A Veteran Passes.

Mr. Thomas Dennis, late enginedriver N.Z. Railways, died on 6th December, at the Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, in his 79th year. Born in Jersey, Channel Islands, Mr. Dennis came to New Zealand In 1873, and joined the Otago Railway service (at Invercargill) in April, 1875, being appointed as a driver on 10th December, 1877.

He had six months firing on the broad (4ft. 8½in.) gauge engines on the Invercargill Railways (Bluff-Winton) before the conversion of those lines to the New Zealand standard gauge in December, 1875.

Mr. Dennis was transferred from Invercargill to Riverton on 1st July, 1879, and later from Riverton to the Wanganui district. He was afterwards stationed at Waitara, Auckland, Cambridge, Mercer, Dannevirke, Foxton, Wellington, Hastings, and Napier. Up to the time of his death Mr. Dennis was the oldest engine-driver in the Dominion. He retired, owing to ill-health, on 23rd July, 1908.