

B R A R Y ] :a] 



N MEMORIAM. 



By the death of Sir Walter Lawry Buller, K.C.M.G., P.R.S., 



S.Sc, the scientific world has sustained a heavy loss, more especially 

 in ornithological circles, for his beautiful and exhaustive woiks on 

 the history of the birds of New Zealand are well and widely known. 



Sir Walter was the descendant of an ancient Cornish family, and the 

 eldest .^on of the late Rev. James Buller, a veteran missionary, and was 

 born at Newark, in the Bay of Islands, on the 9th October, 1838. From 

 early boyhood he displayed a natural taste for scientific pursuits, and 

 made ornithology a life-long study. 



He received his early training at Wesley College, Auckland, and 

 on leaving school entered the banking profession in that city. There 

 he won rapid promotion, but finding that his health would not stand the 

 .strain, and acting on medical advice, he took a year'.s rest at Wellington, 

 devoting himself during that pei-iod principally to literary and scientific 

 pursuits. During this time of enforced leisure he enjoyed the friendship 

 of the late William Swainson, a celebrated ornithologist of his day, whose 

 extensive collections in natural history, and valuable stores of information, 

 were always at the command of his willing disciple. 



He was appointed Native C'ommissioner in 1859 for the Southern 

 Provinces, and during his location in Christchurch undertook and carried 

 through to a most successful issue the experimental partition and indi- 

 vidualisation of the Kaiapoi Reserve. 



In 1861 he gained the first prize for an essay on " The Moral Welfare 

 of New Zealand," offered by the Auckland Association, and open to the 

 competition of all colonists under the age of twenty-six. 



In the same year, by the desire of Governor Browne, he acted as 

 honorary secretary of the Kohimarama conference of Native chiefs, and 

 prepared the proceedings for publication. 



Early in 1862 he was appointed Resident Magistrate in the Manawatii 

 District. 



In 1865 he was gazetted a Judge of the Native Land Court, and during 

 that disturbed period he performed many special services in connection 

 with Native affairs, for which he received on eight different occasions the 

 official thanks of the Covernment. 



As a volunteer on Sir George Grey's staff at the taking of the Weraroa 

 Pa he received thn New Zealand War Medal. On that occasion, declining 

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

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

 ^laori orderly — a piece of work which was mentioned in despatches as " an 

 act of conspicuous personal courage, and a service which, in the Imperial 

 Army, would have been rewarded by some special maik of distinction." 



