PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 March 1917, Page 4

PERSONAL.

Mr P. Pirani (Fcilding Star) has been appointed chairman of the Press AssocU ution for the ensuing year.—Press AfllOi ciation. Major-General R. 11. Davies, formerly of Inglewood, 'who had been loaned to, tho Imperial authorities, has relinquished hh, rank and appointment on tho a<?w Zealand Staff Corps on being trans. lerved to the Imperial Army, as from Feuruary, 1915.—Press Association." At the Patea Farmers' Co-operativo Freezing Works on Fridav last, Mr, A, N. Williams, Secretary of the Company presented Mr. G. P. Pettigrcw who is leaving for camp shortly with a handsome case of pipes and a'safety razor o» behalf of his fellow employees. / The medical superintendent of tlm Stratford Hospital, -Dr. D. Steven, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surg' ery, was informed yesterday by tllfl Registrar of the New Zealand University that at the November examinations lis had been successful in passing the de* gree of Doctor of Medicine. The Minister for Defence, the Hon, Sir James Allen, arrived in New Plymouth from Stratford yesterday morn«' ing. He was accompanied by his prli vate secretary, Mr. G. F. Dixon. Sir James formally opened the Taranaki show yesterday afternoon, and ,met tin returned soldiers of the town and district at their club in the evening. Hif leaves this morning for Marton, wherw he will present a soldier named TftH Taranihi with the D.C.M. Private Charles S. Kelly, who was a popular member of the Stratford Evening Post, staff, prior to enlisting, and who has seen service at 'Gallipoli and in France, writes to say he expected to. be leaving England on January 11 for New Zealand. Private Kelly was badly wounded some months ago, but was in hopes of being able to get about with the aid of crutches by the time tho stcarar reached the 'Dominion.—StratMr. Eohert Bell, proprietor of the Ashburton Guardian, has received a cable stating that his eldest son, Corporal Robert Bell, who left with the 17th Reinforcement, is dangerously ill in France with a gunshot wound in his neck. Mr. Bell's youngest son, Lieut. Harold Bell, is at present an inmate of Codford Hospital, England. Corporal Bell is well known in New Zealand newspaper circles, among the younger members, whereof, especially in the provincial section, he held a prominent position.—Press Association. A cable message was received in Sydney on February id from the Wa.' Office that Second , Lieutenant George For-' tesquo Perston, R.F.A., wac killed in action in the Balkans on February 12. Lieut. Perston was the only sou of Mr A. P. Perston, of the Bank of New Zealand, Sydney, nephew of Mr A. H. Perston, of Wellington, and grandson of the late W. Robertson Perston, who was for many yenrs manager of the Bank of New South Wales, Wellington, Wanganui and Dunedin. The deceased officer, who was 30 years of age, was born at Dunedin, and was educated at the Waitaki High School and at Nelson Collego? and from the latter staff joined Ihe staff of the Bank of New Zealand, in Nelson, subsequently taking to farm-* mg in the Uruti (Taranaki) and North Auckland districts. He was a member of the New Plymouth Golf Club. He left New Zealand in 1913, for England, where he obtained his commsision in the Royal Field Artillery soon after his arrival there. After some months' traun ing he wao sent to Salonika.