DEATH OF THE HON. VINCENT PYKE.

Clutha Leader, Volume XX, Issue 1036, 8 June 1894, Page 3

DEATH OF THE HON. VINCENT PYKE.

The Hon. Vincent Pyke, M.H.R., died at Lawrence on Monday morning. The deceased was born at Somersetshire, England, in 1827, and came out to South Australia in 1851. On arriving in Gulf St. Vincent Mr Pyke learned from the pilot that gold had been discovered in JJNew South Wales and Victoria, From Adelade he went on to Victoria, donned the blue shirt, and tramped to Mount Alexander — better known as Forest Creek. At Fryer Creek, Bendigo, and elsewhere he worked as a gold miner for about two years, with varying success. In 1863 Mr Pyke gave up mining and began storekeeping at Montgomery Hill, Forest Creek, in the Castlemaine district. On several occasions he took a leading part in local public affairs. He was deputed by the miners to interview the Governor, Sir Charles Hotham, on the subject of the Gold Commissioner's regulations. The men with j whom he became thus connected were so pleased with the result that when the Governor pxtended the power of electing representatives for the goldfields they carried him shoulder high to a public meeting and compelled him to stand for the district. In 1855 he was elected to represent the Mount AlexanderGoldfields in the old semi-nominee Legislative Council. Mr Pyke may be regarded as one of the fathers of the ballot, then adopted for the first time in British dominions, the Bill being carried in the teeth of a hostile nominee Government by a majority of eight, the exact number of the special members for the goldfields. He was again elected in 1856 for Castlemaine as a member of the Legislative Assembly under the new Constitution ; and in 1857 he was appointed emigration agent in England in conjunction with Mr (now the Right Hon.) Hugh C. E. Childers, and went Home accordingly. In 1857-58 Mr Pyke remained in England, and during the. time delivered some lectures on the balloc at the request of the Ballot Society. At the end of 1858 he returned to Victoria, and was appointed warden and magistrate at Sandhurst (Bendigo), which office he held about 18 months. He then resigned, again stood for Castlemaine, was elected, and at the fall of the O'Shannasy Ministry was appointed Commissioner of Trade and Customs. He afterwards held the offices of Commissioner of Public Works and President of the Board of Land and Works. As chairman of the Board of Science, he had charge of mining aftairs ; in this capacity he sent out the prospecting expeditions headed by Alfred Howitt and others, which resulted in the discovery of the Gippsland and contiguous goldfields. Mr Pyke from first to last was elected seven times for Castlemaine, three times owing to the acceptance of new offices, and once with a clear majority of 1,100 votes. He was a colleague of the Hon. James Service. In 1862, being still a member of the Victorian Parliament, he visited Otago in search of health, and to inspect the goldfields at Tuapeka. Whilst in Dunedin he was offered the office of head of the Goldfields Department by the Otago Provincial Government. He accepted the offer, and was commissioned to organise the department, and to prepare regulations for its guidance and working. The whole basis of the goldfields legislation of New Zealand may almost be said to be due to Mr Pyke. He framed all the original regulations, which are still the groundwork of mining law ; and in 1866 he drafted the Goldfields Act, which many assert has not been improved upon by the Mines Act of 1877. He Tas also the author in Victoria of the Limited Liability Act, which had been adopted in New Zealand. He held the office of Secretary of Goldfields until 1867, when it was abolished in consequence of a dispute between the Colonial and Provincial Governments as to the granting of the delegated powers under the Goldfields Act to the Superintendent of Otago. He was then appointed warden and resident magistrate of the Dunstan district, nnd subsequently of Tuapeka. In 1873 he resigned these offices, and again began parliamentary life as member for Wakatipu, after r, ', hard-fought contest against four local candidates In 1875 he was returned for the Dunstan district, which he represented until the absorption of the larger part of that electorate in that of Mount Ida, and at the general election of 1890 ho contested the latter seat against Mr Scobie Mackenzie, by whom he was defeated. At the last general election he was returned for Tuapeka by a large majority, those portions of the new electorate which had formerly belonged to the Dunstan polling very heavily for its former representative. Mr Pyke, bssides being a politician of Australian fame, was a man of conside, able literary attainments. His novel * Wild Will Enderby,' written for his own journal the Southern Mercury, and afterwards published in book form, was well received by the reading public and very favorably received by the critics. He also wrote niany handbooks on local and county government, mining law, etc., and besides being a frequent contributor to the leading columns of several colonial newspapers, himself edited many papers during his colonial career, and was proprietor and editor of Dunedin

Punch in the back end of the sixties A staunch freetrader, he always raised his voice and used his pen against placing fetters on intercolonial trad?, and for his services in the cause of commercial freedom he was elected an honorary member of the Cobden Club. He is entitled to the honor of having been the first to explore and discover a practicable route between the Lakes and the West Coast via the Hollyford River. Necessarily no man in the Colony had a better acquaintance with mining law or with mining in its various phases, and there can be no question that had his manifold services to I the State received proper recognition he would years ago have been c called ' to the Upper House as the direct; representative of the mining interest in that Chamher. But he never was a party man in the sense in which that term is now employed, and it was because he always refused to blindly obey the crackings of the party whip that he more than once missed his opportunity of attaining Ministerial rank in this Colony. He was ever a good debater, and in his younger day ranked among the best platform speakers in the colonies. He had very bad health for some time, and the roughness of the weather during recent campaigns, the fatigue of which was , too much for him, aggravated the disease (Bright's) which ultimately carried him off". There was plenty of humor in genial Vincent's composition, and in almost his last hours, when the hand of Death was strong upon him, he could not forbear from cracking his little joke. • How are you, Pyke V was the inquiry on Saturday of an old friend who had fought many a hard political battle as his ally, as well as ( ncountered his opposition on the floor of the. Assembly, but for whom he always entertained the highest feelings of regard. From the bed of the sick man came the reply in quite a cheery voice : ' All I have to complain of is shortness of breath, which has carried off many a good man.' Though the hon. gentleman's state of health had for some weeks been such as to occasion the gravest anxiety to his family and friends, and to forbid the hope of him being able to take his seat in the House, none of those in attendance on him thought the end was so near. He passed away at 9.15 on Monday morning. He leaves a widow, four sons (the eldest of whom is a bank manager at Gore and another proprietor of the Dunstan Times), and one daughter (the wife of Mr L. D. Macgeorge, engineer o£ Vincent County).