OBITUARY

Southland Times, Issue 24239, 24 September 1940, Page 6

OBITUARY

MR W. T. QUEREE

The death has occurred at his residence, Adelaide road, Wellington, of Mr Walter Thomas Queree, aged 76 years. Mr Queree was born in the island of Jersey in 1864, and came to New Zealand when 10 years old in the ship Dilharee, which arrived at Auckland on January 16, 1874, after a voyage of 93 days. The family went to Napier for a time, and then to Lyttelton, where Mr Queree was married. He went to Weilington 54 years ago and started a carrying business which he had carried on ever since. For 56 years Mr Queree was in the Salvation Army, and was Envoy Queree at the time of his death. He is survived by Mrs Queree, a son, and seven daughters, Mesdames J. Talbot (Kilbirnie), H. Talbot (Lower Hutt), Sparks (Newtown). Bateman (Invercargill), B. T. Knight (Wellington), Kelly (Ireland) and Julius (Wellington). His son, Mr Walter Queree, is a member of the 2nd Echelon. MR DONALD McINNES Mr Donald Mclnnes, whose death occurred recently at Dunedin in his eighty-seventh y&ar, was born at Ballachulish, Argyllshire, in 1854. In 1874, with his parents and other members of his family, he arrived at Port Chalmers in the old sailing ship Invercargill. Having mastered the art of slate splitting in his native land, he turned to that industry in New Zealand, and with his two brothers, he opened up slate quarries at Otepope (now Herbert). Later he worked on the piercing of the Deborah Bay tunnel, and for some time was a shepherd on the Cottesbrook run at Middlemarch. In the late eighties he took up land at Otiake, alongside his father and brothers.

During his long life Mr Mclnnes retained his Gaelic tongue. He had a most retentive memory, and his grasp of the early history of his native highlands and New Zealand was the envy of much younger men. In his earlier years he was a professional highland dancer, and in later life he judged both piping and dancing at gatherings throughout Otago. He was also a member of the Otago Pipers’ and Dancers’ Association, and a life member of the Gaelic Society of New Zealand. Mr Mclnnes had a family of eight sons and four daughters, nine of whom, with his widow, survive. The sons are Messrs Alaisdair, Thomas E. and lair. Mclnnes (Dunedin), Donald Mclnnes (Invercargill), Archie Mclnnes (Ist Echelon, Egypt), and the daughters are Mrs G. A. Wills and Mrs N. Munro (Green Valley), Mrs J. Clark (Port Chalmers) and Mrs Cross (Wellington). One son died in infancy, one was killed at Passchendaele in 1917, and a third was killed at Bapaume in 1918.