OBITUARY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 10 February 1891, Page 2

OBITUARY.

•• ♦ — ■ THE HON. SIR WILLIAM FITZHERT, K.C.M.G. Born Aro. 15, 1810. Died Fkb. 7, 1891. Sir William Fitzherbert died on Saturday at the ripe age of 80 years. His was an eventful life, a life of high aims, and strenuous exertion ; distinguished from the first by acts of rare courage, and an uncommon quality of action. Sir William was the third son of the Rev. Samuel Fitzherbert, of Buckshaw, rector of Houghton, near Yeovil, in Dorsetshire. Born in 1810 at Houghton, he began his education at a dame school in his native place, at the age of four. After the dame school young Fitzherbert went to the Sherbourn Grammar School and having gone through the course there found him- ' self at the celebrated " Merchant ' Taylors," going from there in due i course to Cambridge, where he was : entered at Queen's. I During his career there he was '. under the tutorship of his brother <

Herbert (who bad made his marlc some years before with a "double first"), and made a very good University record. " Soiiior Optime " in Mathematics, a Brown's University medal-list, a " First-class " in classics, the M.A. degree, and a Queen's Fellowship— these are the landmarks of his University career on his mental side. It had a remarkable physical side also. Young Fitzherbert was a great oarsman, who gave many evidences of his great powers, attaining at last the position Of Stroke of the University Eight. He was besides the best boxer and all round athlete of his day. Few would think it who only remember his spare figure of later years. Close observers, however, have remarked that it showed all the lines of power. The late Hugh Carleton, whose contemporary he was, used to tell a story in this connection which gives a better idea of young Fitzherbert's character and prowess than a volume of description. It happened in one of the famous " Town and Gown " battles. Mr Carleton himself on that occasion had fallen into the hands of the enemy ; terribly mauled he was, some of his teeth were knocked down his throat, and as he lay on the ground, with the enemy stamping on him and kicking him, he gave himself up for lost. Young Fitzherbert at the critical moment saw the plight of his friend, rushed to the rescue, knocked down three roughs with three "shoulder" hits, strode over the prostrate man and kept the foe engaged single-handed until a rescue party was got together and came to his relief. Mr Carleton always said that he owed his life to his friend. Fitzherbert's behaviour on that occasion. Amongst their contemporaries at Cambridge was Selwyn, afterwards Bishop of New Zealand, and Perry, for many years Bishop of Melbourne. His University career over, Mr Fitzherbert took up the medical profession. Though he acquired considerable skill, and became a successful practitioner, he was fond of declaring in after years that he had taken the wrong turn in those critical days of youth, regretting that he had not taken to the study of the law, for winch his abilities eminently fitted him. He began his studies at the " Ecole de Medicine " in Paris, and finished them in London at St. George's Hospital. When he had taken his degree of M.D. at the Eoyal College of Physicians, he set- 1 tied down in practice in Hanover Square ; there he married his wife — a Miss Leigh. She was the lady who was so well known and widely respected in later years in Wellington. There, too, his eldest son, Mr W. A. Fitzherbert, the popular engineer, was born. In the year 1842, the doctor sailed for New Zealand in a schooner of 80 tons (the Lady Leigh) which he bought, freighted, and named after his wife. The new departure was intended only as an episode. Doctor Fitzherbert had sent £10,000 to be used partly in landed investment and partly Jn trading — his partner being Mr Partridge. But the result of the venture not being quite satisfactory the Doctor made up his mind to go out to the Colony, see things for himself, and wind up the business. In due time, no doubt a long time, the schooner reached Sydney, and thence stretched across to Wellington, landed her owner with his cargo of notions of various softs. He very soon found out that realising was out of the question, so he made up his mind that he must stick to the Colony — a resolution of considerable benefit to the Colony it proved — and sent home for his wife and son. In Wellington he commenced life as a merchant and auctioneer, and gradually extending his operations found himself engaged in the whaling fishery with stations at Kapiti and the Amuri Bluff. The Colony did not prosper in those days, between difficulties of land titles, and dangers of Maori hostility, and discomforts of life on the fringes of the wilderness and earthquakes, which gave a disagreeable " tone " to the settlement, Wellington got into a bad way. The great earthquake of 1850 which shook down his store and killed his storeman brought the affairs of Dr Fitzherbert and his fellow colonists of Port Nicholson to a climax. He made up his mind for another move — viz., to seek in New South Wales the fortune which New Zealand seemed unable to offer him. No sooner said than done, or rather attempted, for the thing never was done. The Doctor chartered a ship — the old Sobraon, whose name to this day sends a thrill through old colonial hearts — freighted her with whalebone and oil, filled up her passenger accommodation with most of the settlers of mark, and set sail in the teeth of a south-east gale. Outside the sea was wild and the sky was dark, but even that prospect was more inviting to the wearied people than the shaken shore with its suggestions of more earthquakes to complete the climax of their misery. But the Sobraon got no further than Barrett's reef. Unseen all too late in the darkness and the storm, the reef held the ship, the seas broke her up, and her passengers reached the shore in a state of the deepest and most unexpected thankfulness. Where were they ? Not a soul could tell. During^the anxious discussion someone produced a match, one of the old

wooden lucifers ; it was the last one of all the old Sobraon 's supply. The lucifer was dry, and being carefully manipulated in the howling gale N * gave fire enough to set the hillside&>~' above the shipwrecked people blazing merrily. The conflagration showed them where they were and cheered them greatly. After that there was no more talk of going away. Doctor Fitzherbert bought a schooner which he called the "William Alfred," after his eldest son, for the WellingtonSydney trade, and settled down once more as a merchant, extending his ventures in all directions. His business premises stood on an acre of land, fronting Farish street, named after a college chum of the doctor'H. We refer to him constantly as " the Doctor," but we must explain that after coming to the Colony he never practiced his profession, though he was constantly consulted by medical men. In the early days of his trading, Doctor Fitzherbert sent his family to Sydney, where his daughter, now the wife of the Hon. P. Buckley was born. They did not stay very long in New South Wales capital. New Zealand affairs having prospered and the Fitzherbert fortunes with them. Doctor Fitzherbert went over to Sydney and brought his people back, as also a house which he had had built and taken to pieces. This house was put up on a property at the Lower Huttt which he had acquired and called Tredenham, a name which it bears to this day. From that time he lived at the Lower Hutt, progressing with the Colony. The death of Sir William Fitzherbert is the disappearance of one of the foremost of that band of public men, who helped to organise the foundations of the Colony. A man of strong will, great judgment, high education, and much experience ot life, his value to the Colony in its early days was very great. In the Provincial Government he showed rare powers of administration, as Colonial Treasurer he was singularly able at a time, when exceptional ability was the very quality wanted, in all his public work he always did everythfng exactly at the right time and in the right manner. In the house and in the Provincial Council he was a debator of great powei and readiness. Not one of those who takes notes ; but always sitting silent and collected, often apparently careless, he never missed a point of the debates, and nevefr forgot the appropriate reply to each and all. A cool, very close, verv/N, detailed reasoner he was ; he coulif . be severe with an icy severity never forgotten by the unhappy object — whenever he spoke there was nothing more to be said. He never touched a subject without exhausting it completely.—N.Z. Times,