THE LATE WALTER BELL.

Evening Star, Issue 7446, 15 February 1888, Page 3

THE LATE WALTER BELL.

News reached here yesterday announcing the death of Mr Walter Bell, a gentleman whose name is well known in connection with the early days of this City. The deceased gentlemau arrived here from Victoria in 18(51, and, like the majority of Victorians who came over here at that time, having a keen eye to business, was not long in starting the late wellImwn firm of Bell, Rae, and Co. as saw-millers and timber merchants in Princes street south (and later on as Walter Bell and Co.), and which now bears the name of the Dunedin Iron and Wood ware Company. Some time before leaving Dunedin Mr Bell retired from the timber t a le, and took up contracting—andhere he will again 1 e -emembered in connection with works of large dimensions, having constructed the well-known wool stores of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company at the foot of Rattray street, the Princess Theatre, and others ; and also having laid the rails of the first section of our Southern Trunk Railway—viz., Dunedin to Abbotsford. Some years ago the deceased gentleman left here for New South Walec, where he still continued to follow the profession his mental abilities so well fitted him for. He was not long in Sydney before tenders were called for the construction of new wool stores for Messrs Goldsborough and Co., a structure the flooring of which covers five acres of ground, and is by far the largest of its kind in the Australian colonies. Mr Bell's tender was accepted, and the way in which he and others engaged in that large building faithfully pei formed their task was amply recognised in the columns of the Sydney Press on its opening. He also constructed a large retainiug-wall at Circular Quay and other large works in that Colony. A short time ago the deceased gentleman caught a cold, which settled on his lungs, ultimately teiminating in his death, which took place on the 4th of the present month. Deceased was a widower, his wife having died about two years ago, but leaves behind him a large family of sons and daughters to mourn their loss.