OBITUARY

Evening Star, Issue 21743, 11 June 1934, Page 12

OBITUARY

♦ MR J. J. WOODS ' In any list of the many old stalwarts who built the life of the community in the Tuapeka district from the mining days onwards a prominent place must be assigned to the name of Mr John Joseph Woods, who died at Lawrence on Friday. He was deservedly respected by all classes, and held a great record of public services. Mr Woods was bom in Tasmania in 1849 and educated there. He took up teaching as a profession, and was engaged in that capacity in Tasmania for eight or nine years. He then came to New Zealand, and after visiting Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin he was engaged as a teacher in private schools in Lawrence and Invercargill, making a specialty of tuition in music. On the formation of the Tuapeka County Council at the beginning of 1877 lie was appointed clerk, a position which he retained until January of 1933, when he retired, his fifty-five years of service to the county being acknowledged in a unique manner by his being created an honorary freeman of Tuapeka. It is claimed that he was the first county freeman to attain that honour in the British dominions. That was not the only public recognition of his work. In January, 1927, when the jubilee of the Tuapeka County Council was celebrated, Mr Woods received the heartiest congratulations from a wide circle of friends, and he was presented with an illuminated address and a cheque for himself and a gold watch for his daughter as a mark of appreciation of his long and faithful service and the esteem in which he and his daughter were held by the County Council and the ratepayers.

Mr Woods was not, however, a oneideal man. He took an intense interest in gardening, and his knowledge of practical botany enabled him to rank with men who by their expert gardening made Lawrence, famous for bulbs -and other flowers. Music was another of his hobbies, perhaps the chief. He was a bom musician, and by study acliieved distinction as a composer and as a performer. The violin was his favourite instrument, but he could play on many others, and his services at musical performances in the district were highly appreciated. To the world at large Mr Woods is known as the composer of the score of the New Zealand national anthem (‘God Defend New Zealand’), the words of which were written by Thomas Bracken. A prize of £lO was offered by the ‘ Saturday Advertiser,’ which was then conducted by Mr Bracken, for the best musical setting for the anthem. There were numerous competitors, and Zelraan, Zephin, and Siede, of Melbourne, who were entrusted with the work of adjudication, awarded the prize to Mr Woods. When Mr Seddon was in England for the dia-mond-jubilee he presented a copy of the anthem to Queen Victoria,' who comIhanded that it should be sent to Buckingham Palace. Athletic recreations also interested Mr Woods. He played cricket; tennis, and bowls, and was a cycle rider. Ho won the first trophy competed for by the Lawrence Bowling Club. Mr Woods, whose wife died many years ago, had a family of three sons and one daughter.

MR THOMAS MOODIE Word was received this afternoon of the death of Mr Thomas Moodie, who had been living in retirement at Portobello and who had attained the ripe age of 97 years. Mr Moodie was- born in Saline, Fifeshire, in 1837, and after being educated at the Campbelltown Grammar School and Glasgow he entered mercantile life in the office of a large firm of shipowners—engaged in the East and West Indian trade—whose headquarters were at. Greenock. After seven years’ service Mr Moodie left for New Zealand in the ship Jura on June 1, 1858, arriving at Port Chalmers on September 23 of the same year. Until joining the late Mr J. A. Connell in 1862 he found employment and gained experience in the offices of Messrs F. Greer and Co. and Dalgety and Co. in Dunedin. He was afterwards a director of the Perpetual Trustess, Estate, and Agency Company Ltd. ' As a Freemason Mr Moodie was attached to Lodge Celtic, No. 477, S.C., of which he had occupied the senior warden’s chair. He was interested in bowling, having taken part in many tournaments, and he occupied positions of honorary treasurer of the Dunedin Bowling Club and of the New Zealand Bowling Association. Mr Moodie was married in 1863 to a daughter of Mr James Brown, of Dunedin, and had four sons and three daughters.

FREDERICK DELIUS EMINENT COMPOSER. Pr«M Association—By Telegraph—Copyright PARIS, June 10. (Received June 11, at 11.35 a.m.) The death is announced of Frederick Delius. [Frederick Delius, composer, was born in Yorkshire in 1862. At the age of

twenty-one, ho left England for Florida to become an orange planter. After two years he went to Leipzig, and studied for two years at the Conservatoire. He was eight years in Paris, arid' subsequently lived at Grez-sur-Loing, near Fontainebleau. He received the freedom of Bradford in 1932. His works, include ‘ Appalachia,’ ‘ Sea Drift,’ ‘ Songs of Sunset,’ ‘Arabeske,’ ‘ Requiem,’ ‘Songs of Farewell,’ numerous orchestral works, and the incidental music to Elroy Flecker’s drama, ‘ Hassan.’] MR VICTOR KEHNERLY ROMFORD Prcw A«sooiation—By Telegraph—Oopyrifhl CAPE TOWN, June 10. (Received June 11, at 11.45 a.m.) The death is announced at Salisbury of Victor Kennerly Rumford, the son of Dame Clara Butt.