DEATH OF MR. LEEFE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 136, 29 June 1901, Page 2

DEATH OF MR. LEEFE.

The mar.y friends mado by Mr. h efe during his short stiy in New | i' ymouth ia the early ptrt of the yen f will regret to learn of his death, which t ok place at the British Residency, t Ratuma, on the 21st Apiil. M". L efe . h dan attack of p'eurisy while in N-w i Plymouth, but was in capital health [ wiieD leaviog for the Islands, and was tinxious to get awiy b fore the winter came on. The gentkman wuj H.B.M. Comm ssioaer on the isl.md of i Ratumn undi-r thi Givernmen 1 : of Fj ! , a pisi'ion similar to that cf i Resident Magistrate, the popu'ation of f t' e Island being some 5000 i ' abaut 20 whites. He wa» the tecjnd [ fon of the late R iv. John Leefr, Rectoi i of Oiesswell, Northumhtrla'd. Hi.-■BO'-her lesiJei at Rii'ar, Yo. kshiio. , His elder'brother is L : eut-Oo!onel J 1 13. Leefe, of tbe Royal Marine Aftil ' l'-ry, and was, till he was invalided tiome a few we-ks ago, in command pf J the girwonatSt, Helena in charge'of tbe Boer pris jusw. He leives a wife 3 >nd one child—an infant son. Hit i is a daughter ot' Mr. and Mrs. C. D. Whitcombe, of New Plymouth, bi> ' r father-in-la v bfing wi'h him at tht- ' 'ime of his death. The late M'-. Le- f fc tv»s a very well-informed m s n, and hul , had lai gi- experience in the Ishnds. 1 snd was one i f tbe most trust d officei s s of the Government in the Fij 1 He alminist rid the whol" 1 of th' t Isl aid of Ratuma with its cjmpara- . ively la-'ge papulition with tha aid of ' anly half a dozen p iii leiaer, aud they wose nativjK. His deith, at t* e cornpar lively early a?e of 49, is a great ' blow to h s family, with whom we i sincerity sympathise.