OBITUARY.

WILLIAM KISC IU'LKK: A ETA T SO. Thorn passed away at his residence at C'orlM'tt Road at mx o'clock yesterday evening, in the person of Me William King Htilkc. one of the* wry earliest settlers of New /calami, of a t\pc which is fa.st disappearing,. lie wa c born at Deal, England, in August 18b>, the son of Dr. Hulke, who, hv Ihe way, attended the groat Duke of Wellington in his last illness at Walmer Castle, in fact the Duke died in his arms. His ancestors came from Flanders, whence, with thousands of other refugees, the> fled to escape the butcheries of Alva I in the war oi extermination this rutkle.ss zealot was prosecuting o\or tJuLow Countries. Most of these exiles settled in one or other of (he Cinque I'orls, Mr Hulke's forbears eventually making .Deal their home, and there they have Jived since the last quarter of the .sixteenth century. The subject of this notice was sent, when quite a boy, as an apprentice in the East India Company's service, but lie relinquished it after one voyage, and was then sent to a farm in Pembrokeshire. About this time Edward (iibhon Waketield's colonisation scheme was attracting attention, and young Hulke determined to emigrate to New Zealand. He landed in Wellington on December 12, 1840, from the ship London, among his fellow-passengers being Messrs F. A. Carrington, with Mrs Carrington and family, Wieksteed, Nixon (late of Wanganui), E. Dorset, Do H. Brandon, John Rogan, and many other well-known pioneer settlers. Mr Hulkv> accompanied a party of about a dozen who set out the following week to walk to the Wanganui River. Here they arrived on December 30. Mr Hulke, in partnership with Messrs Dorset. Keith, and Barley Brothers (Bristol) men) established the first store in Wanganui. He did not, howeter, remain long, reluming to Wellington, whence he undertook a journey to Sydney to purchase a herd of dairy rows. With these he established v small dairy farm near the present Wellington suburb of Kilbirnie and partly on the Miramar peninsula, supplying the people of Wellington with milk and vegetables. In the latter part of 1842 lie wont again to Wanganui, and there erected a flour mill — windmill, with machinery he had imported" from England. This mill was destroyed by the Natives in ISJ.;, and in 1H47 Mr Hulko visited New Plymouth and decided to remove the m'a.ehinery to this town, where he established a mill in Queen Street, using a water-wheel for power. This was called the Union mill, and stands now in the occupation of the Crown Dairy Company. In the early fifties Mr Hulke purehas.vd a farm at Pel! Block, where lie remained until the outbreak of war in 1860, when he was obliged to come to New Plymouth for safety. Hevt' he for a time carried on the business of a nurseryman, and laid out beautiful grounds in Pendarves Street (now occupied by Mr W. Courtney). About 1866 in conjunction with Messrs F. L. and W. D. Webster, lie built the fine steam flour mill in Currie Street, now occupied by Messrs L. D. Nathan and Co. as a warehouse. Some twenty years later he went back to Bell Block and established a model dairy farm on the Corbett Road and set a,bout forming that herd of pure-bred Jersey cattle whose fame travelled throughout New Zealand. Here for many years lie experimented ill dairying, and lie was one • of t/ho • first sto see and "strongly adVbcate the benefits of the dairy factory system now general throughout the Dominion. Of late years lie has suffered from a very distressing malady, which has kept*" lii m almost a prisoner, but in spite of his great age his mental powers remained strong until- the last. Jn the early fifties he married Miss Street, of Bell Block, who survives him. He had no family, but two of his sisters are still living in Deal.