Obituary MR W. S. BRICE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28887, 6 May 1959, Page 7

Obituary MR W. S. BRICE

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 5.

One of the greatest personalities in New Zealand cricket, Mr W. S. (“Sixer”) Brice, aged 79, died this morning at the home of a daughter, Mrs Isobel Stevenson, at Maraekakaho, near Hastings. Mr Brice played for New Zea-, land and was a New Zealand and Wellington selector. Most of his club cricket was played for Petone for which team he made more than 7000 runs and took close on 1000 wickets.

He held the Wellington record for most senior wickets with a total of 1173. He took a keen interest in Rugby—he played for Petone and represented Wellington in 1901 —Rugby League and bowling. He founded Rugby League in Wellington, promoting a match at Athletic Park on June 14, 1908, between the Old Golds, New Zealand’s first Rugby League team to tour overseas, and a Wellington side.

He is survived by five sons and three daughters.

MR T. DENNIS

‘The Press' Special Service GISBORNE, May 5.

The son of an Englishman who settled in the Poverty Bay district in the 1850’s and married a member of the Rongowhakaata Tribe, Mr Thomas Dennis, who died in Gisborne on Thursday, is believed to have been the last survivor from the days of the Te Kooti massacre of 1868. He was in his one hundredth year.

Mr Dennis claimed an association with the troops who pursued the Maori rebel and his followers until Te Kooti took refuge with the Maori King at Te Kuiti in 1870.

Mr Dennis, who went by his Maori name of Tamati Kouri Teneti, was a great-great-grand-father. His only son, Thomas Dennis, a Maori Rugby All Black, toured with the Maori team in France, England, and Wales in 1926-27. CAPTAIN J. J. FINN Captain John James Finn, the assistant marine superintendent of the Shaw Savill aryl Albion Company, Ltd., in Christchurch until his retirement in 1954. died on Monday. He was 66. Born in Campbelltown, Scotland, Captain Finn was educated there and first went to sea on the Scottish coast.

He was a member of the Clyde division of the Royal Naval Reserve, and was called up in 1914, when he went with the Royal Naval Division to the defence of Antwerp when Belgium was invaded by the Germans. When Antwerp was overrun, he was amon. those who escaped to Holland, where he was interned for the rest of the war. During his internment, he sat for and passed his second mate’s certificate. He joined the Shaw Savill line as a junior officer shortly after his release. Captain Finn remained at sea until 1937, when he was chief officer on the Mamari. He left the ship shortly after to take up the position of assistant to the company’s marine superintendent in Christchurch.

In 1940, Captain Finn was appointed assistant marine superintendent, a position he held until his retirement in December. 1954.

Captain Finn was a member of the Hagley Golf Club, and held the Maefarlane (Veterans’) Cup He is survived by his wife and a son.