OBITUARY

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 194, 12 May 1924, Page 6

OBITUARY

DR. J. M. MASON A good citizen, one in whom the finer human qualities were well developed, passed away on Friday when Dr. James Malcolm Mason died >at his residence, “Inchcape,” Myrtle Street, Lower Hutt. Dr. Mason had not been in the best of health for the past two years, and it was partly tor a change of air and scene and for its effect upon his health that he undertook a voyage to California last year in company with the late Mr. Oswald Beere. Since his return from that trip Dr. Mason had been somewhat serionslv ill, and a, steady decline for three or four months past ended in his death,, which will be sincerely regretted in all parts of New Zealand and Australia, for the deceased gentleman was widely-known and respected for his medical scholarship, as well as . for his intellectual and social dualities. Tho late Dr. Mason was born at Arbroath, Scotland, in 1865, and was educated at Glasgow. Edinburgh, Cambridge, Brussels, and Paris. His decrees were: M.D., Brussels/ with distinction) : L.R.C.P. and L.R-C S. Edinburgh (1888): L.R.F.P.S.. Glaßgow, arid L.M. (1887); D.P.H., Cambridge (1892). After practising medicine at Portsmouth, and subsequently for four years in Northumberland, he came out to New Zealand in 1895, and was appointed a Justice of. the Peace in the following year. While in England he qualified as a barrister-at-law, and he was a member of the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn. London. In the profession to which be chiefly devoted himself he was a Fellow or the Chemical Society, London, Examiner in Bacteriology and Pathology to tho New Zealand University from 1895 to 1900: vice-president of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1903; corresponding member of the Epidermiological Society, London; corresponding member of the Association Generale des Ingenieurs Architectes et Hygieneistes . Municrpaux de France, Alberie-Tunisie, Belgique, Suisse, ct Grand-Duche de Luxembourg : president-elect of the Public Health Division of the Intercolonial Medical Congress at Melbourne, 1908. etc. In 1900 ho was appointed Chief Health Officer for Now Zealand, a position he held until 1909. when the Health and Hospitals Departments were amalgamated. He then returned to England, but came back some months later to resume private tice in the Wellington district. Minis Chief Health Officer he commenced, a strong crusade against . tuberculosis, and he was one of tho pioneers in the movement for the establishment of sanatoria at Otaki. and Cambridge He resided for some time at Otaki, where he took a great interest in the natives. He occupied a seat for some years on tho Otaki Licensing Bench. During recent vears Dr. Mason made a speciality of bacteriology, on which ho became an acknowledged authority. As a resident of Lower Hutt, Dr. Mason took an active interest, in the affairs of the district, and right up to tho time of his illness lie believed that the wisest policy for both the Hutt and the Petone boroughs was to unite. He acted two years ago as chairman of the joint committee concerned in the dispute over the gasworks, which he considered one of the first steps toward amalgamation. He was also president of the Lower Hutt Progress League, was the first president of the Wellington Savage Club. Dr. Mason was a connoisseur of arc and literature, a lover of the drama, and generally had a wide culture which made, .his company an acquisition wherever he went. Away back in 1895 be was a captain in the N-Z. Militia, and in tho Great War served on the hospital ship Marania with tho rank of lieutenant-colonel. His writings included the treatise, “Counsels, Civil and Moral, from My Lord Bacon ” A story, “The Last (>f the Delavals,” and the pamphlets, “Tuberculosis Among Children in New Zealand” and “Medical Inspection of Schools in New Zealand.” Dr. Mason leaves a widow, one son (Mr. Malcolm Mason, sheepfarmer, of Havelock), and a daughter (Mrs. Duncon, wife of Mr. A. T. Duncan, solicitor,' of Wellington). A funeral service, largely attended by the friends of deceased from the Hutt and 'Wellington, was held in St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral last evening. The service was conducted by Ven. Archdeacon Johnson. The pall-bear-ers were: —Drs. J. H. Elliott, C. JMorice, IV. Young, G. Harty, A. Robertson, and G. H. Mirams- The chief mourners were Messrs. Malcolm Mason (son), A. T. Duncan (son-in-law), and F. C. Facer (nephew). Also among those present were Mr. Walter Bethune, Sir Robert and Lady. Stout, Hon. Sir Maui Poniare, the Mayor and councillors of Lower Hutt, members of the Hutt Progress 1 »ague, and of Lorge Waiwetu, Mr. H. D. Bennett, Hon. Dr. .E, Collins, M-L.C., Messrs. A. E. Miles, T. E. Cockburn-Hood-Shapland, John Prouse,4* E. P. Bunny, D. N. Yeats, Dr. D. Stout. The funeral will lake place at Otaki at noon to-day.