OBITUARY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1198, 15 February 1895, Page 14

OBITUARY.

S JOHN CIIANTREY HARRIS. S [1830—1895.] All who knew Mr Harris, who died at, Milton, Otago, on Tuesday night after aj painful and lingering illness, will regret' the passing away, in his 65th year, of am upright, kindly-hearted and energetic man, well-known in Wellington, and, by his newspaper connection, in other parts of New Zealand. Mr Harris was born in Bath, England, in October, 1830. His father, who was the owner of considerable property, was by profession a sculptor, and had been a favourite pupil and intimate friend of Sir Francis Cliantrey, after whom the subject of this notioe was named. Mr Harris at an early age imbibed a passion for the sea, and at 13 years old determined to seek his fortune as a sailor, and entered himself as an apprentice on a West India trader, continuing in that service for several years. In 1851 his ship was wrecked at the Cape of Good Hope, and in the beginning of 1852 he joined, as chief officer at Capetown, the barque! Gwalior, bound for New Zealand with pas-J sengers and cargo. On this voyage he ex-S perienced no little trouble, the captain and I second mate having drunk themselves into! a state of delirium tremens, the captain! putting the passengers into a state of con-1 tinual alarm, and driving the crew to the! verge of mutiny. The ship was in danger.! and, on the earnest solicitation of thel passengers, Mr Harris took charge and placed! the captain and second mate in irons.! One of the passengers, the late Mr Hirst,! of New Plymouth, told the writer of these! lines many years ago that but for the fear-1 less energy, and promptitude, and seaman-J ship of Mr Harris, and his management of! the crew, he believed the vessel would! never have reached NeW Zealand. Refer-J ence to a file of the Auckland New Zea- 1 lander of that time (June 19, 1852)1 testifies to the anxiety about the missing! barque, and narrates that H.M. brigantine! Pandora had gone in search of the! G walior, but had passed her in the night I on her way to Auckland, which she! reached, having had the captain seventeen days in irons. It mentioned also that he had attempted to stab the chief mate. After this episode, Mr Harris took charge [of the first cOlonial-built steamer, the Governor Wynyard, Avhich he took to Melbourne, and ran on the Yarra until, like many more, he was seized with the gold fever, and started for Forest Creek. Then followed twelve years of gold mining, with its manifold vicissitudes and varying fortunes ; and then Mr Harris settled down to journalism. For many years, when the Thames was in its golden gloiy, he was mining correspondent for the Auckland Daily Southern Cross, and did good and faithful service to that journal and the! public by honest reports, supplied at a I time when occasional bulls and bears were! not over scrupulous in their manipulations! of the mining market. Subsequently Mrj Harris became connected with the Otagol Daily Times, and was commissioned, in! 1878, by the Union Steam Ship Com-1 pany to visit and describe the Hot Lake dis-J trict of the North Island ; the result being! the publication of one of the first of the! efficient guide-books to that wonderful! region, the attractions of which Mr Harris! very graphically described with that ready! flow of language which characterised hisl pen. I

After being for a year or two connected! with the Invercargill Times, Mr Harris,! through the intervention of Mr Bain, of! Invercargill, became proprietor and pub-j Usher of the Hew Zealand Times andj New Zealand Mail, which he owned andl managed from 1880 till 1890, when the! property was purchased by'Captain Bald-1 win, who in his turn disposed of it to itsj present owners in 1892. | Mr Harris after this lost considerably infi a mining speculation in Puhipuhi, A.uck-1 Land, where great expectations of rich! returns of silver utterly failed of and some two years ago he invested the| remainder of his capital in the purchase ofg the iruce Herald, which he continued tog edit and manage until his health failed® about three months ago. He had met with! a bicycle accident, and dilatation of the! heart followed, to which after much suffer-! ing he succumbed as above narrated. He| leaves a widow and a son and daughter,! the former of whom just arrived from! West Australia the day his father died. | Perhaps it may be said that an over-| sanguine temperament and a too generous! belief in the betterment of human troubles | by means of printer’s ink rendered our| deceased friend, notwithstanding his in-i dustry and working power, somewhat too| credulous in the matter of what could| successfully prove the means of effecting! necessary social reforms. But all whoa knew him will bear witness that honesty! of purpose, straight dealing and uprights manliness of life marked his conduct alike! in private and in public. And those whoi were most intimately acquainted with himS (and not least the staff of the Times and Mail, of whom he was a generous and! considerate employer) will mourn the de-j parture of a true friend. > Mr Hands some time since expressed aj desire to be buried in Wellington in Bolton street cemetery, where one of his daughters was interred, and arrangements have been made for carrying out his wish. The body will arrive by the Monowai on Saturday morning, and the funeral will take place; from Mr Luekie’s house in Sydney street, at a time of which duo notice will be given.

; the coast. He had lived at Patea for ■about 12 years. Of the deceased, Tues- > day’s Masterton Times says : —“ He was an .educated man of the highest character and probity, and in earlier days' took his share of public work in this toWn arid ffistiidfc; He was one whom high and low, rich aha poor, held in the highest estimation and regard, and when he left his old residence at Lansdowne it was generally felt that the district had sustained an irreparable loss.”

DR R S. POOLE

London, February 10. The death is announced of Dr Reginald S. Poole, Yates Professor of Archueology at the University of London. [Professor Poole, who was born in London, was educated privately in Egypt. He was appointed assistant in the Department of Antiquities in the British Museum in 1852, and in 1889 became Yates Professor of Arch eeology at London University. He was a noted antiquarian.]