ABOUTPEOPLE

Southland Times, Issue 22159, 30 October 1933, Page 6

ABOUTPEOPLE

Messrs Gordon Lindsay and R. Ferguson left on Saturday morning for Stewart Island. Mr J. L. Orr was appointed secretary to the Oteramika Co-op. Dairy Co., Ltd., at the meeting of directors held on October 18. Mr A. W. Jones, who had been in Wellington on Radio Broadcasting Board business, returned to Invercargill on Saturday. Mr T. C. List, of New Plymouth, Rotary Governor of New Zealand, will arrive in Invercargill on November 10, on which day he will attend the lunch of the Invercargill Rotary Club. Our Parliamentary correspondent telegraphs that Mr F. D. Burnett, M.P. for Temuka, has been ill for several days. His condition on Saturday was causing his friends some anxiety. Mr G. T. Stevens returned by Saturday evening’s express from Wellington, where he had been attending the conference of the New Zealand Grain, Seed and Produce Merchants’ Federation.

Mr W. G. de Gruchy, 0.8. E., Australian and New Zealand director of the Commonwealth and Dominion Line, Ltd., travelled to Dunedin by the express last evening after a brief business visit to Invercargill. A Press Association telegram from Tauranga announces the death on Saturday of Mr Donald Grant at Ohineranea, Tepuki. He was an exchairman of the Tauranga Harbour Board and eighty-three years of age.

Mr D. E. S. Mason, engineer to the Bluff Harbour Board, travelled _ to Dunedin by the express last evening. Mr W. A. Ott, chairman of the board, and Captain Haszard,. harbourmaster, leave by car this morning. Their visit is in connection with the docking of the T.S.S. Awarua at Port Chalmers.

The death occurred early on Tuesday morning at the Methodist Parsonage, Whangarei, of the Rev. Joseph Blight, aged 75 years. He was born at Clare, South Australia, and came to New Zealand in 1883. On joining the Methodist ministry Mr Blight served as a home missionary in the Southern Lakes district of Otago, at Gore and Milton, and was later ordained, his first charge being in the Northern Wairoa district. After a period he served at Gisborne, Waimate, Temuka, Te Aroha, and Thames, where he retired owing to ill-health. After a few years’ retirement he took charge of the first Methodist orphanage in the Dominion, situated at Mount Albert, Auckland. Mr Blight is survived by his wife, one daughter, and three sons.

A striking tribute to the high esteem in which the late Mr Walter Atkin, a member of the Westport News proprietary was held was given on Saturday when he was borne to his last resting place at Orowaitc cemetery (states a Westport telegram). The cortege was over a mile long and included over eighty motor cars. It was headed by the Municipal Band, of which the deceased was a trustee, playing the dead march. Members of the 1.0. R. and Druids lodges acted as pall bearers at the residence and the staff of the Westport News at the graveside. Floral tributes incluacd wreaths from the Buller County Council and staff, sporting bodies, the Municipal Band, the Westport Club and friends from far and near. There was a large budget of telegrams from newspaper proprietors and advertisers all over the Dominion.

One of the oldest and most highly respected settlers of the North Otago district has passed away in the person of the late Mr James Firth Walter. Bom in the Orkney Islands 83 years ago, Mr Walter, with his cousin, the late Mr John Corrigall (Duntroon), decided to seek his fortune in New Zealand. Barely 20 years of age, he set out in the clipper Edward P. Bouvery for the far-off Dominion, and arrived at Port Chalmers in the year 1870. He came to North Otago, and spent most of his life in the Reedston and Kakanui districts engaged in farming pursuits. Mr Walter was very interested in draught horses, and in the eighties was a successful exhibitor of Clydesdales at the Tokomairiro and Balclutha shows. In the last decade of the century he was engaged in wheat and potato cropping in the Totara district. On one occasion on the Taipo estate he had a paddock of 200 acres in potatoes, for which a ready market was obtainable in Melbourne. Engaged on this large crop were some 40 diggers, a number of whom had to walk out from Oamaru and back for their day’s labour. Then they received only 6d a bag for their labour, which was quite fair pay in those days. Thirty years ago Mr Walter settled in Kakanui, where he had resided ever since. He took a keen interest in the happenings of the district, being a member of the Kakanui School Committee for a number of years and a manager of the Kakanui Presbyterian Church. The deceased gentleman was a splendid type of settler, and was deeply respected by all who were fortunate enough to know him. He had a very wide circle of friends throughout Otago, by whom he was held in great esteem. Mr Walter had been going about his work on his farm as usual up to a week of his death. He is survived by his widow, a daughter, Miss Isabella Walter, school teacher, of Maheno, and a son, Mr J. T. Walter, solicitor, of B?l--clutha.