GOLD RUSH MEMORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 21 February 1935, Page 8

GOLD RUSH MEMORIES

DEATH OF MR. WILLIAM READER.

ROAMED THROUGHO T TT DOMINION.

Mr, William Reader, who died at the Hawera Hospital yesterday, had early association with the boom period of the Thames and Coromandel gold mining days, and though he took little part in the actual rush, in his work as bookseller’s assistant he saw many of the great sights of one of the colourful periods of New Zealand history. Bom at Christchurch, Mi - . Reader was in his 79th year when he died. For many years he roamed the length and breadth of New Zealand, living at Thames, Coromandel, Auckland, Leeston (where he was married 44 years ago) and other parts of New Zealand. In his business of coach-builder, he had a shop of his own at Feilding and worked for Messrs. Chase and Tonks at Wanganui for many years. Nine years ago he retired, after the death of his wife, to New Plymouth, and for the last‘lB months he had lived at Hawera with his nephew, Mr. T. H. Reader. The late Mr. Reader was a prominent Mason, holding the office of Worshipful Master at Feilding. He had been ailing for some time and had been an inmate of the Hawera hospital on three occasions before his death. He leaves two sisters, Mrs. Dinwiddie, Christchurch, and Mrs. T. Reader, French Street, New Plymouth, as well as 13 nephews and nieces. His brother, the late Mr. .Thomas Reader, was a wellknown resident of Stratford and district and 40 years or more ago was one of the first to settle in the Toko district.