OBITUARY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 107, 7 May 1909, Page 2

OBITUARY.

MR. D. M. LUCKIE. A very old colonist passed away yesterday evening in the parson oi Mr. D. M. Luckie, until recently Deputy Commissioner of the Government Insurance Department. In July last Mr. Luckie suffered a severe attack of inflammation of the lungs, and, although he made a good recovery, his strength, which up to that time had been exceptionally good, was sapped. Some months ago he had an attack of apoplexy ; on Wednesday night a similar seizure came on, and he never recovered consciousness. Mr. Luckie was eighty-one years of age. His career was interesting anJ varied. He was born in Montrose, Scotland, and after leaving school entered a mercantile establishment. Then he became a clerk in a law office, and an assistant assessor under the Property Tax Acts. Having a natural bent towards journalism, he became reporter on the John o' Groat's Journal, and later on editor of the Arbroath Guide. In 1863 he came to New Zealand as part-proprietor and editor of the Nelson Colonist. Even before his arrival in the cplony he had acquired a considerable knowledge' of its affairs, and his writings soon attracted considerable attention. He became a member of the Provincial Council, and was in 1872 returned to Parliament as member for Nelson, which seat he retained until 1875. Then, at the invitation of Sir Julius Vogel, Mr. Luckie became editor of the Southern Cross, Auckland, and in that capacity perpetrated the now almost forgotten "Kaskowiski" hoax, in which, to call attention to the defenceless state of the country, he wrote a circumstantial account of the capture of Auckland by a Russian warship. In 1Q76 the Southern Cross was amalgamated with the New Zealand Herald, and Mr. Luckie was editor of the combined papers until 1878, when he accepted the position of editor of the Evening Post. A year later he was appointed Government Insurance Commissioner by the late Mr. Ballance, and he held that position until 1885, when, on account of illness, he became physically unfit for the duties of the office, and accepted the position of Deputy Commissioner, from which he retired about a year since. Mr. Luckie was a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society of London. He always took a keen interest in journalism, was a frequent visitor to the Parliamentary Press Gallery, where he loved to sit anA recall incidents of the past, and was an honorary member of the New Zealand Institute of Journalists. Mr. Luckio leaves a widow and a family of four sons and two daughters. The jons are : Mr. Philip. Luckie, secretary of the Great Northern Brewery Company, Auckland ; Mr. Martin Luckie, solicitor, of Wellington ; Mr. W. J. Luckie, of Otira; and Mr. A. R. Luckie, of the Eastern Extension Company, now at Hong Kong. The daughters arc : Mrs. Ronafdson, wife of Mr. T. S. Ronaldson, Inspector for the Public Trust Office ; afKl Miss Luckie, of Wellington. The funeral will leave Mr. Luckie's late residence, 10, Halswell-street, at 10 o'clock to-morrow morning.