DEATH OF MR. LAURENCE CUSSEN

Our Hamilton correspondent writes: — It is with much regret that I record the death of Mr. Laurence Cussen, or the Survey Department, which took place at his residence, Hamilton, on Monday night, at ten o'clock. Although the event had been hourly expected for some days, its happening has cast a gloom over the,community, in the midst of whom he and his family have resided for so many years. Mr. Laurence Cussen, late Government | district inspecting surveyor, was burn at Limerick, Ireland, in 1844.' He Mas educated at Tullabeg College, Ireland, and went to India in the service of the old I East India Company for a year or more, ' and returned to Ireland for a short visit before leaving for this colony iu 1855. Three years later he joined the Survey Department, under Captain lleale, and assisted Mr. O'Neill on the outbreak of the Thanes gokltieid.. He- was subsequently engaged in the survey of the Auckland and Riverhead railway, and tho Waikato railway between Ngani&wahia and Hamilton, under the JL'iiblic Works Department. In 1U75 he removed to Utago, and agisted in the survey of the Main Trunk railway, having charge of the section known as Kaihiku section. A year later, Mr. Cussen joined the staff of Air. S. Percy Smith, in Auckland, and for some 15 years was engaged in major triangulations in the Auckland province—triangulating during that time a considerable extent or' territory. For the past ten years he was employed as field inspector lor the Auckland district. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geological Society, and was the writer of many able papers on various subjects. including geology and physiography. Ho was also an honorary and complimentary member of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. Mr. Cussen married, in 3876, a daughter of the late Mr. Charles Walinutt, by whom he has had ten children, eight of whom and his widow survive him.