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OBITUARY.
Mr. J.W. Hetherington.
A WIDE circle of friends in Brisbane
and in many parts of the State
will learn with regret of the death last
evening of Mr. J.W. Hetherington, a
prominent business man, and for many
years an alderman and thrice Mayor
of Brisbane. The deceased had been
suffering from* heart trouble for some
time, and collapsed on Saturday morn
ing. Though he rallied during the
day another seizure on Thursday
proved fatal.
Few men have had a more chequered
career, charged with vicissitudes of
life, than the late Mr. John William
Hetherington, MI.M.E., who was 68
years of age. Born at Brancepeth,
North England, he commenced to earn
his living at the age of 9, becoming
a trapper boy in one of the coal pits,
in Durham, England. For nine years
heworked in the pits, until he decided
towty his fortune in Australia. He
arrived in Brisbane at the age. of 18
years, in the clipper Devon, and for
two days after his arrivel picked po
tatoes on the wharf. With his earn
ings he paid his railway fare to Ips
wich, where he unsuccessfully endeav
oured to obtain work as a miner. He
engaged in farming work at Oxley, but
it was not long before he again sought
mining work, and obtained employ
ment in a pit near Ipswich. He "made
good" in the years that followed, and
subsequently possessed several mines
of his own. During his commercial
career he held the following positions:
—Director of Hetherington and Rylance,
colliery proprietors; managing director
of Blair Athol Coal and Timber Co.;
chairman of directors of the Queens
land Cement Co.; director of the Hume
Pipe Co; director of the Queensland
Machinery Co.; and director of the
Great Northern Tin Mine. At one
time he was president of the Coal
Masters' Association, and was a mem
ber of the Australasian Institute of
Mining and Metallurgy. The late Mr.
Hetherington always took a keen in
terest in public affairs and municipal
matters. In 1306 he was elected a
member of the Brisbane City Council
for Kangaroo Point ("Where he resided
for 40 years past), and he was three
times Mayor of Brisbane, being ap
pointed by the Governor-in-Council in
1910, and by his fellow aldermen in
1916 and 1917. He was also a mem
ber of the Brisbane Stock Exchange.
He married Miss A. Phillips, of Ips
wich, and had three sons and one
daughter. His eldest son, John Wil
liam^ who was manager of the Albion
Telephone Exchange, died two years
ago. His second son, Norman, is the
City Treasurer, while his youngest,
Colin, is with the Queensland Cement
Company,
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