PERSONAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 March 1939, Page 4

PERSONAL

The Hon H. G. R. Mason, AttorneyGeneral, returned to Wellington from Auckland by aeroplane yesterday. Mr John Spillane, who for many years was proprietor of the Rutland Hotel, Pahiatua, died recently at Auckland at the age of 91 years.

Mr and Mrs J. C. Connell, and Mrs G. Foreman, snr., have returned to Masterton from a northern tour, including Rotorua and Auckland district.

The Hon P. C. Webb, Minister of Labour, will visit Westport on Tuesday to attend a demonstration of landclearing with modern high-powered machinery. Mr James Lobb, aged 77, who has made I'o tours round the world since he retired from farming in Waitahuna. Central Otago, 17 years ago, left Auckland by the Awatea on his eleventh trip. His object in making these tours is to “follow the sun” and to live in the summer all the time. Mr Lobb will catch the Mooltan at Sydney and go to England by the Suez route.

The Hon A. Hamilton, Leader of the Opposition, will arrive at Wellington from the South Island today, and will leave later fpr Gisborne, preparatory to an extended tour of the Auckland Province embracing visits to Whakatane, Rotorua, Hamilton. Morrinsville, Matamata, Tauranga. Paero, Te Awamutu, Otorohanga, and Taumarunui. He will leave the lastnamed centre for Wellington on March 30.

News of the death of Mr Hugh Lynn McPhee, of the Royal Air Force, which occurred as the result of an aeroplane accident in Scotland on Saturday, has been received in Napier. Mr McPhee was a son of Mr Dugald McPhee, and was born in Onga Onga in 1914. He went to England in 1931, when he interviewed the Royal Air Force authorities with a view to obtaining an appointment, but it was two years later before he realised his ambition. In the meantime he returned to New Zealand and joined the staff of Barraud and Abraham, Ltd., in Marton. Mr McPhee, it is understood, was due to return to New Zealand next October on leave.

A veteran of the South African War. and also of the Great War, Mr David Scott McGhie, died suddenly last Saturday. In 1935 Mr McGhie unsuccessfully contested the Pahiatua seat in the general election. On the outbreak of the Great War Mr McGhie took active part in recruiting, addressing numerous meetings in various parts of England. He then applied for, and received, a commission in his former unit, the Lancashire Royal Engineers. He served on Gallipoli during the occupation by the Allies, and on the exacuation of the peninsula served in Sinai. He subsequently came to New Zealand, but his experience during the war had undermined his health. Mr McGhie is survived by his widow, two daughters, and a son.