OBITUARY.

RT. HON. EVELYN MELBOURNE ASHLEY.

United Prees Association—By Elactrio Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, November 15. The Right Hon. Evelyn Melbourne Ashley is dead, aged 71 years. [The Right, Hon. Evelyn Melbourne Ashley was private secretary to Lord Palmerston from 1858-65, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, 1880-82, and Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1882 till 1885.]

MR C. E. FOOKS. Vorv general' regret is felt in Ashburton regarding the death of Mr Charles Edward Fooks, which occurred at his residence at five o'clock yesterday morning. Mr Fooks, accompanied by his wife, loft London, his place of birth, in the sailing ship Steadfast for New Zealand in 1851. He settled in Christchurch and took up land at Richmond and practised his profession as authorised surveyor and architect and Government engineer between 1856 and 1876, and engineered many of the chief public works in the province of Canterbury. In 1876 he left Christt-hurch for Ashburton, for the purposo of practising his profession, and took up the property adjacent to tho Domain, where lie resided continuously till tho time of his death. Soon after arrival at Ashburton Mr Fooks was engaged as clerk and surveyor to the then chief controlling local l>ody, tho Ashburton Road Board, and when the borough was formed in 1878 he was engaged as engineer by tho Borough Council. In 1888 ho was appointed town flerk and engineer, and held that position till IHOI, when failing health compelled him to relinquish tho arduous and vigorous duties of the borough. The Council, however, retained his services as engineer, and ho held that position up till the time of his death. Mr Fooks engineered and successfully carried out the first open water race system in the county on behalf of the lat© Mr C. Reed,'of Westerfield, and although the feasibility of 'an open water raco .system was then ridiculed, the efficacy of Mr system and ingenuity' was soon recognised by the settlers, and was subsequently emulated by tho County Council, which was formed shortly after the system came in vogue. Mr Fooks als>o carried out and formulated the scheme for the drainage of the Longbeach estate on behalf of the lat© Messrs Grigg and Russell, in tho early days of Ashburton. He was associated with St. Stephen's Anglican Church for a number of years as churchwarden, and in tho pioneer days of Canterbury took a deep interest in Freemasonry and volunteering.

Mr A. Hardy, a well-known ex-resi-dent of Oxford, who recently took up a farm at Coalgate, died on Monday last as the result of an attack of influenza and pleurisy. He leaves a widow and family off four. The funeral on Thursday at Hororata was very largely attended, the service was conducted by the Rev. 0. Fitzgerald (Anglican), assisted by the Rev. W.. A Kyd (Presbyterian).