For many years past Dr Cameron’s name has been so closely connected with important aspects of the life of this city that it is difficult to realise immediately that these associations have now been definitely sundered.
As a member of the ministry of the Presbyterian Church, Dr Cameron was a stalwart force for the advancement of causes that need assistance. In this relation it suffices perhaps to instance his unsparing labours in the interest of the Presbyterian Social Service Association. But it is as an educationist that Dr Cameron has left his most ineffaceable mark upon the community.
In the advancement of higher education, he found a sphere to which in later years he was to devote the best of his energies, with results for which the whole community is his debtor. A conspicuous monument to his memory for all to see is Knox College. The scheme of a residential college of this character was his, and the manner in which he carried it through might well furnish as both an example and an inspiration to many.
— editorial
Missing man’s body found
Oamaru, May 19: The mystery surrounding the death of Olive Rutherford on April 27, following upon injuries received shortly after 7.15am on Wednesday, April 22, and the mysterious disappearance of Philip Hudson, was cleared up somewhat by the recovery of the body of Hudson in the Waitaki River in the vicinity of Otiake this afternoon.
The police officers who were investigating the affair discontinued their efforts to trace Hudson about three weeks after the accident, with the exception of Constable Moore, of Oamaru, and Constable Melville, of Kurow. Constable Moore returned to Oamaru after an unsuccessful search on Friday, May 15. The parents of Hudson, however, were confident that the body of their son would be recovered, and they kept a party on a strict survey of the Waitaki River. Boats were employed to allow the men to scrutinise the river more carefully, and two horsemen were kept fording the river every day.
Shortly after noon yesterday word was received that the body had been seen in the Waitaki River by a man named Kenneth McLeod, and another. The river at this spot, which is about 14 miles down the stream from the scene of the tragedy, is divided into a number of riverlets, and the body was in the centre. It was with difficulty that it was recovered. The body, which was comparatively well preserved, was fully dressed with the exception of the overcoat and hat.
There were marks about the face, but whether these had been caused by a bullet or by the rolling of the body in the stream has not yet been discovered. The body was taken to Kurow, where a post-mortem examination will be made tomorrow by Dr Watt. The remains will then be taken to Dunedin, where an inquest will be opened before Mr H.W. Bundle SM. The inquest on the body of Olive Rutherford will be resumed in a day or two. Evidence will be taken at Dunedin and later at Oamaru.
The finding of the body has relieved anxiety in the district but does not throw additional light upon this most mysterious tragedy.
An unnecessary euphemism
I am not in love with the new-fangled and over-fastidious custom of using the word "casket" in place of "coffin." The idea is to soften the grim language of funereal paraphernalia, but euphemisms of this kind are pathetically powerless to relieve the harsh associations of death. "Casket," if persisted with, would soon lose its pretty innocence, so to speak, and become invested with all the sombre significance of "coffin." The old term has done honest service of the gloomy kind for centuries. Nothing is to be gained by superannuating it, pending the distant day when universal cremation and the classic urn shall come to their own.
— by ‘Wayfarer’
— ODT, 20.5.1925 (Compiled by Peter Dowden)
