OBITUARY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25089, 22 January 1947, Page 5

OBITUARY

MR J. PHILLIPS Mr John Phillips, of Paeroa, who arrived in Canternury in 1854, died recently at the age of 93 years. Born at Belfast. Ireland, he came out to New Zealand with his parents in the sailing ship Cameo, the first port of call being Lyttelton, .where the family disembarked. Mr Phillips spent his boyhood in Christchurch, where he attended school. Schooling in those days was not free, and each child had to pay Is a week to attend. The first home in which the Phillips family lived was built of maize cobs and mud, and thatched with rushes. While this house was being built by Mr Phillips’s father the family lived in a church. In his youth Mr Phillips was often employed at towing the sailing ships up the Lyttelton harbour to the wharf with teams of horses. Sailing ships were unable to sail right up to the wharves and had to anchor in the stream and send a line ashore to be towed up to a wharf. Another job which Mr Phillips did was the whipping of the coal used for the first railway engine to travel on the Lyttelton to Christchurch railway. “Whipping” was the hauling of coal m big baskets from the ship at the wharf. , A?- er J 1 * 8 marriage in Christchurch to Miss Mary Jane Kennedy, Mr Phillips went to Auckland and then to Paeroa. where he began farming, and later was engaged in contracting work for the Ohinemuri County Council. Mr Phillips owned the first tram service m Paeroa. and used to operate a horse-drawn passenger tram from the Junction wharf to the town. MR R. R. HORNBLOW (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 21. Mr Reginald Reed Hornblow, chief reporter of the “Evening Post’’ and for many years sports editor of the paper, has died after a serious illness. Mr Hornblow was born in Greytown and played in the Wellington Boys’ Cricket League. He joined the “Evening Post” in 1910, and specialised in sports writing. His services to cricket brought him honour some years ago, when he was elected vice-president of the Wellington Cricket Association. His enthusiasm for sport and his eagerness to give it all possible publicity led to his playing a leading part in the establishment of the “Sports Post” in 1936. He was sports editor of that paper, as well as the “Evening Pq|t” until he was appointed chief reporter of the “Evening Post” last year. A veteran of the 1914-18 war. Mr Hornblow was an executive member of the Karori branch of the Returned Services’ Association, end was president from 1944 to 1946. He was adjutant -and later headquarters com-* pany commander of the Makara Battalion of the Home Guard in the last war. He is survived by a wife and a son. THE REV. A. B. KILROY (P.A.) WELLINGTON. Jan. 21. The death occurred to-day of the Rev. Albert Brian Kilroy, minister of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, the Terrace, Wellington. Mr Kilroy, who was a distinguished debater during his university career, graduated Master of Arts at the Otago University in 1919. He spent two years at the Theological Hall, Knox College. Dunedin, and studied for two years at Westminster College, Cambridge. He was licensed by the Presbytery of North London in 1922, and returned to Dunedin. He served in Dunedin. Riccarton, Oamaru, and Wellington. He was Moderator of the Wellington Presbytery and chairman of the centennial managements committee during 1940.