OBITUARY

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11409, 4 January 1923, Page 3

OBITUARY

I MR HUGH H. BEETHAM A WAIRARAPA PIONEER. INTERESTING CAREER.. tßy Telegraph.—Special to "Times.”) MASTERTON, January 3. Mr Hugh Horsley Beetham died at Brancepeth this afternoon, aged 81. He was born at Horncastle, Lincolnshire. He was the fourth son of William Beetham, of Primly Hill. Surrey (who came of a Westmoreland family), and of Mary, daughter of Philip Horsley, of Hull and Doncaster. He was educated privately and at the Woking Grammar School. He came to New Zealand with his father in 1855, and the family settled at the Hutt, but before long* made the first journey to Wairarapa by a' track round the coast! skirting Palliser Bay, Cape Palliser itself and along the Ba6t Coast to the mouth of the Whareama River. Here they turned over hills into the valley of Wainuioru and thence down to Brancepeth. The route across the RSmutafcas was unfit for stock. The father in 1856 took up 10,000 acres, and there the first family home, a toitoi whare, ‘ -as erected. This was shortly replaced by a whare of totara 10 feet by 20 feet, which is now a carpenter's shop. Eight or nine years after taking up Brancepeth Mr Hugh Horsley, with his elder brothers/ William ' and - George, and brother-in-law, T. C. Williams, founded the firm of Williams and Beetham, a number of properties on which they established the well-known Hereford and Shorthorn herds and Southdown and Romney and Lincoln flocks. For some years the partners did very well. In 1894 George retired from, the firm and went to Jive in England. The other partners dissolved the association in 1905, andJHugh retained the Brancepeth homestead and 16,400 acres. Mr Beetham was a sterling settler of a public spirited type. In 1868 he took a commission ‘in the mititia. At one time he was captain of a Masterton company. He was one of the 19 founders of the first Wairarapa Jockey Club, of which he was steward in 1868, and subsequently judge. Hie was a justice of the peace and a member of the licensing commission under the old Act. Mi Beeth'am’s life was almost wholly devoted to the agricultural and pastoral industry,-'and more than one movement, nbtably the Wellington Meat Export Co., had in him a warm champion. He was president of the Wellington A. and P. Society and Wairarapa P. and A Society, and for some time patron and president of the Masterton A. and P. Association. He was always held in the highest esteem throughout the district. Though never taking an active part in local government he never failed to speak tis mind fearlessly on' publio matters. He will he long remembered throughout the district for his personal kindness and unobtrusive generosity. Mr Beetham married: in 1879, Ruth, the third daughter of Mr C. D. Bldwill, and had a family of—two sons and two daughters (Messrs Ralph Beetham. Maeterton, Orengard Horsley Beetham, of Morland, Mrs ML BetheU, of Culverden, and Mrs Nicholls, Broglie,California). Of Mr Bebtham’s hrothers -and rasters, Mr Richmond Beetham', for many years a stipendiary magistrate, Mr Geo. Beetham, « member of Parliament from 1877 to 1890, Mr Joshua Beetham' (of Argentina), Mr. Norman Beetham, Mrs T. G. .Williams, and Mis Williams (Hawke's Bay) are all dead.. Mr W. H. Beetham (Masterton),- Mr Charles ' Beetham (Opaki), and. Mrs {J. A. Nfiteroy (Hawke's Bay) survive. MR JOHN, BARTON - General,-regret: Will he expressed at the news of the death, of Mr John Barten.'a well-krown resident of the Hutt : ' Valley, who was one of the few remaining links with the- pioneering days of New Zealand Mr Barton Was the first I white child bom in the Upper Hutt { district, his birthday being October, Bth, j 1860.'' He was a sou of,Mr Richard Bar- i .ton, of Isle of Wight, who came out in! the Oriental rnlß*(V'.ghd his mother was ’ a danghter of the Rev; John'Butler, the' first resident clergyman in New Zealand —from" 1819 to 1826—who returned to' the Colony’, in 1810 as an agent of the Nefw Zealand Land Company. Mr John Barton was educated as a lad at Mr Toomath's School at the Hutt, and at Nelson College. He left college in 1866, upon the-death of his father, and in the following year went to England to study civil engineering, specialising in drainage and waterworks. He returned to New Zealand in the early ’seventies, and joined the"Pr6vincial Government under Mr Brogden, who had come from England to cany out the public works policy of Sir Julius Vogel. After ’several years' surveying work in the Forty-Mile Bush and other localities he became district engineer for the Wairarapa. In that capacity he supervised .the erection of the--. Waingawa, Taueru, and Ruamohanga bridges. He was then transferred _ a to the Rangitikei district as district engineer, and remained there until 1879, when he became assistant, city engineer for Wellington, .assisting with the Waintri. waterworks and other contracts He resigned his position on. the-death of his brother, Richard Barton,and assnmpd the management of the White Rock and Trentham properties. He was relieved of the .latter run in. 1883 by his brother, Mr W.. Barton, .of Featherston. For some years he acted as adviaer for several concerns in, engineering matters, and in 1896 he bought the Mataikona run, which he hold until. his sons took it over in 1908. Mr .Barton: wa* a former memjier of the Hutt- County Council, mid: for a short period oeoupied a, seat on the Castlepoint County Council. He leaves a Widow and four sons— Richard and Edward Barton, of Master, ton; Boy Bert on. of Featherston; and Wilfred Barton, of Trentham. Messrs John Roy, of New Plymouth; and Richard . Roy, of tho Hutt, are nephews. Mm Dalziell, of Masterton, is a niece, anti Mr W. Barton, of Featherston, is a brother. His - half-sister, Mrs W. Strachan, of Hataitai, died a few weeks age at the advanced age of 89 years.