OBITUARY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2663, 6 August 1889, Page 2

OBITUARY.

Xkaki.y every week it is the painful duty of the Press in some, portion of New Zealand to chronicle the death of some old and worthy colonist, and the last to swell the already long list is the do-itli of t'h.ul.s ■Stcveii.-i Tot.ton at the early age of fort.yniuc. Mr Tolton, although comparatively a stranger in Waikato. was a well-known figure i'u the South Maud and more particularly South Canterbury. Tin following facts will be read with interest by hi* numerous friends :—Charles Stevens Totfcm was the second son of the liev. Vvilliain Church Tott.n, M.A., Trinity CoUc-e, Cambridge. He was born at Bangor. North Wales, in 1810. At the age of eighteen he left home for New Zealand to join his connections in Canterbury, the well-known Leo family. He then took the niannL-e----mont of the Coldstceam run, owned by I lie Hon. Earnest Gray, the present mvnar of Kreshfield, Taupiri. Upon the saluofllip run to tho Messrs Studholme, he went to the Thames goldfields where h<; was, like many others, very unfortunate, losing nearly all he possessed. Thau ha went to try his fortunes in the Fiji, from thence to Australia and next to England, in which hitter place he was presented with the freedom of the City of London, through being a member of the Mercer's Company. He returned to New Zealand once more in 1875, and in the following year he married the oldest daughter of Mr 0. K. Hoskruge of l'arnoll, and soon afterwards returned to Canterbury, where he lived, employed in various capacities until the present year, when in April last, he came north again, and was wigaged up to within a short time of his death in superintending the starting and working of a tiax mill, the worry and difficulty consequent on establishing such an undertaking, undoubtedly preyed considerably upon his mind, and in a .state of health by n ■ me-nis robust of lata, he fell a ton easy victim to an attack of inflammation of the lungs. That lie will be missed by those who knew him well goes without saying, and in Taupiri he had already, liy hi- kindly disposition and unvarying courtesy to nil, ingratiated himself with the residents, as was pleasingly manifested by the large attendance that followed him to the gra-o. He had lately undertaken the duties of lay reader in the Church of England, at Taupiri, and his effort* in this direction were much appreciated by the inhabitants ■of tho district. He died on I'riday, the 2nd of August after a few days' illness, and was buried on the following Sunday, in the old mission burial ground across the river from the township, the service being read by Mm Huv. J. Haselden, of Auckland. He leaves a wife and four children, tureo sons and one daughter, to mourn his loss.