OBITUARY

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 170, 14 April 1932, Page 7

OBITUARY

Mr. W. Handley The death took place suddenly on Monday evening of Mr. William Handley at his home at Christchurch. He was a familiar figure in railway circles, especially in Otago and Canterbury. He onlv retired from the service as stationmaster at Lyttelton last August, after nearly 40 years’ service. He joined the traffic branch at Christchurch in 1893, and was afterward at Cambridge and Invercargill. He became assistant stationmaster at Auckland in 1927, and later stationmaster at Oamaru and then Lyttelton. Mr. Cornelius Deane Mr. Cornelius Deane, for thirty years a member of the staff of Messrs. Williams and Kettle at Napier, and previously one of the staff of the Napier office of the New Zealand Shipping Company, died at Napier on Monday. Mr. Deane was born at Everton, Liverpool, in 1864, and joined the Liverpool branch of the New Zealand Shipping Company in 1881. In 1883 he was transferred to the company’s London office, and two years later became purser on the R.M.S. Ruapehu. He held that position for six years, leaving it to join the R.M.S. Rimutaka in a similar capacity. Im 1892 he left the sea and joined the staff of the company’s office in Christchurch, and very shortly afterw’ards was transferred to the Napier office. In 1900 he left to join Messrs. Williams and Kettle, and had remained with the firm during the whole of the thirty-two years since then. The late Mr. Deane was deeply interested in musical matters, and during almost the whole period of his residence in Napier he was a member of the choir of St. John’s Cathedral. He had been a member of two amateur operatic societies existing at various times in Napier, and had frequently shown his ability'in leading parts. Also he was a member of the Napier Liedertafel Society. He is survived by one son, Mr. Ranclolf Edmund Deane, of Palmerston North, and one daughter, Mrs. Wallace Craigie, of Cooma, New South Wales. There are also three grandchildren. Captain John Cowan The death of Captain John Cowan, at one time a skipper in the Atlantic service, and for many years a wellknown and popular figure in the coast trade in New Zealand, occurred at Hastings this week. The late Captain Cowan, who was 85 years of age. and who had lived in Hastings for the last thirty-two years, was born in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1847. He had lived an adventurous, and interesting life, and went to sea at the age of ten, when he was apprenticed to a Glasgow firm of shipowners. He served on ships trading between Liverpool and the west coast of South America, and was iu that service for six years. In IS6B he came to New Zealand, and landed at Dunedin. For some years he was in command of vessels engaged in the coast trade along both islands, and he was remembered locally for his success in performing the trying and skilful task of laying the stone foundations of the Napier’ Breakwater, of which he was in charge for twelve years. Another notable task performed by him at Napier was the salvaging of the wreck of the Northumberland.