PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1922, Page 4

PERSONAL.

Mr. R. M. Doull, telegraph superintendent of the New Plymouth office, left for Auckland by the Rarawa on Friday night for his annual leave. Mr. W. E. (“Pussyfoot”) Johnson is the guest of Mr. L. Little, Vogeltown, during his stay in New Plymouth.

The Rev. Alexander Grant, who has been a member of the Hawke’s Bay Presbytery for the past 40 years, recently resigned from the charge of Knox Presbyterian Church, Dannevirke, where he had been stationed for the past 22 years. On Saturday he was the recipient of a cheque for £370, being a freewill offering of his congregation and Presbyterians in Southern Hawke’s Bay and friends as a token of their love and appreciation of his past ministrations. A pleasant little function took place at the Eltham railway station on Friday afternoon, when the staff and carriers gathered to say good-bye to Mr. E. L. Christian, before his departure to Wanganui, to which place he has been transferred. On behalf of those assembled Mr. H. Hornblow presented Mr. Christian with a fountain pen, as a small token of the esteem in which he was held by all, and wished him every success in his new position. An old identity in the person of Mr. George Frederick Smith, of Claudelands, Hamilton, died at the Waikato Hospital last week, at the age of 83. Mr. Smith, who was held in great esteem by all sections of the community, was thrown out of a buggy the previous week and fractured his leg, and at his advanced age the shock was too much for him. He was born in London and came out to New Zealand with his parents in the ship Charlotte Jane in 1851. The family settled in Canterbury, and when the mining boom set in Mr. Smith went to Otago and remained on the diggings for . some years. Later he discovered gold on the Ninety Mile Beach. Subsequently he went farming in different parts of the South Island, and was also farming in Pahiatua for about 12 years. He went to Hamilton some 20 years ago, and was farming in a small way until a few years ago when he retired. His widow, who is the same age, survives him, and there are four sons, five daughters, 24 grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.