PERSONALS

Colonist, Volume LXII, Issue 15214, 30 October 1919, Page 4

PERSONALS

The late Sir E. .Montague Nelson, chairman and managing director of the C.C. and D. Company, Nelson Brothers, Ltd., etc!., left , estate valued at £80,682. Sir Montague Nelson was one of the pioneers of the New Zealand meat exporting business, and in public life was the first Major of Ealmg, Mayor of Warwick, and a Sheriff of Middlesex. ' .

Mr. Laurence Laurenson, an old colonist, who died at Wellington on Saturday, was in his 88th year. Born in' Shetland Isles in 1832, the deceased came to the Dominion in 1874 in the ship Ocean Mail, landing at Nelson in November of that year. After a stay of four yearß at Karamea, ho went to Palmerston , North, where he resided continuously until a few years ago, when he removed to Stratford and later to Wellington. Mr. J. Laurenson, staff inspector, General Post Office, is the only remaining son.

The London correspondent of the Christchurch "Press" states that General Sir A. J. Godley, commanding the N.Z.E.F., was unable to attend the final meeting of the workers of the. New Zealand War Contingent Association in London. Writing to the chairman (Mr. I. W. Raymond) from his headquarters on the Rhine, General Godley said: "1 should be very glad if you would express to all your workers our great regret at not being able to be present, and that I wish, on behalf of tho whole New Zealand Expedition*ary Force, to take this opportunity of expressing to them my high appreciation of, and grateful thanks for, the splendid work that they have done for us throughout the whole war. Nobody lias worked harder, more self-sacrific-infly, and more successfully than they."

Referring to the death of Mr. Joseph Best, of Kairanga, and formerly of lAppleby, the "Manawatu Standard" says-.—"Although Mr. Best had only resided in this district for about 20 years, he was a very old colonist, being one of the well known Best family, which settled at Appleby, in the Nelson district, in the very early days. When in that district Mr. Best was on several local bodies, and was a committeeman and most enthusiastic worker in the Agricultural and Pastoral Association. During his residence in this district he was a frequent and successful exhibitor at the Palmerston North shews, and for several years he was a member of the Manawatu Drainage Board. He took considerable interest- in friendly societies' work, and was one of the charter members, of the Loyal Travellers' Rest Oddfellows' Lodge in Nelson, of which ho continued a-member up to the time of his death. He was a thoroughly practical fanner, as, indeed, were all his family, who owned some of the finest farms in the Nelson district, and when he came to the Manawatu he immediately started to work the property he acquired on up-to-dato lines, and he was most successful. He was twice married, and is survived by his wife and eleven of a family—three boys and eight "•iris. One of his sons, Mr. Arthur Best, went to the front with the Fifth Reinforcements, and was badly wounded in tho Suvla Bay engagement on Gallipoli, and a step-son, Private Boddington, lost his Me while on active service."