Obituaries Australia

Many will be surprised and grieved to hear of the death of Mr. [James Mein] Loder of Quirindi, Liverpool Plains, a gentleman well known throughout the colony, and highly respected. It appears (says the Tamworth Examiner on the 25th ultimo) that he had been ailing for some weeks, but being an apparently strong active man, and in the prime of life, it was believed he might ultimately recover. An unfavourable turn, however, set in on Sunday last, and it was then made apparent that he could not last long, which proved to be the case, as death ensued on Monday. The funeral took place last Thursday, and the remains were attended to their last resting place by a large concourse of relations and friends who had hastened to pay the last tribute of respect to one who in every relation of life had endeared himself to them. The deceased was a very old resident of this district, having lived at Quirindi for fully a quarter of a century, and had from the moment he came into possession of his station property, so acted as to secure the good will of his neighbours of every class to a degree seldom accorded to those in his position. Possessed of ample means, he dispensed his hospitality to persons in all grades of life in a really princely manner, and we venture to assert no man ever left his door without leaving his present necessities amply provided for. The deceased was in this respect a splendid specimen of the old school of squatters, now unhappily rapidly disappearing. When the present land laws came into operation unlike many of his squatting brethren, he hailed the presence of the free selectors, on his runs as an omen of the colony's progress, and he was often heard to declare, that through the facility with which he secured labour at the busy times of the year the selectors were worth to him £200 per annum. With these people he worked most harmoniously, and the result was there was not a settler on the run who would not have gone through–to use his own language–"fire and water" for him. In every work of charity he was a most liberal contributor, and the residents of Wallabadah will for a long time miss the generous open handed liberality of the deceased. Such are a few of the characteristics of the late Mr James Mein Loder, whose death will be a source of sincere regret to all who ever had the pleasure of his acquaintance.