OBITUARY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 30 December 1938, Page 3

OBITUARY

MR THOMAS SCOTT EARLY NELSON RECALLED The deatli has occurred at Dunedin j of Mr Thomas Scott. He was born j in the village of Glasford. about 16 j miles from Glasgow, in 1853. and ar- j rived in New Zealand by the ship j Aboukir when he was 10 years of age. He had received some instruction in private schools before he left the Old Country, and when he reached New Zealand he received further education in the public schools in Milton (Otago), where he lived for about 18 months, and Nelson. About the end of the Maori war. Mr Scott’s father, who spent part of his time at sea as an en- ; gineer and part on land as opportunity offered, joined in a partnership in a sawmill at Bell Block, in Taranaki, but after about 12 months’ experience there the family returned to Nelson, where they arrived on 6th October, 1866, the day on which the Maungatapu murderers were executed. Mr Scott’s father ran the first steamer, named the Nelson, from Nelson down the West Coast. Mr Thomas Scott served his apprenticeship as a carpenter at Nelson, and later went to Westport. His next home was in Reefton, where he was employed as one of the engineers in a quartz crushing battery. He spent about nine months there, but when the mining industry showed a decline, he took up his residence in Greymoulh. where he was manager of a sawmill for a period

of two years. By this time his parents had settled in Dunedin, and he decided to rejoin them. He went to Dunedin j in 1875, and for some years after that he was employed in the building trade.; Early in the nineties he entered into | partnership with Mr John Wilson in the ; business of manufacturing Venetian | blinds and revolving shutters. The partnership carried on until 1912, when. Mr Scott retired. As Mayor of Dunedin in 1903, he. started the first electric car in that city.! the electrification of the tramway system having been completed during his j term of office. Throughout his life in Dunedin, Mr Scott was a staunch supporter of the Presbyterian Church, in the activities of which he rendered extremely useful service. He became a deacon of First Church in 1885, and an elder in 1889,; and at the time of his death was one j of the oldest officials associated with I the congregation.