OBITUARY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17610, 28 October 1931, Page 7

OBITUARY

MR. EDWARD TREGEAR (Per Press Association.) BLENHKIM, this day. The death lias occurred of Mr. Edward Tregcar, of l'icton, aged 88 years. He was Secretary of Labor and registrar of industrial unions in 1900, and was secretary for 11 years of the Polynesian ■Society, iJo retired from the Government service in 1911.

• By the death of Mrs. Sarah Radford last Saturday, Wailii lost one of its oldest ami most respected citizens. Mrs. Radford,. who was in her eighty-second year had been at Wailii for 35 years. The death occurred on Sunday at bis late residence, Remuera, of Mr. Frank McGovern, one of the last of the early pioneers of New Zealand. Born iii County Cavan, Ireland, in 1846, the year of the famine, tho late Mr. McGovernspent his early manhood in America. lie went to Taranaki in 1876, where he entered into farming pursuits, being one of the first settlers on tile Waimato Plains. He also farmed at Wanganui and other parts of the Taranaki Province. He went to the Waikato in 1894, acquiring the Goodfollow estate, at Te Awamiltu, and also the Woodlands and Rukuhiu estates. Mr. McGovern was a successful farmer, a good judge of stock, and a keen sportsman, breeding and racing such horses as Loch Erne, Enniskillen, Polycaste, and many others. By the death of Mr. Edward Richard Lewknor Knight, Canterbury has lost another of the now few remaining links with the days of the pioneers. As was the ease with many of the pioneers, Mr. Knight’s parents we reconnect ed with families whose names are household words wherever the English language is spoken. His father was a grand nephew of Jane Austen, and his mother a daughter of Lady O’Connell, who was a near connection of the great Irish statesman. Mr. Knight was horn at .Steventon station, Malvern Hills, Canterbury, 60 years ago. He took a keen interest in sport and was known to many as a kind, generous, and most modest, and unassuming gentleman. The last- survivor of the “battle of tho Eureka Stockade,’’ and the second oldest resident of South Canterbury, Mr. John L. Potter, of Timaru, died on Saturday evening, at the age of 97 years. A native of Durham, Mr. Potter was born on July 25, 1834, during the reign of William IV, and as a young mail was attracted to Victoria by the lure of gold. With hundreds of others he trekked to Ballarat, where he secured “miner’s right. No. 16,” thus being among tlm earliest to obtain a license. This historical document, to gether with many other mementoes of early mining days, Mr, Potter preserved, and he claimed to he the only surviving holder of the Victorian miner’s right in the Empire. He was one of the insurgents on the occasion of the battle of the Eureka Stockade ai Ballarat, when the miners, disgusted i with the harsh treatment meted out to them by the authorities, erected a fort and defied tho military. The midis-' eitdined and ill-armed miners, led by “General’ Peter Lalor, were beaten in flie unco tin) struggle that- followed, the defenders fleeing for their lives. But, although tht' battle was lost,, the cause was won, for not long afterward the causes of t.lieir grievances were abolished, and the men received representation. _ After the fight Mr. Potter left Victoria, ami. coming to New Zealand, too 1 - mud in the Gabriel’s Gully rush. Tiring of the gold search. Mr. Potter! re* umed bis former calling of a builder, and settled in Timaru. whore, ho worked for many years. Wonder- 1 full'.' alert- for Ids years, Mr. Potter retained all bis faculties to the end. Ho leaves a. grown-up family.