OBITUARY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVII, Issue 12856, 1 July 1902, Page 6

OBITUARY.

AN AUSTRALIAN POET. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. BRISBANE, June 30. The death is announced of James Brunton Stephens,, the poet, from angina pectoris, aged sixty-seven. (James Brunton Stephens was born in Linlithgowshire in 1835, and emigrated to Queensland in 1866. At the time of his deatli he was chief clerk in the Chief Secretary's Department of that State. His publications include :—“ Convict Once, and other Poems,” “The Godolphin Arabian,” a poem. “ A Hundred Pounds,” a. novelette, “Fayette,” a comic opera, and “Fulfilment.” a poem on the inauguration of the Australian Commonwealth, dedicated to Queen Victoria..) CANON COTTEEILL. The Rev Canon Cotterill, who died at eleven o'clock yesterday morning, was eighty-seven years of age, having been born in 1315 in Norfolk, England. He studied at St John's- College, Cambridge, and secured his B.A. degree in 1837. A year later he was created a deacon, and in 1859 he was ordained a priest. From 1859 to 1848 he was vicar at Earlham, Norwich, and curate of Colney. Coming out to this colony in 1851, he was appointed an officiating minister of the diocese of Christchurch in the same year. . He was first of all stationed at Lyttelton. Later on he went to Sumner, building a residence at the foot of the hill, near the end of the Valley, close to where the Deaf and Dumb Institute is Situated. The old house, with the readymade panel walls brought out from England. is still standing, though it has been added to, papered and repaired almost out of recognition. Close to the house there stfil flourishes a splendid cedar of Lebanon, planted by the lata Canon in the year of his arrival in the colony. It, too, wa-s brought all the way from Home to remind the pioneers of friends left behind. Later on Canon Cotterill shifted his place of residence to the Ferry Road, he having been appointed vicar of Lower Heathcote in 1859, a position which he retained until 1860. In 1851 he was appointed Diocesan Secretary to Christchurch, and came to live in this city. Hs occupied that position for a number of years, and was also treasurer of the Cathedral between 1881 and 1899. On coining to Christchurch, he was appointed second master cf Christ's College, being under Dean Jacobs and Mr Broughton, and, prior to the appointment of Archdeacon Harris, he was acting headmaster. About 1870 he relinquished his position in the school, and took up his residence in Cashel Street west, where he has resided ever since. He leaves a widow and seven sons and six daughters, namely, Mr A. J. Cotterill, of Napier; Mr H. Cotterill, of Messrs Duncan and Cotterill, Christchurch; Mr E. J. Cotterill, of the Union Bank ; 31 r W. G. Cotterill, ot Messrs Harman and Stevens; Mr W. J. Cotterill, manager for the New Zealand Shipping Company at Timaru; Mr C. N. Cotterill, of the Bank of New South Wales, and Mr L. E. Cotterill, of Napier. The daughters are—Mis:; G. Cotterill, Mrs Bridges, Aliases E. R., IV. H. and M. E. Cotterill, and Sister Dora, a Deaconess of the Church. The funeral will- leave for St Michael's Church at 2 p.m. to-morrow, and thence will proceed to the Barbadoes Street Gemeterv.