OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 69, 18 September 1936, Page 11

OBITUARY

\ HVIR. ALEXANDER BURNS Mr; Alexander Burns, who died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. W. Mcllraith, Lower Hutt, yesterday, was an old identity of Wellington. He was in his ninety-flfth year. With his wife [and three children he arrived in Dunedin on the first voyage of the ship Nelson on New Year's. Eve, 1874, from Scotland. Mr. Burns removed to Wellington in January, 1877/; and has resided in the city since that date. For some years he was employed in.' the Prisons Department as a warder. The life, however, did not appeal to him, and he started business as a coal and produce dealer in Adelaide Road, retiring some twenty years ago. . With three brothers, Mr,, Burns, was attracted by the great Kirhberley.gold rush in Australia many years ago, and left Wellington in the steamer. Triumph, which was practically a full ship,.only to return in a year, the four having lost all they possessed. Mir. of a retiring disposition, but always keenly interested in all Scottish .activities'. It was a coincidence.that he died within a few days of his mother's age of 94 years and nine months; The late Mr.. Burns . leaves four daughters, Mrs. C. Millward (Korokoro), Mrs. J. Lawrence (Carterton), Mrs, C. Slater and Mrs. W. Mcllraith, both- of. Lower; 1 Hutt, .arid one son, Mr. J. Burns, city councillor, Wellington. Another daughter, Mrs. I. Elton, was killed in a motor accident near Wellington six years ago. His wife died in 1912. The burial will take place privately tomorrow at Karori Cemetery.

MR. J. F. KEARSLEY ■An old identity. of Wellington, Mr. James Francis Kearsley, .'died at his residence at Auckland last week at the age of 86. He was a son of Mr. James Kearsley, a journalist who arrived at Wellington, with Sir Charles Clifford, Wild, Wm. Fox, and others in the ship George Fyfe in 1842. He received his education at Wellington, where he was born, and afterwards joined the firm of Anderson and Co., in Willis Street. Mr- Kearsley later, accepted a clerical position with Griffiths and Co., whose biscuit-making "premises were on that portion of Farish Street which was widened in recent years. He'was well known in musical circles, playing French horn for choral and orchestral societies and visiting theatrical and operatic companies, and was choirmaster for many years at St. Mary's Church, Boulcott Street. He.made a hobby of butterfly hunting, and presented a case of butterflies to the Dominion Museum which was known as the Kearsliani Collection. .- Mr.; Kearsley's great ambition, for. which he qualified by mastering the Italianlanguage, was to go to Italy. This was realised at the age of 70, when he travelled to Rome and also visited Venice, "France, the Jersey Islands, and various parts of England. He returned to Wellington a few years ago and finally settled at Auckland.

MR. CHARLES KEET Advice has been received in Auckland of the death on Monday in Birmingham, England, of Mr. Charles Keet, who was one of the governing directors of Keet Brothers, Birmingham. Two brothers of the late Mr. Keet are also governing directors of the Arm, which is one of the largest and best-known -buying houses in England for all parts of the-British Empire. MRS. F. A. HORNIBROOK The Press Association has been advised that the death occurred yesterday at Raroto'nga of Mrs. F. E. Hornibrook, formerly Miss Ettie Rout, of Christchurch, aged 59. ' Miss Ettie Rout was one of the best known of New Zealand women. In her earlier years she was a public typist in Christchurch, and one of her feats there, when reporting a committee of inquiry which sat for some weeks investigating educational matters, is remembered with admiration by veteran newspapermen. The accuracy and dispatch of her work were such that each morning the committee was able to have all the evidence of the previous day in its hands in typewritten form.

Miss Rout wag always interested in women's movements and in welfare movements generally. She went abroad and married Mr. Hornibrook, who had been in Christchurch for some years as Sandow's representative, teaching physical culture, and her interest in bodily welfare perhaps dated from this time. During the World War she conducted a campaign for welfare methods for the troops. In.Paris she conducted a hostel for colonial troops and ran this for two years,, sacrificing what money she had, and her health as well, in the task.. For this work, and for her achievements on .the. Somme, she was. Honoured by the French Government with:a.recognition medal. In 1919 she and her. Husband obtained positions without salary with the American Red Cross and on the Somme they fed 200 French children daily. - Miss Rout wrote a number of books including "Safe Marriage," "The Morality of Birth Control," "Sex and Exercise," "Maori Symbolism," with a new theory of the migration of the Maoris which did not, however, find any' general acceptation, and "Native Diet," Which was prepared at the request of the New Health Society and which was described by Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane as "performing a great service for civilised humanity." '