DEATH OF MR PETER BOURKE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3644, 17 March 1883, Page 3

DEATH OF MR PETER BOURKE.

(Gisborne Herald, March 12.)

One more familiar face has gone from among us by the hand of the great Leveller. Mr Peter Bourke, a very old resident died early tliis morning, not unexpected, for he had been long ailing, not before his time, for he was full of years ; not after longsuffering, for ho suffered little. In his decay, previous to his final dissolution, his life had been one of gentle ebb, Avhich Avent out almost unperceiA-cd. The jocund A T oice will be heard no more; nor his hearty laugh, nor that bonhomie Avhich made him so pleasant and agreeable to those Avho were among his immediate surroundings. A great portion of his life had been passed in the public service of the colony, in which he had always been esteemed for tho able and pleasing manner he had ever discharged his somewhat onerous duties. The deceased gentleman had always been held in highest respect and esteem for his many excellent qualities, public, local and domestic. These departures of old faces leave gaps not immediately to be filled up, and although they do not interrupt the business of life, Avhich of necessity must floAv- on, still there are feelings called up, and avo ask who from among us is the next for another—surely a better world.

-Mr Peter Bourke was born in 1811, in the county of Mayo, Ireland ; received his degree of M.A. Nt Trinity College, Dublin. Was a J.P. for many years for the county in which ho was born. The property Mr Bourke inherited was lost during the first Irish famine, as were the properties from the same cause of very many old and honored families. Mr Bourke came to New Zealand in 1840, when he entered the Government service. Was Commissariat to the Bay of Islands of the 58th and Goth Regiments. The deceased gentleman retired on a pension in 1873, wliich he retained until his death.