LONG ILLNESS ENDS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22618, 22 April 1948, Page 6

LONG ILLNESS ENDS

MR. D. H. WITHERS WAIROA ACCOUNTANT (S.R.) WAIROA, April 22. The death of Mr. Donald Hector Withers yesterday has removed from Wairoa one of its' most prominent business men. Mr. Withers came to Wairoa over 20 years ago and after a term with the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency, Limited, set up in business on his own account, later taking into partnership Messrs. R. W. James and L. Dick. His knowledge of accountancy gained for him a wide connection and among the positions he held was secretary of the Wairoa and Nuhaka A. and P. Societies, Opoho and Wairoa Collie Clubs, the local Transport Alliance, and he also acted as secretary to a number of private companies. He was the proprietor of Coker’s Cordials, and held a number of other interests in Wairoa. He was keenly interested in politics, being for a term a member of the Wairoa Borough Council, and he was also responsible for the formation of the Wairoa branch of the National Party, being its first chairman.

In his younger days he was a wellknown Rugby player being a Wairoa representative on a number of occasions, whilst lie was also a keen golf enthusiast.

Mr. Withers had been a member of Lodge Waikaremoana for a number of years, and was a P.C.P. of the Sir Francis Allerby Lodge, R.A.0.8. Mr. Withers had been ill for a very long time and his end was not unexpected. In addition to his widow, he leaves a family of four to mourn their loss. The funeral took place in Wairoa today.