DEATH OF MR JOHN M. COOK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 79, 5 April 1899, Page 2

DEATH OF MR JOHN M. COOK.

HEAD OF THE FAMOUS TOURIST ■..•; ■ AGENCY. : . LONDON, March 4. Mr j. M. Cook, the head of the great tourist agency, is dead. He never recovered from the illness which he contracted while conducting the ;recent *tournof i Emperor William of Germany in : Palestine. ' ' .. ■.. ,JT:.: ■' 'V. John M. Cook, only son of Thomas Cook, founder of the Cook Tourist Agency, was born in the village of Marke* Hamsborough, England, in 1834. Ac a youth he was apprenticed to the printing trade, but seeing it did not open up a large enough Held for him, he detained a position in the Midland Railway Company, with which he remained three years. In 1864 he took a position with the Cook Tourist Agency, and eventually became the head of the firm, his father retiring from active business in 1878. As managing partner of the agency Mr Cook enlarged: the business and extended its field of operation. He secured from the British Government a monopoly of the excursion navigation Of the Nile, and, securing a large fleet of vessels, whose pilots were well acquainted with the river, he reaped a large profit for the company. Shortly after this venture he secured' a franchise from the Italian Government to operate a railway up Mount Vesuvius, which was. as successful as the Nile fleet and is still in operation. In many other ways Mr Cook widened out the business of the firm and introduced new features into it as opportunities presented themselves. The local officers of the company announce that thp business has been and will continue.to be managed by Mr Cook's three sons, Prank Hi Cook, P. E. Cook, and T. A. Cook, and that there will be no changes whatsoever. The history 6f the Cook Tourist Agency is unique. In 1841 Thomas" Cook commenced the business that has extended itself all over the world. Thomas- Cook was an ardent advocate of temperance, and it was due to this fact that the business originated. A temperance meeting being held at the Park of LoughborOugft, the residence of Sir M. Paget, M.P., therd arose the question of some cheap method of conveyance from there to Leicester. Mr Cook originated the idea of excursions and carried several hundred people at the rate of a shilling a head. After this first successful venture, he planned trips from Leicester to Liverpool, Glasgow, and other parts of Scotland, and 'Cook's excursions soOn became noted. In 1872 the firm made the first Of the trips around the world, which have since been a regular feature of its system. The. firm of Thomas Cook and Son celebrated its senii-cehtennlal in 1891, thus making up to the present time a life of 58 years."