AFTER FORTY-FIVE YEARS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 12, 9 October 1928, Page 3

AFTER FORTY-FIVE YEARS

SURVEYOR-GENERAL’S RETIREMENT

After 45 years’ service, the SurveyorGeneral (Mr. W. T. Neill) will retire on superannuation at the end of the year. , ... '

Born at Carluke, in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1866, Mr. Neill arrived at Dunedin with his mother in 1874. He joined the Lands and Survey Department at Dunedin as a cadet in 1883, and after undergoing office training, he was attached to a field party at Queenstown under Mr. E. H. Wilmot (ex-Surveyor-General), then a district surveyor, for two years. After passing the surveyor’s examination, he assisted Mr. J. Strauchon, 1.5.0., district surveyor (and afterwards SurveyorGeneral), in pioneering roads through Catlins Bush, Otago. For six years he was engaged in the Hawke’s Bay and Poverty Bay districts in surveying land that was being opened up for settlement, and in 1893 he returned to Otago, where he took an active part, in subdividing the large estates that were being acquired by the Government under the Laud for Settlement Act In 1899 Mr. Neill was associated with Dr. C. C. Farr, F.R.G.S., in the initiation of the magnetic survey of the Dominion. A topographical survey of the country in the vicinity of Dunedin was one of the many surveys completed by him, and he was acting-road engineer for Otago for one year. He was appointed a district surveyor in 1901, Chief Inspector of Surveys in 1918, and Surveyor-General in November, 1920. Mr. Neill is chairman of the Joint and North Island Electoral Commissions and of the Surveyors’ Board, and is a member of the Geographic Board, the Government Life Insurance Investment Board, the Board of Examiners under the Mining Act, the Observatory Committee, and the International Board of Longitude. He has contributed many papers on astronomical and scientific subjects to the Surveyors’ Journal and the official reports of the Departinent.