OBITUARY.

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 April 1908, Page 4

OBITUARY.

[per press association.] MR ROUS-MARTEN. [l'Ell PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPVRIOIIT ] LONDON, April 21. Mr Rons-Marten a Now Zealand journalist, died of heart failure suddenly.

Mr Rous-Martcn will he well and favorably remembered in New Zealand as a. prominent journalist, though it is now some sixteen or seventeen years ago since lie left boro to take up the duties of correspondent in London for the Now Zealand Herald, Evening Host, Christchurch Press, and Otago Daily Times. He formerly edited (ho New Zealand Times atWol lington under (he proprietorship of the late Mr C. Harris and Captain Baldwin, and did yeoman service for these gentlemen. On one occasion lie was reported by the Press Association as being “(lie latest victim lo typhoid fever” then very prevalent in Wellington. On the receipt of this wire the editor of (ho Christchurch Star published a sympathetic but highly fulsome obituary notice which was circulated in a limited number of copies of the paper. The late Hon. W. Reeves, proprietor of the paper, caused the circulation of the paper to ho slopped and the paragraph withdrawn while further information was obtained. This proved that Air Marten was convalescent and the paragraph was removed from the forme. His many friends however sent him copies of the paper containing the notice which ho appreciated very much and at social functions used to say it was a bolter notice than lie expected anyone to write of him in the future. He was a sterling writer and a thoroughly genial comrade. MR E. DOBSON. A WEST COAST PIONEER.

The Christchurch Press publishes the following very interesting account of the late Mr E. Dobson’s early pioneering cfforts in the cause of opening up communication between Canterbury and the West Coast With the removal by death of Mr Edward Dobson, C.E., there has passed away a man of remarkable energy. From 1256 to 1868 in shaping the public works of Canterbury bo was indeed a man of strenuous action, and it was really due to the work of Mr Dobson that the East Coast was linked- up with the Wess Coast. In September, 1857, it is recorded that a discovery had been made by Mr Dobson, provincial engineer, in the preceding few weeks which added wonderfully to the knowledge of the geography of Canterbury. A Maori path bad been believed to exist from East to West by the gorge of (ho Hnrunni at Mount Noble, at what was then Air Mason’s station, Waitohi. A certain precipitous gully in Ibe river gorge which the Maoris it was found crossed with ladders of tree vines and llax ropes was pointed out to Mr Dobson, and with Air Mason, Air Taylor, and Air Dumpier,, and a shepherd, in order to discover a track to the West Coast country that might be passable by horses, they attacked tin’s gully with spades and picks, and in a few days, under the late Air Dobson’s direction, a track was cut by winch horses could ho led through, and the party, pressing its way up the Hnrunui gorge above tlic river level, came out on some flat land superior to their anticipations in many respects, 'file main branch of the Hnrtmni flowed slowly through it. and on all its streams were lakes, of which Air Dobson drew several sketches showing them to he very beautiful reaches of water. The head waters of the Hnrunui were reached for the first time. Air Dobson was not content with exploring tho country, lint pro ceeded to lay out a road through it, and this eight years later became the first road to Iho West Coast, for the diggers who made the rush to the Coast goldfields which in one year produced a return of such a huge amount of gold. The whole available 60.000 acres of land reform! to as discovered at the head of I ho Hnrunni were taken up in a few weeks for a sheep run. A local paper, commenting on the matter, said:—“When we consider the facts now determined—that the island instead of being longitudinally divided by a back-bono range of snowy mountains is traversed by a road, going nowhere higher than 1600 ft above higliwater mark, that this road opens Hie West Coast to us and passes through country which, instead of being rock and snow, is a smiling and beautiful valley, with almost every canabililv for use, that abundance of timber is a Horded to the destitute plains of the Hnrunui, and that there is an extensive territory here added to our province, wo have surely said enough to show the importance of the discovery. It is almost too exciting to he told that the protruding rock in the neighbourhood described is abounding in quartz indicates Iho more than probable presence of gold.”

Later years found Air Dobson a busy man with Lyttelton wharfage for the

“safe and commodious berthing of vessels likely to frequent the port,” preparing plans for the breakwater, attending to the Christchurch and Lyttelton railway and tunnel works, with occasional visits *o the Waimakariri, and the points of the river from which inundations of the embryo city of Christchurch were threatened. Ill’s services weie in request throughout the provincial district wherever a public work bad to lie begun, whether on the North Road or on the Great South (load. The reports and maps show the immense physical exertion and engineering skill displayed by one of the most prominent of the pioneer engineering staff. In Id A 3 lie accompanied (he late Sir John Hall part of the lime in a snow storm- laving out a road through the Otira and putting the gangs of men to work in order to assist the constant stream of gold diggers on their way into Westland, and the late Sir John Hall in no measured terms expressed his sense of (he valuable work and advice given by Mr Dobson on that occasion. a