Obituaries Australia

A cablegram received on Monday morning brought the sad intelligence of the death, in London, of Mr. David Cannon McConnel, of Cressbrook, who, with Mrs. McConnel, was on a visit to England. From the meagre accounts of the melancholy event as yet to hand, we learn that the deceased gentleman had to submit to a surgical operation, and that erysipelas supervening speedily ended in his death. Mr. McConnel was one of our very oldest colonists, having settled on the Brisbane River at a time when little more was known of Moreton Bay than that it had been a place to which refractory convicts from other colonies were sent as a last attempt at reformation. For some time Mr. McConnel gave his attention to sheep-breeding, but his particular fancy lay in the direction of shorthorns, and more than forty years ago he laid the foundation of what has for many years been known as the Cressbrook herd, by the purchase of a number of stud cows from the Australian Agricultural Company, and the importation of some valuable bulls from England. At intervals other importations of valuable animals were added, no other breeder in Queensland having infused so much pure blood into our herds as Mr. McConnel has done. As a matter of course the Cressbrook herd has played an important part in the improvement of other herds in Queensland. As a colonist Mr. McConnel was a man whose place it will be difficult to fill; his charity was unbounded, and his purse was ever open to any organisation having for its object the amelioration of the condition of suffering humanity. It may truly be said of the late Mr. McConnel that he had not one single enemy.