Obituaries Australia

It is with sincere regret that we announce the death of this estimable gentleman, which took place on Wednesday evening last, after a protracted illness issuing in an incurable affection of the lungs, which did not, however, involve great physical suffering, or in any degree cloud his mental powers, which to the last retained their characteristic clearness and intellectual force, as his kindly heart retained its ability to appreciate the attentions of the numerous sympathising friends who esteemed it a privilege to soothe, as they could, his declining days. Mr. Lynd was a native of Plymouth. He entered the army in the year 1816, as Ensign in the 65th Regiment, in which corps he served on the expedition to the Persian Gulf including the capture of the forts of Rasal-el-Khyma and Zaya in 1819, and the expedition to Arabia in 1821, including the action of Beni-Boo-Ali. In 1823, Mr. Lynd (then Lieutenant) was on the half-pay list, he was subsequently appointed barrack-master at Dominica, and after his service there was appointed to the same office in Hobart Town, then in Sydney, and finally in Auckland, where he has been stationed since 1847. He was a man of more than ordinary scientific attainments, and, in the surrounding colonies, as well as here, the students of Natural History will especially feel that in his death Australian science has sustained great loss. He was the intimate friend of the enterprising traveller Dr. Leichhardt, and it was on the occasion of the first supposed loss of that devoted explorer, some years since (1845), that Mr. Lynd composed the exquisitely touching stanzas which have been frequently reprinted both in these colonies and in Europe, and of which we published a revised copy in the New Zealander some fifteen months since. We have reason to believe that other poetical compositions have proceeded from the same pen, little if at all, less likely to command admiration had they been as generally circulated. While many knew Mr. Lynd as a man of extensive acquirements, comparatively few knew the active and practical benevolence of his disposition — perhaps none were acquainted with the full extent of his charities, for there was no ostentation about them, and some particular illustrations of his disinterested humanity, which as we write occur to our memory, only came to our knowledge by accident, warranting the conclusion that he was one of those who 'do good by stealth.' In him the necessitous have lost a benefactor; science has lost a loving and reverent son; and his more immediate circle of friends and acquaintances has been deprived of a member whose accomplished mind, courteous manners, winning amiability and kindly emotions will not soon be forgotten.— New Zealander.