OBITUARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23501, 16 May 1938, Page 10

OBITUARY

MR JOHN BRASELL Mr John Brasell, who for 30 years was a member of the Lower Hutt Borough Council, died yesterday in Dunedin, where he had been spending a holiday with his daughter, Mrs G. F. Fowler. He was 75 years of age. Just prior to the recent election he announced his retirement from public life. He was a wellknown and highly respected resident of the Hutt Valley and was a life member of the Wellington Acclimitisation Society, and up to the time of his death a member of the council. He was also a member of the Hutt River Board for many years, and would have contested a seat again on this body had not illness intervened. He first became a member of the Lower Hutt Borough Council in 1895 under the first Mayor. Mr Brasell came from Buckinghamshire, England, where his father was a farmer, to South Canterbury. There, as a young man, he distinguished himself as a cyclist in road races. He went to Lower Hutt in 1892 and took up land there. His wife predeceased him some years ago.

MR WALTER J. MOFFATT

(Per United Press Association) NELSON, May 15

The death occurred on Saturday night of Mr Walter J. Moffatt, a former mayor of Nelson, and chairman of the Cawthron Institute Board of Trustees. Mr Moffatt, who was born in 1866, had a long career in public life, first in Motueka and later in Nelson. His first task was in assisting to have the township of Motueka constituted a borough, and he initiated the movement for the formation of the Motueka Harbour District and was largely responsible for the establishment of the Motueka High School. In 1899 he contested the Motueka seat, but was unsuccessful, as he was in the Nelson constituency in 1908 and 1911. In 1907 he went to live permanently in Nelson and began to take a prominent part in local body affairs. He was a member of the Nelson City Council from 1915 to 1935, and from 1927 to 1935 was Mayor. For eight years he was a member of the Cawthron Institute Trust Board and spent four years as chairman. He also played a leading part in the promotion of the Nelson Fire Board and was its first chairman, retiring from the position only a few weeks ago. He was also the first president of the Nelson Progress League and a prominent Forester. He leaves one daughter, Mrs A. B. Hurst, of Napier, and two sons, Mr Thomas Moffatt, of Christchurch, and Mr Edgar Moffatt, of Nelson.