THE LATE MR. RICHARD PHENEY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXVIX, Issue 3673, 5 March 1881, Page 2

THE LATE MR. RICHARD PHENEY.

THE late Mr. Richard Pheney was born in 1803, anil succeeded his father as a prosperous law stationer and bookseller in Chancery Lane, London, to which he drove in from a villa residence in the suburbs. The death of his wife, whom he loved better than himself, wrecked his life. He neglected his business, and it soon departed from him. His two boys were cared for by his half-sister, Miss Neale, and eventually were brought up—one as a lithographic artist, and the o'her as a printer. The portrait of Mrs. Ph_eney was that of a beautiful and refined .woman in the early prime of life, and was taken not long before the short illness from w*hich' she died. He then determined to leave everything that reminded him of his griefs and. sailed for New Zealand in 1850 in the ship Eton. He arrived in New Plymouth during that year, and settled on some land which he acquired at Ornate. Some letters of his which appeared in the Taranaki Herald about 1852, when

the Constitution Act had been proclaimed, attracted the notice of • Mr. Hulke, wfeo ferretted Mr. Pheney out. and induced him to join other settlers in introducing Provincial Institutions. This shortly after led to his becoming the editor of the Herald, a position whichhe retained until about 1857, when a paTtiiil.chaiigc in its proprietary caused a change of views in the paper, which Mr. Pheney could not agree with, and he accordingly resigned his position. The result was that his friends assisted him' to start the Tarandki News, a speculation that, ho did very well by, until his energies collapsed through the death of one of his sons in London ; and, subsequently, the death of the surviving son here in 1869. After this be could never be roused again to make an effort, and, like his first great grief, it caused him to allow his life to drift, without aim, to its close. He died peacefully on Friday morning, bi A painful ■ibroat*aflEection, from whicU^hehad suffered for sometime past. His experience as a Law publisher had give,n him a varied and. extensive knowledge of Judicial and Constitutional Law '; and no one here probably haa such a memory, and so well stored' with reading' that it was'rarely he couM not give the name of the author of a quotation ; and often the -preceding and fol- | lowing lines. Of a retiring disposition, kind t and true hearted, he was uot.a man to press { himself forward in the race of life unless he had aya v motive outside "Himself in "the wellbping of some one very dear to him, -as- were his wife, and then his sons". When they passed away from him, he felt no motive in life/and allowed' ifc'to' drift with him to the end.' j/ '- ''" x ' v *' K<o ' (t Jr>: > :i °"