OBITUARY.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12637, 25 March 1905, Page 4

OBITUARY.

THE LATE DONALD McMILLAN.- _ . By the deuth of Mr Donald McMi.lan at Burke's Pass on Wednesday, the. Mackenzie Country loses one of itsj- best known, and oldest" settlels, arid the travelling public, and especially-*the tourists lose oiie of ihemost popular of countryhotelkeepers in tQe colony. It is safe/to say that if a handled-tourists were' asked who was the most obliging host they had met with—in' New Zealand, - quite ;a. large proportion of them would say "Donald McMillan," and many of them have put that opinion on re-; cord in letters to him. He had had a varied career. - Born on a farm in far-off Stornoway, -Eoss-sliire, in -1844, lie went: to sea in his_ youths :Und like many of liie contSmpetarißs' from that part of Scotland, he went through a JRoyal Nayy traimng and; belonged .to tfie reserve. ilt was jjrobalily to this reason of discipline that he upright carriage which he: retained- duringhis life. ".He came Zealand,first-as-a seantan in .twpi gr threetrips he fi'6iii hi& ship in DimSdM. in 1868, and'inude-His. w.ay to fte. Mackenzie Country. He there as shepherd oh. several stations—Sawdon, Rollesby,. and i others till .1881, when he went Home again. Returning, in 1882, he took the; Tekapo Hote I', 1 ', and from that time, onward,' with a short interval he continued- to hold a license first" for "the Tekapo and then for ; the Burke's Pass Hotel. He purchased a farm, "Bona," a few miles this side, of the Pass and lived there" % while, and the'n ; Sold the farm, and. resumed the occupation.: of hotelkeeper, in which he had always been popular, adding the keeping of sheep on a snjall grazing, ruff bf. 5000 acres near the Pass. He fas # rough diamond, but a diamond of the first-water,' for; his disposition was of the kindliest, presenting too a quaint mixture' of ■merriment and Serious-: ness. which together-with persistent Highland modes of thought and expression, marie him an unique .character in the, Mackenzie Country. He was-particularly popular with tourists, whom Jie .left do atone unturned to serve. He wi'l be. greatly missed; and his memory will long be preserved as. thatof a shrewdy kindly, well-meaning man, who helped to make the'world more cheerful while he. lived.' -Mr McMillan; leaves a widow, four daughters and two' sons to mourn their bereavement. . ;. .