VETERAN JOURNALIST DEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 218, 12 September 1916, Page 7

VETERAN JOURNALIST DEAD.

•MX. GRESLEY LUKTN. (By Telegrapu.—Frcss Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The death has occurred of Mr. Greeley Lukin. editor of the " Evening Post," aged 76 years. The late Mr. Grealey Lukin, whose name is a household word in Xew Zealand journalism, was born in Launceston Tasmania, on November 21, 1840, and was educated in his native city, where for about two years he studied engineering. His restless and ambitious spirit fretted for furth-er fields, however, and in his early twenties he Bought fortune on the neighbouring Continent, where at the age of 20. he entered the Queensland Civil Service, rising rapidly to become chief clerk of the Crown Lands Department, and while in this capacity jhe drafted the Queensland Land Act of I IS6S. Three years later he was ap- | pointed as chief clerk at the Brisbane j Supreme Court, but ISs mind was bent jon a journalistic career. £nd in 1873 he ! resigned his post to purchase the "Briebane Courier " and " Qucenslander " newspapers, which hv» conducted and edited for eevnral years. While editing the "'Courier " be was appointed, in 187P, to represent Queensland as executive commissioner at the Sydney Inter- ! national Exhibition. Soon after this. j Mr. Lukin disposed of hi* interest in the Brisbane newspapers, and -went to live in Sydney, but after a venture in pastoral life he returned to Brisbane and I founded the " Boomerang," a journal ] which he successfully conducted until his I health compelled him to give it up and I seek a change of climate. He chose Xew ! Zealand as a restorative, and. coming j across in ISO."?, settled in Wellington j with which city he had been closely associated ever since. On his arrival in New Zealand lie started as a journalistic free-lance, and for several sessions represented a number of newspapers in the Parliamentary Prosa Gallery. In 1895 he became acting-editor of the Wellington " Kvening Po=t." and on the death of the editor. Mr. E. T. Gillon. the following year, was appointed to fill tho position permanently, and for the las>t twenty years Mx. Lukin had presided over the destinies of Wellington's evening journal. Some years ago he was elected as one of thp Xew Zealand journalists to attend the Press Conference at Home, while for several veare he was president of the New Zealand Institute of Journalists. His strong and dominating personality was. blended with a kindness of disposition and nobility of character which made him a man not only esteemed by everyone acquainted with him, but penerally beloved by his fellow journalists throughout the Dominion, and by his death the profession lescs a member whose ability and personal qualities placed him at the hfcb-water mark of journalism in this country.