OBITUARY

Evening Star, Issue 21320, 26 January 1933, Page 9

OBITUARY

M WILLIAM DENSEM The death is reported from 'Wellington of Mr William Densem, who was for many years a well-known figure on local concert platforms. Mr Densem was prominent among many distinguished contemporaries, among whom were Mrs William Murphy, Miss May Hume, Mrs Angus, Mrs Israel, Miss Rose Blaney, Messrs Henry Stockwell, H. B. Smith, James Jago, F. L. Jones, J. Blenkinsopp, Farquhar Young, and C. Umbers. Mr Densem possessed marked musical arid elocutionary ability. His Gaspard in ‘ Les Cloches de Corneville ’ is still remembered with much pleasure by the older generation of_ theatregoers. .After leaving Dunedin, Mr Densem taught elocution in Christchurch for some years, and finally moved to Wellington. Late in life he was afflicted with blindness. THE REV. A. M. FINLAYSON At the age of eighty-seven years the Rev. Alexander M. Finlayson, for many years a minister of the Presbyterian Church in the Waitati charge and later a keen church worker at Maori Hill, passed away early this morning at his residence in Driver’s road. The Rev. Mr Finlayson, who was a kindly, scholarly clergyman, was born in the North of Scotland, and, after coming out to New Zealand, was, in 1876, inducted into the BlueskinMerton (Waitai) charge. This was his first and only office as a regular minister, as, oftei faithfully caring for his flock in that district for forty years, he retired and settled in Maori Hill in 1916. However, Mr Finlayson continued to do a certain amount of preaching, and, besides being a constant \yorker in the interests of the church at Maori Hill, where he was a member of the session until his death, ho was for many years clerk of the synod and clerk of the Presbytery. He was also a member of the Judicial Committee of the assembly. At college be was a keen student, being very well up in church procedure and law. The Rev; Mr Finlayson is survived by his widow and one son, the. latter being resident in the North Island. His other son, a noted science scholar, lost bis life in the Great War.