OBITUARY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 10328, 8 June 1895, Page 2

OBITUARY.

DEATH OF" MR GARLAND W. WOON. Intelligence was received in New Plyrroulh on Friday evening of the death of Mr Garland William Woon, who, with the late Mr William Collins, of Springton, Canterbury, started the Taranaki Herald. From a Press .Association message we learn that he was standing on the Wauganui river bank when, owing to a sudden failure of the heart's action, ha foil into the water and was drowned._ Mr Garland William Woon was' thb' I eldt-sL son of the~'late Roy. William Woon, Wosleyan Methodist Missionary in New Zealand. Ho was for many 'yeara in the New Ze.u •, ihr office in Auckland, with the late Mr John Williamson. On August 4th, 1852, Mr Garland W. Woon and Mr W. Collins brought out the first number of the Taranaki Hekai.d, and for fourteen years was the sole proprietor of thisi paper. He took a very active part during the war with the natives in the sixties, and " The Journal of Evonts," published in his paper, gave a record of each day's doings. Mr Woon was one of the Rifle Volunteers, and being well acquainted with the natives, was in a position to give a correct account of what was going on at the time, and, therefore, but for his " Journal " it i»_ doubtful if a complete account of the doings at that time would have been told. Writing to us respecting '' The History of a Colonial Newspaper," he said : —"I write a few line 3 just to thank you for sending ma a copy, and secondly to say that the paper does you great credit as an interesting ,and accurate account of the forty _yeaia r*exTste"nce of the Hekald. Knowingaa I da, 0 6 course, all about its early his^oryft eari"say that I cannot v take - exception to & single remark or 1 statement. You hav6 told well a true story, and it is "a Voider to mo how you have succeeded after this lapse of time, in procuring the full and .conceit particulars. Your meed of praiae of * my' ;•' Journal o;E t E vents,'.' kdgt_ and published 'by me during the war, is' very gratifying, fort took great trouble over it, and it was-strictly correct in" all its details. Taking an active part in all the operations as a volunteer, having a knowledge of the Maori language and an. acquaintance srith the .natives of all t th%'tribes.And hapua, north and.'^outhj and, feeling personally (friendly "with,." the. mill-, tary officers of all grades (I hiiTe' l<stt«2' in my "possession.!, written io njefbVitie ihenf, Commodore Seymour," of J&m.S. Pylorus)," I was in a -jpogitioa .to'gives trubhful and full - account .'of what ,was going, on. Jl- was r trade?) /great 'obligations to corresnondejitß ' $fc the front, to " W.1.G.," and, irad* 'all' the 'circumstances attending the publication of the paper, it is surprising that I never failed to bring out the paper (small a* it .waß) at the appointed time. I remember 1 was one of those who first assembled on Mount Eliot in the fifties, and were served out with the old " Brown Bess^' muskets, and drilled by Major Lloyd. There was W. C. Richmond, now Judge of the Supreme Court, the two Browns, I. Newton Watt,~W. False, and other* in the same rank .with me. Many old Taranakians will remember Major Lloyd's stentorian voice bawling out, ' Heavens above ! What is that man with the sealskin cap about !' Nover can I forget those stirring times in the sixties — Waireka, Mahoetahi, &o. Toor F. Brown and Edgecombe, who fell in the latter engagement, were- i comr.ides of mine in the same company, and were killed directly we got on the liill. And what a. power the late Sir Harry Afrinsou was in the war, when ho formed his bushranging company, and soon drove the enemy from the neighbourhood; and what a splendid lot' of fellows they were in that corps. I may say thatl have jause to remember him and his company 'with feelings of deepest respect and gratitude. While on outpost duty at Bell Block I was sent out one day with a party of a dpzen men and a bullock cart to bring in firewood. The rebels ("through the friendly natives, I believe) had got information that an officer with a small party would be iv the forest at the back, about two miles from the stockade, on a certain day, and laid an ambush for us. But, instead of catching us, they raughfc a tartar in meeting the bushranging party, which happened to be out that way that morning early. I had posted my sentries, and the men were about commencing their work, unaware of what had happened, when Captain Atkinson sent a messenger oidering us in. Of course, we should havo made a fight for it had the busbrangiug party not turned up as they did, but who know 3 what would h;-ve been the result to the paity against sucli odds and such tactics as the enemy had planned for our destruction. The publication of No. 1 of tho Herald is a capital idea. It looks as if you had used the samo old founts, that old long primer, aud that old brevier — many millions of which I picked up and dissed in the New Zealander office, and after it came to nla in Taranakh jThe^ only -memento I have' of the old printing days is my old composing stick and the 14 em rule f which I have treasured up all theSe •years, &nd -which: those 1 1 leave .behind mo will also preserve as a relic of the, past. I have ten._xpJumes of the Hhuald from its commencement, bound, which is also a valued treasure. " Nccedc mdlis."- With hearty good wishes,—Believe me, yours Very sincerely, — G. W. Wook.

In 1868 Mr Woon went'to I t7anganui, whero ho was appointed Clerk of, the Resident' Magistrate's Court, which office he held till 1892, when he retired during the retrenchment period. Mr GarlandWbon was married to Miss Ann George, the eldest' daughter of the late Mr William George, who had been missing at Waitara for some time, and whose body was found on Thursday last. They were married on July 28, 1852, and curiously enough the notice of it appeared in the first issue of The Takanaki Herald. Mr Woon has' not long survived his late partner, Mr William Collins, who died at Springton on May 6th last.