OBITUARY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 28 November 1945, Page 3

OBITUARY

MR THOMAS McNABB

One pf Collingwood’s older generation, in the person of Mr Thomas McNabb, passed away recently after a short illness. Born at Riwaka 81 years ago (son of the late Edward McNabb, one of the early pioneers who came to N.Z. in 1841 in the ship Indus) he spent his early boyhood at Sandy Bay. walking the hills to Riwaka school, a distance of six miles each way. As a youth he spent 'some years at Christchurch and later went to Karamea, whence, a s a member of a survey party he worked along the Heaphy Track to Collingwood where he settled and lived for some 60 years. On the goldfields he found plenty of work offering in his trade as a carpenter. In 1892 he was married to Alice Neihoff, of Pakawau, who pre. deceased him some years ago. In business on his own account and also in partnerships, he was responsible for the building of a large percentage of the buildings erected in the Collingwood county during the first quarter of the century. At one time he took an active part in local affairs but his business and the needs of his growing family claimed most of his attention and left him little time for other affairs. He was an avid reader of technical and progressive publications and a conscientious craftsman whose technical knowledge was widely sought. Of his family of seven, two daughters, Mrs E. Fair, of Westport, and Mrs A. m! Condell, of Collingwood. and four sons Messrs Neil, Vaughan. Don and Bruce, all in the Golden Bay district, survive him. Folpwing a service in the Masonic Temple the body was interred at the Collingwood Cemetery where the large cortege of mourners and friends testified to the esteem in which the late Mr McNabb was held.