OBITUARY

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 67

OBITUARY

THE EARL OF JERSEY

SYDNEY, June 1. The death is reported of the Earl of Jersey.

The deceased nobleman was the seventh earl. He was born in March, 1845, and was thus in his 71st year. He was Lordlieutenant of Oxford, Provincial Grand Master of Oxfordshire, Lord-in-waiting to the King for two years, Paymaster-general in 1889-90, and Governor of New South Wales in 1890-3. He was the principal pro-., prietor of Child’s Bank. His son, Viscount Yilliers, succeeds to the earldom. THE HON. E. C. J. STEVENS. CHRISTCHURCH, June 6. The Hon. E. C. J. Stevens died last night. The Hon. Edward Cephas John Stevens, M.L.C.',- who was a Minister in the Atkinson Administration, being a member of the Executive Council from October 8, 1887, to January 24, .1891, was the youngest son of the late Rev. W. E. Stevens, rector of Salford, Oxfordshire, England. Born •on October 18, 1837, and educated at Marlborough College and at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, ho came to Lyttelton in September, 1858, on the ship Zoalandia. Ho was for many years a member of the firm of Harman and Stevens, well known in Christchurch. Mr Stevens was prominent in New Zealand politics since 1863, when he became a member of the executive of the Canterbury province during Mr Bealey’s superintendeney. He retired three years later, on the election of the late Mr W. S. Moorhouse to that ofiice, and offered himself as a candidate for the Solwyn electorate in the House of Representatives, to which he -was returned without opposition. At tho following general election Mr Stevens contested the same seat as a Freetrader and opponent of the grain duty, and was defeated by a single vote, in 1876 lie was returned, as member for Christchurch City at the head of the poll, his colleagues being the Hon. E. Richardson and Mr Moorhouse. On the election following the dissolution granted to Sir George Grey’s Government in 1879, he was again elected for Christchurch. At the clo of this Parliament he accepted a scat in to Legislative Council, being appointed on March 7, 1882. In tho deliberations of this branch of the Legislature ho took part up to the time of his death. New Zealand is indebted to Mr Stevens for the origination of the Public Trust Act, which was carried through Parliament by Sir Julius Yogel, and ho was a consistent advocate of Freetrade throughout his parliamentary career. He was married in 1869 to Maria., widow of Henry Whitcombe, C.E., who lost his life by drowning in 1864 in the Tereniakau River during his explorations on the West Coast of the South Island.