Obituary.

Mr Henry Kelly, the musical critic of the Melbourne Argus for the past twenty years, died recently, aged 57. He was a very old colonist, and engaged in mining early in the fifties.

A London telegram of 9th April records the death of Mr J. Coutts Crawford, F.G.S., formerly sheriff of Wellington and member of the Legislative Council. In his early life he had seen much service in the navy. He was the contributor of many papers to the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, and maintained the theory that Cook's Strait was formerly the estuary of a great river discharging into the Pacific Ocean the confluent waters of the Manawatu, Wanganui, and other rivers of the West Coast, the two islands being joined by an isthmus where the shallow line now runs between Capes Farewell and Egmont. In 1879 he published Recollections of Travel in New Zealand and Australia. His health failing some two years ago, he went home to seek medical advice.

Mr Warren de la Rue died on the 23rd April, aged 74. The deceased was for many years head of the house of De la Rue & Co., celebrated for cards and fancy stationery, and the business is still carried on by his sons. He was distinguished for his discoveries in the field of photography and electricity, and invented many new processes and machines, some of which he patented. He applied photography to the recording of celestial phenomena with distinguished success. He was a contributor to scientific literature, and has filled several distinguished offices, among others, secretary and afterwards president of the Royal Astronomical Society, president of the Chemical Society, and president of the London Institution.