OBITUARY.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 March 1921, Page 4

OBITUARY.

MR. HENRY BROWN, EX-M.P., A TARANAKI PIONEER. A Taranaki pioneer and a former Parliamentary representative for Taranaki, Air. Henry Brown, died yesterday afternoon at his residence, Inglewood, at the age of 7'B years. Born in 1842 in Lincolnshire, England, Air. Brown arrived in New Plymouth in March, 1859. He settled in the district, and during the Alaori disturbances he served in the volunteers for about four years and received the New Zealand war medal. He was interested in tho timber trade and had a mill at Welbourne, Carrington Road, for Home time. He was one of the early settlers of Inglewood, where he established his mill in 1877. For many years Air. Brown was - chairman of the Inglewood Town Board, and for about eight years he was a member of the Taranaki County* Council. From December, 1896, to the same month in 1899 he represented Taranaki in Parliament. In 1867 he married a daughter of the late Air. John Brooking, and is survived by a widow and one son (Mr. F. H. Brown) and one daughter (Aliss Ethel Brown), Jjoth of Inglewood. The late Air. Brown was of a kindly disposition' and was well liked and esteemed by those who knew him. For some months past he had been in ailing health and confined to his home. He suffered a serious Illness in September last, from the effects of which he had never really recovered.

MR. W. D. POWDRELL, M.P. AN INTERESTING CAREER. The late Air. Walter Dutton Powdrell, Independent Reform member for Patea, whose death was reported in yesterday’s Daily News, was born at Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, in 1872. Air. Powdrell went to live in Taranaki 42*years ago. He had been a director of the Kaupokonui Co-operative Dairy Company for .14 years, and managing director for the last 16 years; also a director of the Whenuakura Co-operative Dairy Company, chairman and managing director of the Patea Farmers’ Co-operative Freezing Company, and for the last 10 years advisory manager of |he Whakatarie Co-operative Freezing Company; director of th# National Dairy Association, North Island.; director of the New Zealand Rennet Company; director of the New Zealand Bacon and Meat Packing Company; director of the Egmont Co-operative Box Company; director of the .Taranaki Farmers’ Mutual Fire Insurance; director of tjie Farmers’ Cooperative Auctioneering Company, Taranaki, and for several years chairman of committee. He w’Us appointed to sell cheese to the Imperial .Government; was a nominee of the Efficiency Board; and chairman of ffie Prohibition League for the Te Kuiti-Wanganui district. (Air. PowdreJl was returned for the Patea electorate at the general election of December, 1919. In the House last session he frequently took part in the debates, and proved himself an effective speaker, especially witfi regard to agricultural matters. He rendered good service on the Agricultural Committee and other committees of the House, being constant in attention to his - Parliamentary duties; and he was appointed a member of .the special committee set up to inquire into the butter ptices and equalisation fund questions. Though foy so short a time a member of Parliament, he will be missed from his place in the House.

Air. Powdrell was one of the best known public men in Taranaki, in fact throughout the Dominion. He was known as a' most progressive and fprseeing man of business, and had for years been at the head of the Kaupokonui Dairy Company and its allied companies, and of the Patea Freezing Company, while he* was (prominent on the directorate of the N.Z. Co-operative Bacon Company, Whenuakura Dairy Company, Wairoa Harbor Board, and other businesses, and was considered one of the strongest and most influential men in the produce world of Nqj? Zealand. Mr. Powdrell had for many years taken a very, keen interest in politics, and when it was found necessary to secure a Reform candidate for the Patea seat at the last election he was chosen by the party, and in the face of strong opposition was elected, his personality and keen optimism being strong factors in the successful result achieved. He at once made his mark in the House,, and was looked on as a coming man in the political world. The strain of politics, however, in a difficult session, added to bis numerous other duties, ptoved too much, and some two months ago he sustained a nervous breakdown. Since that time he had been under expert treatment in a private hospital, and the doctors confidently hoped that a few more weeks would have seen his recovery, but it was not to be, and the end came quietly on Wednesday night. Mr. Powdrell had, throughout the war taken a great interest in the cause of the wounded and returned soldiem, and by his assistance many a man has been placed in business or on a farm and has done well. In fact no one had ever asked help of him in vain, and fos this, if for no other good attribute of character, his name will not soon be forgotten. He was a man who was respected and thought most highly of by everyone. He was most generous in his assistance of everv deserving object, and many a farmer in a good position to-day owes his position to the generous help given him by Mr. Powdrell. His death in the prime of life, with apparently a bright future ahead ,; of him, will be deeply deplored by all who knew him and many people who had only heard or read of his useful and honorable life. His place will not easily be filled. To his widow and family and relatives we join in the very sincere sympathy that will be felt at their great loss.—Hawera Star. The funeral takes place at Hawera to-morrow afternoon. Mrs. Powdrell and he* two sons motdred through to Wellington on Wednesday, but arrived too late to see Mr. Powdrell alive.