Obituaries Australia

Mrs. Jemima Mack, widow of the Rev. Hans Mack, died last week.

Had she lived another three months she would have completed 90 years of life. Although in recent years she was blind, she evinced a lively interest in everyday affairs, and retained in a wonderful measure her cheerfulness and youthfulness of spirit to the end. A daughter of the then well-known Mr Benjamin James, senr, of Sydney, she was married to the Rev Hans Mack in 1859, and shared with him experiences of circuit life in New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia, and again in New South Wales, where Mr Mack's ministry closed in 1890. He was one of the early and pioneer ministers of the Wesleyan Church, and was a member of the first Australian Conference in 1855. In those early days ministers of the church were liable to transfer at the will of the conference to any part of Australia. But Mrs Mack not only never complained, but rather enjoyed the experience of making new friends, of enlarging her acquaintance with Australia, and of appraising differing types of character and varying modes of life. She especially enjoyed her experiences among the gold-diggers of Braidwood in the early 60s of last century and among the Cornish miners of South Australia in the 70's of that period. The mother of a large family, she devoted herself in her widowhood to the education and upbringing of her sons and daughters, and how well she succeeded in that task is evidenced by the success achieved by them in their several lines of life. Two of her sons became doctors, another son attained eminence at the Bar, and is a leading King's Counsel, yet another is a civil engineer, and all the rest are in honourable commercial positions Of the daughters three enjoy eminence in the journalistic and literary world. Who does not know Louie Mack, Amy Eleanor Mack, and Miss Gertrude Mack, thiough their frequent contributions to current journalism, whilst the other daughters are happily placed in homes of their own. One of her grandsons occupied till quite recently the position of associate to one of the Supreme Court Judges, only relinquishing it to be called to the Bar. Always a great leader and possessed of a retentive memory, Mrs Mack was pre-eminently a ready conversationalist. Well informed in many subjects, she kept up her interest in life right up to the last, having the daily papers read to her as also many of the best of modern books. She loved life and all that it stood for. Comparatively suddenly at the last she quietly slipped away.