OBITUARY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 152, 8 September 1941, Page 5

OBITUARY

MR JOHN CLARK

ANOTHER PIONEER PASSES

Mr John Clark, formerly of Maheno (Otago) and Auckland and for a number of yearf; a resident of Thames and Te Aroha districts died at the Thames Hospital on August 21. at the age <of 83 years. The late Mr Clark was born in t.lie Orkneys arriving in New Zealand at tbe age of 17 years'. later his parents with the rest n' the family reached New Zealand.

He was the eldest of the family of eight sons and 3 daughter®, and he has one brother, Mr Alan Clark, of Maheno. and a sister. Mr* Cruickshanks, of Nelson, surviving

Arriving in Auckland from the south with his wife and family in

1891 he travelled to the Waikato where he spent some years at lYlatamata and Hamilton.. While in Hamilton Mr Clark distinguished himself when he was responsible for the rescue of a number of people from the disastrous fire which razed the Royal Hotel.

Following his term in the Waikato the late gentleman went to Karangaliake where he wasi engineer >n the Talisman and Woodstock batteries respectively. Mir CCark was responsible for the discovery of wet crushing of quartz, also inventing the process of fan ventilation for tunnels and the fluke anchor which is now used throughout the world in both naval and merchant ships. Mr Clark married the second daughter of Mr William Barr, J.P.. and Member of the Provincial Council of Dunedin and Maheno, who died some five years ago.. Two sons predeceased him, being killed the Great War while one daughter nlso died. He is survived by two sons and five daughters, twenty-two grandchildren and two great-grand-children. Mrs N. C'. Cairns, of Salonika Street is a daughter.

One of the late Mr Clark's regrets in his last illness was that his health over the past two years had made it impossible for him to visit the Whakatane Paper Mills as he had always had a desire to see the modern machinery installed there.