DEATH OF SIR JOHN THURSTON. Melbourne, Febraary 9.

Otago Witness, Issue 2242, 18 February 1897, Page 15

DEATH OF SIR JOHN THURSTON. Melbourne, Febraary 9.

i The staaraer Burrumbeflt, when passing ; Wilson Proinonoory, aigcallsd that thu Governor of thft " Canadian Channel" had , vied on board. This muKb mean fcne j Governor of Fiji, as Sir J. Thuraton was on board in bad health. The news of $k J. ThursUm's death is confirmed. Sir John Bates Thnrston. K.O.MG, F.L.S., F. R.G S., was the eldest son of the late John Noel 1 ThuiMton, of Bath, and was horn in 1836 In early life he went to sea, and in 1866 was employed in the British Consulate of Fiji aud Tu«g», becoming acting consul for some m m hs iv 1869. On the lesiguation of the fitst m<ivjusihle Miuintry in Fiji in 1872, he was called lo office hy the united voices of sctilera and natives and became Ohief Secretary and Minister for Foreign Relations, la 1874 h« was app.'jmteil " choaen and special adviber" ot Xi k Thakambau nod ! chief to confer with her Majesty's Government | »8 to the annexation of the islands to Great , B'itain, an i upon the offer of cession became Chief !*ecrs"tary under the "ad interim Government." Sub-.equ<'ntly, in the same year, he bpcanie Col oial Secretary and Auditor-general af Fiji, and in 1879 also secretary to the Hi^h Commissio«er for the Western Pacific. H« wlministarcl the Goveuvm>snt of F ji at various times in the earl\ eighties, and was auooi'ited Ahsi^t^nl High Gominidsioner for the Western Pacific iv 18S3. He whh made Lieutenant-governor in 188 K , and in the following year, in which he was knighted, he was «ppoiuted Governor o> F'ji and High Commissioner and Connul-general for I the Western Pacilic.