KAPONGA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 14 October 1922, Page 8

KAPONGA.

(From a Correspondent.)

THF, LATE MRS. MELVILLE.

On {September 17 there passed away in iier o4tn year an old resident or ivaponga in the person or Mrs. Johanna Melvilie. The deceased lady was a daughter of Mr. i«^x x,oiger, of Bagnalstown .House, county uariow, and came to JNew Zealand &7 years' ago. She spent one year at Manaia, where she married Mr. George Melville. They settled on .Eltham Koad, ILaponga, vyhere Mr. Melville kept a sawmill, and lived there for six years. They then moved to Manaia Road, Kaponga, where they bought a fine property. yV'hen Mrs. Melville came to Kaponga there were no roads, just tracks through the bush, which had not then been felled, and the nearest store was at Manaia. Mrs. Melville was the first woman to cross the Kaupokonui river. Her husband predeceased her by three years. Of a gentle, kind, charitable disposition I the deceased lady endeared hersef to many, and no one ever appealed to her in vain. For some months previous to her demise she had been a great sufferer from heart trouble and the end came I rather suddenly. In her last hours she was devotedly attended by the parish priest, Rev. Father N. Moore, and the Sisters of the Mission from the local j convent. Her funeral took place trom I the Catholic Church, where a Requiem j Mass was celebrated by the Rev. Father j Moore, who was assisted by his brother, Rev. Father J. Moore, and by Rev. Father Kelly, of Manaia. During the jMass appropriate Latin and English [hymns were most devotionally rendered jby the children's choir. The Rev. Father N. Moore preached an eloquent panegyric on the life and virtues of the deceased^ and dwelt especially on the great charity which characterised her. lAs the cortege was leaving the church, • the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee" | was sung, the congregation standing in ; token of respect. The funeral was one of the largest seen in Kaponga. The pall-bearers were Messrs M. Bolger, W. Melville (Hawera), M. Power senr., T. j Whyte, G. Powell, and J. Melville (Kaponga). The late Mrs. Melville left' three daughters—Mrs. A. Mellow (Motrinsville), Mrs. H. Mellow (Kaponga), and Miss J. Melville—and one son, Mr. W. Melville, to mourn their loss.