DEATH OF DR. FEATHERSTON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 243, 15 July 1876, Page 13

DEATH OF DR. FEATHERSTON.

The brief telegram received on Thursday evening will be read throughout the colony with the very deepest regret. Dr. Featherston, so long identified with the best interests of the colony—identified with them from the earliest days—is dead. The mark of respect which the House of Representatives showed on receipt of the telegram, is emblematical of that which the colony, from one end to the other, will desire to evince. It is impossible, at present, to do more than briefly notice Dr. Featherston's colonial career. He arrived here as surgeon of the ship Olympus soon after the foundation of the settlement, and those who were so fortunate as to be his fellow-passengers, have repeatedly manifested, and still entertain, the warmest friendship for him. In illustration, we recollect that during troublous political times a person expressed his sense of hardship in electors having to go a distance of nine miles to vote, but on his being asked whether personally he considered it a hardship to go that distance to serve Dr. Featherston, he exclaimed, with the utmost earnestness, that he would willingly go ninety, if be had to walk all the way barefoot. One oi the Doctor's earliest public acts was in contending with the New Zealand Company for the rights >f the original land purchasers; and having succeeded in gaining for them compensation for the long delays and serious losses to which they were subjected, the settlers marked their estimation of his efforts by presenting him with a silver tea service—probably the first presentation of the kind in the colony. When in about 1850 the Settlers' Constitutional Association was formed, he became one of its leading members, and both by his speeches and writings contributed largely to the success which culminated in the representative institutions granted to the colony in 1853; and when, under those representative institutions, ifc became the duty of the inhabitants of Wellington to elect a Superintendent, the Doctor's public career emphatically marked him as the most fitting person for that office. Pie was elected without opposition, and although afterwards opposed on more than one occasion, he continued therein until 1871, when he resigned in favor of the appointment of AgentGeneral in London.

During the same period Dr. Featherston sat in the House of Representatives, having been elected first for Wanganui and subsequently for the City of Wellington. His career in that House won for him the esteem of all parties ; for although he did not, from physical weakness, speak often, yet when he did speak his utterances were weighty, and were esteemed, too, with marked attention. His speech, in which he denounced the war of 1860 as " unjust and unholy" will long be held in remembrance, and was mainly instrumental inseeuring that influence among the natives which was afterwards used so wisely and with such good effect. This was conspicuously shown in the preservation of peace in this province, and in the celebrated inland march of General Chute to Taranaki, on which occasion, though illness scarcely permitted him to sit his horse, he accompanied the Native Contingent, who would not have pro«eeded without him. During hisl ©ng parliamentary career he was repeatedly offered office, but only accepted it —the Colonial Secretaryship—on one occasion for a few weeks, to enable the Ministry to tide over the session, preferring always to remain Superintendent of the province of Wellington. On several occasions he was sent on special missions to Australia and England, and was, without exception, eminently successful in ali of them.

While thus actively engaged in political life, he was always ready to join in efforts for social advancement. Among other institutions he was one of the originators of the savings bank and of the Mechanics' Institute in Wellington, taking in their progress a lively interest, and contributing to it by his personal efforts. Until he became Superintendent Dr. Featherston practised his profession; and to the date of his leaving the colony his professional services were constantly available to those who needed them. Thus, on one occasion, while returning home from the House of Representatives, a soldier's wife was taken in labor when crossing the Manukau bar, and hearing the cry, " Is there a doctor on board," he rendered in a moment all necessary assistance. Since Dr. Featherston's appointment in 1871 to the office of Agent-General, he has invariably justified the wisdom of the choice then made, by the rare ability he has shown in the discharge of the responsible, onerous, and delicate tasks that have been entrusted to him. His character as a gentleman and his value as a negotiator were admitted in the highest circles at Home, and procured for him the offer on one, if not on two occasions, of the honor of knighthood —an offer he did net see fit to accept. The honor he most coveted was the decoration of the New Zealand Cross, and although delay occurred in granting it to him, it is satisfactory to know that a few months since his wishes were gratified. We do not attempt to intrude on the sorrow which his family and personal friends must feel at the heavy loss they have sustained ; but we are sure that they will receive the truest sympathy from the very large circle who knew Doctor Featherston's rare and estimable qualities.

During the whole term of his residence in the colony Doctor Featherston suffered from constitutional weakness, having been in early life seriously threatened with consumption, to escape which he had twice previously visited Greecs and the South of Europe. Latterly the tidings received of his failing health led to anxious fears on his account, and when by the last mail the Government heard of his more than usual weakness, they lost no time in begging him to take a long leave of absence, in the hope that a few months rest would lead to his restoration —a hope which the telegram received yesterday has so sadly disappointed. We believe his age was about sixty-three, and that he was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne.