AN AUSTRALIAN EARL.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16095, 19 September 1924, Page 6

AN AUSTRALIAN EARL.

DEATH OF EARL OF DUCIE. The Earl of Ducie, who...spent most of his life as a sheep-farmer in Queensland died recently" at Tortworth Court, Falfleld, Gloucestershire, in his 91st year. Educated at Rugby and Magdalen College, Oxford, Berkley Basil Moreton, ,after._a,course at the Royal Agripulturai at Cirencester, emigrated to Australia in 1855, his voyage in a sailing ship lasting-five -months, and spent more. than, sixty, years sheep-farming in .Queensland. At-various times he was Postmaster General, Colonial Secretary, and Minister of Public Instruction for Queensland. ' .'• -' ":\ In 1921 he succeeded to the title on .the death of his brother, the 3rd Earl, and went to England "with his daughter, Lady Beatrice Moret'on. . The English climate, however, tried him severely, and he returned to the warmth and sunshine of Australia—a. country in the future,,of which he had a profound belief-—in January 1922. • . Last September he again wenthome, resolved to spend the remainder of his life in .. England... r „ His health soon began to fail, and on his 90th birthday last month he washable only.to wave from-his bedroom window a greeting to - the children whom h eenterlaincd to celebrate the . occasion.. . His, son, Lord Moreton, who succeeds him,, is forty-nine, lie went over, from Australia, where he was born, two years "ago to manage the estates'. A man'of splendid physique, he confesses to an affection for the land of his birth, which he declares to bC the finest country in the world. He married in 1903 Maria Emma, daughter of: Mr Frederick Bryant, of ..-MarybQCPUgh. Australia. They haye no family.