PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 October 1919, Page 4

PERSONAL.

Generals Sir Herbert Plumer, Sir Edmund Allenby, and Sir Henry Wilson were made field-marshals on July 31. Sir Robert Borden, Prime Minister of Canada, is ill, and his doctors advise him to give up an active political career.

Privates Waller, E. G-unson (Fitzroy) and S. N. Bridger (Lemon Street, New Plymouth) are returning to New Zealand by the troopship Remuera, due at Auckland on October 26, Mr James Hanafin, of the Grand Pharmacy, Wellington, has been appointed manager of the New Plymouth United Friendly Societies dispensary, to be opened shortly in Devon Street. Mr. A. H. Johnstone leaves New Plymouth this evening for Auckland, where he will in future practice his profession.. Yesterday afternoon he was farewelled by members of the Taranaki Club, the president (Mr. George Gray) and others paying tributes to his worth as a citizen and clubman.

Mr J. Cutfield, manager of the National Bank at Wanganui, where he has been stationed for the past 36' years, was yesterday the guest at a representative gathering of business men and presented with a purse of sovereigns on the eve of hissretirement.' Mr Cutfield entered the services of the bank at New Plymouth 40 years ago.—Press Assn.

The names of the following Taranaki soldiers appear in the list of men. returning by the Paparoa, which is due at Wellington on October 27: A. A. Cameron and S. Reynolds (Stratford),Q.M.S. S. W. M. 'Collis, W. H. L. f'oombes, and Corporal R. L. Crockett (New Plymouth), Corporal T. H. Coupe (Egmont). The name of Sister A. Rountree (Taranaki) also appears in the list.

By the death of Mr David Peat, who passed away at liis residence on Wednesday at the age of 80 years, Wangauui (says the Chronicle)' loses one of its oldest and mo9t respected settlers. He was born in 1838 at the farm of Bogmill, Parish of Fettercairn, Kincardineshire, Scotland. He attended the Montrose Academy, under the famous Sector Calvert, and Mr Hay, writing master. For a few years thereafter he was in the office o'f Mr James Scott, solicitor, Stonehaven, and then assisted his father on the farm of Westerton of Pitarrow, to which he had removed. Seeing little prospect of bettering himself under the existing conditions of agriculture, he decided to seek Ills fortune in the colonies, landing in Wanganui in "1853, where his uncle, the late Mr James Alexander, had preceded him some years previously. He and his brother James, in conjunction with Mr Alexander, became the leading farmers on the coast, their holdings being large arid valuable. Mr Peat was a man of sound judgment, and his services were in much demand on public bodies. He was at various times a member of the Harbor Board, Borough Council, Waitotara County Council, and Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. Charity was strongly entrawhed in his nature, but he did not allow his good deeds to gain publicity, that being abhorrent to him. The deceased was a rugged, true-hearted man. and his death will be much regretted by a large circle of friends.

The muster roll of the earlier Inglewood settlers was again decreased on Mth August by the death of Mrs J. Davidson, of Tariki. Born at Scallaway in the Shetland Isles, Mrs Davidson came to Taranaki'" in December, 1877, to join Mr John Davidson, to whom she married on the 27th of the same month, and with whom she came nd lived in Inglewood until the family removed to the farm Mr Davidson acquired at Tariki, i n 1884, where she resided until her decease. A family of three sons, Messrs James, of Stratford, John, now at Tariki, and George, returning from the front; and four daughters, Mesdames Jakes (Waipuku); Thompson (Stratford); Shreider (Albert Road), and Miss Edith Davidson (Tariki) are left to mourn their loss. _ Coming to Taranaki. as she did, in 1877, just before the really bad times set in which followed the exhaustion of the fruits of Sir Julius Vogel'a borrowing policy. Mrs Davidson experienced all the hardships incidental to the lot of the dwellers in these backblocks, as they were then, those hardships whose burden was only eased when the discoveries of refrigeration processes brought the markets of the old world within our reach, and the successful establishment of dairy factories lifted Taranaki out of the slough of despond. Though of a retiring" disposition and hot given to taking a prominent part in a flairs of her neighborhood Mrs Davidson was well known and highly respected for her many sterling good qualities and kind neighborly ways. Since she had been laid up during her last long illness, most patiently borne, her presence in the communit) of Tariki has been missed oven more than would have been 'expected of one who lived so much for her home and family as she did, and the sympathy of these her many friends is warmly extended I .fc>. th&ifctfe&ved fami&. j