OBITUARY

Putaruru Press, Volume XXI, Issue 1238, 10 July 1947, Page 2

OBITUARY

MR. R. A. S. BROWNE Long' and Varied Career The death has occurred at Morrinsvillc of Mr. Robert Annal Stanley Browne, a resident of Tauhei district since 1919. The late; Mr. Browne was ibom at Bannockburn, Central Otago, attending Dunedin University prior to commencing his career as a school teacher. Ha held teaching appointments at 'Gore, Croydon and Tokanui, later (being appointed assistant teacher at Stratford District High School. It was during his sojourn at Stratford that he married Miss Anne Miller, of Tokanui, Southland. Appointments at Feilding and Hawera as agricultural instructor followed. In, 1907, while at Feilding, he joined a scientific party which journeyed to the Auckland and Campbell Islands, where survivors of tha wreck of the “Dundonald” were picked up on Disappointment Island. Agricultural Director Mr. Browne was later appointed director of agricultural and technical education at Hawera Technical School. Ho organised agricultural classes for school pupils, teachers and farmers, and while lecturing conceived the idea of topdressing. He carried out experiments in a small paddock owned (by Mr. P. O’Dea, of South Road, Hawera, the topdressing being done (by hand. The 12 acre paddock was dressed ■first with lime, followed by superphosphate. Mr. 'Browne later purchased l for the Hawera Technical School a topdresser, the first to he used in tho Taranaki district. This was in 1911. He served unde? the Wanganui Education Board for 12 years, then being transferred to the Taranaki board’s headquarters at New Plymouth, where, as director of agriculture, he formed a summer school for teachers. Interest in Geology Mr. Browne spent a period in camp during World War 1., and upon relinquishing his profession in 1919 came to the Waikato. He bacarna established in the Morrinsville district as a farmer. He joined the firm of Oates, Sands and Browne, land agents and auctioneers, but later resumed farming at Tauhei, where he remained until his death.

Throughout the whole of his association with Waikato Mr. Browne worked wholeheartedly in the interests of the Farmers’ Union, of which he held office as president of the Morrinsville branch and Auckland provincial executive. He was mere recently associated with Federated Farmers of New Zealand. Mr. Brownci was well known in Masonic circles, first as a member of the New Plymouth lodge and, later, of the Morrinsville lodge. In his later years [Mr. Browne’s greatest hobby concerned geology. He made a special study of the ammonites of the Jurassic and Triassic periods, and in May of this year was to have attended the Science congress at Wellington, where he was scheduled to read two papers. Unfortunately, he was overtaken by the illness from which he never recovered, and was unable to make tha journey. He is survived by his wife and one son, Mr. John Browne, of Bombay.