FRANCIS JAMES GARRICK.

The news that Mr F. J. Garrick is dead will cause a widespread feeling of regret. By his death the New Zealand bar has been deprived of a distinguished member, the church with which he was long identified of a liberal supporter, and the poor of an open-handed friend. Mr Garrick, though a New Zealander by adoption, was an Australian by birth —a good specimen of a talented and successful Australian native — the term being used in the new and honourable sense in which it is employed by the Australian Natives' Association. His father came to New South Waleß from England some sixty years ago, having been engaged to manage a flour-milling business for Mr Brielatt. In Sydney, in the year 1833, the gentleman who is the subject of this notice waa born. In boyhood he was a pupil at the Sydney College, then under the head-mastership of Mr W. T. Capo. Among hiß fellow scholars were many whose names are now known and honoured throughout Australasia. Such were the Eight Mon William Bede Dalley, Chief Justice Sir James Martin, the Eev Canon Stephen and the Hon James Norton. Others, as the Hon J. T. Peacock and Mr H. E. Webb, are now well known and respected in New Zealand. Mr Garrick, ; on leaving school, was articled to Mr Andrew M'Culloch, solicitor, of Sydney, | whose office he afterwards quitted for that of Mr Robert Nicholls. Having been admitted to the New South Wales bar, he became a partner in the firm of Eowley and Holdsworth, of Sydney. In 1861 he was induced to come to New Zealand, and in February of that year he arrived in Christchuich in order to -join Mr W. P. Cowlishaw. The firm of Garrick and Cowlisbaw began business in an office on the North side of Cathedral square. This was afterwards quitted for the premises at the corner of Colombo and Gloucester streets, which were abandoned when, in recent years, the present firm of Garrick, Cowlishaw, and Fisher moved to the officpa now occupied by them. Mr Garrick soon made his mark in Canterbury : his business capacity and his ability as a pleader raised him to the high position he has long held among the members of the New Zealand bar. With talents well suited to public life, he in time became a prominent figure in the Provincial politics of Canterbury. He represented Christchurch in the Provincial Council for some years, and filled, for a while, the office of Provincial Solicitor. After the abolition of the Provinces he did not take up a prominent part in politics till 1884, when he was elected to represent the then newly-formed district of St Albans, in the General Assembly. In the House of Representatives he sustained the reputation he had previously gained as an able speaker, one who, as a rule, weighed well his utterances, and spoke with thoughtfulness and deliberation, Mr Garrick was one of several Canterbury settlers to whom the Wesleyan Church owes much of its material prosperity in this district. For several years he was a local preacher, and was one of the most able and energetic of that class of church workers. He also filled other lay offices, and was at all times generous in giving material aid to the Church. He was liberal also in other ways. Though j his charities were not ostentatious, those who knew him best will agree with the remark of a friend who, on hearing of his death, exclaimed, " The poor have lost a good friend." Mr Garrick's health was not good for several years before his death. He suffered much from asthma, which compelled him to pay frequent visits to Australia, in Eearch of the relief to be obtained by the change of climate. For the past two years he w»s afflicted by a complication of disorders, but, nevertheless, he attended his office, and looked after his business with an assiduity which was, under the circumstances, j perhaps injudicious. Like many another active-minded man, he would wear out rather than rust out. Last Friday week he caught a cold, which accelerated tue already fast-approaching end. Bronchitis supervened, and, in spite of the skill of several medical men, he died at his house on the Papanui road, at ten minutes to eleven o'clock on Saturday night. He had been unconscious most of the day, and his end was peaceful and painless. He leaver a widow —the eldest daughter of the late Mr John Jenkins Peacock, of Sydney— and a family of five sons and two daughters, his eldest daughter being the wife of Mr H. 0. D. Meares. It is worthy of note that Mr Garrick's brothers have made honourable names for themselves in Australasia. One is Sir James F. Garrick, Agent-General for Queensland, another, Mr Hector Garrick, was AttorneyGeneral of Fiji, when that dependency was a Crown Colony. A third brother, Mr Alfred Garrick, is a retired Sydney merchant. A fourth, Mr Edward Garrick, is connected with the office of Garrick, Cowlishaw and Fisher. The President of the New Zealand Wesleyan Conference, the Rev J. J. Lewis, made reference to the death of Mr Garrick at the service at the St Albans Church yesterday morning, when he said " I cannot close this service without referriug to the heavy loss sustained by the community in the death of our friend, Mr Garrick. You know how long he was closely .identified with this church, and the tangible expressions of sympathy with our cause throughout Canterbury which he gave. As a preacher he was acceptable in our best pulpits, and the simple and pathetic way in which he told out the Gospel has gone directly to my own heart. He would sometimes refer to the time when he was in full work in our Church both here and in Australia as the happiest in his life. Indiscriminate eulogy of the departed is always in bad taste, and especially so in the house of God. Our friend was but human, with his share of human failings and infirmities, and these he never attempted either to cloak or to extenuate. In him the poor have lost a good friend. He has gone, I trust, to be for ever with the Lord, and you join with me in the expression of sympathy'with the survivors and in the prayer that God may comfort them in their trouble."