DEATH OF MR R. GILLIES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 11219, 17 June 1886, Page 2

DEATH OF MR R. GILLIES.

(PER UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Dunedin, June 15. Mr Robart Gillies, ex-msmber for Bruce, died this morning. The news of the doath of Mr Robert Gillies will bo read with sinee oe mourn* ing, His family have been well-known in Otago for about 34 years, and he and other members of it from the important positions held by them were esteemed in all parts of the colony. Mr Gillies, with his father and mother, and the rest of a large family, arrived in Otago in 1852. His father, the late Mr John Gillies, was a lawyer, and had practised his profession in Scotland with success. He died not many years ago, having had the satisfaction of seeing his son 3 prosperous and respected, and having himself won the* general regard of his fei!ow-colo-niats. Mr Robert Gillies, as a lad, entered the Otago Survey Department as a cadet, and having learned the profee* sion. became in time a district surveyor. In 1861 he went into business as a sur* veyor and land agent, and was afterwards joined by Mr 0. H, Street, The firm of Gillies aud Street carried oa a large business for many years in Dunedin. Latterly it and the firm of Oonnell and Mcodie were merged iv trhe Perpetual Trustees Estate and Agency Company of JN"ew Zealand, Mr Robert Gillies being chairman of directors. For a short time he was a member of the House of Representatives, but had to resign his seat on account of bad health. He continued to take a shara in ihe business of the company in spite of a disease —aneurism of the aorta — which might close his life at any moment. He was a man not only of unusual ability, but of the most upright ani f-terling character, In hia domes tic relations ha was exceedingly happy, aud he leaves a widow and a fine young family to mourn his loss. Mrs Gillies was a daughter of her husband's late psrtuer, Mr C. H. Street, who settled some years ago in Auckland. -N.Z. Times.