OBITUARY

Southland Times, Issue 17306, 31 March 1913, Page 6

OBITUARY

HENRY WILKINSON. The death of Mr H. WTlkinson, whose funeral took place yesterday, removed another of fast-diminishing band of early pioneers. Mr Wilkinson arrived in Canterbury in 1858, and remained there until July, 1861, when the news of the outbreak of Gabriels caused a sensation there. He joined a party which proceeded to the rush, and after working for a time at Gabriel’s Gully, they took up a claim at Monro's Gully, and in August, 1862, hearing of the Hartley and Riley rush on the Molyneux river, below Cromwell, where 871bs of gold was got in three weeks, they set oft for there. After working for a while at Dunstan, the party returned to Tuapeka, and remained' there until the Wakatlpu rush broke out in November, 1862. where they in turn worked claims at Skippers and Arrowtown. Mr Wilkinson had varying success on the diggings, where he worked until 1871, when he bought the Shamrock Hotel in Invercargill; He was burnt out in 1878, losing everything, and he again returned to mining for a few years. In 1836 the deceased gentleman returned to Invercargill, where he resided until his death. He married in 1868, and his wife died in 1898.. He leaves a grown-up family. The funeral was largely attended, a large number of old pioneers journeying to the graveside to pay their last respects to their old comrade. Among them was one well-known old Identity who is 79 years of age, and who walked all the way to the cemetery. Others were present from different parts of Otago and Southland, some coming from as far as Lawrence. The late Mr Wilkinson tools a great interest in, and was an ardent supporter'of, the Hibernian Band, and yesterday, as a mark of respect, the Band headed the funeral cortege, and played the Dead March at intervals to the cemetery.