OBSEQUIES AT WAIUKU

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 545, 2 July 1920, Page 2

OBSEQUIES AT WAIUKU

MRS. R. T. REID. The last respects to an esteemed resident, the late Mrs R. T. Reid (wife of Mr. R. T. Reid, chairman of the Waiuku Town Board and member of the Franklin County Council) were paid at Waiuku yesterday afternoon. The following, consisting of over thirty motor-cars, and other vehicles, horsemen, and people on foot, was a fitting tribute to the worthy qualities of the deceased. There were many large and beautiful wreaths laid on the coffin, and people from great distances were present. The pall-bearers were Messrs Hugh McKenzie, W. Hosking, E. and N. Sedgwicks and H. Absolum. The ceremonies at the late residence and at the graveside were conducted by the Rev. Mr. J. C. Fussell (Anglican vicar of Waiuku parish), who made very feeling references to the life of deceased. The loss of the late Mrs

Reid, he said, was one that would be keenly felt throughout the whole district. It was hard to lose children

and hard to lose persons in old-age but the greatest blow of all was when one like the late Mrs. Reid was cut down in the prime of life, at her period of greatest usefulness. Not withstanding the ancient British traditions and the teachings of the Church that we must not look upon death with sorrow and gloom, but rather as a blessed relief and a promotion to a higher sphere, the death of Mrs. Reid, who had so nobly played her part in patriotic, charitable and Christian work, had come as a great blow to the community she so loyally served. She had borne her Iong and painful illness with such exemplary fortitude that her friends had marvelled at her spirit and endurance, one remarking that she was made of the stuff that our British heroines are made of, and another that she possessed the dauntless courage of the ancient martyrs. Such a loss was difficult for the finite mind to comprehend, but it could not shake our faith in the infallbility of the Great Master, Who was too wise to make mistakes and too good to do a wrong.