DEATH OF MR LOCKE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 441, 15 April 1890, Page 3

DEATH OF MR LOCKE.

[from our OWN CORRESPONDENT.I Auckland, last night. Yesterday at noon Mr Samuel Locke, ex M.H.R. for the East Coast electoral district, was found dead in his bed at hia lodgings in Mount Eden road. Mr Locke had been a lodger for some time past with Mrs Ellen Symes, boarding house keeper, of Mount Eden road. On Saturday morning he left the house in apparently his usual health and spirits, returning about 9 p.m., and letting himself in he went to his room immediately, and beyond two or three coughs during the night Mrs Symes heard nothing unusual in her lodger’s a room. He did not rise for breakfast yesterday morning, but as he was in the habit of sleeping late in the morning Mrs Symes did not bother about him till about half-past twelve yesterday, when, after receiving no reply to her knocks, she sent one of the children into the room. The child came back aaying that Mr Locke looked very queer, and on examination it was found that life was extinct.

Dr. Robertson was called, but could not state the cause of death. He considered death must have taken place during sleep. The body was lying in a natural petition, with the eyes closed, A vessel in the room contained mucous which Dr. Robertson examined. A number of chemicals and medicine bottles were found in the room, and Constable Dews took charge of them; also a mass of documents and memoranda relating to his duties as member of the General Assembly and as Native Commissioner. Some £2 18s was found on deceased's person, and a gold watch presented to him by the Duke of Edinburgh when the latter visited the colony. Mr Locke was in the habit of taking chlorodyne and laudanum to produce sleep. He was in conversation about 1 o’clock on Saturday afternoon with Mr James Mackay, the well-known Native agent, and that gentleman states that he was then in the best of health and spirits, Mr Locke had of late been trading with the natives for opening np of the Urewera country, and his death will be a great blow to those who hoped to see the country open for prospectors, as it was well known that Mr Locke was about the only person with influence strong enough to break through the barrier of reserve and savagery with which these Ureweras have surrounded themselves.

Mr Locke was just about 60 years of age. He was married to a daughter of Mr Joseph Rhodes, of Napier. His wife and two sons are now in Sydney. He had two severe accidents some years back, once having hia collar bone broken at Napier by being thrown with bis wife from a carriage, and the other time falling over the breastwork at Wellington and breaking his leg severely. The latter accident confined him to his bed for over four months, and though his health may have been seriously shaken at the time it was thought possible that death was caused in some way by poison, but the post mortem examination shows this was not so. Death was due to apoplexy, and a verdict was returned of death from natural causes.