PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1921, Page 4

PERSONAL.

Miss E. M. Ballantyne, of the New Plymouth , Girls’ High School, was awarded a Taranaki Scholarship at the recent university examination, this making /two such scholarships to the honor of the school.

The death occurred last week of an old identity of the Wairarapa in the person of Mr. Henry Farr Smith. The deceased, who was 84 years of age, arrived in the Dominion in 1841.

At the meeting of the Taranaki Agricultural Society on Saturday, resolutions of condolence were passed with the relatives /of the late Mr. W. Bla-ir in their bereavement; also with Mr. and Mrs. McHardy in the loss of their son. . A Dannevirke telegram reports the death of Mr. Edwin Hosking, barrister and solicitor, of Ormondville, who died suddenly after entertaining friends ou Friday night. He was well known in Masonic circles, and was a vocalist of repute.

Mr. L. Smith, who has .been sidedrummer with the New Plymouth Citizens’ Band for some time, leaves to-day to take up a position in Wanganui, .and yesterday afternoon he was farewelled by members. On behalf of the bandsmen, Mr. E. J. Sole (chairman of the Citizens’ Committee) made a presentation to Mr. Smith, and expressed best wishes for his future success.

News has been received in Inglewood of the deatji at Beira, South Africa, of Mr. Holdfen Hanjerton, eldest sen of the late Mr. T E. Hamerton He was 55 years of age,, and leaves a widow and grown-up family at the Cape. He left New Zealand about twenty years ago for South Africa, where he was engaged in the printing and publishing business. He died suddenly on Christmas Day of heart disease.

Mr. C. H. Burgess, on behalf of the New Plymouth guarantors of Chautauqua, made a presentation during an interval in the programme on Saturday evening to Mrs. C. H. Shackleford, the directress of Chautauqua during , the New Plymouth season. The presentation was made, said Mr. Burgess, both by reason of Mrs. Shackleford’s recent marriage and also as a small token of the esteem she had inspired during her stay in New Plymouth. The recipient suitably replied.

Mr. D. S. Columb, who died at Dunedin recently, was the youngest son of Mr. C. Columb, Roslyn. He will be remembered by many returned soldiers in Taranaki as O.C. of 2nd Wellington in France. He was a native of Dunedin, and was educated at the Christian Brothers’ School. At the time of his death he was district manager of the A.M.P. Society at Palmerston North. He went with the 17th Reinforcements as O.C. of the Pakeha’s portion, and served continuously till the end of the war, returning in May, 1919, with the rank of major.

Sir Joseph and Lady Ward have given up their flat at IJarewood House, Hanover Square, and are staying a: the Vittoria Hotel, Northumberland Avenue (writes a London correspondent under date December 24). With their two sons they will be the guests of S : r John and Lady Skerburn over the Christmas holidays, at Branlingham Thorpe, Doncaster, a famous old country house, formerly : owned by Sir M. Sykes, who frequently entertained the late King Edward there. Foff the past few weeks Sir Joseph and Lady Ward have been busy fulfilling their many social engagements, and it will probably be well on in January before they take up their residence in the South of France.

A point of particular interest has been discovered by the officials controlling the telephone exchange (says the Wellington Times). It his been diseov. ered by careful study and close observation that the exchange operator when given, say, 200 numbers to attend to does the work efficiently and well, and the average time taken to answer each call does not exceed three seconds at the most. If, however, the operator is given charge of. say. 250 subscribers, there is a decided fall in efficiency. But. strange to say, if the number is reduced to, say, 100. inefficiency is also marked, a circumstance that is accounted for bv the fact that the operator has too much time on her handstand loses interest in her work. ■

“At present j the honey markets of the world are apparently demoralised,” said Mr. R. W. Buckell, of the Honey Producers’ Association. “There was very little selling in the United States and Canada, in Groat Britain or the Continent, and it was doubtful whether the market generally would recover for a year or two. They had, however, reason to believe that with their comparatively small production of first-class honey they could, by judicious marketing. so interest retailers and the public generally in Groat Britain in the New Zealand products as to obtain quite satisfactory prices this year. Mr. Buckell added that in their manager's opinion there was very little likelihood of American and Canadian markets being profitable in 1921. and ho urged bee-keep-ers very strongly not to export any of their honey except through the associa-