OBITUARY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIX, Issue 6874, 12 March 1883, Page 5

OBITUARY.

Yet another of the old identities has passed away. Many a reader will regret to learn that Mr William Chaney, known by repute to almost everybody here, died at one o’clock on Saturday. Mr Chaney was bom at Rochester on July 16, 1803, and was therefore nearly four score years of age. He was apprenticed as a stonemason to his brother, S. Chaney, and on completing the terms of his indenture was employed at King’s College, London. Thence he went to Canterbury Cathedral, where he had the task of restoring the shrine of Thomas A’Beckett, and he remained permanently at work at the Cathedral for a period of eighteen and a-half yean, holding throughout the honourable position of foreman. On the formation pf (ho Canterbury Association, Chaney was interviewed by Mr Wakefield, and was offered the position of foreman for building the Christchurch Cathedral. The offer was accepted, and Chaney, with his wife, throe sons and a daughter, embarked on board the Randolph. Another son was born daring the voyage, and another daughter was subsequently born at Lyttelton, Chaney was the only stonemason amongst the "pilgrims,” and he was not permitted to leave England without efforts being made to retain his services at Canterbury, where he had witnessed the completion of the northwestern tower: indeed the Bishop of Oxford expressed his readiness to provide for bis return from New Zealand if, after trial of hie new conditions, he found them unwelcome. Curiously enough, although Chaney was specially brought out by a Church Association, and for the special purpose of being engaged in (he building of a Cathedral, ha never did but one piece of ecclesiastic*! work hero: he carved a fort, and presented it to Trinity Church, Lyttelton. Hie first work as a stonemason in this Colony was In the contract which he secured for building the Lyttelton Gaol. This wee followed by reclaiming walls at Lyttelton and Sumner, a residence for Mr Rhodes at Rhodes’ Bay, the Bank of Now Zealand at Lyttelton,- a residence for Mr Miles (in red stone), and Hargreaves’ store. Much other work followed, hie last undertaking—as a stonemason—being the building of Foster’s bridge at Governor's Bay. in 1854 he purchased the now historic site known as Chaney's Corner, this being probably almost the last land bought from the Canterbury Association at £3 an acre. It may be added, as matter of interest, that although Chaney himself did not work at the Cathedral, bis eldest son was employed there during the earlier stages of the work. William Chaney, it will ham been gathered, has left not a few mementos of hie usefulness in the earlier days of Canterbury’s existence. He was a man who was universally rospooted, and his death will be widely regretted.