PERSONAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3182, 6 May 1909, Page 5

PERSONAL.

From priva f e information received in Masterton this week Dr. Ross and family have arrived Home, and ai a . all very much benefitted in health by the sea trip. | Mr J. A. Renall, for many years a well-kncwn settler of Masterton, but now residing in the Auckland province, in on an extended visit to Masterton. Mr T. W. Downes, a Wellington ' laf-'nlv Town Clerk of Bulls, died sud-ienlv at Ins residence, at Bulls, yesterday moroinc. He bad complainei of ill health lately. Death was due to heart disease. Mr T. E Donne will leave Wellington for Sydn°y, ''n route to the Old Country on the 28th inst. Heads of the Civil Service and Wellington commercial men have decided to entertain Mr Do..ne at dinner, and to present him with a piece of plate. Mr W. W. 'Tanner, who was defeated at the general election, after representing Avon for eighteen years, was entertained by his old constituents on Tuesday evening. The gathering was large and most enthusiastic, and the Prime Minister made presentations to Mr and Mrs Tanner.

Mr N. E. Alexander, the newlyappointed director of Lincoln Agricultural College, arrived at Wellington by the Kimutaka yesterday. Mr Alexander uraduated in agricultural knowledge at the Royal College of Science, Dublin, and on the completion of his college course was appointed agricultural instructor in County Derry. Subsequently he liecame manager and resident instructor at Albert College, Glasnevin. Mrs Alexander accompanies her hubband. It is not given to every local preacher to spend 49 years of his life in this work, but a proud record in this respect is held by Father Laws, of the Napier Circuit. At the last quarterly meeting of the Hawke's Bay metropolis, special preference waa made to his retirement from active work on account of growing physical disabilities. The following resolution was unanimously passed:—"That we deeply regret the retirement of Father T. Laws from the active work of a local preacher, through growing physical infirmity, and that this meeting places on record an expression of the affectionate regard and * high esteem which Mr Laws has earned throughout a long and honourable career as a local preacher for 49 years in the Old Country and " this Dominion."