DEATH OF HIS EXCELLENCY LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR PITT.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 575, 5 February 1851, Page 4

DEATH OF HIS EXCELLENCY LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR PITT.

[From the New Zealander, Jan. 11.] It is our melancholy duty to record the death of his Excellency Major-General George Dean Pitt, K.H., Lieutenant-Go-vernor of the Province of New Ulster, which took place at his residence in Frinces-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 reasonably 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-scoreyears 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 die 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 np. The colours of the ships in tbe port were also exhibited half-mast-high, as was, of course, the Union Jack at Fort Britomart. The funetal was fixed to take place at three o’clock on Thursday, according to a programme which also was published iu the Gazette Extraordinary. About that hour, amidst the firing of minute guns from Fort Britomart, tbe procession moved forward in the following order:— Firing Party, Composed of 58th Regiment, under the command of Lieut.-Col. Wynyard, C.B. Detachment Royal Sappers and Miners, by whom the Body was borne. Band. The Principal Medical Officer (Dr. Fox) Surgeon Thompson, 58th Regt. Assistant-Surgeon Philscn, 58th Regt. PALL BEARERS. PALL BEARERS. Surveyor-General Head Ordnance Dept. (C. W. Ligar, Esq.) (Wm. Plummer, Esq.) Barrack Master g Colonial Treasurer (Robert Lynd, E sq.) (Alex. Shepherd,E sq.) Colonial Secretary o Asst. Comm. Gen(Andw. Sinclair, Esq.) w (Philip Turner, Esq.) Brigade-Major ® Chief Justice (Capt. Greenwood.) (Wm. Martin, Esq.) Charger of his late Excellency. Chief Mourners: Captain George Dean Pitt, 80th Regt., Aid-de-Camp, eldest son of the deceased; Captain J. H. Laye, 58th Regt., Assistant Military Secretary; and Lieutenant Page, 58th Regt., his sons-in-law. Military Officers. Civilians— members of Government, civilians—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 crowds 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 or another, an interest in the melancholy occasion. At the entrance oi tbe burying ground, the body was met by the Rev. J. F. Churton, Colonial Chaplain and Chaplain to the troops by whom tbe sublime funeral service nf the Church of England was read. The remains were deposited in a grave near that oi 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 i n , thirteen minute guns were fired from fieldS p - Ught U , P fot the P ur P° s *- The 58th Regiment then fired three volhes, and

the filial military honours to this' having thus been completed, the proceedings terminated. 1 The first commission in the army borne by the deceased gallant Officer was dated June 4’ 1805; he became Lieutenant OH’ the sth' of,’ December in the same year,—Gaptain on the? ! 10th of August, 1809, —and' Major on113th of January, 1814. On the 18th of April, 1822, he was appointed to the Lieu. itenant-Colonelcy of the 80th Regiment. subsequent steps of promotion were l , a Colonelcy on'the 10th of January, 1837, and, the rank of Major-General on the 9th of November, 1846. The deceased had seen much service, having been engaged at the capture of the Danish West India Islands iu 1807, arid of Martinique in 1809. f[ e served also in the Peninsula frotn 1811 to 1814, and was engaged in the most memora. hie operations of those eventful years, includ. ing the battles of Albuera, Vittoria l , P am . peluna, and the Pyrenees, and also the seige 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-Governor, ship of this Province took place on the 14th of February, 1848, the Governor-in-Chief having appointed him to that office pursuant to the authority vested in him by the Charter of 1846. During the periods iu which, the Governor-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.