Sunday. He was 53 years old. For a long period he was connected with the stock auctioneering business, and was formerly manager of the Pahiatua branch of Dalgety and Company. At all times he took a keen interest in local politics and oocupied positions oh a number of local governing bodies.

Mr. William Henry Atkinson, a very old resident of Wanganui, died there on Sunday, at the age of 61. He was a native of Wanganui, and as a young man he took part in the native wars on the coast, after which lie engaged in farming pursuits. He was one of the first ta take up land in the Ohakune district, and it was there, about fifteen years ago,, that, while bushfelling on his section, he met with an accident so serious as to cripple him for the remainder of his life. Mr. Atkinson leaves a widow and an adult fanyly of four sons and three daughters. ,• Mr. Henry Otterson, clerk of the New Zealand House of Representatives, wh«. has just received a C.M.G., was born at Richmond, Nelson, in 1840, and is a soa, of Mr. Francis Otterson, J.P., of Xelsoifc. He was educated at the Catholic Sehool at Nelson, and at Nelson College. For two years from 1870 he was Committer Clerk in the House of Representatives. He was then appointed Parliamentary Reader, a position which lie held until 1875, when he was promoted to be Second Clerk Assistant of the House of Representatives. He held that office until 1808,. when he was, appointed Clerk of the House.

At the age of ninety-one there died, on April 28, at Hassocks, near Havwards Heath, England, Mr. John Saxby, the inventor of the system of interlocking railway points and signals,' It was in .Tune, 1556, that Mr. Saxby secured letters patent for the invention. After lisving had it explained to him, the late King Edward, then Prince of Wales, said to Mr. Saxby, "You have done more tha« anyone living in the reign of Queen Victoria to save human life." The idea; of the interlocking system came to the inventor after witnessing in 1855 an incident at the Bricklayers' Arms Junction of the S.E.R. between London Bridge and New Cross. The 'j/rn'ipnn gave the signal for the driver of the train to go on to the Brighton line, and he proceeded to do so, but found that the points had not been altered, and that he was on the Croydon line. Luckily the driver succeeded in getting back to the right line without any serious consenueiices. But consideration of ivhaf might have happened caused Mr. Saxby to shudder. For a year he worked hard on bis interlocking invention, and lie ctartled the railway world when lie perf'r'id it. The invention brought Mr. Sivbv over and works were ro'-tiiwhiMl at Kilburn, and in Brussels and France.