The Late Robert McLean.

Manawatu Herald, 28 June 1892, Page 2

The Late Robert McLean.

He is dead. Though not unexpected any day since he was first struck down, three weeks ago, yet the intelligence that our old friend, Robert McLean, died yesterday morning at three o'clock, has cast a gloom even to expectant minds- He has gone in peace and in honor, with the love of his intimates and tha respect of all who knew him. Robert McLean was one among thousands, he not merely preached the Word, but most honestly, strove to live, as he advised others to do. Mr Robert McLean was born in Prince Edward's Island in 1828, and. was of Scotch extraction, and was a carpenter and contractor -by trade. On the Australian goldfields, to which he rushed in the beginning of the "fifty's" with thousands of others, he was popularly known as " Yankee Bob," and there he was a force in the land. He took a man's share of the work in that excitable tinie when the criminal element from Van Diemen's Land made life and* property so insecure that diggers slept and moved about from place to place with loaded revolver! by their side. One historical event occurred on the gold-field, at the latter end of 1854, and our lamented friend was such a prominent actor therein that it is only just to explain how the " Ballarat Riot " was occasioned. The Legislative Council had, in June 1854, imposed a license fee of thirty shillings per month, which was raised for a time to sixty shil- . lings — on every person searching for gold. In October the Government issued an order that the police . should devote two days a week to hunting down unlicensed diggers... In a scuffle a digger named Scobie was killed in the Eureka hotel, kept by one Bentley, and he was suspected of the murder. The polioa* magistrate acquitted hhn, it was alleged under corrupt infmenoes, (The Magistrate was afterwards removed from office, and, Bentley committed suicide in Paris.) Indignation meetings were held, and the hotel was burnt down. Three men, not one of whom was concerned in the act, were arrested, and a public meeting was held, and their release demanded. The three prisoners were conveyed to Melbourne and sentenced to short terms of imprisonment. Another demand was made for their release, but was refused, and the aspect of affairs was so threatening at Ballarat that two detachments of infantry were sent up from Melbourne; They reaohed that place on the 28th November, and were attacked by the diggers, but they were driven baok. Two days afterwards the authorities ordered another digger-hunt, and the military were called out to support the police. Ths diggers got entrenched behind a stockade in Eureka.-street, On the 3rd of December the military and police attacked the position and after a severe fight carried it. All the tents were burnt and the district was placed under martial law. The three leading actors evaded the police (the leader, Mr Peter Lalor, vras afterwards Speaker of the Legislative Council of Victoria). Public feeling was so powerfully enlisted on behalf of the insurgents, owing to the character of the provocation they had; received to take up arms in resistance to the mal-administration of the law, that no jury, could be found to convict the men' who had been placed upon their trial. An. amnesty was declared, ancj a commission of inquiry declared that the diggers had been goaded by bad laws badly enforced, and recommended a different system of government. ' The late Mr McLean's many friends will remember the tales he has tqld of his keeping out of the clutohes of the mounted police, by the exercise of his nimble ness of foot among the shafts of Ballarat. In 1869 the deceased came over to Reef ton, and carried out a large number of. works both for tha Government and private persons. He there, we believe, joined the Primitive Methodist Church in an earnest spirit, and used frequently to address gatherings of three thousand to four thousand miners oh a Sunday, and wherever he has been sinoe he has always taken an earnest delight in doing all he could for his church and its work. Oh the various dig* gings he has visited he has built numerous small chapels at his own cost and expense, having in many instances had to carry the timber on his back to the almost inaccessible positions in which they were situated. ■ At Greymouth, Mr McLean in

1875 married, and four years afterwards came to Foxton to Superintend the public woirks for the Manawntu Cbunfcy Cotirigili The family . afterwards reside din Wanganul, Feilding, and Palmerston, and eventually returned to Foxton fibe years ago, when they commenced business as storekeeper. The offices the deceased held in the local Primitive Methodist Church were those of local preacher, and station steward, and class leader. He also took a deep interest in the Sunday school, which practically he supervised with the late Christian Hqnore. Mr McLean leaves a WidW and two adoptrd daughters to mourn his loss. That death might at any moment remove her husband, Mrs McLean has been aware of for some time, even as the deceased was aware, as he suffered from a weak heart, so that his being called away so suddenly was more the realisation of a constant expectancy, rather than a shock. The loss is however as severe,' and the tendering of one's sympathy, though kind, is of little service, until Time has had an opportunity to moderate their grief. The chief solace to? his widow and dear friends must lie in the fact that death's call came to one who was not shocked at its summons, and who looked, during his days of fading away, to a happy and • blessed hereafter. . The funeral is arranged for Thursday at half past one.