LAST RESPECTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 502, 8 April 1933, Page 6

LAST RESPECTS

wide sympathy FUNERAL OF THE LATE MANSELL J. JONES SPECIALISED ORAFTSMAN. • The funeral of the late-Mansell J. Jones took place yesterday afternoon A service was held in the Methodist Church, the Rev. J. C. Young, paster of the Presbyterian Church, officiating. At the organ Mrs. Dixon played as voluntary organist the exquisite tune to the words of Dr. Matheson's well-known hymn, "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go." Mr. Young with a sympathetic /and felicitous regard for .the circumstances attending Mr. Jones's death selected an order of service appropriate to the occasion. The De Profundis — Psalm 130 of the Authorised Version — was read in conjunction with a passage from Ch'ap. 14 of St. John's Gospel. An exposition of the several passages followed, expressive of the brightening hope that comes to those who have faith in the realitiesi of the Christian revelation and of the life beyond. Then was sung the hymn "Lead Kindly Light." At the graveside, further brief selections from the Psalms and part of the eighth chapter of Romans were read. Committal of th'e body and an extempore pnayer closed the service. The wreaths, made of autumn flowers, were remarkable for their beauty and symbolism. They were obviously the work of experts alive to the tragedy that had prompted them.

In the passing of Mr. Jones, Rotorua loses a skilled craftsman. He understood the art of taxidermy. The modelling and mountingi of the many and varied specimens brought to him revealed not only an accurate knowledge of anatomy and the external forms of animals but also of their habits. His workshop presented a curious medley of fishes, birds, and mammals. From mako sharks and swordfish to the familiar trout he reproduced in the finished mounted article, either the native ferocity of the fish or the exquisite hlending of colours found for example in the rainbow trout. The most famous of all Mr. Jones's work was perhaps the marine reptile caught four years ago off the coast at Waihi. Eight feet in length, possessed of venomous fangs, a sinister dangerous creature, its identity remained for months undiscovered although viewed by a large number oi overseas visitors, many of whom claimed a knowledge of natural history. At length, Sir Thomas, Parkinson, the eminent London .biologist and surgeon accompanied by other well known visitors inspected the speeimen. Sir Thomas /at once identified the reptile as a sea-snake, as deadly as a cobra and whose poison means inslant death. But how the snake migrated from its native habitat in tropical waters, chiefly about the East Indian Archipela.go, to the colder waters of New Zealand was a mystery. Sir Thomas said, which could not be explained. The snake, like many other of Mr. Jones's specimens, went to the United States and is now in the posscssion of a wealthy Ohio American. Mr. Jones excelled in the preservation of deerheads; and perhaps he did as much as anyone in extending the fame of New Zealand as a sportsman's paradise. With sure instinct, Mr Jones perpetuated in mounted form a number of the largest trophies caught by deep-sea fishermen in the waters of the Bay of Islands and off Tauranga. (Exhibited in America these great fish have attraeted to these shores from year to year distinguished sportsmen. Quiet and unobstrusive, the last to think highly of his work, Rotorua has lost a respected and useful citizen. To Mrs. Jones and her children a deep and praetical sympathy has been shown, and the entire community has been moved as rarely before by the distressing events that culminated in the death of a good husband and father.