OBITUARY

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21050, 29 December 1933, Page 10

OBITUARY

MR JOHN ELDER Mr John Elder, who died at his residence, "Stormount,"' Mount Grey, on Tuesday, was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1853, being brought up on his father's farm. He had experience for two years in a legal office, but then devoted his attention to farming. In 1830 he arrived in Lyttclton by the ship Norfolk, and was for four years on Clydevale Station, Otago, the property of the New Zealand Land Company. For seven years subsequently he was agricultural manager of the Waihao Downs Station. In 1899, Mr Elder took up a grazing run of 4000 acres on the Hunter range, Timaru, which ho farmed for 12 years. Later he went to Kaikoura, and acquired the Waipapa property, farming it successfully for many years. On his retirement, owing to ill-health, he lived for a time in Christchurch, and later settled in «mberley. His death followed a short illness. He is survived by his widow, two sons. Messrs R. M. Elder (Temuka), and J. Elder (Amberley), and four daughters, Mrs A. V. Baker (Culverden), Mrs A. J. McDowall (Greymouth), Mrs W. Squire (Timaru), and Miss L. Elder (Amberley). MR THOMAS BAXTER Mr Thomas Nimmo Baxter, of the legal firm of Baxter, Shrewsbury, and Milliken, Auckland, died recently at his home at Remuera. He was 73 years of age. Mr Baxter arrived at Auckland in the ship William Miles. He joined the Post and Telegraph Department, and was stationed at the Thames, Carterton, and Blenheim. He studied law, and on passing his examinations began practice in Auckland in 1896 with Mr H. Shrewsbury. Mr Baxter was a past-president of the Auckland District Law Society, and a past-president of the Remuera Bowling Club. He was one of the first members of the West End Rowing Club. He is survived by two brothers, Messrs J. W. Baxter, of Devonport, and J. Baxter, of Pukemiro. His wife died two years ago. MR G. G. BOYD Mr George Gillespie Boyd died recently at his residence, "Silverford," Pukelapti, Hawke's Bay. He was 86 years of age. Born in Edinburgh, he was the eldest son of Dr. John McNeil Boyd, who came to New Zealand and settled at Wairoa, Hawke's Bay. In the year 1861 he followed his parents out to New Zealand, and though so young enlisted in the Mounted Constabulary, and in the Maori Wars distinguished himself as a dispatch rider and scout. I-le was one of the defenders of the Blockhouse at Wairoa, and fought both in Taranaki and at Opotiki. Mr Boyd later took up farming and was the first to "breakin" the bush-clad Tokomaru-Onga-ruru block, owned by Mr A. C. Arthur, of Gisborne. He afterwards combined fanning on his own account with trading at Mataahi, Tuparoa. Port Awanui. and Rangitukia on the East Coast. He took an active interest in loCal affairs, and for many years was a Justice of the Peace and a member of the Waiapu County Council, in later years he went to Hawke's Bay, and in retirement gradually withdrew from public life. Ho was a member of the Turanganui Masonic Lo'Jje for many years. He is survived ov live sons and one daughter by his first marriage, and by one daughter by his second wife, who survives him. There arc numerous grandchildren, and 10 greatgrandchildren. MR J. W. SMITH Mr James Waddell Smith, who was for 43 years connected with the teaching staff of the High Street School. Dunedin, being headmaster for 33 years of this period, died this week at his residence in Dunedin. Mr Smith, who retired in 1924, was 74 years of age. He was born at Ednam, Roxburghshire. Scotland, coming to New Zealand with his parents when he was four years of age. After landing at Bluff his father, Mr John Gibson Smith, opened a private school in Tay street, Invercargill, the son being among the pupils. In 1874 Mr Smith, sen., removed to Longbush (Southland), whe.*"j he was headmaster of the public school, his son being a pupil teacher in the school. After spending a year at Longbush Mr Smith, jun., was appointed sole teacher at Edendale. He was then between 16 and 17 years of age, and was probably the youngest headmaster in New Zealand. In 1878 he was appointed fourth assistant at the Arthur Street School, Diuiedin, at that time under the charge of Mr A. A. Barratt. He was appointed second assistant at the William Street School in 1881, and first assistant in 1886. On the death of Mr J. B. Park, first headmaster of the school, in 1891. he was promoted to the headmastership, a position which he held with pronounced success for 33 years, and in 1924, at the age of 65 years, he retired from school teaching. Outside his school life Mr Smith occupied many positions of trust and importance. On two occasions he was president of the Otago Teachers' Institute. He was the first chairman of the Headmasters' Association and a life member of the association, and he also held the offices of president of the Kaituna Bowling Club, the Dunedin and Otago Gymna.;tic Associations, and the Navy League. He was also a member of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He was a justice of the peace and was associated with the magistrate in the Children's Court. Ho was a life member of the Commercial Travellers' and Warehousemen's Association an adherent of the ! Congregational Church, and a member of the Masonic fraternity (Lodge Dunedin nnd Lodge St. Clair). In 1896 Mr Smith married Mis.s Maggy Edith Jago, the youngest daughter of Mr John Wesley Jago. There were no children of the marriage.

M. MJNATCHARSKI

(VNnr.D niEMH association—tit ti.ECTrtic IXI.BGRArII --COrIKIOHT.) LONDON, December 27. Tlic dentil hns occurred at Mentone, France, of M. Anatolc Lunatcharski, a former Commissar and recently Soviet Ambassador to Spain. M. Lunatcharski was appointed Soviet Ambassador to Spain in August, when Spain recognised Ihe Soviet. This indicated his partial restoration to favour. Ho had been removed from the position of Commissar for Education in 19211.

Auatole VasiliefT Lunatcharski. the Soviet statesman, was born in 1867 in (he government of Poltava, in the Ukraine, where his father was an official. lie studied literature at Kic-ff University, and in the '9o's joined the Russian Socialist party. As the result, of a speech on "Ibsen as a Reformer," he was arrested in 1900, and in 1901 exiled to the government of Vologda. In 1904 he escaped, and went to Paris, where he joined the Bolsheviks. During the 1905 revolution in Russia he returned and joined the staff of the "Proleiarian." and willt Trotsky acted as a delegate of thePetrograd Workmen's and Peasant;;' Council. During the reaction which followed he escaped to Parir;, where he joined Lenin, edited the paper "Veperiod," and produced many propaganda pamphlets, as well as some literary works. In 1912-13 he was engaged in Bolshevik propaganda in Italy, but, returned to Paris, where he stayed till 1917. In May of that year he went back to Russia, where in

June he was imprisoned by the Kerensky Government, but freed by ihe Bolsheviks in October. Lunatcharski was People's Commissar for Education from the time the Soviet regime was established until 1928. Under his administration the new simplified Russian orthography was introduced, and education based on the idea of preparing for any of the manifold tasks in a life of manual labour. The. conduct of the schools was to be an initiation into the duties of a citizen, the principle of communism running through all the details of management and old-fashioned disciplinary methods being abandoned. The senior pupils were to take their part in the administration of the school alonf with the teachers and representatives of the working population of the neighbourhood. As the result of his system, Lunatcharski claimed that an improvement had been brought about. Lunatcharski was a poet and a dramalist, and some of his plays have born translated and acted abroad. "Don Quixote Released" is very clever both as drama and as revolutionary propaganda. Others of his plays are "Cromwell." "Danton," "Campanella," "The Poison," and "Carpenter and Chancellor." At one time he had seven or eight of his pieces running in Moscow at the same time, which provoked humorous remonstrances from his colleagues. Mme. Lunatcharski, who was a well-known actress before her marriage, took the chief part in three German films in 1928.