DEATH OF MR DAVID WRIGHT.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume XXII, Issue 1670, 15 July 1892, Page 3

DEATH OF MR DAVID WRIGHT.

There passed away on Saturday last at Woolston, near Christchurch, in the 71st year of his ago, one of the best known figures about the Peninsula. Mr Wright, who has been recently living in Okain's B»y, had been in his usual strong health up to quite recently, when he left for Christchurch to obtain medical advice. His medical adviser pronounced hie disease an incurable cancer, and be tank rapidly under it : being never destined again to see the hills and bays of the Peninsula lie knew and loved co well. Mr Wright was a native of tho " Fair City " of Perth, in .Scotland, whero lie served his apprenticeship as a shipbuilder with bis father, who was in the name business there—the Taj'eicie being in these days (fifty years ago) the centre of a considerable trade in shipbuilding. Aftor going through tho various grades of a sailor's Ufe, he passed as master, purchased a vessel and came out to Melbourne at the lime of tha gold discoveries. Captain Wright was not infected with tho gold fever, but continued to sail his vessel between Melbourne and Adelaide, on the Australian coast, with varying succes3 until one rough night she wne lost along with hor owner's all Shortly afterwards Mr Wright made liis way to New Zealand, and settled in the Sounds of tho Maryborough Province near Picton. Hrre he traded for eotne years in a email vessel, the name of which we forget. Growing tired of tho Sound*, he set soil for Lyttelton about 1862, then, for that time of tiny, a very busy plnco. Here ho worked at hie original trado as ship's carpenter, varied by an occasional voyage as far as some of the Bays of the Peninsula. From what he saw of the district' on these tripp, lie resolved to settle in one of the Bays, and finally selected Le Bon's. Shortly after his arrival he was appointed Clerk to the Okain's Road Board district— an office he held for nearly a quarter t.f a century. When Mr Wright took office tlura were practically no roadb along the coast line from Waikerakikari on the south to Decanter Bay on the north, which were the two extremes of the Okain's dis • trict ; and only a rough horse track leading from the Akaroa side of the range to Little Akaloa. Okain'e and Lβ Bond Biy. Before, however, he retired from his position of Surveyor and Clerk, by grants in aid from the Old Provincial Council and the system of subsidising rates, he saw, if not first-clasp, at k->iet good practicable roads extended over :ho whole of liis diss trict. When the Lβ Bon'a Bay part of the district hived o2 from the Okain'a part he retired from the position he had so long occupied, and has eince lived in comparative seclusion in Okain's Bay. Mr Wright possessed a flow of that dry Scotch humour which ia characteristic of some of his countrymen, a keen contraveiHonalibt, ever ready with tongue or pen, well road, and a wnrm friend to hit) friends. His life, from what we hftvo heard him say, was not altogether a bed of roses. Now he rests from \m labours, peace to his ashes. He leaves a widow and a fairily of four daughtiw, all married in the Colony, ond two cone.