PERSONAL MATTERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 62, 11 September 1905, Page 5

PERSONAL MATTERS.

Mr. Vickers, cleTk of tho Onalow Borough Council, has been granted a month's leave of absence. 1 The cyclists who are to represent New J Zealand in the Warrnambool to Melbourne and the Goulburn to Sydney road races, Messrs. P. M. O'Connor, 11. Henderson, O. Neilson, Mehrtens, F. H. Bell, and A. Hunn, left Wellington for Sydney by -the MaTaroa on Saturday. j A veteran member of the Primitive j Methodist persuasion, the Rev. Wm. John Dean, who was particularly well known in Wellington, passed away at \h& residence of his daughter, Mrs. Frank Clennell, Mujgrave-street, on Saturday evening. Mr. Dean, who was in his Eightieth, year, was stricken suddenly; his fatal illness was of only a week's duration, and he kept a clear and fresh memory till within a few clays of his death. The deceased gentleman was an Englishman by birth, was educated at Wolverhampton, and studied for the Ministry in Shropshire. He began his ministry in Canada in 1854, where he laboured -amongst the . early settlers for some- four years, when broken health sent him back to England. After serving his church in Kent, Essex, and the Isle of Wight, Mr. Dean came out to Australia in 1860, labouring in turn at Newcastle (N.S.W.) and Mt. Barker (S.A.) before being transferred to New Zealand, where ho began his ministry id Auckland in 1867. He served terms of three years .at Auckland and Wellington, and four years at Invercargill. After seven years' retirement, on the superannuation list, Air. Dean resumed regular work as a ■pastor, putting in terms of two years each at Timaru and Geraldinc. That term completed his active service, and he then settled down in. retiiement in W«llington. Mr. Dean took a very active interest and leading part in Freemasonry, of which order he was an enthusiastic member. He lived a quiet and unostentatious life, and his funeral this morning was at his own request strictly of a private nature. The deceased is survived by four sons, Messrs Dean, of Napier, agent in Hawkes Bay for the Government Life Insurance Department, Mr. J. H. Dean, of Messrs Brown and Dean, Wellington, Mr. .A. E. Dean, of Auckland, and Mr. A. W, Dem, of Heading (Berkshire, England), and fouv daughters, Mrs. Clennell, of Wellington, Mrs. Holdship, of Lithgow (N.S.W,), Mrs. J. FitzGerald, of Dunedin, and another, who is the wife of the Rev. J. Ward, of Port Chalmers.