The death occurred yesterday afternoon of Mr. Henry Bowyer Black, in his 81st year, at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. J. S. Ferguson, Brisbane Street.

Born in London on August 27, 1844, he was educated at the City of London Public School, and the North London Collegiate School, gaining at the latter institution some boners as a classical student. 

His father, Mr. Alexander Black, was a man of high literary attainments, and was for many years closely associated with Mr. Glover, who was private librarian to the late Prince Albert, who was a great enthusiast in the study of the literature and languages of the early ages.

Mr. A. Black assisted in collecting, restoring, and classifying many documents, manuscripts, etc., of historic and literary value, to add to the already large collection in the private library of Prince Albert. Mr. Black, senr., was a distinguished German scholar, a graduate of the University of Leipzig, where he was a fellow student, and subsequently became the lifelong friend of Sir Julius Benedict, the famous musician; and it was there he acquired that perfect knowledge of the language of the country which enabled him to publish "Black's German-English Dictionary," a work which for many years was the text book of the schools in Great Britain and Germany.

Mr. H. B. Black's mother was a Hume, of Montrose, niece of Joseph Hume the famous political economist. Mr. H. B. Black had five brothers, and one sister, now all deceased. One of his brothers, Mr. Hume Black, represented this district in Parliament for thirteen years and was a member of the Cabinet for some years.

The Black Family Grave at Mackay Cemetery. (Glen Hall Collection, March 2008)

Close-up of Monumental Inscription. (Glen Hall Collection, March 2008)

Coming to Australia in 1862, Mr. H. B. Black landed in Melbourne, whence, after a stay of a few weeks, he proceeded to the Riverina district (N.S.W.) and found his brothers, Hume and Fred, in business; but after a short time he left the Lower Murray, and reaching Albury, went into agricultural work, leasing a vineyard from Mr. J. T. Fallon.

In 1872 he came to Queensland at the invitation of his brother Hume and became one of the band of pioneers of the North side of the Pioneer River. He engaged in the opening up of the Cedars plantation, which his brother had then recently taken up. He thus became intimately associated with such men as Cummings and McCready, of Richmond; McBride and Finlayson, of Glenalbyn; Macdonald Bros., of Inverness; Paget Bros., of Nindaroo; E. Denman, of Etowri; H.J. Jane, of Glendarragh; Carrol and Avery, of Miclere; and Armitage and Gladstone, of Eimeo and with them contributed his share in the work of developing that part of the district.

In, 1875 he took charge of The Cedars mill, which was erected just in time for the crushing season. Owing to an accident which befell the sugar boiler, Mr. de Koch (a French engineer who had erected the mill, and was engaged to take off the crop); Mr. Black, with only a fortnight's experience, had to undertake the duties of sugar boiler, and owing to the close study which he had made of Mr. de Koch's methods he successfully continued the crushing to its conclusion.

During the five years that he retained the management of The Cedars, he contributed letters and articles to the Melbourne "Argus" and the Brisbane "Courier', on the sugar industry, and the progress of the Mackay district, and it was doubtless the hereditary literary instinct which, reasserting its influence, led him to leave The Cedars, at the invitation of Mr. Gresley Lukin, editor-in-chief of the Brisbane "Courier," who offered him an appointment as agricultural editor upon the staff of the paper he controlled in the place of Mr. Angus Mackay, who was then in America, representing the 'Courier'' at the Philadelphia Exhibition, and was not expected to return. Mr. Mackay, however, did return, and resumed his former place on the staff, and Mr. Black remained in Brisbane for some months as a freelance on the "Courier."

He returned, to Mackay later in the year in order to give a thoroughly exhaustive trial of the Easte's process of sugar clarification on behalf of a syndicate of which Mr. Lukin was the chief member. Mr. Black's report was unfavourable, and the process was abandoned. Shortly after this a proposition to start a new paper was submitted to him, and finally, in conjunction with Mr. Edwin J. Welch, the Mackay "Standard'' was started, its first number, an unambitious four page weekly, appearing on December 11, 1877. Within a few months Mr. Black bought his partner out and for upwards of thirty-three years, continued to control the paper, which had established for itself the reputation of being an excellently well-printed journal, the literary contents of which were always of a high standard.