Obituaries Australia

Mr. Charles Fairs, J.P., one of the most respected and useful members of this community, was removed from our midst yesterday morning by the hand of death. The deceased gentleman was one of those who led a most regular and even life, and who scarcely ever experienced illness of any kind until about three months ago. About that time he suffered very severely from the effects of a tumor or carbuncle in the back of his neck, but after a while he recovered, and seemed as well as ever. He took ill again however, about three weeks ago, from what his medical adviser considered to be softning of the brain, with an approach to paralysis, and from that attack he never rallied. About four or five days ago it became evident that his end was near, and this supposition proved to be correct, for he gradually became worse, and after most agonising suffering, the 'vital spark' took its flight at a quarter to 9 o'clock yesterday morning. The deceased had reached his seventy-first year, and during the last 20 or 30 years of that period he was a resident of Wollongong. His kind and courteous manner, as well as his unassuming character and integrity in all his transactions, deservedly won for him the respect and esteem of all with whom he came in contact. The eulogy often passed upon departed individuals have scarcely been deserved during their lives. The reverse is the case with regard to the subject of this notice. The deceased was one of the few men to be found in any society who are anxious to do good with the one hand, without the knowledge of the other, and on that account many an act of christian kindness and philantropy done by him will remain unrecorded and unknown, excepting in the all revealing and unerring register of Heaven. His valuable labours in connection with the Hospital, the Benevolent Society, the School of Arts, the Church of England, in this town, and other such Institutions were very great, and it will now be a difficult matter indeed to re-fill the various offices rendered vacant by his decease, with those who will do the duties devolving upon them so willing and so well as they were done by him who is now no more. It was consoling to the sorrowing friends of the deceased to witness, as it will be for them to reflect, that the severe sufferings of the last days of his existence were confined merely to all that was mortal of him. Although he suffered in the flesh, his faith 'in Him in whom he believed' remained unshaken and unobscured, and he felt and expressed to the last that he was 'only going home,' from the earthly tabernacle of the body to 'an house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.' It will be noticed that the funeral of the deceased will move from his late residence to-day at three o'clock.