DEATH OF SIR W. BULLER.

Evening Star, Issue 12870, 20 July 1906, Page 4

DEATH OF SIR W. BULLER.

WELLINGTON, July 20. i News has been received here of the deatH* in London, of Sir Walter Buller. : i [Sir Walter Lawry Buller, K.C.M.G.J D.Sc., F.R.S., the descendant of an &nJ cient Cornish family and the eldest surviv J ing son of the late Rev. James Buller, wasf born on October 9, 1838, at Newark, Ba* „of Islands, New Zealand, and was edudftteJ at Wesley College, Auckland. Having earW acquired* a knowledge of" the' Maori lan* guage. he was appointed Government in« terpreter at Wellington is 1855, and started and edited a weekly Maori paper called '.Te Karero o Poneke.' In 1859 he was made Native Commissioner for the Southern "Provinces, and carried through the partition and individualisation of the Kaiapoi Native Reserve. In 1861 he acted as hon. secretary to the Kobimanama Conference o( native chiefs, convened by Governor Gora Browne; and in the same year edited the 'Maori Messenger,' a fortnightly paper in English and Maori, being afterwards also promoter and editor of the 'Maori Intelligencer' ('both of them Government publications). In April, 1862, he was appointed resident magistrate of the Manawaiu; and in April, 1865, Judge of the Native Land Court. In the same year he was present at the taking of Weraroa Pah (volunteer staff), for which he received the New Zealand war medal. On thai occasion, declining the protection of a military escort, he carried the Governor's despatches at night through forty miles of the enemy's country, attended only by a Maori orderly, for which gallant service he was mentioned in despatches. In 1866 he became resident magistrate and sheriff of Wanganui, which office he held till 1871, when he went to England as secretary to the Agent-General. For a continuous period of fifteen years he had held various official appointments, chiefly in connection with native affairs, and had on eight different occasions received tixs special thanks of the Colortial Govenmien-t. He entered as a student at the Inner Temple on November 20, 1871, and was oailcd to the Bar on June 6, 1874. In the same year he returned to New Zealand, and practised as a barrister and solicitor of the 'Supreme Court with remarkable success till 1886, when ha visited England as Commissioner in connection with the Cblomal and Indian Exhibition. For his services on thfe occasion he was created K.C.M.G., having been made a C.M.G. in 1875 in recognition of his researches in New Zealand ornithology. In 1876 he was elected F.R.S. on the same account. Sir Walter remained in England till 1890, and took an active part in all public movements affecting the colonies. He was on the Mansion Houre Committee for the Paris Ex. hibition, 1889, and was elected a member of the Executive Council. For h:s servicesot\ that occasion he wae decorated " Officier " m the Legion of Honor. As early as 1865 he obtained the silver medal of tb© New Zealand Exhibition for an 'Eissay on the Ornithology of New Zealand,' and subsequently published a splendid illustrated History of the..Birds of New Zealand.' In 1882 he prepared for the Government a Manual of the Birds of New Zealand' and in 1888 brought out a second edition of his larger work. Besides enjoying the dignity of a British order, Sir Walter was a KnigM (First Class) Austrian Order of Francis Joseph, First Class Order of Frederick d Wurtemburtr., Order of Merit (First Classj of Hesse-Darmstadt, and "Officier de l'lnstruction Publique" (Gold Palm of the Academy). He was awarded the Galileian medal by the Royal University of Florence, and received tie honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Tubingen. In 1881 he received the gold medal of the New Zealand Exhibiton for science and literature, and was elected a Governor oi the New Zealand Institute, of which he was also one of the founders. He married in 1862 Charlotte, third daughter of Gilbert Mair. of Auckland, who died on November 1, 1891. Of late years Sir Walter had been residing in London.]