OBITUARY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 124, 7 March 1935, Page 6

OBITUARY

MR Z. D. FERRIMAN. AUTHORITY ON THE NEAR EAST. The following item of news, sent by its London correspondent to “The Manchester Guardian,” on Monday, January 14 last, will be ol interest to Ashtiurton residents, as it refers to a brother of the late Mi- F. Z. D. Ferriman : “Zacchaeus Duckett Ferriman, who died yesterday in London in his eightyfourth year, was a fine scholar and an unusual man, well known in serious journalism. The three books by which his generation will remember him are all concerned with the Near East where he had spent important years of his .adult life. He knew the Constantinople and the Athens of the eighties, and nineties as few have done. “ ‘Home Life in Hellas’ and ‘The Turk at Home’ give intimate characteristic glimpses of everyday life in the Balkan Peninsula, .while his last publication, ‘East and West of Hellespont’ mentioned by one high authority as worthy to be placed beside Kingslake’s ‘Eothen,’ is a selection from the marvellous store-house of his personal memories. To the student of Christianity little could be more fascinating than the chapters dealing with Palestin©, and on© ot tli© pleasantest -iocoI" lections of one of his intimates. is of his reading these aloud and of his delight to find a listener for whom no Biblical allusion could lose a shred of its significance. ' • “Mi* Ferriman was an unusual linguist. His fluent Turkish and modern Greek seemed rather a matter of course, and he spoke French, German, and Italian readily. His wife, who predeceased him by a few years, was Dutch, and he had, I believe, enough Dutch to read or converse in her mother tongue. For a long period he reviewed modern Greek publications foi an Anglo-Hellenio society. He was an occasional contributor to your columns for oyer thirty years. He was essentially a student, and till last spring, when a y slight stroke impaired his speech and made writing impossible, his was a familiar figure in the British Museum reading-room. - ‘But no picture of this rare Bohemian •friend would he complete without mention of Iris surprising knowledge of historical England. A message to him from any new town or village, one might visit, would always elicit from him long descriptions of the particular historic curiosities that he had always connected with these parts. With him our generation loses an eccentric and considerable scholar.

MR J. MAY.

AUCKLAND, March 6. Mr John May, who died at his home in Albert Park, Devonport, at the age of ninety-one, was one of the .hi st station masters in New Zealand. n landed at Lyttelton m 18<4, and, as he had seen service on the railway s in England, lie was soon appointed a stationhiaster., For forty-six years he was with.the Railway Department m the South Island. He opened the Lincoln station, and was later stationed at Burnham and Oran. He left the service six months before the superannuation scheme was introduced, anci started farming at Eftham. After fifteen years of dairying lie retired and came to live at Devonport. His hobby was gardening, and lie enjoyed excellent health. The following children are left:_Messrs A. J. May, Teatatu; Mr F. C. May, .manager of the barmens’ Co-imperative Society, Timaru, and formerly of Rakaiaj Mr R< _ G. May, chief postmaster at New 1 lymouth; and Mr D. May, farmer, ol Elthamj Mrs W. Glanville, Timaru ; Mrs A. R. Brewer, Christchurch; Mis J. Capper, Otahuhu; and the Misses AV. and J. May, Devonport. THE REV. JAMES COCKER. The Rev. James Cocker, former Methodist minister and prominent worker for prohibition, died suddenly at Masterton yesterday, aged 73. Ha was stationed at various times ta Christchurch, Auckland, Wellington, Ashburton, and Wanganui. Mr Cocker was regarded by the church as a man or versatile gifts and a fluent preacher. He was prominent in the Primitive Methodist Church before the union in 1913, and was president of ,the Primitive Methodist conference. He took a particular interest in the orphanage , work of the church. Mr Cocker left Christchurch for Masterton, where his health broke down; notwithstanding, he continued to take an active interest in the church. Born at Derbyshire in 1862, he was sent to New Zealand by the British conference in 1890. He was minister at the following towns: —Ashburton (1890), Feilding (1895), AVanganui (1898), Wellington (1904), Auckland (1909), Christchurch (1913), Cambridge Terrace (1916), Mastferton (1919 to 1922). He was editor of the “New Zealand Primitive Methodist” from 1905 to 1913,\ president of the New Zealand Methodist conference in 1900, editor of Jhe “New Zealand Methodist Times” from 1915-19, and of the “New Zealand Vanguard” in 1921. lie was also a prominent prohibitionist, and was at various times a member of several licensing committees. Mr Cocker was a member of the Loyal Ashburton Lodge, M.U., 1.0.0. F.