OBITUARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2672, 31 May 1905, Page 32

OBITUARY.

At the morning service at the Green Island Presbyterian Church on Sunday the Rev. Mr Kilpatrick made feeling reference to the death of Mr Alexander Kirkland, and at the close of th© sea-vice the " Dead March " in " Saul " was played by the organist.. Much sympathy is felt in the district for the deceased's relatives, particularly his sister, Miss Kirkland, who had been associated with him from childhood. Mr Kirkland was at all times ready to lend substantial assistance to a worthy ca<use, pnd it is understood that he was the gentleman referred to some time agro by the Rev. Dr Watt as having offered to bear th© expense of a trip by Dr "Watt to the Home Country. The Presbyterian Church in the noi'fch has lost its two oldest ministers in the Rev. R. M'Kinney (of Mahurangi) and the Rev. Thomas Norrie (of Papafcura). Both had reaohed the age of 79 years. Mr Norrie arrived in Auckland ip 1855, and soon after started the Presbyterian Church at Papakura, and only a year later Mr M'Kinney came out and took aip his residence at Mahuraiigji, where he lived in tRe same' housrs for 49 years The Presbyterian Church in the colony wilL be much poorer by the death of those two veterans to the service o£ the Church. ~£The death is announced this week of Mr Alexander Kirkland, another of the band of early settlers, at the age of 77 years. Born at Kilmarnock, Scotland, in 1826, he learnt the trade of a carpet weaver- He sailed for New Zealand with his father and the rest of the family in the ship Maori, arriving at Nelson on Christmas Day, 1851. The ship called at Wellington, and, owing to the sailors deserting, Dunedin was not reacted until . March the following year. His father had t purchased property in the Green Island dier- ; trict before leaving the Home Country, and ! there the family settled. When gold was disi covered at Gabriel's Gully, Mr A. Kirkland : visited the place, the intention being to start a store there, with his brother William, but i after a fortnight he was seized witt an illness, and had to abandon the project. The land at GBreen Island' had to be cleared of bush. One of the greatest drawbaoks the settlers had to put up with was the state of the roads. Mr Kirkland, to avoid the Caversham Swamp on& the bad bit of roarf at the Princes street bridge, near the intersection- of- Princes and. High* streets, frequently drove his bullock team alone the ridges, to the mill at Woodhaugh. Mr Kirkland was for same years a member of the local' Rood Board, but never filled any ' other public position. He was* well known, . and much, respected by all old' identities. tSx Wm. Henry Cox, wlto was well known ■in the Tuapeka district and other parts of Otago, died at St. Albany, CJhristchuroh, on ' Friday, 26th inst., at the a|je> of 63 years. , Mr 'Ccic, who was born in Jeraay on July 24, . 1841, came out to Victoria, in 1854. After woik- , ing on various goldfiehia- irr Victoria h« came ,to Otago in 1863, want on to Wetherstones, afterward* talcing p»rt in tlie Hmdon rush, , where he met with a, fair iue«ewre of success 'He opened a BfcoTe at Grabrid'a Gully wi<fo his brother, bub left) there for Wwipori. In 1866- h« •went to tfa* West Coast, but returned to Otago 12 months later, and he- and his • brother afterwards bought a. store from Mar ■ Felpo, continuing busmees for three- years, at the- expiration, of which time the* deceased gentleman went to Melbourne, but returned !to Dunedin v-eiy shortly afterwards. After • living in various places Mr Cox went to , Lawranco, where he remained until 1876,. in, wOiioH ys»r he bought a general store and ' produce merchant business from Mir W. Snow, st Oxitrani, selling out af*in in 1882, , and leaving- for Melbourne. On his depasture for Melbourne he was pre«enifced with * beautif ul gold watch and chain by hjs friends in West- Taieri, "who- looked! upon him as one of tli* leading spirits in every movement for the ecdvsuioement and improvement of Outeain. In Melbourne he bought a steam lolly factory, ■ but the venture failed. In 1885 he bought the Kelson Hotel and general stors, at Trafalgar, Gippsland, and waa one of the promoters of the- annual sports held there. , While there he v,-as fortunate- in drawing Chicago in the Caulfveld Cup, winning £1000. fr- 1891 he- returned to Dhinoiin, and! the following year bought the Terminus Hotel in Outeam. He sold that in 1894, and bought the Kyburn Hotel, Central Otago. He cam* to Dunedin again in 1895, and in 1898- bought the Suxnner Hotel, and after leaving there was connected with Ta-ttevsalla Sweeps, Hobaxt. He resided at St. Albwixs after leaving Sumner. Mr Cox was married in 1869 to Miss May Tuckey, of Lawrence. He leaves a wife and nine children (five sons and four daughters), and seven grandchildren to mourn their loss. Mi Cox wu ft membes of tli-gt Druids' Or&ex

in Melbourne as early as 1861, and about six months after he arrived in this colony he joined the 1.0.0. F., with which he was connected until the time of his death, having once attained the position of D.P. Grandmaster of Otago. He joined the Masonic Lodge St. George, No. 1128, E.C., in April, 1872, and was elected K.W.M. of the Lodge Taieri, Outram, in 1882. The death is announced at Palmerstcm North, of Mr James Carroll, formerly in the police force, whose meritorious deed, at the wreck of the ship &uxat on Catlins Beach. saved the lives of 300 people. For his efforts in reocvering the gold stolen at Maungatapu Mx Carroll was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He was a large landowner at Palmexston North. A Greymouth telegram states that Mr "W. J. Coatee, one of the oldest residents of Greymouth, died at 7 p.m. on the 22nd inst. The deceased, who was 78 years of age, was formerly a member of the Greymouth Borough Council. It- The Milton Mirror announces the death of jj r "William Matheson, one of the pioneer settlers in the Tokomairiro district, who died I suddenly on Tuesday last, 23rd inst. Mr Matheson was born in Sutherlandshire, Scotland, in July, 1819, and was therefore in his eighty-sixth year at the time of his death. He left London in March, 1849, in the barque Cornwall, and landed at Port Chalmers in September the same year. After working at his trade a-s a blacksmith in Port Chalmers for a year or two he went to the diggings in Australia, but he returned to the colony in 1854 and married Miss Jane Brown (vfao predeceased him by two years), a-nd settled in Middlebank, rext to Meadowbank, Clarksville, the same year. Hu was a year or two doing biackamithing work — might be classed as the first " smithyman " in Tokomainro. He had a family of two Bonß and one daughter. The caus« of deatb was senile decay and dyspepsia.