OBITUARY.

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 1482, 3 May 1911, Page 4

OBITUARY.

MR B. J. ,RTDT>IFORD. .-In recent issues of the Stae there have been intimations of the illness of Mr, E. J. Riddiford ; reputedly New Zealand's only millionaire, who is as well known in, the Feiiding district as in Wellington city or the Hutt Valley. It comes as a shock, therefore, to learn that Mr Riddiford passed away suddenly yesterday at his home in Longburn. Death ! was due to heart failure, and he was in: Ms 69tih year. Mr Riddiford was the son of the (fate Mr Daniel Riddiford, wiho arrived in Wellington by the ship Adelaide, one of the first three vessels to arrive, in 1839, bringing with him, in s(fections, the first house that was erected at Pipitea Point, Wellington. Mr E. J. Riddiford was ■born at the Lower Hutt in 1842, and wlaa the first child baptised by Bishop Selwyn in. New Zealand. He was educated ,in Wellington, and at Scotch College, in Melbourne, of which the father of the famous Pekin correspondent of the London Times (Dr. Morrison) ,was the principal. Mr Riddiford spent his life in-farming pursuits!,-and'was one of the ibest 3'udges of land, Sheep, and cattle in the Dominion. At Jfehe time of his death he owned many thousands of acres in various parts of the North' 'Island, including Te ■Awaite estate, celebrated for the famous red deer. Tthis estate, which ist <m the East,-Coast, beyond Cape Palliser, ■ comprises between 50,000 and 60,000 acres. His other estates include the Orongaronga estate (640 acres freehold and 7000 leasehold), Jhis fine property at Longburn, the Cheltenham estate, the beautiful Kawakawa matdve bush' near Feiiding, and 272 acres at Lower Hutt, oru ten 'acres of which liis) fine residence is located. ■ ... . In the early days Mr Riddiford took his share in defending tho Hutt settlement against itihe Maoris, acting >as lieutenant in the Militia under tihe late Colonel Gorton, and he was a member for some years of the Wairarapa. County Council. Mr Riddiford was married in 1879 to a daughter, of the 'late Mr Henry Bun,ny (for many years a : member of the House of Representatives), and he leaves a widow and , growm-up family of three sons (one soir predeceased ihim) and three daughters—Messrs Vivian, Darnel, and Eric Riddiford, and the two -Mises Riddiford, who reside at the/Hwtt, and Mrs say, who resides with her husbanc 1 (Captain Lindsay) in India. A nuin ber of *he relatives of deceased resido in tHie Manawatu and Feiiding districts, including his sister (Mrs Captain Hewitt),-his nieces (Mrs ForsterPratt, Mrs R. L. Leviea ; and Mrs Norman Gorton), and his nephews '(Mr Harold Cooper and Dr. Willis, of Feiiding).'