Ward - The Bendigo (Victoria, Australia) Advertiser of Oct. 14, contains the obituary of Mr. J. G. Ward, which we copy below. He was a brother of Miss Ward, of the first line of Drummond, who is now the sole occupant of the Ward homestead, and likely where the subject of the obituary was born. Another brother, Edward, lived on the same farm until something over twenty years ago when he went west. A sister died only a year or two ago, on the farm. The only surviving brother, who gives his initials as A. Ward lives yet in Australia. The deceased, we understand, never his visited native land after he went to the Antipodes in 1852, but he made good there, and became not only a prominent but a very useful man in his far-off home. He sent copies of Australian newspapers regularly to his sisters here, and many of them were brought to the Courier office from time to time. Deceased was a member of the Roman Catholic Church. The obituary reads:"An early arrival on Bendigo goldfield, in the person of Mr. James Keating Ward, passed away at Castlemaine on 4th October (his 85th birthday). Mr. Ward was born at Perth, Canada, and was grand nephew to the late Dr. Keating, Bishop of Ferns, Wexford, and arrived in Victoria in 1852. He was a surveyor by profession, but the attractions of the diggings brought him, like many others, to Bendigo, and he was located at White Hills and Epsom. While there, his knowledge of engineering enabled him to be of great service to the alluvial diggers and puddlers then working, he having planned the first race constructed for the supply of water round the White Hills. Shortly afterwards, he went to Englewood, Rheola (then known as Berlin), and erected the first crushing plant in the Wehla District, to which reefers from Donolly, Bet Wet, and other districts for 30 miles around brought their quartz for treatment. He was associated with all the well known personages of that time in Bendigo, such as Mr. W.D.C. Donovan and "Bendigo Mac." Mr. Ward was full of reminiscences of the stirring times of the fifties, especially of the diggers' license agitation and the police raids in search of unlicensed wielders of the pick and shovel. Later he practiced his profession and assisted in the laying out of the town of Heidelberg. He commenced teaching at the National Schools in 1870, and was transferred to the Department of Education on the passing of the Education Act in 1873. Mr. Ward took great interest in technical and scientific education generally, and was also a good general scholar. he was of a retiring and modest deposition, and his nearest friend would probably not be aware of the profundity of his knowledge. On one occasion the qualifications of the subject of this article were called in question, and an officer sent to examine him as to his ability. The examiner on opening the roll found on the front page a Greek memo written in the original and confined himself to writing a corresponding quotation, and did not make any further inquiry into the qualifications of the "common digger." He was a keen educationalist, and supplied valuable information to the department, which was incorporated in the report drawn up by the late Prof. Pearson. He originated the nature study system, and the making of maps in sand was also originated by him. He was in charge of various country schools in the Inglewood District, and was greatly loved and respected by those who came under his supervision, and it is a tribute to his worth that the pallbearers at the interment at Rheola Cemetery were all old schollars, now gray headed men. He was intensely patriotic, and had a great desire to see the end of the war and the return of the Australian soldiers."