OBITUARY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 9512, 7 September 1891, Page 2

OBITUARY.

CAPTAIN H. H. EADDON.

Quite a gloom spread over the township of Papanui on August 11, when it became known that Captain H. H. Baddon had succumbed to an attack of inflammation of the lungs which had confined him to his bed for some few days. So serious an ending was not anticipated, the captain having all the advantages of a robust constitution. He had been most assiduously attended in his illness by Dr Brittin, and nothing that could be done had been neglected. Captain Baddon was brought tip to a seafaring life, his father, who is living at Timaru, having been a sea captain before him. At a very early age he entered Mr C. W, Turner’s merchant service, in which he remained till about five years ago, when, having married, he elected to remain ashore. Being smart and active, he rose to the position of master in a very short {time, and, being always reliable and j intelligent, soon became the most j popular captain of Mr Turner’s fleet, iHe will be long remembered in the ! Mauritius and Calcutta trade as the master of the Bio Loge, Thurso, Cingalese and | other vessels. When his intention of rej raaining ashore became known his principals were not wanting in their expressions of regret at losing him. He then established himself in Victoria street; but was tempted some three or four years ago to purchase Mr E. A, Lock’s business in Papanui, which he has conducted ever since. In social matters Captain Baddon was a great favourite, as he was always ready to assist any movement for the benefit of the community. He was an active worker in aid of the Church, and his colleagues on the vestry of St Paul’s will feel his loss very acutely. His widow is a daughter of Mr W. Jackson, senr,, and has one child; another one having died only recently.

AUCKLAND, August 25. This morning the Eov Alexander Keid, the oldest living missionary in the Wesleyan Church of New Zealand, died at Three Kings College, aged seventy. The Eev Alexander Eeid, who joined the British Conference in 184>S, was one of the hirst missionaries sent by that body to the New Zealand field. Arriving at Auckland in 1849, for nine years he occupied the position of Principal to the Three Kings Native College. In 1858 he took up missionary work in the Waipa district, and no man in New Zealand has ever won greater confidence and affection from the Maoris than was reposed in him. To this day his name among the Maori chiefs, with whom he was familiar, is one to conjure with. The writer well remembers how, at a large gathering of Maori leaders under the renowned Eewi Maniapoto, when strictures severe and numerous were being passed upon some, the mention of Mr Ecid’s name at once elicited the strongest i expressions of admiration and confidence | from chief after chief. Prom 1864 to 1882 Mr Eeid did the work of an ordinary minister occupying the chief circuits in New Zealand Methodism, and received every mark of esteem from his brethren that it was in their power to bestow. He was Secretary of the New Zealand Conference in 1874 and 1875; President of the Conference in 1876; and representative to the (Ecumenical Conference held in London in 1881. He twice held the pastorate of the Durham street church—from 1867 to 1870 and again from 1879 to 1882. Of his ability as a preacher and platform speaker it is impossible to speak too highly. During his term of office in Durham street that large church. Sabbath after Sabbath, was crowded to the doors, and the late Dr Gervaise Smith, when visiting this country, as the representative of the British Con- j ference, expressed his conviction that Mr Eeid would hold his own with any I

r , 4 speaker he had ever heard in the Old Land He was, in the truest sense of the word, an orator; and, more than that, ho was every inch a man, broad and catholic in his sympathies. Fearless in his denunciation of ovil wherever he forma it, and scathing in his sarcasm or all that was potty,, mean and ignoble, Mr Reid never had to complain of a paucity of men in his congregation. A Christian who judged his civic and political rights among his dearest privileges, he strove to fib men for heaven l>y teaching them to make a heaven of earth. He ever identified himself closely wit h the cause of education, was an ardent advocate of temperance, and to the last the missionary enthusiasm was as a fire in his bones. Daring; the past sis years he has held his .old' position as principal of <ihe Three Kings College, Auckland, and hits sudden decease will he not only a blow to the Methodist Church, but a loss to the whole country.