DEATH OF MR. FIELD, M.H.R.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11241, 9 December 1899, Page 5

DEATH OF MR. FIELD, M.H.R.

,[DT TELEGRAPH,— CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Friday. Intelligence has been received here that Mr. H. A. Field, M.H.R. for Otaki, died this afternoon. The Premier received this morning a telegram from Otaki, stating the serious nature of Mr. Field's disease, and in the afternoon he received another telegram announcing his death.

Mr. Henry Augustus Field was the eldest son of Mr. H. C. Field, C.E., of Wanganui, was was born at Wanganui on May 27, 1852. He was therefore 47 years of age. He spent the wholo of his life in tlio colony. Air. Field was educated by the Into Rev. 0. H. S. Nicholls, of Wanganui, and in 1868 entered the Government servico ns cadet in the Survey Department. He qualified as surveyor in 1872, and in conjunction with his cousin, Mr. D. H. Monro, of Christchurch, immediately on tho close of the last Maori (or To ICooli) war, undertook on behalf of the Government the trignoinetrical survey of the Waimarino and other country in the Upper Wanganui and Taupo districts. These two gontlemen wero the first Europeans to enter this country, and they were accompanied by none but natives, though the country was then in a most troublous and disaffected stato, and the country through which they passed had only just boforo been the scene of war, rapine, and murder. Mr. Monro returned to Wanganui in a few months, and Mr. Field remained two years completing the works. The experience gained by Mr. Field on this and more recent survoys of his in some parts of tho colony, rendered him one of the most valuablo witnesses examined by the Main Trunk Central Railway Commission, and it was largely duo to his evidence that the present route was adopted. Mr. Fiold was obliged to relinquish his permanent engagement with tlio Government in 1878, owing to sovcro rhumatism, contracted by long exposuro to wot and cold while on the survey. He, however, continued to practice his profession as a surveyor and engineer in his own district. Since 1878 ho was engaged in sheep farming at Waikanae, on the West Coast of the North Island. Mr. Field was a licensed native interpreter, a thorough Maori scholar, and an expert in nativo custom. Ho entered Parliament in 1896. Mr. Field had been for a long time in precarious health, and was advised by his medical attendant to give up politics before last session. He was confined to his bed during the recent general election, but still succeeded in being reelected for the Otaki soat.