OBITUARY.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2414, 30 December 1881, Page 3

OBITUARY.

We regret much to have to record the death of Mr G. L. Mellish, Resident Magistrate of Christchurch, which took place yesterday. Mr Mellish is an old colonist, having come to the country in 1858. Previous, however, to his adopting the career of a colonist, the deceased gentleman saw service in the army, and in the trenches before Sebastopol, as an officer in H.M. 44th Regiment, gave proof of his devotion to the profession he had chosen. At the close of the war, when large reductions were made in the several regiments, Mr Mellish left the service and sailed for Adelaide. South Australia, where he arrived in 1857. After, however, a year’s residence there, he loft it for New Zealand, arriving in Lyttelton the following year. His first venture, like all the early colonists, was in the direction of sheep-farming, but, owing to bad seasons and holding an exposed back country run, sheep farming was not entirely a success, and in 1863 Mr Mellish left Canterbury for Auckland, with the intention of offering his services to the Government in the Maori war then being carried on. His application was at once acceded to, and ha was appointed Captain in the 4th Waikato Militia. Immediately on joining the regiment, ho was given the charge of the camp at Onehunga, bnt after holding that position a few months he was placed in command of Galloway’s Redoubt, a post which he retained till appointed Resident Magistrate at Pioton early in 1865, Prom Pioton Captain Mellish was, in 1868, transferred to Kaiapoi, and on the resignation of Mr Bowen. R.M., of Christchurch, in 1874, Government offered the vacant post to Mr Mellish, who accepted it. Before entering upon a military career, Mr Mellish studied at Exeter College, Oxford, but gaining a scholarship at Pembroke, took up his residence at this _ latter college till the com mission was offered which led him directly into the glories and dangers of the Crimean campaign. Whilst at Oxford the deceased gentleman was distinguished as an oarsman, attaining to the privilege of pulling in the renowned “ eight.” In 1854 he rowed number seven of the Oxford crow, and the race of that year was one of the finest and most closely contested that has ever taken place between the two _ great English Universities, Oxford winning by exactly eleven strokes in advance of Cambridge. As a colonist and as a Magistrate, Mr Mellish was universally respected, and his loss will not only be felt by a large circle of personal friends but by the community at large. The disease, which proved fatal, first showed itself some eighteen months ago, but the judicious treatment applied (hydropathic) staved off danger for a time, and up to the last fortnight Mr Mellish was able to take his work in Court. He toiled, however, when he ought to have been at rest, and now ho has ended a useful life, spent entirely, in one way or another, in the publio service. He was forty-seven years of age.