DEATH OF MR JOHN PLIMMER. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, January 5.

Otago Witness, Issue 2652, 11 January 1905, Page 19

DEATH OF MR JOHN PLIMMER. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, January 5.

By the death of Mr John Plimmer, who passed away this morning at the age of 92 years, Wellington loses one of its earliest pioneers. He arrived here with his wife and two sons in 1841, when the city had not been founded, Lambton quay a- beach, Te Aro an impassable bog, what little level land there was covered with flax and scrub, and only a few raupo huts on the foreshore to denote settlement. He built his first cabin on a section of land at the top end of what is now known as Ing-estre street, now one of the most thickly .populated parta . of the city, 'then thick bush. For some years he was a builder and contractor, and in 1850 acquired what is known as the Ark, originally an American vessel, the Inconstant, which was stranded on the Te Aro foreshore. Mr Plimmer purchased the hull for £80. and, with the permission of the authorities, floated it to a spot opposite to his shop, where it was firmly secured and converted into a wharf and store. It heldl a crane for the landing of goods from vessels ,^of light draught able to come along-, side. The room below decks became a, bonded store, and .the main deck provided! sufficient accommodation for a warehouse, offices, and an auction room, in which Messrs James Smith and Co. held sales. Tha ' remains of the old vessel still lie embedded in the sand beneath the present building " on Lambton quay, in the occupation of tha Bank of New Zealand. Mr Plimraer took an active part in the public and commercial life of the city. For many years he was the only surviving member of Wellington's first Chamber of Commerce. In company with other leading citireus he took an especially prominent part in the formation of the Wellington-Manawatu Railwaj^ompany, and the building of the existing line, which has proved of • such value to settlement on the west coast of this island, and he was for eight years a director of the company. During the South African war he subscribed £700 or £800 to the funds for the New Zealand contingents.