OBITUARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 13, 16 January 1926, Page 10

OBITUARY.

MR. JAMES DOUGLAS GILLIES. The death has just taken place of Mr, James Douglas Gillies, Greyanouth, at the age of 08. He has relatives in the Auckland district, where the name has always been well known, and where at one time his father, the late Judge Gillies, was the lending figure in the intellectual life of the city. The family lived at "Rocklands." Epsom, which the taste of the late Judge made one of the finest homes in Auckland, and where there are still to be seen dozens of rare exotic trees which were introduced by the owner, who was keenly interested in acclimatisation. Mr. J. D. Gillies was educated at the Auckland Grammar School and Auckland University College. In 187S he entered the Public Works Department, and made rapid progress in the service, being connected with such important undertakings as the Manawatu Gorge railway and several other sections of the line in that neighbourhood. Thirty-six years ago he resigned and took a number of railway and other contracts in the West Coast mining districts. In 1892 he joined Mr. T. W. Spence in private practice at Greymouth as civil and mining engineers. Since then he had been connected with all the biggest works on the Coast, and his inline will be specially remembered in connection with work* on the difficult harbours of the Const. Like his father before him, Mr. Gillies was interested in the nits nnd literature, and he was specially fond of music, being one of the original members of the Grovmouth Male Choir. Mr. Gillies leaves a" widow and two young daughters. He is survived by one sister (Mrs. Thompson, of Sydney), and two brothers—Dr. Sinclair Gillicß, of Sydney, and Mr. Bruce Gillies of Tiinaru. ' THE MUNICIPAL BAND. To-morrow afternoon at :t pni the Municipal Hand plays nt the Zoological Park. An outstanding item in the fine proffrmmn to be presented win he the Hullo "Scenes in Manrlinnd." a vorv characteristic conception thai promises to Docomo popular; other numbers are selections "The Sorcerer" and "The llcmuy Prize," overture "Tancrod " liiterinezzo-lliiwnllan "MallMta'H I'alrv Dowor," loronarto "Minions a'Arlonuin '• moroeau "The Sanctuary or tin* itaapiV witn bright marches and popular i", j,