OBITUARY.

Lake County Press, Issue 2167, 2 May 1907, Page 5

OBITUARY.

; Death of Captain William Jackson Barry. The death is announced from Christchurch of Captain William Jackson Barry, an ex-Mayor Cromwell, whose recitals of his life-history on platform and through the press have earned for his memory a place in the history of Now Zealand celebrities. At the time of his death Captain Barry had reached the golden age of 88 years. He was born in England, at the village of Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, and according to the published narrative of his adventurous carreer, at the age of nine years he had visited nearly all the principal counties in England. At this juvenile he undertook a voyage round the world with Sir John Alcock in the Red Rovor, his fellow passengers for Sydney, New South Wales, being 250 peisons, the majority of whom were free immigrants. This vessel after an adventurous voyage, reached Sydney in January, 1829, where youn» Barry, not desiring to go to Buenos Ayres with his benefactor, and employer, ran away, and afterwards accepted employment with a friend of his father s in Sydney. Young Barry's impression of convict life in New South Wales, his prowess as a swimmer, adventures among the Australian blacks, and hairbreadth escapes in a multitude of other directions form sensational reading. At the age of 16 the deceased left his employment in &ew South Wales and joined a whaler, and after adventures in Victoria he and his companion who had ran away from the whaler were soized, placed in irons, and taken on a whaling cruise to Now Zealand. Another desertion from the whaler found Mr Barry again in Sydney, and he afterwards left for Melbourne. Visits to Now Zealand, the Malay Archipelago, Calcutta, and Adelaide, all punctuated with personal experiences of an exciting character, hll in a few more years of an adventurous career, and whaling cruises and exciting incidents form a further series of interesting chaDters in a life-story. Visits to Honolulu, Western Australia, California, and Sin Francisco, adventures with American Indians, and experiences of the Eureka Stockade follow, and other whalin" adventures and trading experiences fill in another part of a lifetime and ultimately New Zealand is reached. The deceased gentleman resided in Dunedin in the early days, and also visited Gabriel's. His experiences and adventures including a swim across the Clutha, gold prospecting, butchering at Cromwell", hotel-keeping at atrip to London, and return to *ew Z CaSain William Jackson Barry received bub 1 ttle education, but what he lacked iti this direction was made up by a strong nersonality and much self-confidence, close Evation, a kindly disposition good oral descriptive powers, and a stylo of writht which . V as peculiarly characteristic oiZwl ThenW to death will'

bo road with regret by many residents of the colony, and also by many in the Commonwealth, who were brought in contact with Mr Barry in Ins early and later years.—Daily Times.