PROMINENT CITIZEN

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1940, Page 9

PROMINENT CITIZEN

DEATH AT HAWERA MR. GILLANT)ERS' WORK j A long association with Sout.h Tara-) naki communal and district affairs was severed yesterday by the death of Mr. Francis Gillanders, agecl 84. Mr. Gillanders earned the rcspect of citizens of Hawera and the surrounding districts through his active interest in the affairs j r>f the community, and he will be re- 1 membered for the quiet manner in which he gave his counsel and contri- ; buted with generosity to all deserving causes. Within a very short. time after his arrival in New Zealand from Aberdeenshire in 1894 Mr. Gillanders was appointed to (he post of manager of the Moumahaki State farm. The farm, which was basically for experimental work, developed under his hand into one of the few model farms of the day. In 1910 he commeneed business on his own account at Hawera, carrying extensive stocks of seeds and manuies. -At that time the Department of Agriculture took little interest in individual farmers, and Mr. Gillanders developed a habit ofsending circulars to the landowners of the outlying districts, advising them on grasses and mani'.res for the season, and assisf.ing as best as he might in developing the rotational crop system. For about ten years Mr. Gillanders was a member of the Hawera Hospital Board, and for part of this period he was chairman. It was during his tenure of this office that the new Hawera hospital was built and opened. he being to a large extent responsible for the financial arrangements. The establishment of the Old People's Home might also be attributed largel.v to his foresight. He was energetic. in his support of the use of the better part of the old hospital buildings as a home for the aged and infirrn. For many years Mr. Gillanders was a director of the South Taranaki Winter Show Company, and he was also an executive member of the Egmont A. and P. Association, at one time being a' vicepresident. His interests also included the Rotary Club, of which he was a foundation member, and from its inception he was concerned with the organisation and management of poppy day appeals.