Death of His Excellency Lieutenant-Governor Pitt.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 495, 11 January 1851, Page 2

Death of His Excellency LieutenantGovernor Pitt.

It is our melancholy duty to record the death of His Excellency Major -General George Dean Pitt, K. H., Lieutenant -Governor of the Province of New Ulster, which took place at his residence in Princes-street at three o'clock on Wednesday morning last. For about two years past his health had been so broken down that the continuance of his life for any lengthened period could not leasonably have been anticipated; and when the final hour arrived, he expired without a struggle —having attained the period said to be allotted to human existence — " three -score years and ten " — and having had his declining days cheered by a solace especially sweet in a land so far away from that of his birth, the presence and anxious care of a numerous and affectionate-family circle. On the afternoon of Wednesday, a Government Gazette Extraordinary was issued, announcing the lamented event, and stating that in consequence of it, no business would be transacted at the Public Offices, and they •would remain closed until the remains of His Excellency should have been interred. The spirit of the direction thus given with regard to *the Public Offices, was spontaneously acted on —or rather anticipated — throughout the town, on most of the shop windows in which shutters were immediately put up. The colours of the ships in the port were also exhibited half-mast high, as was, of course, the Union Jack at Fort Britomart. The Funeral was fixed to take place at three o'clock on Thursday, according to a programme which also was published in the Gazette Extraordinary. About that hour, amidst the firing of minute guns from Fort Britomart, the procession moved forward in the following order :—: — Firing Party, Composed of 58th Regiment, under the command of Lieut.-Col. "Wynyard, C,B. DeUtchfflect Royal Sappers and Miners, by whom the Body was borne. Band. The Principal Medical Officer (Dr. Fox.) Surgeon Thompson, 58th Regt. Aisistant-Surgcon Philson, 58th Regt. FALL BCARHIIS< TM.h REARERS. Surveyor- General Head Ordinance Dept, (C. W. Ligar, Esq.) JB (Wm. Plummer, Esq ) Barrack Master flB Colonial Treasurer (Robert Lynd, Esq.) (Alex, Shepherd, Esq) Colonial Secretary Asst Cornm. General (Andw. Sinclair, Esq.)^^V (Philip Turner, Esq.) Brigade- Major V Chief Justice (Captain Greenwood.) *^ (Wm. Martin, Esq.) Charger of His late Excellency. Cmcr MounNcus : Captain George Dean Pitt, 80th Regt., Aid de-Camp, eldest son of the deceased ; Captain J. H. Laye, 58th Regt , Assistant Military Secretary; and Lieut. Page, 58th Regt., his sons-in-law. Military Officers. Civilians— Members of Government. CiviMans- Not members of Government. The number of attendants at the Funeral included in the last-named class, was very large indeed, extending for a long line of road; while, ciowds of spectators were gathered at those localities from which a view of the procession could best be obtained, so that it might seem as if Auckland had sent out almost its whole population to manifest, in one way ot another, an interest in the melancholy occasion. At the entrance of the Burying Ground, the Body was met by the Rev. J. F. Churton, Colonial Chaplain and Chaplain to the Troops, by whom the sublime Funeral Sr vv ''™ .of t&e

Church of England was read. The remains were deposited in a grave near that of Governor Hobson, in a plain black coffin, having no ornament beyond the simple plate on which was inscribed — Major-General George Dean Pitt, K. H. Died January Bth, 1851. Aged 70. While the grave was being filled in, thirteen minute guns were fired from field-pieces brought up for the purpose. The 58th Regiment then fired three vollies, and the final military honours to the deceased having thus been completed, the proceedings terminated. The first commission in the army borne by the deceased gallant Officer was dated June 4, 1805 ; he became Lieutenant on the sth of December in the same year, — Captain on the I Oth of August, 1809,— and Major on the 13th of January, 1814. On the 18th of April, 1822, he was appointed to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the 80th Regiment. His subsequent steps of promotion were, a Colonelcy on the 10th of January, 1837, and the rank of Major-General on the 9th of November, 1 846. The deceased had seen much service, having been engaged at the capture *of the Danish West India Islands in 1807, and of Martinique in 1809. He served also in the Peninsula from 1811 to 1814, and was engaged in the most memorable operations of those eventful years, including the battles of Albuhera, Vittoria, Pampeluna, and the Pyrenees, and also the siege of Badajoz. He was subsequently employed as one of the Inspecting Field Officers in Great Britain, and then appointed to the command in New Zealand. His entrance on the Lieutenant-Governorship of this Province took place on the 14th February, 1848, the Goveknor-in-Chief having appointed him to that office pnrsuant to ( the authority vested in him by the Charter of 1846. During the periods in which, the Govemor-in-Chief being absent, he wielded this authority, scarcely anything was called for beyond routine official acts, and few, if any, political associations are connected with his memory.