OBITUARY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 685, 5 February 1881, Page 3

OBITUARY.

whose death was announced in a very J**, telegram on Wednesday moi ■l! •? H ?f i ß(,1 °<W, and having obtained a post in the May 22,1802, was at the age of sixteen '■»- \ n a tnercanlil e house in . the; Newfoundland trade, where he re- • named eleven year.. In this capacity he contnved to turn the usual hour allowed for dinner to a- profitable account by selling among hisfriends aniacquaintances in the oity, a small and inexpensive •ft °L wh, ? h he had bought the patent. The consequence waß that. .. mainly his-.awn exertions, he was •snabled, about 1827, to set up on his own account, as a cutler, in a very small shop a 18M, all ' Btree 'i and between 1830 I a ,?„ feal| Bed.'a handsome fortune ■oy the« Magio Razor Strop," which bears tWJS In 1840 ' having attentively English farming, he resolved to some improvements-in ag'ricnlwPnd'accordingly bought a small farm O ajqut 130 acres at Tiptree Heath, one ■ of Oialeaat productive districts in Essex, Here lie resolved to try what he could effect by the system of deep drainage, and the application of steam power. The Essex farmers laughed at him as an enthusiMt,,the country gentlemen held ftloot.from him, but he persevered till he broughthis small farm to such a state of productiveness that he has made it realise annually an aveage handsome profit; While the Press, has acknowledged the services which 'Kb" has rendered to agricultural science by the exhibition of modern processes upon his model farm. He was appointed to the Shrievalty of London in July, 1856, and elected an Alderman in the following year. About tho same time he was presented with.*a handsome testimonial of the value of £6OO, subscribed by noblemen and gentlemen interested in Boience and agriculture at home and. abroad, Mr Mechi has been for :; years a. member of the Council, of the Society of Arts, and was a Juror in the .'Department of Art and Science at the .. Great Exhibition of 1851, and at the In- J .Jus trial. Exhibition at Paris in 1855, to which he was specially sent- by Her Majesty's Government. He has written " Letters on Agricultural Improvements," published in 1845;" Experience in Drainage," in 1847; and "How to Farm Profitably," in 1860. The latter is a new and enlarged edition of an account of his improved agricultural system, which, in a cheap and popular-form, has reached a sale of 10,000 copies. After eight years' ■ service as alderman'of London he'resigned' his gown,'very much against the wishes of his constituents. He retained the office of-Magistrate of Middlesex'and one of the Deputy-Lieutenante for the City of London. "