A WASTED LIFE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1586, 20 March 1879, Page 3

A WASTED LIFE.

[“Evening Chronicle.,’]

There died yesterday morning, at “ The Old Men’s Refuge,” Ashburton, in the Canterbury province, a man who, but for one sad failing, would have made a lasting mark on the page of New Zealand history, and risen to some of the highest offices of the State. Edward Jerningham Wakefield, whose death we recorded yesterday, had been in his day a colonist of note. He arrived in Wellington in 1839, in the surveying ship Tory, commanded by Captain Chaffers. Mr Wakefield came to the colony as one of the New Zealand Company’s settlers. His uncle, Colonel Wakefield, was the managing agent for the company, and his father was the deservedly famous Edward Gibbon Wakefield, once a leading Wellington colonist. The deceased, Mr E. J. Wakefield, took an active part in Wellington politics in the early days. He was elected as a member of the Provincial Council, and at once was made leader of the Opposition, the Provincial Government then consisting of Dr. Peatheraton as Superintendent, and Mr Pox and Mr Fitzherbert as his executive. Mr Wakefield organised his party, carried a vote of “no confidence” against the Provincial Government and drove them out of office. For some nine months, Mr Wakefield held office as Provincial Secretary; but ultimately the other party defeated him. Of the other features of Mr Wakefield’s career, we need not say much in detail. Ho explored a large portion of the North Island, and the record of his journeyings is to be found in an interesting book entitled “Adventures in Now Zealand.” After remaining a number of years in Wellington, ho went to Canterbury, and took up land there. In that province he became a patron of the turf, and took an active part in racing. Originally possessed of large means, an extravagant—not to say riotous—system of living, in the course of time brought his fortune to a low ebb. Then the vice of intemperance, to which he was addicted, gradually grew upon him, and the once brilliant writer and speaker—the dashing sporting man—the bon vivant, and proverbially good fellow—was transformed into a a mere wreck, the shadow of his former self. Curiously enough, when things were at their worst with Mr Wakefield, the working men of Christchurch city elected him as their representative in the General Assembly in 1870. It was then hoped that Mr Wakefield would take a fresh departure ; but alas! he did not do so. He gradually fell lower and lower ; he did not venture to stand at the next general election, and now, poor fellow, he has died in an almshouse in Canterbury. Such is the work of drink, the destroyer. Mr Wakefield was a man of high ability— ho waa a brilliant speaker, an excellent newspaper writer, and an exceedingly well-read man. We believe that ho leaves a widow and several children, but for many years he has been separated from his family. We think that the State, and, indeed the people of New Zealand as a whole, ought to do something for the children of the clever, the brilliant, the accomplished —and the utterly lost Edward Jerningham Wakefield,