The Late Colonel North.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 156, 4 July 1896, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Late Colonel North.

Mr Edward Bellhousb writes :—I always read the notes of your London correspondent with great interest, but in his reminiscences of the late Colonel North in last Saturday's Star he is very much ab fault, of course unwittingly to. We are therein told thab he waa the son of a Leeds coal miner, who raised himself to the position of coal merchant. Also that ho 'emigrated as a superior sort of navvy ab the ago of 25.' Now, id was the late Colonel's grandfather who waa a coal merchant in Leeds and there mast be many paopleinNew Zealand whoremember seeing 40 or 50 years ago, the ponderous two-horse carts, containing two tons of coal, of old John North. Col. North's father was, I believe, a pablicnn in l^eede, >•■ '■ ■ died when his son wao in his teens. Hid mother subsequently kepb a wayside inn about two miles from Leeds. Young North received a good education for his position in life and one befitting the eon of substantial people of the humble middle class. He was apprenticed to the eminent engineering firm of Kiteon and Co,, and after that was in the employ of Fowler and Co., famous for their steam ploughs and traction engines, both firms of world-widereputation. Youner North was sent by the latter firm to Chili to superintend the working of some traction engines, or something of thab sorb. Not long after his arrival there, he severed his connection with that firm, and entered into enterprises which made htm a very wealthy man. I was slightly acquainted with him, and I remember seeing him some 30 years ago standing ab the door of his mother's publichouse. We nodded to each other, and 1 have nevor.seen him since, and I wao very much surprised when I learnt that Colonel J. T. North, so much cabled and written nbouh, was my quondam acquaint)ance, John Thomas North. lam bound to say fchab he was a rery genial, good-natured young fellow, though I don't think he had formed a very loftyideal of life. Itwasa very graceful act of his to purchase and present to the Corporation of Leeds Kirkaball Abbey and grounds, in trust for the people of his native town, which he did about two years ago. At the last general election he stood in the Tory interesb for West Leeds, opposing Mr Herbert Gladstone, bub was unsuccessful. He swilled the constituency with drink, had Tom Sayers and other members ot the fisby ring to help him in bis canvass. Socially and politically, he left a very slimy track behind him on his retreat from the fight. He derived his military title from the fact of his being the Colonel of one of the Metropolitan regiments of volunteers.