DEATH OF THE LATE MR. COMMISSIONER BRANIGAN.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 238, 26 September 1873, Page 5

DEATH OF THE LATE MR. COMMISSIONER BRANIGAN.

We regret to have to announce thedeath of Mr. St. John Branigan, at one time Commissioner of the Armed Consta-. bulary, which melancholy event took place last week at the Provincial LunaticAsylum, of which the unfortunate gentle- - man has been an inmate since November^. 1871. He was some years ago a lieutenant in the Cape Mounted Eifles, and in. 1851 he joined the Mounted Police Force in Victoria. In this force he went through the various grades of the service,, and was principally, employed on escort duty. He was afterwards made Sub-In-spector of the City Police Force in Melbourne, and was considered the smartest man in the Colony. At the outbreak of" the Otago Goldfields, the Government here sent to Melbourne to obtain the services of an efficient officer to Commissioner. Mr. Branigan was highly recommended for the.post by.,the policeauthorities of Melbourne, and came overand joined the force on the 21st of October, 1861. While here he organised one? of the best police forces the Colony everpossessed. Subsequently he was offered a commission in the Armed Constabulary by the General Government. This he accepted, and started for Wellington on the Ist of August, 1869. On- arrival at Wellington he set about the organisation of a force that can proudly be pointed to as one of the best bodies of men ever collected together in any part of the world, both as regards material and discipline. It was the force organised by him that fought during the Native disturbances in the North, in many parts of that Island, and travelled through its fastnesses from * one end to the other, in a manner that elicited universal admiration. 11,1 health, however, suddenly overtook the Commissioner ; and, when in Auckland, he went out of his mind, and was for a time an inmate of the Whau Lunatic Asylum. After a stay of some months at this institution he partially recovered, and was sent to Wellington and afterwards came on to Dunedin in May, 1871. In November, however, he relapsed into his former con-, dition, and had to be placed in the Asylum, where he gradually grew worse, and his physical health became weaker and weaker. Six weeks ago he .was seized with a fit of paralysis, under which he. rapidly sunk, and expired, as above, at the age of forty-six years. This untimely close of the life, in a Lunatic Asylum, of a gentleman who a few years ago had such brilliant prospects before him, has cast quite a gloom over all who knew him, and great regret is manifested by the community generally. He leaves a widow and several children—the former receives a pension from the State, the latter are being educated at the Government expense. —' Guardian.'

The 'North. Otago Times' says:—We. are enthusiastic admirers of earnest and active plilanthropy. We wish no one to misunderstand us. We earnestly respect religion and religious men,-but we detest religious hypocrisy. We like consistency, vlf a man is really respectable, he should not trade with rotten ships, he should be emphatically informed that he is not respectable, What does the wealthy British merchants care for " poor Jack,", so long as he —the merchant—gets his fat insurance 1 Is not this marine merchant thoroughly respectable? Does he not go to church at least twice on Sunday ? * Is he not, probably, a Sunday .School patron, or Superintendent? Does not his .name figure on charity lists for frequent £5 notes ? Is he not married to a wife who occasionally visits the poor—in her carriage ? Who dares to say anything of the wealthy, the pious. British merchant, even.if his ships be rotten, or if his sailors be drowned a,t the race of one thousand a year ? The British marine merchant has prosecuted Mr. PlimsolL To eiope with'a man's- wife may be pai*ctoned —at ieaal some people seem to think so ; —but in the typical British merchant, to meddle _ with" a man's bank account is the one unpardonable sin. Consequently the cards have been newly si-.ulil-.-cI. autL now Samuel Pilmsoll stands ins :.yiai as defendant _in ike great case ot '" Tne Bi'ilish ilercLiaut v.jrsics British Honor;" - " " '