OBITUARY.

Clutha Leader, Volume XL, Issue 43, 28 November 1913, Page 5

OBITUARY.

GEOEGE JOHNSTON, KAIHIKU. By Me death of Mr George Johnston, of Greenhill, Kaihiku, which occurred at his resilience on Friday last, the Clutha district is bereft of one of its very oldest settlers, one who in the earlier days bore his share of the heat and burden of pioneering with the best in the laud, and who, as in the case of his wife, so lately deceased, well merited the love, esteem and respect in which lie was held. At the time of his death Mr Johnston was in his .Slird year, and while at that age we cannot mourn for him as for one cut off in the flower of his youth or the pride of his manhood we nevertheless mourn the death of Mr Johnston as a bereavement which takes away from our midst a man of strict integrity and honesty of purpose whose generosity and hospitality so many older residents of the district have enjoyed—a death which severs one of the few remaining links which bind the present with the early days of Clutha's his-, tory. He was born at Bodsbeck, in Dumfries, (Scotland, in 18:i0, and in his youth followed the occupation of shepherd. When 24 years of age he married Miss Jessie Kdgar, of the same parish, who was two years his junior, and they j set. up housekeeping at Campbelltown, \ in the Highlands of Scotland, in 1857 they emigrated to Victoria, ami there resided for three years. Coming to New Zealand in 1860, they followed the diggings for a time, but the same year saw them settle at Kaihiku, in the place which lias so long been associated with their name. Here, for a period of oil years, the couple lived till Mis Johnston's death on October (i last, followed but a few weeks later by that of her husband. The old couple are. survived by a family of ten, who, while well known in the Clutha, arc now mostly resident in other districts.

The funeral, which took place on Monday last, was attended by a larjje number of mourners from far and near to pay their last tribute of respect to the departed.