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OBITUARY.
MB GEORGE MATSON.
On Thursday week last Mr. George
Matson, a well-known resident of
Fremantle and Subiaco, died suddenly
on the Perth railway platform. Mr.
Matson wa6 seeing hi6 wife off by train
to Wagin, and had entered the station
by the overhead bridge steps, and
had just reached the platform when
he fell dead from heart failure. Mr.
Matson had a very wide cii-cle of
friends in South Australia and this
State, where he. arrived with his
family twelve years ago. He has
lived at Fremantle and Subiaco ever
since, although about seven years ago
his sons took up laud at Moulyinning.
Mr. George Matson was a well-known
journalist in South Australia, and on
leaving that State, carried away with
him many expressions of good will
and appreciation, among'them - letters
from the leading judges, Will. G.
Sowden, of the "Adelaide Register,"
and from the Governor of S.A. the
Ear1 of Kin tore. The following
review of some of 'his poems was
written by Sir Winthorp Hackett, and
appeared in the "West Australian:—
A Cottesloe Poet.
"Mr. George Matson, of Cottesloe,
who this woek celebrated his sixtieth
birthday, has sent us
some of his
poems,
for years he has been a
profilic writer on topical subjects, as
well as on those eternal themes round
which so much poetry circles.
The^
almost
forgotten escape of
H.M.S.
Calliope, at Samoa, is, for instance,
the subject of some
very
stirring
verses.
Entirely different in character,
but equally striking, are the
lines on the death of Ben
Germein,
a South Australian pilot.
Quite a
number of poems deal with the Boer
war,
and Mr. Matson's
loyalty
is
further demonstrated in his "Little
Australia's Dream," which poetically
describes a possible sharing-out of an
independent
Australia
among
the
European Powers.
A nautical rhyme
to the old sailors pulling chorus of
"Rauso," and "The Diver,"
which
deals with the opulent and tyrannical
East, exhibits a wide diversity both
of subject and treatment.
A varied
experience on sea and land, succeeded
by
the
disabling
torture of rheumatism,
have left no bitterness in- Mr.
Matson's verses.
These indicate wide
gifts of language and imagination, and
considerable
powers
in
versifying.
Ncne of the poems sent to us deal
directly with this State, which may
be - regrettable,
though it prevents
judgement on them being biassed by
any provincial predilection."
His death, though sudden, was
peaceful at the ripe old age of seventythree.
Among those left to mourn
him in this district are Mrs. George
Matson (widow), Mr. and Mrs. William
Matson (son and daughter-in-law)
Mr. and -Mrs. Jack Matson (son -sand
daughter-in-law), Messrs Ernest and
Roy Matson (sons), Mrs. Gooding
nd Mrs. Sweeney {daughters) \
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