OBITUARY

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 224, 21 September 1935, Page 15

OBITUARY

MRS. LOUISA ADAMS.

Mrs. Louisa Adams, donor of the Adams Memorial Gold Clip to the Auckland Trotting Club, lias died at the age of 85 years. She had been a resident of Auckland for 79 years, and was born in Birmingham. In 1856 Mrs. Adams arrived in New Zealand with her patents, Mr. and Mrs. William Wright. She married Mr. William Adams who was keenly interested in the turf. About 1881 he procured and operated at Ellerslie the first totalisator ever seen in Auckland. Mr. Adams retained the Auckland Racing Club's totalisator contract for many years. He took a large part in founding the Auckland Trotting Club and the various suburban racing clubs, and was the owner of several very successful horses, notably Mitrailleuse, which he raced in Australia, and Leorina. Mr. Adams died in 1908, and in 1922 his widow presented the Auckland Trotting Club with a gold cup valued at 100 guineas for a race in his memory. She repeated the gift annually thereafter, although in recent years she was obliged to reduce the value of the trophy. She attended the club's last June meeting, at which the race was run. Mrs. Adams was a resident of Ponsonby for 00 years. She is survived by three sons and three daughters, jail resident in the Auckland province.

CAPTAIN W. T. TAYLOR. (By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday. „ Captain William Thomas Taylor, after whom Taylor's Mistake is named, died at his homo at Kaiapoi, aged 82 years. The son of one of the earliest settlers in Nelson, Captain Taylor was engaged for many years in the coastal trade, and once mistook the bluff at Taylor's Mistake for Lyttelton Heads and narrowly avoided, running aground. At the age of thirteen Captain Taylor was helping to run freight up and down dangerous West Coast rivers, and, after many adventures, gained his master's certificate and traded between Nelson, Kaiapoi and Lyttelton. In 1901 110 went to Wellington, and was in charge of one of tlio harbour ferries, and later was liulkmastcr for the Wellington Harbour Board. He retired in 1921 after serving for a time as tally clerk to the board. Keenly interested in rowing in his younger days, Captain Taylor was among Canterbury's leading oarsmen, and rowed in the crew that beat the famous Dolly Vardcn crew. In 1860 Captain Taylor married a daughter of- Mr. Benjamin Paekwood,_ of Kaiapoi. He is survived, by his wife, and an adult family.