OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 41, 18 February 1943, Page 3

OBITUARY

MR. J. M. DECK

A man with a remarkable record of service in the shipping business died in Wellington this week. He was Mr. John Massy Deck, aged 73, and when he retired on superannuation in July, 1937, he had completed 53 years' service in one building in Wellington. At that time he was in charge of the

shipping department "of Wright, Stephenson, and Co., Ltd. Mr. Deck joined the employ of W. and G. Turnbull and Co., wholesale merchants, of Wellington, in 1884, and ultimately rose to the charge of that firm's shipping department. In July, 1916, the business was acquired by Wright, Stephenson, and Co., Ltd., and Mr. Deck retained his position under the new management.

It is a remarkable fact that Mr. Deck spent the whole of his business career in the same building, which was taken over from W. and G. Turnbull and Co., Ltd., by Wright, Stephenson, and Co., Ltd.

When he joined Turnbull's service in 1884 most of the overseas trade of the port was carried on by sailing ships. The first shipment of frozen meat from New Zealand had left Dunedin only two years before Mr. Deck started his business career, and the direct steamship services between New Zealand and London had just been inaugurated.

Wellington's waterfront in 1884 was vastly different from the present magnificent expanse of wharfage. At that time it comprised little more than Queen's Wharf and the wool wharf (now the Lyttelton steamer berth). The office building in which Mr. Deck has worked so long was then one of the principal structures on Customhouse Quay, and looked directly on to the waterfront.

Mr. Deck is survived by his wife and by an adult family of two sons and four daughters.