OBITUARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22986, 15 September 1936, Page 9

OBITUARY

MR R. MOORE Few men have had such a long and active association with public and political affairs as Mr Richard Moore, formerly a member of the Legislative Council, who died in Christchurch on Saturday, in his eighty-eighth year. For more than 50 years Mr Moore continued his public life with work on local bodies and in Parliament, and up to two years ago he still held the position of chaii’man of the Lands Committee of the Legislative Council. Very soon after his thirtieth birthday he began his public life. The first stage was when he was elected a member of the Kaiapoi School Committee, and he held the office of chairman of that committee for 14 years. He was successful in the election of the Borough Council, and was Mayor from 1884 to 1887. He also served a term a chairman of the Waimakariri Harbour board, and untill about six years ago was a member of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, of which he was chairman for two years. The only official position he held on local bodies in Canterbury very recently was that of sinking fund commissioner of the North Canterbury Hospital Board. Mr Moore’s parliamentary cayeer started in 1890, when he was elected member for Kaiapoi. His second term in the House of Representatives ended in 1900, and in all he spent six years in the House. In 1914 he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council, and relinquished that position about a year ago. He was twice married. MR WILSON MAWHINNEY \ The death has occurred of a highly-respected pioneer settler of the Maniototo district in the person of Mr Wilson Mawhinney. Born on April 5, 1856, at Castledawson, County Londonderry, Ireland, Mr Mawhinney came out to New Zealand in the ship Pomona, arriving at Bluff on April 6, 1876. After working on various Southland sheep stations, he and his brother tried their success at gold mining in the Naseby district, but this venture proved unproductive and so, when the Eweburn station was cut up for settlement, Mr Mawhinney and his cousin (Mr W. M. Mawhinney) acquired a section about half a mile from where Ranfurly now is. By gaining employment on nearby gold mining claims, they earned enough money to fence and stock their property. By hard work the partners improved their property, and later Mr Wilson Mawhinney bought out his cousin’s interest in the farm. He later acquired more land and won for himself and family a comfortable home in wha was then barren, tussock-covered land. Mr Mawhinney was the last of the original Eweburn settlers. He was foundation member of the Maniototo/Agricultural and Pastoral Association, of the Farmers’ Club which agitated in the early days to have the large stations sub-divided, and of the more recent Farmers' Union. He was also a pioneer member of the Maniototo Early Settlers’ Association and of the Cemetery Trust, of which he was president up to the time of his death. He was also a member for many years of the local School Committee and of the Presbyterian Church. In 1890 he married Miss B. Cromb, then teacher at the Wedderburn School. He leaves a family of three sons—Messrs Ezekiel Mawhinnev (Omakau), Wilsor Cromb Mawhinney (Ranfurly), and William John Mawhinney (Wedderburn) and three daughters—Mrs Calverley (Christchurch), Mrs Lockhart (Denniston), and Mrs Law (Mangatoro, Dannevirke). The eldest son. Allen, was killed in the Great War.