OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 82, 7 April 1941, Page 9

OBITUARY

MR. E. P. BUNNY

The death occurred yesterday morning of Mr. Edmund Percy Bunny at the age of 77. He had been ill for some days and was a patient in a private hospital in Wellington. Mr. Bunny, one of Wellington's oldest legal practitioners, came from a family linked with Wellington's early history and was himself prominent in public life, especially i,n affairs connected with the Hutt Valley. "Had it not been for Mr. Bunny there would have been no Lower Hutt City," was a statement made recently, and it epitomised his activity in public affairs. He took a leading part in the formation of the Hutt River Board and was that body's solicitor. In 1899 he was elected a member of the Lower Hutt Borough Council and was elected

Mayor in 1900. He was again Mayor in 1909 and was re-elected to this position for the two following periods. Much of Lower Hutt's progress was due to Mr. Bunny's foresight.

The late Mr. Bunny was born in Wellington, and was a son of Mr. Henry Bunny, Provincial Secretary and Deputy Superintendent of Wellington Province. He attended Nelson College and Wellington College and studied at Canterbury University College, where he took the degree ol B.A. After being a junior master at Wellington College for a short time he began the practice of the law in Wellington in 1889, and at the time of his death he had been at the bar longer than any other barrister in Wellington except Mr. P. Levi. He was in partnership with Mr. N. T. Gillespie.

Mr. Bunny was always interested in sport. He played for Canterbury College in the first Rugby match between that college and Otago University, and throughout the remainder of his life he continued to interest himself in Rugby and other sports. He was closely associated with the Hutt and Wel-lington-Football Clubs. He held office in sports bodies of almost every kind in the Hutt Valloy even to the time of his death, and had held office in some of the district governing bodies of some. He was a member of the first advisory board appointed under the McCarthy Trust, and he assisted many organisations as honorary solicit or.

Mrs. Bunny, who was Miss 13. L. Cimino before their marriage, survives her husband. Mr. and Mrs. Bunny's only son died shortly after the Great War from wounds received on service. There are three daughters. Misses C, M. P.. and A. Bunny.

The funeral will be tomorrow morning after a service in the Lower Hutt Roman Catholic Church.