OBITUARY

Putaruru Press, Volume XXVI, Issue 1351, 13 October 1949, Page 3

OBITUARY

MR FREDERICK LYE The death occurred at Waikato hospital last week of Mr Frederick Lye, former member of Parliament for Waikato, at the age of 67 years. The late Mr Lye, who had not enjoyed good health of late, was bom in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, and with his parents came out to New Zealand in 1886, arriving at Auckland. Part of the journey from the Old Country was made in the ship "Tainui,” and the remainder in the steamboat “Penguin.” The son of Mr and Mrs Robert Bevan Lye, he was educated in Auckland, and at the age of 19 left home to try his hand at farming. He worked in the Lower Waikato for about five years, when, hearing that certain dairy factories in Taranaki would finance prospective farmers, he started farming on his own account at Otakeho, Waimate Plains.! Two years later Mr Lye was married to Miss Charlotte Louie Preece, of Kaponga, Taranaki. Mr and Mrs Lye remained in the Waimate Plains district for 14 years and as the result of their industry, became successful farmers. While in Taranaki the late Mr Lye was a director of the Joll Dairy Company, a member of the Farmers’ Union and other local bodies.

In 1918 Mr and Mrs Lye decided to move to the Waikato, though still retaining their Waimate Plains farming interests, and they took up the well-known "Tremore” property at Pukekura where they have resided over since. As a farmer Mr Lye could have rightly claimed to have been just as successful there as in Taranaki.

Political Interest Despite the fact that in earlier I years Mr Lye was a busy farmer, I yet he found time to interest him • j self in local politics at Cambridge, and in 1922 he successfully stood I for Parliament in the Liberal inter- I est. He was defeated three years I later, hut regained the Waikato seat I in 1928 and held it until the political landslide of 1935 when Labour j came into power. For 10 years Mr I Lye proved himself a forceful M.P., j and he served the electors well. I “Freddie” was a good hardworking | member. He went out of Parlia- I ment on the backwash ef the wave which carried Labour in in 1935. I The late Robert Coulter (Labour) was successful on a minority, vote in a four-cornered contest. The result was: Waikato —R. Coulter (L) 4074, F. Lye (National) 3290, S. N. Ziman (Independent Country Party) 1144, H. E. Annett (Democrat) 628. He was a member of the Cambridge Co-operative Company directorate' for nine years, a past president of the Chamber of Commerce, and past patron of many Cambridge and Waikato societies. He was also a member of the Masonic order.

Of genial and kindly personality, he was a great lover of flowers and rarely, if ever, did one see Mr Lye without a spray of flowers in his buttonhole. Mr Lye is survived by his wife and family of eight sons and two daughters. They are Messrs A. R. and E. J. Lye, of G. G. Lye, Of Mangakino; H. T. Lye, Otakeho; A. W. and C. S. Lye, of Whangarei; and W. S. Lye, of Hamilton; Mesdames L. K. Kyeldsen, of Raglan, and T. W. Jones, of Netherton. There are eight grandchildren.