OBITUARY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13832, 20 February 1907, Page 5

OBITUARY.

OLCOTT.

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

SYDNEY, February 19. A private cable announces tlio death in India of Colonel Olcott, president of the Theosophical Society.

Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, Theosopliist, and' president of the Theosophical Society, had made his mark as an American reformer and- man of affairs'before the outbreak of the war of North and South. By 1856 he had founded the first scientific agricultural school on tlio Swiss model in the United States, and had written three works on agriculture, one of which went into seven editions. Ho had by invitation •addressed three State Legislatures on the subject of a now sugar plant, which is now generally cultivated, and had been offered by his own Government a. botanical mission to Uffraria, and later the Chief Commispionersh.p of Agriculture, and, by the Greek Government, the Professorship of Agriculture at thft University of Athens. He was at one time agricultural editor of Horace Greeley's paper tho New York Tribune, and also American correspondent for the Mark La no Express, aud his services to the cause of American agricultural reform were such that the National Agricultural Society voted him two jnedals of honour, while the American Institute presented him with a silver goblet. When tlio civil war broke out. ho threw up the profession of tho law, in which he liecu chiefly engaged hitherto, and joined the Northerners. 110 saw service in four battles, and was present at the capturo of lorfc Macon, but was subssqnently invalided on account of dysentery . contracted in the field. On his recovery tlio authorities determined to keep so useful a man from returning to the front, and therefore appointed liirn to the highly responsible position of Special Commissioner of tho War Department. As such his chief duty was to punish dishonest Government contractors. For two years he is said to have been in constant dangor of assassination owing to his unsoaring severity towards tlio rings of wealthy swindlers who inado their fortunes at the expense of tlio Executive. % A sum amounting to 200,000 do! is reported to liavo been collected by the fraudulent contractors, who hoped therewith to bribe him into silence, but none of them ventured to approach him with tho money. At the end of two years, at the request, of the Secretary of tho Navy, lie was also ordered on special naval dnlv, inqtituted drastic reforms in the dockyards, ami introduced a new system of accounts at Boston and Philadelphia. The war being, over. Colonel Olcott retired into private life, and during recent years has been prominent* as a siudent and teacher of Theosophv.