OBITUARY

Southland Times, Issue 25550, 19 December 1944, Page 3

OBITUARY

MR JAMES H. WALKER (P.A.) DUNEDIN, December 18. The death has occurred of Mr James H. Walker, a former Mayor of Dunedin, and a director of various companies. Mr Walker was born in Dunedin in 1866, and was educated privately and at the Union Street School. While still a young business man he began to take a practical interest in civic affairs, an interest that never waned through a crowded life. Few men ever held such a diversity of important posts in public and private bodies in this city. His first public office was membership of the Dunedin City Council, to which he was elected as representative for the High Ward in 1904. He served on the council for 10 years, and in 1909 and 1910 was mayor of the city, a duty which he discharged with distinct credit. He was for two years one of the hospital trustees which supervised the conduct of these institutions, and on the constitution of the Otago Hospital and Charitable Aid Board was its first chairman. Serving in that capacity for eight years, Mr Walker led a progressive campaign for the development and extension of the hospital system in Otago, particularly in sanatoria. In 1911 he was appointed to the Otago Harbour Board, and in the two succeeding years was its chairman. His keen interest in educational affairs was shown by his association with the Council of the University of Otago, of which he was a member for 11 years, also acting as chairman of its Works Committee. Mr Walker also found time to further the interests of the High Street School, being a member of the committee for 10 years, and chairman for three. MR N. McKENZIE FORBES The death has occurred in Waipukurau, Hawke’s Bay, of Mr Neil McKenzie Forbes. Mr Forbes was born in Scotland about 75 years ago and came to New Zealand as a young man. When the Boer War broke out he volunteered for service, but his offer was rejected because he was not New Zealand-born. He therefore went over to South Africa with a shipload of remounts, and enlisted with the New Zealanders in Cape Town. For many years he was proprietor of the Hotel Imperial, Wanganui. Mr Forbes was, in his day, one of the world’s best Highland dancers and had a remarkable record, having won the championships of Scotland, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. He appeared in the New Zealand Affiliated Caledonian Societies’ championships in Invercargill on New Year’s Day in 1900, winning four out of the five championships. After 1904 he retired from active competition, but staged a I return for the Christchurch Exhibition, where he won all the championships with the exception of the seannj triubhas, which was won by James Centre, one of the leading dancers from Scotland, who made a special trip to New Zealand for the exhibition.

Mr Alex Sutherland, of Invercargill, was one of his pupils, and it is to Mr Forbes’s tuition that Mr Sutherland owes much of his subsequent success. After his retirement from active dancing Mr Forbes judged all over New Zealand, and judged in Invercargill in 1938. He is survived by his wife, one son, who is in Australia, and two married daughter?.