OLD RESIDENT DIES

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1935, Page 8

OLD RESIDENT DIES

MR. HARRY CAPLEN, HAWERA. SOLICITOR FOR 30 YEARS. At the age of 84 Mr. Harry Caplen, barrister and solicitor, notary public and one of Hawera’s oldest and most respected citizens, died yesterday at his Caplen Street home. He had been in poor health for some time. With his passing South Taranaki loses yet another identity of the old stirring days. After an adventurous youth Mr. Caplen opened a law office at Hawera in 1882, and apart from a few years’ residence at Auckland he remained at Hawera from that’ time onward. Bom at Midhurst, County Sussex, Mr. Caplen became a ■ sailor when little more than a youth. The call of the West Coast gold mines, then at the peak of their fame, lured him to leave his ship on his arrival in New Zealand waters, and for a time he followed the life of a gold miner. Tired of that, he turned to law, and after serving his articles under Mr. Warner, Greymouth, he was admitted to practice. He married Miss Dew at Greymouth and removed to Hawera, where from 1882 to 1912 he was constantly engaged in practice. Illhealth, which necessitated a trip to England, compelled him to retire just before the war. He lived on at Hawera, and after the war remarried and lived at Auckland, finally returning to Hawera a few years ago. Mr. Caplen served on the Hawera Borough Council for a time and was asked to stand for Parliament, a request he consistently refused. He was fox years a well-known helper in the affairs of the Anglican Church, where he was a lay reader for some. time. A trustee of the Masonic Lodge for some years, he occupied important positions in the lodge. He was one of the founders of the Hawera Gas Co., and acted as its solicitor, a position which compelled him to refuse a directorship. He was also solicitor for a group which endeavoured to erect woollen mills at Hawera. The movement, however, was abortive. He was also a well known member of the Caledonian Society. In his younger days Mr. Caplen was

well-known on the sporting fields, cricket, tennis and bowls being his favourites. He was a life member of the Hawera Bowling Club. As solicitor Mr. Caplen regularly attended the court sittings’ at Opunake, and the three days away from Hawera necessary in such a trip was in great contrast to to-day. He was one of the old settlers in a troop when the Maoris, to show their rights, ploughed Hastie’s farm at Inaha, almost precipitating a major disturbance. Timely action by the settlers, of whom Mr. Caplen was one, saved an ugly situation. Mr.- Caplen leaves two sons, Messrs. H. D., Hawera, and N. Caplen, Auckland, three daughters, Miss Caplen and Mrs. W. D. Hamilton, Hawera, and Mrs. G. Hall, Stratford, and three grandchildren. HAWERA OPERA HOUSE. “BABES IN TOYLAND” FINALLY. Two stages had to be combined in order that all the buildings in the street scene in “Babes in Toyland,” which shows at the Hawera Opera House finally to-night,' might be placed in one set. The entire structure, completely sound-proofed, was then transformed into a veritable wonderland. Lining both sides of the mythical thoroughfare were such buildings, made famous by the Mother Goose rhymes and other childhood writings, as the Drum House, Noah’s Ark, the home of the Old Lady Who Lived in' a Shoe, the Doll House, House of Wooden Blocks, the Wind Mill, as well as a Toyland school, top factory, toy warehouse, a barracks, police station and many other little buildings. Victor Herbert’s beautiful music, rendered by Harry Jackson’s radio orchestra, and sung by Felix Knight and Virginia Karns, radio vocalists, when combined with Laurel and Hardy’s inimitable comedy and these extravagant settings, produces a film that sets a new high standard in the history of filmdom.