“It was with mingled feelings of sorrow and relief that the announcement of the decease of Mr. William Sim, formerly of this district, was received yesterday — sorrow that one who had endeared himself to all classes of the community, had been called away, and relief that a period had at length been put to a course of suffering so gallantly and patiently borne, with a knowledge that human skill could not available to alleviate it. Mr. Sim had for many years been resident in this district and by his geniality, generosity and many bearing had earned the esteem and respect of all with whom he came in contact. It will be within the recollection of our readers that on the 26th February of last year Mr. Sim met with a buggy accident some fifty miles from town, causing an injury to the spinal cord and the sufferings he endured on the journey to town are more easily imagined than described. None who were at his bedside in Walgett will ever forget the calm resolution and fortitude he showed — fortitude that only gave way when he reflected that the calamity which had overtaken him affected those nearest and dearest to him, and in particularly the doting mother to whom he had been son affectionate and dutiful a son. When it was determined, at his own urgent request, to remove him to Sydney, one and all of his friends released they were saying “Good-bye,” and as time passed, reports from his medical attendants confirmed the view that poor William Sim had his last look on Walgett, and that for the few remaining months he might linger on he would only endure a living death. For his relatives the deepest sympathy is universally felt. Walgett has been singularly unfortunate in this respect of recent years, but we feel satisfied that no death has been more widely mourned nor has any evoked deeper and more sincere feelings of sympathy than that of great-hearted, good-natured, honourable William Sim — “dead ere his prime”.”