OBITUARY.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14513, 20 December 1912, Page 8

OBITUARY.

MR J. M. RITCHIE.

(srBCIAIi TO " THH PRESS.")

DUNEDIN, December 19. c Mr J. M. Ruciiie, who died this morning, was born in Scotland in 1842, and some twenty, three yta.rs later met Mr Gtorge Gray Russell in London, where v arrangements were made that the two should commence business in Otago as general merchants, import, rs, and agents for a number of synd cates that had bought land in New Zealand. Mr Ritchie arrived by the sh:p Aboukir in 186-5, and the firm of Rmsell, Ritchie and Co. was forthwith founded. In 1873 Mr Russell went to England and opened th* , firm's London house, and tVre?»ftpr Mr RitrMp took charge of the colonial end of the business. Four years later, after n:gotiation with the Nafoml Mortgage and Agency Company of New Zealand, Messrs Russell, R+chie and Co. merged . i"to that conce-n, an 1 for many years Mr Ritchie ha» been tho general manager in the colon : es. As a citizen of Ihinedm he cid excelent service as Pve.ident of the Chamber of Commerce from 1839 to 1891, and as a member of the Harbour Board, but for many years p ho had severed h : msplf from pubic Ife and devoted iiis energy to the numerous mercantile interests with which ho wns identified, such for example, aa the Un : on Steam Ship Company, of which he was a director; the National Insurance Company, and the Truvt-^s , . Execiit rs' and Agency Company. Mr Ritchie leaves a widow, a daughter, and six sons.

MR JOHN DA VIES ENYS,

Mr John Davies Enys, who died in Leeds on November Bth, at a nursing home where ho had undergone an operation, was a resident of Canterbury in tho 'sixties. At that time, with his brothor, he was the owner of Castle Hill station and two. other large properties on the West Coast road. While here he was a prominent and enthusiastic member of the Philosophical Institute, and cave great assistance to New Zealand geologists and biologists, especially to Captain Hutton and Messrs T. Kirk and T. K. Cheeseman. Mr Enys discovered a number of new plants in the neighbourhood of Castle Hill, perhaps tho chiefest of his discoveries being some specimens of European moon wort (Botrychium lunnria), the finding of which in that isolated locality showed that the plant was truly indigenous though absolutely identical with the European form. Mr Enys has to his credit three or four papers in the "Transactions" of the Institute. Mr Enys was a Cornishman, educated at Heston, and returned to England in succession to his eldest brother 'in tho estate of "Enys" in Penrhyn, Cornwall, the scat of the'fa'tnilv* since the time of Edward I. There Mr Enys had a very fine collection'of New Zealand plants, including a number of beeches, brought, it is bolievod from the Wnimakariri. Despite the very long time he had been away from here, he maintained great inteVest in tho country. and erttertained many who wont Home. Mr Enys was 75" years old.