Obituaries Australia

The sad news telegraphed from Lerida station, North-west Queensland, to the effect that Mr. H. F. Watton, the manager, had put an end to his life on the 21st October was a great shock to his large circle of friends and relatives. Few men were more liked, or rather beloved, than "Harry Watton." Cheery, bright—with a good word for everyone and never a bad one for anyone—cool and level-headed, he was the very last man to have committed such an act had he been in his right senses. He had only lately resigned the management of Mr. Andrew Tobin's well-known station, "Wingadee," to take charge of Messrs. Dickson Bros.' magnificent Lerida property, near Muttaburra, North-west Queensland, on which some 300,000 sheep are depastured. Mr. Watton appears to have contracted dengue fever, and to have run down very rapidly. He had not slept for eleven nights, and his last letters show that he thought he was going out of his mind in the state of utter depression and despondency into which he had fallen. Although he had no real cause of anxiety in the world, all looked black, and in utter desperation, and quite out of his mind, he sought relief in death. The relations between Mr. Watton and his employers were the best possible, and Mr. Leslie says his mind was perfectly easy about the property once he had put Watton in charge. As instancing his coolness, Mr. Leslie says he was driving with him one day with a pair of young horses. The horses commenced kicking and bolting and for a time matters looked extremely ugly, and Mr. Leslie was wishing himself well out of it. Mr. Watton, however, got them in hand after a bit—he had an iron wrist—and then turning to Mr. Leslie he remarked parenthetically—"The horses are a little fresh this morning, Mr. Leslie." Not one who ever met "Harry Watton" but will regret that so good a heart and keen a brain, and a life so full of promise, should hare been so abruptly and so sorrowfully terminated.