Poverty Bay Standard. Published Every Wednesday & Saturday WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1881.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 918, 16 February 1881, Page 3

Poverty Bay Standard.

Published Every Wednesday & Saturday WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1881.

“ We shall sell to no man Justice or Right; “ We shall deny to no man Justice ar Right; “ We shall defer to no man Justice or Right."

“ Court of Bankruptcy yester- “ day, Mr. Mechi, of Tiptree Hall, “ Essex, filed a petition for liquidation. “ The debts were estimated at upwards “ of £13,000, and the assets, consist- “ ing of farming stock, at £2,700. A “ receiver was appointed, and an in- “ junction granted to restrain an “ action.”

Such is the paragraph we quote from one of our English files received by last mail. And what a lesson of life it conveys ! In the minds of the most disinterested in any individual’s personal affairs —but still possessing a certain amount of knowledge of that individual’s career —there exists a kind of negative appreciation of the good he has endeavored to effect in his day and generation. But, what a sad reality does the practical close of Mr. Mechi’s life present to those who knew him well, and to the teeming multitudes, in England and her Colonies, who are now profiting by the experience that has not only cost him a fortune, but has cast him into the cold shades of poverty, at a time when he could least afford the loss. No greater benefactor, in his walk- of life, has the world seen. For nearly three decades has Mr. Mechi applied himself, with a devotedness which ought to have been crowned with pecuniary success, to the practical application of chemical science to the pursuit of husbandry. G-eoponics, and farming on the old prosaic system of by-gone years, was, to him, alike cumbrous, expensive, and wasteful; and his late possession, Tiptree Hall, in the County of Essex in England—where the writer of this article knew Mr. Mechi, many years ago —is a lasting monument to the sacrifice that a philanthropic experimentalist has made to the cause he had at heart, and by which the earth has largely benefitted. We trust, however, for the cause of humanity, that this large-hearted benefactor will receive such alleviation in his misfortune, as would be a fitting tribute to the finale of a most laborious life.

Our London contemporary thus notices Mr. Mechi : —“ Air. Mechi, of Tiptree Hall, has made his name almost a household word in England. Hence it will be with the most unaffected regret that an unusually wide circle of friends will learn that he has been obliged to place his property at the disposal of his creditors. Few men have toiled more bravely or more usefully than Mr. Mechi. Still fewer have had to endure rougher blows from evil fortune—and of those who have hardly any ever met them with greater manliness and courage than he has displayed iu the course of his career. Something like twenty years ago, when about to succeed to the

Mayoralty of the City of London, he lost the savings of many laborious years. A Bank failure robbed him of thirty thousand pounds, but did not rob him of that high-spirited fortitude and indomitable energy which enabled him not only to ‘ begin the world again ’ with a comparatively light heart, but to repair the hardly-earned fortune that had been so cruelly broken. Unhappily, just as he was within touch of success, a fatal change was wrought in the conditions of retail trading in London. Co-operative Stores became fashionable. Gradually Mr. Mechi’s best customers were decoyed away by them. His West-end business became'a losing concern. His attempt to found a branch in the Strand has practically been a failure, and at nearly fourscore years of age Mr. Mecjii findshimself in bankruptcy. There is but one gleam of brightness in his sad story; his failure is not marked by dishonor. Moreover, the farming operations he has carried on with such signal ability that his name

ranks high amongst those who have done most in our time to advance the art of Agriculture iu England, have been eminently successful. But at seventy-nine years of age even a man of Mr. Mechi’s courage cannot hope to battle with such an accumulation of misfortunes as that to which he has at length succumbed. He feels, it seems, that the time has come when he must fall out of the ranks utterly toil-worn and ‘ weary with the march of Life.’ The painful thing is that Mr. Mechi is now, it appears, in absolute want, and the question is whether it would not be eminently discreditable to the country if he should, after a career of much public usefulness, be allowed to pass the few remaining years of his life in the bitterness of unalleviated poverty.”