MR ALLAN McLEAN.

Mr Allan McLean, who had been in failing health for some time past, died yesterday morning <it his residence in Manchester Street North. Mr McLean w«s of Scottish descent. Hβ carao to New Zealand from Australia in 1852, and soon after arrival purchased the goodwill of the leasehold of 10,000 acres on the south bank of the Waimakariri river, about thirteen miles from Christchurch, and soon after obtained 500 merino owes, some horses and cattle, from Australia, where ho and his brothers had been engaged in pastoral pursuits for sonio years previous. Hie two brothers, John and Robertson McLean, with his mother and two sisters, came to join him a year later, and for c while they lived together at Ashfield, the pastoral country above mentioned. With true Scottish foresight they grasped what New Zealand, and Canterbury in particular, would become in the near future, and they at once launched out and secured 50,000 acres on Government lease, which ia now known as the Lagmhor Estate. It is worthy of note, writes en old friend of the leto Mr McLean, that itt going down to explore what was then an almost unknown region, they readied the Rakaia -when *it was in high fresh, but nevertheless put their horses to it, and wore soon swimming, and were presently washed off their horses. John, the elder brother, got through on to the shingle bed, and, looking round, saw his brother Allan submerged in water, grasping the shingle, 'but unable to get up. He at once waded in and dragged his brother out. They stocked tho Lagmhor run, and in 1858 they dbtained information of country further South which no white man had ever trodden. John McLean set oft alone- on v hack, and with a packhorse carrying his blanket, a tent, and provisions, with a tin billy and pannikin. He spent a fortnight alone, riding to and fro in that terra incognita, and at last coming to the Molyneux, followed it down, got to Dunedin, and applied for -400,000 acres of leasehold, and on survey dt proved to bo 430,000 acres, which the brothers obtained and stocked. These are the men, and there ere maony more ef them, who swam rivers, lived hard on damper and mutton, and. laid tho foundations of New Zealand—men who knew right and wrong, and who lived honest and straightforward lives. Tho younger brother, !Mr Ro/bertson McLean, returned to Scotland-in 1865. John and Allan McLean remained partners until about 1875 or 1876, and then by mutual consent dissolved partnership, John taking the North Otago estates and Lagmhor, Ashburton, and Allan taking the Waikakahi, on the Waihao and Waitaki as his share—a princely estate —tnlken in the late 'nineties by tho Government, and cut up and leased in smaller holdings to thriving settlers. The McLeans lived retired lives, but their hospitality was proverbial, arid no man travelling by and seeking food and a bed was ever turned from their doors. At Waikakahi station there was a building with some sixteen bunks, and from ten to sixteen men frequently occupied that building, were fed in the kitchen adjoining, resumed their ewags after breakfast, and went their way, making room for other coiners, who invariably turned up. After tho eale of his Waikakahi Estate Mr McLean lived in Christchurch, hir> residence in Manchester street North being one of tho largest in tho city. Mr McLean nnd many others who departed before him, but who whilo here lived their lives on the same principles, were the true pionecra of Canterbury and New Zealand. It is understood that a large portion of tho late Mr McLean's estate has been devoted to public purposes.