OBITUARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18752, 4 January 1923, Page 6

OBITUARY

MR JOHN BARTON, WELLINGTON. (Fkom Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, January 3. One of the old pioneers of Wellington, Mr John Barton, has passed away in his 73rd year. He was the first white child born in the Upper Hutt district. His father was an Isle of Wight man. who came here in 1840 in the ship oriental, and Ids mother was a daughter of the Rev. John Butler, who was (he first resident clergyman in New Zealand. Mr Barton was in the colony from 1819 lo 1824. and returned in 1840 ns an agent for the New Zealand Land Company. The late Mr Barton left Nelson College in 1866, and when his father died went to England to study civil engineering. He came back in the early seventies, and wonted under the late Mr Brogden, the well-known railway contractor. Later ho did a good deni of civil engineering in the Wairarapa district, anti in 1879 was assistant city engineer in Wellington. When Richard Barton, his brother, died, he took over the management of the White Rook Station on the East Coast, and his Trentham property in the Hutt Valley. White Rock was taken over in 1883 by his other brother Mr Wm. Barton, of F’eatherston, who still owns it. Ihe late Mr Barton leaves a widow and four sons.