OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 116, 19 May 1938, Page 11

OBITUARY

MR. WILLIAM PARK

Mr. William Park, J.P., who was associated with local body politics at Palmerston North for many years, died yesterday at the age of 82. He was Mayor of Palmerston North from 1893 to 1895, and for various periods between 1884 and 1902 occupied a seat at the council table. He has also served on numerous public bodies over a period of years, having been chairman of the Palmerston North Hospital

'Board, Government representative on the Palmerston North High School Board of Governors, and a trustee of the Manawatu Racing Club for more than thirty years. He was also president of the Holiday Association and S.P.C.A., and a life member of the Beautifying Association, of which he was for thirty years chairman of the executive.

The late Mr. Park was born at Sawyer's Bay, Port Chalmers, and was a son of the late Mr. G. M. Park, who arrived in New Zealand on the Phillip Laing in 1848. Mr. William Park entered business as a bookseller in Hokitika, and in 1882 purchased a similar type of. business in Palmerston North. He was a well-known oarsman in his early years, and won two silver cups for sculling. With his younger brother George he crossed in 1890 from Plimmerton to Picton in a Rob Roy canoe. MR. WILLIAM SMITH The death has occurred of Mr. William Smith, late of the Education Service, and latterly a resident of Auckland. Born at Munro's Gully, Lawrence, Otago, 69 years ago, Mr. Smith was educated at the Lawrence District High School and at Otago University College, where he graduated in arts. Joining the teaching profession, he took charge of his first school at Ardlussa, Southland, in 1893. A few "years later he married Miss Wilhelmina Smyth, of Lawrence. Occupying successive appointments at Gore and Pukerau,- Mr. .Smith: came to the North Island, and after serving at Pakipaki and Gisborne, assumed charge of the Waipawa District High School, and

[thereafter received a rapid series of promotions to the headmasterships of the Miramar South School, Waihi District High School, and Te Kuiti District High School. From the last position he retired in 1930. The quality of Mr. Smith's services to the cause of education requires no further evidence than the high responsibilities of the positions to which he was appointed. Independent in spirit and original in his methods, he carried out his duties with a competency, impartiality, and genial briskness that will be "impressed upon the memory of his numerous old pupils and ex-colleagues. Mr. Smith was always a sportsman, and took an active part in cricket, football, tennis', and angling. It was bowls, however, , that claimed his greatest interest, and he was a familiar figure on New Zealand greens. His proficiency at the game raised him to Dominion class. Mr. Smith took his full share in community life, and was a keen and active member of the Masonic Order. He' is survived by his widow, three sons, Messrs. D. J. S. Smith (Wellington), R. W. E. and C. G. F. Smith (Auckland), and a daughter, Mrs. M. M. Munro (Wellington).