THE LATE WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK.

Kumara Times, Issue 2400, 12 May 1884, Page 2

THE LATE WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK.

It is our unpleasant task to-day to record the death of Mr William Kirkpatrick, who for seven or eight years has carried on business in this town as a draper and clothier. Some months ago, having been seized with a cold which seemed to have settled on his lungs, Mr Kirkpatrick sought advice for relief from Dr. Morice, of Greymouth. The stage of congestion had, it seems, so much hold upon the patient’s constitution that vigourous medicinal remedies had to be resorted to in order to allay the disease; and, to be under Dr. Morice’s immediate care, he took apartments in Greymouth; but the remedies proved ineffectual, and, after lingering for several weeks, yet with little or no pain, the patient calmly fell asleep in death last night at half-past ten o’clock. The deceased was one of the earliest settlers in the Waimea and Kumara districts. As early as 1865, he opened a drapery establishment and general store at Waimea, packing his goods up the Waimea Creek before any roads existed. Two years later he opened a similar business at Stafford Town, and only relinquished business there four or five years ago in order to devote more attention to the drapery eetablishment in Kumara.

Although not being pleased to occupy any public position in the world, as a man and a citizen Mr Kirkpatrick ever lent a ready ear and purse to relieve and succour the distressed whenever its necessity came under his own cognizance, and his motto seemed to be that “ That which is good to be done, cannot be done too soon ; for if it is neglected to be done early, it will frequently happen that it will not be done at all.” Unassuming and genial in his disposition, he was one of those sort of men whose sterling qualities and actions go to build up the social circles of a like character in a community. Of him it might be said

His life was gentle, and the elements So mix’d in him, that Nature might stand

up And say to all the world, this was a man,

The deceased leaves no relatives in the colony, but we understand he has a brother and sister keeping a large farm in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. His remains are to be interred in the cemetery at Greymouth to-morrrow afternoon, at two o’clock; and a funeral sermon, having special reference to the late Mr Kirkpatrick, will be preached in the Presbyterian Church here next Sunday.