PERSONAL ITEMS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 12 September 1925, Page 6

PERSONAL ITEMS.

Mr W. Bent, an old settler of Waitara, died at New Plymouth on Thursday at -the age of 69 years. He was connected with lodge work and was an enthusiastic bowler; A tribute to the good management of the Mangatoki dairy .factory was paid by the manager, Mr. E. H. Reeve, at the presentation evening to. Mr. J. Marx, when the former noted that several of the previous employees Had been with the company long periods — eleven, twelve and twenty-three years being instances. In addition a number of them had been appointed managers at other factories. It was a happy* thought to give Mr. Vo ale, the dairy scientist' at the Hawera laboratory, the opportunity of meeting all the farmers at Mangatoki ou Thursday night. Mr, Veale made a. distinctly favourable impression, and said he was extremely pleased to meet them. He made a very happy speech, and his associating himself with the factory men in the work of the industry was a touch that made an instant appeal, The death of Mr William Bolland Davies, of New Plymouth, wliieh. oer curved yesterday, in his ,79th. year, severed another link with the earlydays of the Taranaki settlement. Mr Davies was born in 1847 at New Plymouth, six years after his parents’ 1 arrival in New Zealand. He was educated at a private school and later at’ Nelson College. When he was sixteen years of age he took part in the Maori war, being engaged in blockhouse duty and later in dipping bullets and supplying them to the firing line. After the war Mr Dayies took /up fanning, and subsequently opened' a. seed! business. He was an exceedingly keen horticulturist, and was largely responsible for the, development of lemon and orange growing in Taranaki. At the time of his death he was connected with Mr E. L. Humphries in, tlio _ land and/ estate business.