Connect

An Epitome of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs and Land Purchases in the North Island of New Zealand

Death of Sir Donald McLean. Government House, Wellington, N.Z., 6th January, 1877.

My Lord,—

It is with sincere regret that I have to announce to your Lordship the death of Sir Donald McLean, which took place at Napier.

2.	When I reported to your Lordship, by last mail, the retirement of Sir Donald from the office of Native Minister, I had no reason for suspecting that the illness from which he was then suffering would so soon prove fatal.
3.	Although, from the able and judicious manner in which he has for some years conducted Native affairs in this colony, his loss is not now likely to produce the same results that it might have done a few years ago, I still look upon his death as a serious loss to the colony, as even when out of office the great influence which he possessed among the Maoris would always have been available to smooth down and mitigate any difficulty that might arise.
4.	There is, in my opinion, no public man in this country to whom the colony owes a deeper debt of gratitude than to Sir Donald McLean, and he has left a name behind which will long be regarded with respect and esteem by all parties in New Zealand.

I have, &c.,

Normanby.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon.