OBITUARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3270, 15 November 1916, Page 50

OBITUARY.

THE REV. F. W. ISITT. Tho Rev. F. W. Isitt, of this city, the well-known Methodist minister and temperanco reformer, died suddenly from heart failure at his residence, Roslyn, on Saturday evening. Mr Isitt, who had. just reached man's allotted span, was born in Bedford in 1346. He was educated at the Bedford Grammar School, and, determined on a commercial career, he proved so energetic and ablo that at a very early age he occupied tho position of London shipping agent to the well-known firm of Gillies Garnet. Abandoning solid business prospects, however, he entered the Wesleyan Methodist ministry, and offered for mission work. After taking a theological course at; the Richmond College, he was appointed to New Zealand, then a mission station; and, in company with the Revs. W. J. Williams, J. J. Lewis, and J. S. Smalley, he arrived at Auckland in 1870. Hia first appointment was to Balclutha, and it was what he saw of the effects of drink upon tho settlers in that young township that displaced a contempt for teetotalism by convictions that largely shaped his after career. In 1874- he married Miss Mary Purdie, tho daughter of Dr W. Purdie, one of the first medical men to practise in Dunedin. After occupying the Port Chalmers and New Plymouth circuits, he broke down in health, and for eight years conducted an agency business in Christchurch. Directly medical opinion would allow, ho resumed his ministerial work, and was successively appointed to Invercargill, Nelson, and Christchurch. With the approval of the conference, he occupied the position of secretary raid organising agent to tho New Zealand Alliance, and it was under his zealous and efficient leading that the prohibition movement attained tho strength and influence it at present possesses in this dominion. Failing health alone compelled the relinquishment of tho work he loved so much. Mrlsitt's labours in the temperance causo and in connection with his own church are well known, but very few people know of one feature of that work. Passionately fond of children, in clays when orphanages were few, with infinite trouble ho sought out homes for orphaned or destitute little ones, and to-day there are scattered throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand happy and prosperous men and women, some of whom will never know that they are not tho sons and daughters of the good people who on Mr Isitt's instance adopted them. An able speaker, a man of wide reading, broad thought, and of genial' sympathy, Mr Isitt has served his day and generation nobly, and holds rank with the foremost of those pioneers to whose selfsacrificing and persistent efforts and lofty citizenship New Zealand owes so much. It was characteristic of the man that ho frequently expressed the wish that at any memorial service that might be held for him there would bo no draped pulpit or wailing dead march, but flowers and some Jubilato Deo —some song of faith, gratitude, and triumph.