OBITUARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3347, 8 May 1918, Page 43

OBITUARY.

Another pioneer well known among the old residents of Otago passed away on March 31, at Zeehan (Tasmania), in the person of Mr Robert Clarke. Mr Clarke was known to all his friends and acquaintances as a real gentleman, and as he had spent an adventurous life and possessed a wonderful memory he was a most interacting speaker to listen to. Mr Clarke was born at Radcliffe, Lancashire in February, 1833, and fanded in Sydney in June, 1857, after a passage of 100 days from England in tho ship Anna Marie. He was tempted to try his luck at gold mining at Ballarat, and was among the 60,000 men thrown out of employment by the famous Rockhampton rush. After putting in some time as a cordial manufacturer in Sydney, lie returned to the free open-air life that he loved, visiting several famous mining places in Australia. At Mount Kosciusko he saw tho notorious bush-ranger, Frank Gardener, from whom he purchased a fore-quarter of beef. Attracted to Otago by tho discovery of gold, he came to Port Chalmers, ana went on to tho Lammerlaw range, which he crossed, carrying a swag of 841 b. Thence ho proceeded to the junction of the Manuherikia, . dropping down at Macpherson'a and crossing Valpy's station at the head of the Taieri River. Subsequently ho went to Clyde and Lake Wakatipu, and he worked gold for some years at Macetown and Nenthorn. In January, 1867, Mr Clarke was appointed deputy returning officer for the Macetown electorate, and was subsequently elected a member of the Provincial Council of Otago, on which body ho took his seat in June. 1873. representing the Lakes district with Mr Bendix Hallenstein. He waa associated with Messrs J. Maeandrew, R (now Sir Robert) Stout. W. A. Tolmie, J. L. Gillies. Donald Reid, W. Wood, J. C. Brown, Horace Bastings, and other wellknown pioneers. For many years he was tho goldfields' correspondent of the Otago Daily Times and Witness newspapers. Mr Clarke returned to Tasmania in 1891, and remained in the Zeehan district even since. A brother was at one time British Consul in Russia.