OBITUARY.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14324, 9 April 1912, Page 10

OBITUARY.

MR ISAAC-"WILSON.

Tho death of Mr Isaac Wilson, at Itratithholmc, Sumner, on Sunday, removes another old Canterbury resident, who arrived from Wray, Westmoreland, Kngland, about 1554. His family resided for several years in a slab hut at St. Albans, his brothers, Thomas and Edward, with himself, finding employment in the Papanui bush. When work tailed there the Wilsons moved on to Kaiapoi. over a then unbeaten track, and the brothers tor several years out with hand saws many thousands of feet of scantling and boards in the Maori bush. Mr Isaac Wilson next turned his attention to providing for the passenger traffic, first with an Australian car with a horse in tbe shafts and an outrigger, and next by a three-horse-coach. Leaving the road Mr Wilson turned his attention to grain threshing and Hour milling, and became a considerable purchaser of wheat for the English market. lie formed one of thirteen who took up the first Northern Company, when it was unable to carry ou lor lack of capital. in IS7S they subscribed a capital of i; 15.000, ami started it into a prosperous concern. He was chairman of the directorate to 1883, when the capital was further increased to £1(10.0110. and the number of hands employed had increased from twenty-seven to three hundred,.and the engine power was enlarged from '20 h.p. to 80 h.p. lie became connected with the local Road Hoards of Mandevillo and Rai:_iora and Eyreton in ISC.* 3 : he was for a time a councillor of the Kaiapoi Borough, and mainly instrumental in completing tho acquisition for that town and the Eyreton district of tho present public cemetery. In 1574 he defeated the member for tbe Provincial Council for Mandevillc. and helil the position for some time. In 187" he was one of the original members elected for the Ashley County, which never accepted its functions, as the majority of the Council resisted the introduction of a second local taxing power. In ISBI Mr Wilson (succeeded on the resignation oi" the Hon. ("now Sir Charles) Rowen. as member of the House of Representatives for Kaiapoi district, in defeating the Liberal candidate. Through ill-health, contracted while, the House was in session in Wellington, lie was brought home in a precarious condition, and the doctors gave up hope. Though hi« health returned he gave up business, and in 1898. having married his present wife, he visited England. Mr "Wilson wn« a staunch supporter of the Methodist Church, having done much to assist it financially at Kaiapoi and "Woodend. He took a fjrrcat interest in temperance matters, and had some experience of Licensing Committee work, being chairman of the Eyreton Committee when ono of the first hotels was closed, and of the Kaiapoi district when four hotels wero closed. He leaves a widow aiid family of young children.