The passing away from amongst us of an old and respected minister of religion, as was the late Rev. Nathaniel Turner, justifies more than ordinary comment. He died on December 5, 1864, after having closed a laborious and successful career; and his advance age - namely 73 - bears testimony to the soundness of the constitution which could so long resist vicissitudes of climate and trying circumstances of no ordinary nature. His later years were marked by intense physical pain, from which he was only lately relieved by a surgical operation very skilfully performed by medical gentlemen in this town. There is reason to believe that but for an obstinate attack of diarrhoea Mr. Turner would have lived many years longer. We have been able, by the courtesy of the family, to collate a few brief particulars respecting the life of the deceased; and, believing that they will be read with great interest throughout all the Australian colonies, we have great pleasure in placing them before our readers.

At a comparatively early age Mr. Turner developed qualifications for the ministry, and was for some years engaged in the work of a Home Missionary. In 1821 he was appointed to the Foreign Missionary work; and, accompanied by his wife, went to New Zealand, where he remained three years and a half, performing, faithfully and successfully, the work before him. The personal risks here encountered, if narrated in detail, would fill a volume. Suffice it to say, that he was driven away by the natives, his dwelling-house burned, and all his personal property destroyed: he and his family saving their lives through the fidelity and daring of a few Maoris.

After a short residence in Sydney he went to Tonga, one of the Friendly Islands, where he labored assiduously, civilising and evangelising the natives for a period of nearly four years. His health failed, and he was obliged to abandon his very interesting work in these islands. One of the incidents in his life which Mr. Turner was accustomed to recall with feelings of the greatest pleasure, was the occasion of his re-visiting Tonga, after an interval of about twenty years, in company with the Rev. Robert Young. He then found that young savages whom he had had under his care had grown up to be Christian men; and, what was peculiarly grateful to himself, they retained vivid personal recollections, and were not slow to give him on the occasion referred to the most cordial reception in their power. To the very last Mr. Turner seemed to love to revert to the affectionate hospitality of the natives of the Friendly Islands at a time when it might reasonably have been supposed that the history of his connection with them had become a thing of the past.

After Tonga, Tasmania was the residence of Mr. Turner for nearly four years. They were eventful years - years when Tasmania deeply needed the kind of assistance which Mr. Turner, from natural sympathy as well as from previous training, was admirably fitted to contribute. The then Governor of the island, Sir John Franklin, was so deeply impressed with the peculiar fitness of Mr. Turner for imparting religious instruction to the convicts, and so struck with the facility of adaptation to all circumstances Mr. Turner evinced, that from the beginning of their acquaintance there arose a mutual esteem and confidence which only separation interrupted.

Mr. Turned found the convicts working in gangs, or otherwise, in an atmosphere which had nothing moral or religious about it; and, having the permission of the Governor, was able to procure the consent of the overseer to stop work while he hitched up his horse and gave them a religious service. In this manner, it cannot be doubted, the almost dead sacred memories and associations of many an unhappy convict were revived, broke into life, and were thankfully attested to years after. His labours in Tasmania remain to this day a convincing memorial that faithful and disinterested labors for the good of humanity are never fruitless.

From Tasmania, after a short stay in Sydney, Mr. Turner was appointed a second time to New Zealand. It is easy to be imagined that he did not enter his labors in New Zealand a second time with any very pleasing anticipations. But again, as he found all through life, he was in the path of duty and usefulness. The natives received him gladly. He instructed them, not only in religious matters, but in many other things greatly contributing to their comfort and civilisation, setting the example himself. He taught them agriculture, architecture, and in numerous ways proved to them the advantages of civilisation. We hear nothing of savage assaults upon personal property during his second stay in New Zealand; on the contrary, there was a visible and permanent growth of both thought and feeling. It may be mentioned that Mr. Turner had obtained perfect possession of the Maori language, and could represent to the natives the leading truths of Christianity in a manner which embodied their own natural love of the figurative and picturesque. In New Zealand the name of Mr. Turner will command respect and veneration for generations to come.

The next change was from New Zealand again to Tasmania, where Mr. Turner labored three years in Launceston, three in New Norfolk, and one in Hobart Town. From Tasmania he went to Sydney, where he had official permission to retire for a brief period from active employment. But he was not the man to prolong a holiday; he enjoyed his work; was happy in it, and did not believe in being set aside. The appointment of his son - the present esteemed manager of the Union Bank of Australia - to Brisbane, led the subject of our remarks to look upon Moreton Bay, as it was then called, as his future home. He arrived here with his family about 1853, bringing with him precisely those qualities which made him a valuable member of our community, and which will make his loss the more severely felt.

Into political questions he did not at first enter with much zest, but no one hailed the advent of Separation with greater joy. Henceforth, it was remarkable to observe the interest with which he noted the rapid development of Queensland. None more clearly foresaw that in Queensland the old saying shall find an illustration: - "That a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation." Accordingly, he was the untiring advocate of well-advised enterprise - small chapels, for instance, in localities likely to be the centres of population - such as Fortitude Valley - he invariably deprecated. Living in the future himself, he wished, not only chapels, but all other great and indispensable public works, to be created in consideration of the requirements of a large population. This feeling pervaded him thoroughly. Anything small or temporary was his peculiar dislike; he had seen villages grown into towns, towns into cities, and cities into capitals: he had seen how progress could be impeded by the absence of confidence in growth and progress; and it was his cherished desire that coming into Brisbane, and finding it wood, he should live long enough to see it - he would not say marble - but brick and stone.

There has gone from our midst a man old in body, worn out physically, but in aspirations equal to the youngest of us. We feel our sketch to be necessarily imperfect, and wish that the biography of Mr. Turner were in abler hands. His life is a great encouragement to all disinterested workers for the good of their fellow men; and as for his death, we can express our opinion in no more appropriate words than "Let my last end be like his!"

The remains of the deceased were conveyed to their last resting place on the afternoon of December 8, 1864. The funeral cortege moved from the Wesleyan Chapel, Albert Street, shortly after four o'clock, the usual service having been performed by the Rev. Theophilus Beaizley. A large number of persons, representing all classes of society, were in attendance, and followed the hearse to the cemetery, where the burial service was read in a very impressive manner, and all that remained of the lamented minister was consigned to the grave.