PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 August 1922, Page 4

PERSONAL.

Mr. C. H. Wicken, supervisor of the Australian census, has been appointed successor to Mr. Knibbe, Commonwealth Statistician.

The death is reported at Dunedin of Mr. James Gray, aged 88, one of the founders of Reid and Gray, implement makers.

The directors of the Colonial Sugar Company have notified Captain Wallis he is to retain command of the Rona, which recently grounded on the flat rock when approaching Auckland. He has been granted three months* leave. — Press Association.

A London cable announces the death of Sir Richard Vassar-Smith, a prominent London banker. He was chairman of Lloyds’ Bank, a director of several other banks, and a director of various companies. He was 79. The death is reported of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, aged 75. Dr. Bell was born and educated in Edinburgh and went to Canada when 23 years old. He patented the telephone in 1876. A visitor to the Dominion is Mr. A. G. A. Harmsworth, a nephew of Lord Northcliffe. Mr. Harmsworth# who is accompanied by Captain G. A. Thomas, is at present staying at Pohukura, in the Taihape district. Mr. Buehler, who has just taken up the position of headmaster of the Terrace End School, Palmerston North, with 700 children under his charge, first began his profession in the capacity of a pupil teacher in the same school. The Hon. D. H. Guthrie once occupied the position of head teacher there. Mr. Buehler was formerly master of the Okaiawa School.

The death occurred on Friday last of Mr. George Worsfold, of Khandallah, secretary of the Superannuated Public Servants’ Association, and for many years a member of the Post and Telegraph service. Mr. Worsfold was a native of Wimbledon, England, and came to New Zealand in 1874. He joined the Post and Telegraph service at Bulls in 1881, and was subsequently transferred to offices of the department at Napier, Dunedin, Christchurch, and Wellington. In former years he lived at Roseneath, but latterly he has resided at Khandallah.

At a meeting of the Eltham Orange Lodge on Wednesday evening a presentation was made Mr. J. Stewart, who, after a residence of between two and three years in Eltham, is leaving next week for Australia, his native land. The presentation, which took the form of a suit case, was made by the Rev. G. Knowles-Smith. A presentation was also made Mr. Stewart at the Presbyterian Church, when the Rev. »E. J. Orange, on behalf of members of the church, handed Mr. Stewart a fountain pen in token of their esteem and goodwill, and thanked him for the willing assistance he had always given, in church matters. Mr. Stewart briefly responded.

The death is reported from Dunedin of Mr. Walter Riddell, father of Mr. W. G. Riddell, S.M., of Wellington, and one of the earliest settlers of Otago Peninsula. The late Mr. Riddell arrived at Dunedin in 1862 in the ship Grasmere. He spent two years in Dunedin, and then took a farm at Sandymount, which is still being worked by one of his sons. Since his retirement in 11)14 he had not enjoyed the best of health, and of late he had been more or less confined to the home of a married daughter, Mrs. Arnott, where he spent the last days of his life. He leaves a family, of six daughters and foul- sons. . His wife died in 1909, and one son also is deceased.

The death occurred recently at Wellington of one of the early arrivals in what was then the colony of New Zealand. in the person of the late Mr. Peter Connell. Born at Lasswade, near Edinburgh, on May 8, 1837, he left the Tail of the Bank”' (Mull of Can tire) on November 25, 1860, in the ship Aruna, m command of Captain Brown, and after a rough voyage via Cape of Good Hope, arrived, at Dunedin in March, 1861. A builder by trade, the late Mr. Connell migrated from Port Chalmers to various parts of New Zealand, including Marlborough, West Coast, Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki and Forty Milo Bush, finally settling in Wellington twenty years ago. He was present at Whakamarino when the rush took place, and also in Taranaki during the troublesome times with the Maoris at Parihaka.