PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 217, 20 February 1915, Page 5

PERSONAL.

The Rev. A. D. Tuer-Carey, Canon. Residentiary of ( Ycrk, has been apoiuted Commissary in England for t'ai Bishop of Wellington. Mr N. W. Simpson, of New (Plymouth, las been accepted for service with tho New Sout'i Wales infantry and is now in camp at Sydney. A Dunedin message reports that the death occurred yesterday morning of Mr J. F. M. Fraser, K.C., Crown Prosecutor for Dunedin district, aged 63. Mr Fraser was born in Guernsey in 1525, and arrived in the colony when he was eix years old. A cablegram received from London last night, through the Times and Sydney Sun Service, stated that Colonel Davies, of the New Zealand Staff Corps, has been gazetted a Major-General. Mr. 11. Otterson, who has resigned the position of Clerk of the House of Representatives, left 1 Wellington for Sydney by the Ulimaroa yesterday en route to South Africa, where he intends to reside. It is generally understood (says the New Zealand Times) that the position of Mr. Henry Otterson, will be filled by Mr. A. F. Lowe, Clerk-Assistant. The Rev. Mackenzie Gibson, vicar of All Saints' Church, Sumner, leaves at the end of the present month to take up the position of camp chaplain to tile reinforcements at present in camp at Trentham. In all probability Mr. Gibson will be the next chaplain appointed to accompany the troops to the front.

Mr. Thomas Burt, M.P., "father of the British House of Commons," lius written to the Morpeth Liberal Council announcing his intention not to seek reelection, owing to his age and infirmities. He was returned as a Liberal for Morpeth in 1874, and has sat for the borough continuously. The son of a miner, and himself a miner, he lias the distinction also of being the first working man elected to Parliament. A correspondent writes: "A Dnnedin telegram announcing the death of Captain Sydney Herbert Davies, wdio is said to have been a Crimean, Maori, and American Civil War veteran, will bring to the mind of old Taranakians a Captain Davis, or Davies, who waa stationed at Tikorangi for some years. He had certainly fought in the American Civil War and elsewhere before eomi ing to New Zealand; but if reports be ' true he was drowned while fishing in the South Island many years ago. The Captain Davis known in Taranaki was what may be termed a devil-may-care. He held the respect of the rank and file, and they would have followed him anywhere. Many a time at the dead of night has h e quietly gone out unobserved while in camp and fired off his revolver to see how soon those under 'him would be ready for emergencies. I remember on one occasion, when the house of a settler at Tikorangi was being utilised by the officers, that a well-known divine put up for the night fiiere, and when there was a commotion in the wee sma' oors owing to the gallant captain having fired a shot through the roof of the house."—Hawera Star.