This morning's obituary contains a notice of the death, at the ripe age of 76, of the Rev. Louis Alexander Baker, at his residence, 'Bitah Conah,' in Bellerine Street, Geelong.

The deceased gentleman was known to few in this town outside a very limited circle, his state of health aggravated by increasing deafness preventing him taking the active part he would have desired in public affairs. Those, however, who had the privilege of his acquaintance greatly valued his cultured mind, his kindliness of heart, and other qualities of a true minister of Christ.

Mr. Baker, who had received a diploma as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, practised in that learned profession for some years, both in England and India, until the time of the gold discoveries, when, like many others, he took up his abode in this colony.

Soon after his arrival, he offered himself to Bishop Charles Perry for spiritual work, and was licensed as a reader to the cure of souls in the district known as the Moonee Ponds.

On St. Thomas' Day, December 21st, 1852, he was ordained deacon and appointed to the curacy of St. Paul's, Melbourne, where he established a warm friendship with the Rev. Canon Septimus Lloyd Chase, which has never been interupted.

For many years he officiated in the district surrounding Koroit, between Belfast and Warrnambool, where he was much beloved and valued, his name being a household word in that locality to the present day. A stained chancel window in the church at Koroit, put up to the memory of his first wife, is a lasting memento of the kindly feelings of the people towards himself.

From Koroit, Mr. Baker was transferred to Ballan, thence to Talbot, and afterwards to Buninyong, where for some years he continued to labor with the same success as in other spheres of duty.

For the last four years he has been unequal to clerical duty, owing to a chronic weakness of the throat and other infirmities.

Although belonging to the diocese of Ballarat, he chose Geelong as the home of his declining years, where he built a house suited to his moderate necessities. True to his Indian traditions, he gave to his dwelling a Hindostanee name, 'Bitah Conah' (the House of Rest).

In him the Church of England loses a faithful minister, one no less sound in the faith than self-denying and earnest in laboring for souls. There are many scattered through the colony left to mourn over a true friend, who for humility of mind, unobtrusiveness of manner, and every Christian grace, deserves to be enshrined in loving memory.