OBITUARY.

CAPTAIN HENRY CAIX. It lias fallen to tlio lot of few seafaring men to pa?s through tlie enmo hardships as Captain Henry Cum did, and yet bo allowed to spend the remaining thirty years of v seveuty-onu years' life m p.:acofulncs3 on aliore." Coplain Cain was burn when going ho scj. meant Siimclhing else than Inking a pleasure trip. There wero no soft hnudi'il or kill jjlovrd ninrinors m those days, mid the tar-bucket was a stern reality instead of v poetical fill ion. He took to tlio sen lit the enrly ago of thirteen, and did not relinquish it, till ho settled down m Tiniaru, about thirty years ago. A3 a boy ho came out to Sydney, and for some lime afterward* was engaged m vessels trading to the South Seas, China, nnd Auckland. His reminiscences of Heke'a war m 1843-45 wero very interesting. After a period lie went to Sacramento, California, whero ho opened a saloon. Becoming unsettled, he sold out, and bought a schooner called tlio Pauline, with which ho arrived at Lyltelton, via Auckland, m 1851, with a cargo of kauri pine, consigned to Mr 11. J. LeCren. While there a heavy S.W. ga'e aprang up and drove tlio schooner on shore. In a few days she was got off, but only to bo again wrecked, and this time Captain Cain had to abandon her, having spent all his means. He returned to Auckland, and brought down the cutter Kuka, which traded to the Hcathcoto. In 1852 the Victorian diggings induced him to purchase an old Wellington trader, called tlio Fly, of 30 tons, which ho took to Melbourne. Subsequently ho traded to Auckland m a brig called The Ocean, owned by himself. On March Bth, 1857, he anchored m Timaru m the Royal Bride, this being we believe his iir.-t trip to tho port, ami from that dnto to the time of his dec-ease he was intimately connected with the place. He was one Of the iirjt pioneers of. our shipping

trade, and to him has bcon due m no small I measure the wonderful strides which our shipping trade has made m the face of outside opposition. Ho was always to the foro when the battles of the port had to bo fought, and for years, as many of us know, it was a very hard fight indeed. Captain Cain, however, hud all confidence m Timaru, nnd to Timaru he nailed his colors from the first day ho landed here. To one bo well known as he was by all classes of the community it is unnecessary to alludo m highly eulogistic terms. From first to last ho was a solid and m every way honorable citizen. Ho was for years Mayor of Timaru, nnd was at times connected with various other public bodies. It may bo nlso worthy of record that Mrs Cain turned the first sod at this end of tho Timaru-Christ-churcli railway. Jn conclusion wo may say that were we to search the whole community through, wo doubt if we could find a man who has been more thoroughly identified with the riso and progress of Tiuiaruin particular, and South Canterbury m general, than Capt. Henry Cain.