Opotiki News

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 442, 28 January 1933, Page 6

Opotiki News

Our District Correspondent) .

'(From

OBITUARY

MR. HENRY E. ELLIOTT

News has been received from Thames of the death yesterday of Mr. Henry E. Elliott, who was a very old resident of the Bay of Plenty, and exceptionally well known in this district. Mr. Elliott was born in 1864 at Invercargill, and arrived • in Opotiki with his parents in 1874. He worked as a telegraphist for the Post and Telegraph Department for some years in vario,us~parts of New Zealand, and had a great capacity for study. Later however, he took up law and became articled to a prominent firm of Auckland solicitors. As a member of this firm, he was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in the Supreme Court. He practised his profession in Opotiki for some years and then in Auckland, before returning to Opotiki where he continued in practise. For some years, Mr. Elliott was clerk to the Opotiki Town Board and the Opotiki County Council. He took a great interest ih public affairs and was elected the first mayor of the Borough of Opotiki. He was an accomplished Maori linguist and an authority on early Bay of Plenty history. At the time of his death, Mr. Elliott was preparing a book on the early history of the Bay of Plenty. In 'the early nineties he married Emily, | daughter of the late Andrew Fleming of Parawai, Thames. He has been living in retirement for some time past at Thames, but was a visitor to Opotiki at Christmas, and then seemed to be in normal health. On his return to Thames, however, he underwent an operation from which he failed to recover. Besides his widow, Mr. Elliott has four children living, Harold Elliott and Malcolm Elliott, of Parawai, and two daughters, Mrs. J. Corbett, Parawai qnd Mrs. R. H. Dickinson of Opotiki. His brothers and sisters still living are Thomas Elliott and James Elliott of Opotiki, John F. Elliott, of Hamilton, George Elliott, Kerepeehi, Mrs. Hopkins, Northcote, and Mrs. Cooper, Opotiki.