Obituaries Australia

The death is announced of Mr. Joseph E. Carne, F.G.I., late Government Geologist of New South Wales, who retired from the Department of Mines in December, 1919.

His appointment to the Public Service dated from March 3, 1879, and among the various positions filled during his career were those of curator and mineralogist to the Mining and Geological Museum, and Geological Surveyor. He assisted, as the representative of the New South Wales mining and geological section, in the preparation of the Sydney International Exhibition, 1879, and was a representative at the Melbourne Exhibition, 1881, the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in 1889, the international Exhibition of Mining and Metallurgy, London, 1890, and the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. He saw the mining industry grow from small proportions to its present magnitude.

Mr. Carne took up the position of Government Geologist in January 1916 and he ably filled that position until his retirement. His enthusiasm and thorough knowledge of the mining and geological conditions of the State found expression in the many valuable works under his name viz - Memoir of the Western Coal Field and also of the Kerosene Shale Deposits of New South Wales mineral resources series on Chrome Iron Ore, Tungsten Ores Copper Mining Industry, Mercury or Quicksilver, Tin Mining Industry, Tungsten Industry, Antimony Mining Industry and the Limestone Deposits of New South Wales. In addition innumerable reports by Mr. Carne have been published in the Departmental annual reports, and in 1912, at the request of the Federal authorities he made an examination of the Papuan Mineral Oil Belt, and furnished a long report which was published in the form of a memoir. His sound opinions and valuable advice proved of inestimable value to the mining community.

The late Mr. Carne possessed a charm of personality which endeared him to all those who were brought into association with him.

He was an Australian by birth. His life was a striking proof of the statement that every private carries a marshal’s baton in his knapsack. Trained as a pastoralist and appraiser of station rentals he became a master in all that pertained to skill in bushcraft. Only when driven from the sub-arid district along the Cooper and Diamantina by fear of blindness did he in despair turn his attention to geology. Mr. Carne was born in 1855. His father and uncle were wheat farmers near Appin in the early days. Thence they travelled to the Riverina, Boonoke and Moulamein, and became pastoralists. Mr. Carne afterwards left Deniliquin with a party droving cattle to the Diamantina and Cooper Rivers, Mr. Carne, however became almost blinded by sandy blight and was forced to return to the coast at Sydney. Undaunted by his previous experience he set out again for the Cooper but was forced to return once more and had to commence life afresh at the age of 24 years. He then came under the notice of the late Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, Government Geologist, who offered the young pastoralist a position on the geological survey staff.

The funeral will leave the late residence of the deceased at Strathfield at 2.15 this afternoon for the Church of England section of the Rookwood Cemetery.