THE LATE SIR WILLIAM FITZHERBERT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8486, 10 February 1891, Page 5

THE LATE SIR WILLIAM FITZHERBERT.

INCIDENTS OF HIS EARLY LIFE. , [by telegraph.—own correspondent.] Wellington, Monday. The Times of this morning publishes an interesting memoir of the late Sir William Fitzherbert. The funeral will take place to-morrow in the Hubti cemetery. In the memoir referred to, which occupies a column and a half of small type, two interesting episodes in his life are told-— his rescue, when at Cambridge, of the late Hugh Carleton from a town and gown row; the other is the break up in Wellington of Sir William's first venture in his

schooner, the Lady Leigh. Both epi- j sodes are narrated with much graphic force, as follows The late Hugh Carleton ! whose contemporary he was used to tell a story in this connection which gives a better idea of young Fitzherbert's character and prowess than a volume of description. It happened in one of the famous " Town and Gown" battles. Mr. Carleton himself on that occasion had fallen into the hands of the enemy. Terribly mauled ho was. Some of his teeth were knocked down his throat, and as he lay on the ground with the enemy stamping on him and kicking him he gave himself up for lost. Young Fitzherbert at the critical moment saw the plight of his friend, rushed to the rescue, knocked down three roughs with three "shoulder" hits. He strode over the prostrate man, and kept the foe engaged single-handed , until a rescue party was got together and came to his relief. Mr. Carleton always said that he owed his life to his friend Fitzherbert's behaviour on that occasion. Amongst their contemporaries at Cambridge were Selwyn, afterwards Bishop of New Zoalaud, Perry, for many years Bishop of Melbourne." The other incident ,is thus described :— "In due time, no doubt a long time, the schooner reached Sydney, and thence stretched across to Wellington, landing her owner with his cargo of notions of various sorts. He very soon found out that realising was out of the question, so he made up his mind that he must stick to the colony—a resolution of considerable benefit to the colony it proved—and sent home for his wife and son. In Wellington ho commenced life as a merchant and auctioneer, and, gradually extending his operations, found himself engaged in the whaling fishery, with stations at Kapita and the Ameer (Bluff). The colony did not prosper in those days. Between difficult ties of land titles, and dangers of Maori hostility, and the discomforts of life on the fringes of the wilderness, and earthquakes, which gave a disagreeable ' tone' to the settlement, Wellington got into a bad way. The great earthquake of ISSO, which shook down his store, and killed his storeman, brought the affairs of Dr. Fitzherbert and his fellow-colonists of Port Nicholson to a climax. He made up his mind for another move—viz., to seek in New South Wales the fortune which New Zealand seemed , unable to offer him."