NEW MEMBERS.

Under this heading we give a brief "biographical sketch of some of the members who have been elected for the first time or were not in the last House :— HENRY AUGUSTUS FIELD (OTAKI). Mr Henry Augustus Field is the oldest son"of Mr C. E. Field, of Wanganui, and is forty-four years of age.. He was educated privately, and in 1868 entered the Government service as a cadet in the Survey Department,' and qualified as a Surveyor in 1872. In conjunction with his cousin, Mr -H. D. Muhro, of Christchurch, he undertook for. the Government, on the conclusion of the last Maori (or Te Kooti) war, the trigonometrical survey of the Wainiarino and other, country iv the Upper Wanganui and Taupo. districts, where he remained with the Natives for two years. Mr Field was obliged to relinquish his permanent engagement with the Government in 1878, owing to severe rheumatism contracted by long exposure to wet and cold while on the survey. Since that year he has been sheep farming at Waikanae. He is a licensed * Native interpreter, a thorough *. Maori scholar, and an expert in Native custom. He has for three years been a member of the Hutt County Council. Though he comes from an old Conservative stock, he regards the general policy measures of the Government with favour, but at the same time he is independent in his views, and declines to be bound to any leader or party.