THE BROKEN COLUMN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 937, 14 February 1890, Page 7

THE BROKEN COLUMN.

We have to record the death of Bro. J. T. Bovis, 1.P.M., of St. Andrew’s Lodge, No. 639, S.C. Bro. Bovis had been ailing for some time, and had complained to some of bis brother Masons that he did not feel up to the mark, but as he continued to attend to his business no fears were entertained as to his condition. But typhoid fever, for which he had evidently been sickening, supervened, and he was unable to cope with the fell disease. As a man Bro. Bovis wns held in high estimation by all classes of the community, which the large attendance of the general public nt his funeral testified. As a Mason we can also speak of him in terms of the highest praise. Unswerving in his devotion to the Masonic cause he never left undone what he considered his duty to do. When his Lodge found itself in troubled waters, owing to the action of those who should have been its mainstay, Bro Bovis faced the position like a man, and with the assistance of brethren whose aims were as honeßt as his own, he proceeded to purge the roll, inquired into the finances, and generally placed matters on a firm basis. His zeal was rewarded by his being placed in the Chair of King Solomon twice, and he had the satisfaction, at the end of his term of office, of

knowing that St. Andrew’s Lodge had regained lost ground, and was counted as one of the most prosperous Lodges in the Empire city. Bro. Bovis was quiet in manner and unassuming in demeanour; but he was firm and strictly honest in bis dealings. He was truly a ‘white man,’ and his death has deprived the Lodge, and Masonic circles generally, of a hard-working brother. His funeral took place on Tuesday, the sth instant, and was very largely attended by members of the Craft and other societies to which the deceased belonged, Bro. the Rev. W. C. Waters, chaplain to the New Zealand Pacific Lodge, No. 517, E.C., read the funeral service in a most impressive manner, and the brethren left the cemetery feeling deeply the loss they had sustained. We offer to his bereaved family and to his Lodge our expressions of deepest sympathy and condolence.