80 ObUuary Notice. [ ,,f ""oct. 



"He was born on 9th October, 1838, at Newark, Bay of Islands, New 

 Zealand, and was educated at Wesley College, Auckland. Having early 

 acquired a knowledge of the Maori language, he was appointed Government 

 interpreter at Wellington in 1855, and started and edited a weekly Maori 

 paper called Tc Kareir o Poucke. In 1859 he was made Native Com- 

 missioner for the southern provinces, and carried through the partition and 

 individualisation of the Kaiapoi native reserve. In 1861 he acted as 

 honorary secretary to the Kohimarama conference of native chiefs, convened 

 by Governor Gore Browne, and in the same year edited the Maori Messefis;e7\ 

 a fortnightly paper in English and Maori, being afterwards also promoter 

 and editor of the Maori Intellii^cncer (both of them Government publications). 

 In April, 1862, he was appointed Resident Magistrate of the Manawatu ; 

 and in April, 1865, Judge of the Native Land Court. In the same year he 

 was present at the taking of Wereroa Pah (Volunteer staff), for which he 

 received the New Zealand war medal. On that occasion, declining the 

 protection of a military escort, he carried the Governor's despatches at 

 night through forty miles of the enemy's country, attended only by a Maori 

 orderly, for which gallant service he was mentioned in despatches. In 1866 

 he became Resident Magistrate and sheriff of Wanganui, which office he 

 held till 187 1, when he went to England as secretary to the Agent-General. 

 For a continuous period of fifteen years he had held various official appoint- 

 ments, chiefly in connection with native affairs, and had on eight different 

 occasions received the special thanks of the Colonial Government. He 

 entered as a student at the Inner Temple on 20th November, 1871, and was 

 called to the bar on 6th June, 1874. In the same year he returned to New 

 Zealand, and practised as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court with 

 remarkable success till 1886, when he visited England as Commissioner in 

 connection with the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. For his services on 

 this occasion he was created K.C.M.G. Sir Walter remained in England 

 till 1890, and took an active part in all public movements affectinj.' the 

 colonies. He was on the Mansion House committee for the Paris E.\hibition 

 of 1889, and was elected a member of the Executive Council. For his 

 services on that occasion he was decorated 'Officer' in the Legion of 

 Honour. Besides enjoying the dignity of a British order. Sir Walter was a 

 Knight (First Class) Austrian Order of Francis Joseph, First Class Order of 

 Frederick of Wurttemburg, Order of Merit (First Class) of Hesse-Darmstadt, 

 and Officier de I'lnstruction Publique (Gold Palm of the Academy). He was 

 awarded the Galileian Medal by the Royal University of Florence, and 

 received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of 

 Tubingen. In 1881 he received the gold medal of the New Zealand 

 Exhibition for science and literature, and was elected a govenor of the New 

 Zealand Institute, of which he was also one of the founders. He married, 

 in 1862, Charlotte, third daughter of Mr. Gilbert Mair, of Auckland, who 

 died on ist November, 1891. For some years Sir Walter had lived in 

 England. He leaves two sons and a married daughter, Mrs. Madocks, wife 

 of Major Madocks, who distinguished himself as a member of the first New 

 Zealand Contingent in South Africa." 



So many problems as to Australasian ornithology remain to 

 be solved that we can ill spare such a man. It is to be hoped 

 that (perhaps not among the native-born) another ornithologist 

 will be found to do work on the same lines, and thus not 

 necessarily replace, but succeed, our departed friend. His work 

 was unique, beset with more difficulties in its accomplishment 

 than any successor will have to encounter, and the debt of 

 science to him can never be paid. Those who come after have 



