OBITUARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3239, 12 April 1916, Page 22

OBITUARY.

SIR JOHN GORST

LONDON, April 4. The death is reported of the Right Hon. Sir John Gorst, in his eighty-first year.

Sir John Gorst died after a brief illness from influenza. He met with an accident in 1914, and had never enjoyed the same health since.

April 8.

Sir T. Mackenzie attended the memorial service to Sir John E. Gorst at St. Mar-, garet's Church, and sent the Government's wreath to the funeral.

Sir John Eldon Gorst was born at Preston on May 24, 1835. He was the second son of Mr E. C. Lowndes (formerly Gorst), and was educated at the. Preston Grammar School and at Cambridge University, where he came out as third 'wrangler in 1857. After beginning to read for the Bar in London, his father's illness and death led to his sailing for New. Zealand, where in 1860 he married a daughter of the Rev. Lorenzo Moore, of Christchurch, who predeceased him in 1914. The Maoris had about this time set up a king of their own in the Waikato district, and Mr Gorst, who had made friends with the chief Tamihana (William Thompson), acted as an intermediary between the Maoris and the Government. Sir George Grey made him inspector of schools, then resident magistrate, and then eventually civil commissioner in Upper Waikato. In 1863 Mr Gorst returned to England, and was called to the Bar two years later, becoming Q.C in He was elected to Parliament in 1866, but in 1858 failed to secure re-election. After the Conservative defeat_ in the latter year he was entrusted by Disraeli with the reorganisation of the parliamentary machinery, and in five years of hard work he paved the way for the Conservative success in 1874. In 1875 he re-entered Parliament, where he joined Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, Lord Randolph Churchill, and Mr Arthur Balfour in what was known as " The Fourth Party,'' and in the Administration of 1885-6 he acted as Solicitor-general, and was knighted. From 1886 to 1891 ho was Under-secretary for India, and in 1891-2 Financial Secretary to the Treasury. From 1888 to 1891 he was Deputy Chairman of Committees in the House of Commons. He was also -vicepresident of the Committee of the Council of Education from 1895 to 1902, and British Plenipotentiarv to the Labour Conference at Berlin in 1890. In 1906 Sir John acted as British representative at the New Zealand Exhibition, hold at Christchurch, and on his return published a book, entitled " New Zealand Revisited." :

DONALD DINNIE

LONDON, April 5.

The death is reported of Donald Dinnie, the famous Scottish athlete, who won £511,000 in contests.

Donald Dinnie was probably, in his time, the finest all-round athlete in the world) unquestionably the finest exponent of Scottish field sports. He won innumerable con" tests in wrestling, tossing the caber, putting the weight, tossing the hammer, weight-lifting, and established records in several of these and kindred methods of exhibiting strength. He was a superbly built man and was often cited as a model. While at tho height of his fame Dinnie paid a visit to Australia and New Zealand. MR JOHN NORTON. MELBOURNE, April 10. The death of John Norton, newspaper proprietor, is announced. 'Mr John Norton was probably best known as the proprietor of Truth newspaper, editions of which are published in each of the capitals of Australia and in New Zealand. As a writer ho had a vigorous stylo, though he -wag prone to the exaggerated use of alliteration. Ho was for Borao time a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, where ho waa the occasion of several scenes owing to his unseemly conduct. Ho was prominently before the public last year in connection with divorce proceedings, in which a number of unsavoury details came to light, audi theso were published at length in tho columns of Truth. Mr Norton was, a wealthy man. His wife, in her application for alimony pendente lite, stated in an affidavit that her husband's annual incomewas £l6 000, and that his personal estate was worth £150,000. - On the strength of this she was granted alimony at tho rate of £IOOO a year.]