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Otago Witness, Issue 2413, 7 June 1900, Page 17

FUNERAL OF THE LATE REV. F.C. PLATTS.

The funeral of the late Rev. F. a Platts, ex-vicar of Boly Trinity Church, Port Chalmers, which took place on Thursday, was one of the largest! for many years past in Port Chalmers, all the leading citizens and residents of various denominations attending. The church was filled by an attentive congregation, the body of the late vicar being carried up to the church and deposited on a bier, a cross of beautiful white flowers being placed upon it as a mark of affection from the choir. The funeral service of the Anglican Church was conducted by Bishop Nevill, who was assisted by the Yen. Archdeacons Robinson and Beaumont, Dean Fitchctt, Canons B. M. King, Lucae, and Dodd, the Rev. Messis Hampton and Wayne, frith the ReV. T. M. Kewley, | vicar of the parish. The choir sang hymns 286 and 401 in the church, and after the benediction at the grave hymn 140. The Rev. Frederick Charles Platts, M.A., was born at Barrackpore, India. He camo^of an old Nottinghamshire family, and was the son of Captain Robert Platts, of the old East India Company's army. He was educated in England, and graduated from the Cniversity of Aberdeen as M.A. He proceeded to India, where he was attached to the staff of the Martiniere College at Delhi. He afterwards returned to England, and took the position of Classical Master at Bedford Grammar School. At this time the Australian 'colonies were attracting attention as a field for emigration, and the deceased gentleman came out to South Australia under the directions of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He laboured for some years in South Australia and Victoria before coming to New Zealand to take the cure of Port Chalmers in 1880. No one was in a better position to estimate the work of the deceased gentleman than Bishop Nevill, who, in his presidential address to the Anglican Synod, said: — "The long-continued illness of the Rev. F. C. Platts. M.A., borne with exemplary fortitude and Christian resignation for more than twelve months, has led our dear brother to feel that it was his duty to return into my hands the charge which I conferred upon him about twenty years ago, the obligations of which he is no longer able to fulfil. The brave, patient, and faithful manner with which he has ever fulfilled those duties so long as he was physically able to do so has commanded the respect of all, as the learning and ability he displayed has called forth their admiration. We pbould surely manifest the brotherhood of Christianity by asking God to vouchsafe to him in abundant measure the consolation and hope? derived from our holy religion, and such freedom from suffering as may to Him seem good." The Rev. Mr Platts leaves two brothers surviving him : Mr John T. Platts, M.A., who fills the Chair of Oriental Languages at the University of Oxford, and Captain \V. Platts, of the Royal Indian Marine. Mr Plattss was twice married. J3e leaves a widow and large family to mourn their loss.