PERSONAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 October 1940, Page 4

PERSONAL

Mr L. Connolly, of Masterton, has been transferred to Methven. Sgt-Pilots J. H. Hamill (Masterton) and B. Berney (Eketahuna) have left New Zealand for service with the Royal Air Force. Mr J. P. Hornabrook, of Masterton, district sales representative of the Atlantic Union Oil Co., Ltd., has been transferred to New Plymouth. He will leave for New Plymouth in the next week or so. Major-General Sir Andrew Russell, who was recently appointed InspectorGeneral of the New Zealand Military Forces, will be in command of the Forces during the absence from New Zealand of Major-General Sir John Duigan, Chief of the General Staff, as a delegates to the Empire Economic Conference in Delhi, India. A cable from Melbourne states that the veteran trainer Mr James Scobie died on Saturday at the age of 80. He retired recently. Winners of almost every important Australian race were prepared by Mr Scobie. He won the Melbourne Cup with Bitalli, King Ingoda, Clean Sweep and Trivalve, and secured £250,000 in stake money for his patrons.

There was a large attendance at the funeral this morning of the late Mr J. P. Leahy, of Masterton. Mass was celebrated at St Patrick’s Church by the Rev Father Dillon and at the graveside the service was conducted by the Rev Father Moore. Messrs R. Whyborn, A. E. Prentice, H. G. Alexander, W. J. White, F. Shearer and W. C. Hales, all returned soldiers, acted as pall-bearers.

Formerly a very active figure in Wellington both in municipal and national politics, Mr. John Hutcheson, of the firm of Hutcheson, Wilson and Co., Ltd., Jervois Quay, died on Saturday, aged 86. Mr Hutcheson came to New Zealand in 1881, and later joined the staff of E. W. Mills and Co., Ltd. This was the time when trade unionism be- I gan to assert itself, and Mr Hutcheson took an interest in the movement and was a member of the Strike Commission which followed the strike in 1890. He was Government' representative on the Wellington Har"' bour Board from 1896 to 1900 and was chairman of that body in 1899 and 1900. Mr Hutcheson was elected a Wellington member of the House of Representatives in 1896, but resigned in 1899 owing to a difference he had with the Government over the administration of the Marine Department. In 1900 he was returned as an independent Labour member. Two years later he retired from politics. Mr Hutcheson was formerly a member of the Wellington City Council.