WILSON GRAY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 85, 9 April 1875, Page 2

WILSON GRAY.

With ' this gentleman, whose death was recently reported by telegraph, we had not the pleasure of being personally acquainted, but he evidently was one who commanded the respect of all who knew- him. The Otago Daily Times of Monday last had a five-column notice of him from the pen of Judge Chapman. Id one part it says :— ' So far as pound*, shillings, and ftetiee were concerned, Gray was a puzzle, as he not only seemed to fight against his own interests when sDy individual or Government w»s friendly disposed and manifested a desire to help him onward, but whentver he had monty at his disposal his aim seemed to be to discover somebody upon whom it could be lavished There are men in the province who owe whatever they have t~> him, men to whom hundreds of pounds had been r.dvaneed without a particle of security. There ate rough swagsraen who owe many a lift on Cobb'e ccach to ths gentle little creature by whom the reckoning was paid. There are widows whose money was invested in unfortunate mining speculations, but who hava been repaid by one upon whom they la* l neither legal .or moral claims. There are thousands of travellers by eoash, nnd imny publicans and sinners who cm bear testimony to the quiet, unobtrusive, gent c manner a:>«i kindly spirit of their mere travelling judicii.l companion: Grey's failing health was the subject of comment among his iiieod* long beiore his decea?e, and they urged him t > avail himself of the leave of absence l;e wa^ entitled to in virtue of his sarviee, but tbis ho would not hear of until he "had ddne his ten years," and then, when the ten yeara wtte. done, he insisted upon waiting a little longer; he could not aif'ord to go just then. Nolens valens, the Legislature insisted, with the l:e<t and most kindly intentione i meaning, that he should go, and have, moreover, a year's pay and an annuity of £300. Grey took this t> heart very sadly.. "They want to shelve me," snid he-, " why don't they stnd a shovel and wheels arrow, and put me decently imo ray gra^e nt once." It was a little bur-t ol broken spirit, because the physical tenement was crumbling to pieces, but up to the la*t the same old sensitiveness of conscience stuck to him. He was very ill when he leit Dunedin on his fiaal round. "This is my last," Bail he; "when I come back I'll laugh and grow fat." At Queenstown Sir Geurge Arney s iy-i lie had to be larried to his bed, and was so ill that- one coachman declare that he would not take the risk of carrying him. At Clyde ha was even worse, and so impressed were thostwho Bnw him that that was the occasion of th ir final interview, that they pressed forward to fay a kindly farewell. Then h.travelled on to lawreuce, hia last halting place. Before reaching Dunedin he became woi-fc, and had to leave the coach at Tevi-.t, He whs suffering much from dysentery. Frew the Teviot he travelled to Lawrence by buggy, and reached his final destination on Tue-day On Wednesday, March 31— Gray's last judicial day — he insisted upon bein? carried t<> the Uourt-hou^e to discharge his remaining duties even if he died in harness Rern n sirances proved unavailing, and from the Couit he wis curried back to the bed from which he will be biily removed as part ami parcel of the funeral cortege. His sensi o' duty remained so strong to the last that in one of his latest moments of consciousness ho said. '• What day of the month is ii ? " On receiving a reply, he aaiJ, f> Then I still havo jurisdiction." Another writer in the same journul concludes :— - Ten years spent in coaches running over the roughest rondp, in deep mire, iir.djr broiling suns, and in piercing cold ; ten y^ars of roadside inns and t-h^nties, of little comfort, much discomfort and endurance, aid among many rough-tongued and hard-vhaped men, his mission has been to de«l out justice and his aim to heal the broils and quarrels of men. His life and his service were not n\mv among the great of this word, but lor ihu comfort and happineßS of suffering humanit'. . His ambition has been to do good for lifellow men with willing ear and open heart end ready purse, which have always been his, as many poor and needy ones have oiten known. He could have been a bigger, bur not a greater man, with a larger office, but not, a larger heart. Guileless as a child, !■« had wit, whose flashes were bright and sparl/ling as sunshine plenms on wintry dayc/a mind strung in all but its own consciously ss of power, and a will weak only when Billinterest required that strength of purport' should predominate. When Mature demnr.dfl the last and only debt to all mankind, mai y silent poeans shall be sung in honor of my tender-hearted, noble, gentle friend, dear old Wilson Gray.