Obituaries Australia

On the 21st July, at Manly, N.S.W., whither he had gone to spend a few weeks, Mr. Thomas Hodges Mate succumbed to congestion of the lungs, at the ripe age of eighty-four. Mr. Mate first saw the light in Kent, England, on the 5th April, 1810. When twenty-three years of age he went to New South Wales, and remained in Sydney for about eighteen months. Acting upon the advice of his friends, he then went up country to gain experience on Mr. Futter's station. He made his first speculation in sheep by the purchase of a small flock from Mr. Hannibal Macarthur, a nephew of the wool pioneer of Australia. Travelling south with his flock, he finally settled down on the Tarcutta Greek. There were then no townships where Wagga Wagga and Gundagai now stand, and Yass was just assuming the appearance of a village. He located himself about thirty miles from Wagga and eighty from Albury, and he manifested such aptitude in managing the aboriginals that although there were between 300 and 400 camping around him for a long time, they did not commit any depredations upon his property nor molest any of his household. After spending some fifteen years on this run, Mr. Mate opened a general store in Albury, and the business grew to very large proportions, and is still being continued. Later on Mr. Mate took up Kulki, a large station on the plains between the Yanko and the Murrumbidgee; and still later (in 1855) he occupied Tumbarumba run, ninety miles above Albury, and fifty from Tarcutta. These station properties have for some time been managed by his sons. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly as the representative of the Hume in 1861, and held the seat for about nine years. He succeeded in passing an Act to deal with the careless use of fire — a measure which has proved very beneficial to pastoralists. His place of residence during recent years has been his freehold property of 12,000 acres at Brae's Springs, about twenty miles from Albury. The deceased gentleman leaves a widow and a family of three sons and four daughters