OBITUARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16577, 28 December 1915, Page 6

OBITUARY

I; ; •' MR CHAELES C. GRAHAM. *; After an honoured career in the service ' of his couirtry, deatii removed yesterday afternoon in Dunedin a personality well known throughout New Zealand—Mr Charles Christie Graham, formerly* Stipen- . diary Magistrate and Official Assignee, and more recently coroner for this district. Mr Graham was born in Cupar, Fifcshire, Scotland,. in 1835, and was thus in his eightyfirst year. He .was educated at the Universities of St. Andrew's and Edinburgh. He came to Australia in 1855.. and carried ■on a large mercantile business in Mclbourno in conjunction with his brothers. Eleven years later he arrived in New Zealand, and . took up a large sheep run in the Waitaki district. He served for a short term in tho House of Representatives, being returned without opposition in 1869 as member for ■ Oamaru, for which seat,' however, ho did not seek re-election. Ho was one of tho few links between tho present and past political history, of tho dominion, for there are now only two or three surv,Vors of tho Parliament of which ho was a member. Removing from Waitaki to the North Island. - . he was elected to represent the Rangitikci district in tho Provincial Council of Wellington, and acted for some time as Chairman of Committees of that institution. Among other offices which he filled was that of member and secretary of tho Wellington Education Board, and also that of secretary of the Wellington College Board of Governors. In 1878 Mr Graham was appointed town clerk of Wellington, and five years later, upon tho enactment of the measure j which provided for tho administration of I bankruptcies by Government departmental j officers, he was appointed the first Official Assignee in Wellington, with jurisdiction over ' Napier, Nelson, Marlborough, and Wesfcland, as well as over Wellington. In 1893 he was transferred to _ tho Official Aasigneeship in this city, and in that capac- [ ity earned the warm respect of the commercial community. He was appointed also !■.... an assistant Stipendiary Magistrate and Coroner in this city, and retained the former ! : .of these offices until 1909, while the duties *■• of Coroner were performed by him until a quite recent date, when failinc health neccsi sitateel his retirement. His crcditablo record of citizenship included a whole-hearted in- ; terest in tho local branch of the Navy 1 ■ League, on tho executi-ve of which ho occupied a seat for several years. Mr Graham was an active member of tho Anglican Church, was for a considerably period tho ' chairman of committees of the Diocesan 1 Synod, and. since tho death of Mr B. C. ' Haggitt, was chancellor of the diocese. Ho i 3 survived by his wifo and a family of ten members, with whom deep sympathy in; their bereavement will be felt by a large i circle of friends, to whom Mr kindly disposition endeared him.