OBITUARY.

MR C. R. BLAKISTON. . Deep regret will be felt at the news of the death which occurred yesterday afternoon of Mr C. R. Blakiston, one of the oldest settlers in the province. The deceased gentleman was the fifth son of Sir Matthew Blakiston, of Derbyshire, England, and brother of Mr A. F. N. Blakiston, of this city, and was in his seventyfourth year. Though not of a robust constitution, he was a man who was singularly free from illness during his lifetime, and his death was not expected to follow so suddenly the attack of congestion of the lungs and pleurisy which caused him to take to his bed on Sunday last. At 11 o'clock yesterday morning his wife and brother, who' were attending him, noticed an apparent improvement in his condition, but in less than, an hour and a half afterwards he succumbed to the complication cf diseases which had attacked him. .Mr Blakurui and his brother came out to \'.il-)vi;n« in 1851, at the time of the outbade of the gold diggings, but, persuaded br scni3 o* his fellow passengers from Engl i.id »lo were touring, to visit Canterbury, he left Melbourne five months later, >nd r.i Iftb2 stepped ashore at Lyttelton, where he entered into business. This, however, he soon relinquished, and took up a section of land on the Ferry road, which has become fche township of Asbbourne, where he started fanning. Later on he selected land at Kaiapoi from the Church Property Trustees, and while there, about the year 1856, he was elected to represent Kaiapoi in the Provincial Council, of which body he for a time filled the responsible office of Secretary. About the same year he was appointed to the Legislative Council, but subsequently business arrangements prevented him from giving such attention to the duties as he considered they demanded, and he retired. In 1858 he married a daughter of the late Bishop Harper, with whom, in 1860, he paid a visif to England, and returned in 1862. ■•' While he was at Home he. received the appointment of manager of the Trust and Agency Company of Australia, a branch of which he established in Hereford street. He occupied the position of manager for thirty-five years, and retired on a pension last year. When he received this appointment, he resigned his seat on the Legislative Council. For many years he had not taken any ptuminent part in public affairs. He was a Justice of the Peace from the earliest days, and an active member as well as one of the original members of the Christchurch Bowling Club. He at one time represented St. Luke's parish on the Diocesan Synod, was a member of the governing body of Christ's College, and a member of the Church Property Trustees. He also took a lively interest in the Cathedral, and was on the Committee which promoted the erection of that building. The deceased leaves a widow, four sons and two daughters to mourn their loss. Two of the sons and one daughter are married.

{press association telkgium.J AUCKLAND, September 1. Mrs Wood, relict of the late Mr Reader Wood, an ex-Colonial Treasurer, is dead aged eighty years. '