THE LATE MR DURAND.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13678, 21 August 1908, Page 6

THE LATE MR DURAND.

Further inquiry made yeeSstetd'!.? regarding the late Mr Durand, elicited "- ic " he arrived in Timaru early in 18d9- *»« used to tell how lit) walked down from Cillistchureli ill company with a. man named Barnes, iitld that in fording the Rangitata they shipped Utttl cwTied their clothes and swage upon their aesids, tlie water being to deep. Mr Durand a saddler by trade, and carried on business as a s'addler for some years. Mr Jas. Shepherd, who was in Timaru before liim, relates tliat Ml- Durand first lived in a little place where Ml' W. Hays buildings now stand, and later,■ where Messrs Jackson and Co.'s offices ai'e situated. He was a keen sportsman, very fond of shooting, and being of a. mechanical turn of mind he gave up saddlery illtil' took to repairing and dealing in " guns. He wits for some years in pariiieichip with a Mr French, tt gardener and seedsman, and together they owned the section on which " Durand's Buildings," opposite Beswick Street, "ere erected immediately after the big tire >Jf '6B. ■ Mi' Durand had u. shop on the Main Street and ill 1 French had a garden and orchard ut the back, extending to Sophia, -Sti-cet, over the site of the Arcade and Messrs l?ricsl and Holdgute's yard. (In sinking for foundations for Mr Bowker's buildings on the Arcade recently, some of the stumps of the orchard trees were met- with deeply buried in the made ground.) Mr French, itis understood, is fc-till alive, somewhere in the Xortli island. Mr Durand was a man of fine physique, until bowed by age, and is understood 1o have- been a member, of one of the Guards before coming to Zealand. He was born in 1829, and was therefore about 79 at the time of h'i> death.