Colonel Packe is very ill, and a rumor was going about to-day that he was dead, but it is not true. -Hawkes Bay Herald, 19/9/1882.
We are glad to be able to contradict the rumour that was circulated in town yesterday, and revived this morning, as to the death of Colonel Packe. That gentleman is seriously ill at his own house; but by accounts received this morning, he is able to be taken out of doors in a bath chair. -Star, 19/9/1882.
THE FUNERAL OF THE LATE LIEUT. COLONEL PACKE.
Captain Hamersley, of the Artillery, has received a communication from Major Lean, commanding the district, informing him of the arrangements of the funeral, which are as follows: The funeral will leave the residence of deceased at Upper Riccarton, at 2.15 p.m. to-morrow. The headquarter corps, Christchurch; the B troop of the C.Y.Q., dismounted; the C Battery N.Z. Artillery, without guns; No. 1 Temuka and No. 2 Ashburton Rifles, all in full dress with arms, rifles and bayonets, the whole under the command of Captain Hamersley, will proceed by the train leaving Timaru at 7.30 a.m., Temuka at 8.15 a.m., and Ashburton at 10.55 a.m. to Middleton Station, arriving shortly before direct to the house, returning by 9 ordinary or special trains. No billets or rations will be provided, however. -South Canterbury Times, 18/10/1882.
The following, In Memoriam, of the late Colonel Packe appears in the "Lyttelton Times," over the signature of "Voltigeur:" "Kind, courteous and genial George Packe, late of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, was a man who could have left no enemies behind him. It seems hard to have to write in the past tense of one who was in the prime of life, and whom we would so willingly have kept among us; but it has been so decreed, let it be the consolation of those who now mourn him that none can look back on his past life and say that Colonel Packe ever, by word or deed, deviated from that path of honor and truthfulness he felt so instinctively should be followed by a gentleman and a soldier. Faults in common with the rest of mankind be naturally had; but faults so trivial and so totally devoid of harm to others that they will sink with him into the grave, leaving with us only those recollections of his good and kindly qualities, which will so strongly and so lastingly endear his memory to us. Hating snobbishness in any form, and detesting whatever was low or mean, he delighted in the society of a well-bred gentleman, and had ever a warm corner in his heart for a soldier. He never could forget the profession of his father, and of his own youth, and the 'ruling passion' came out 'strong in death.' It was only on Thursday last that he sent up a message requesting that an officer and a trooper of the Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry should be sent down to Sumner for him, to see the new helmets just adopted by the regiment; a request, which it is needless to say, was promptly and cheerfully complied with. He did good service to his country in his young days; and there will be many now, who, in mourning the loss of Colonel Packe, will at the same time derive some comfort from the reflection that he for whom they grieve was a keen sportsman, a loyal soldier, and a thorough gentleman. -NZ Mail, 28/10/1882.
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