DEATH OF SIR WALTER BULLER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13235, 21 July 1906, Page 6

DEATH OF SIR WALTER BULLER.

A DISTINGUISHED CAREER.'

[Hi - telegkath.-—press ASSOCIATION.]

Wellington, Friday. News has been received here of the death of Sir Waiter BulSer in London.

Mr. Anderson, who is business partner of Sir Walter Buller" s son (Mr. Percy Buller), received a- cable message this moming, ■...'stating that Sir Walter Bailer's illness had taken a critical turn, and" shortly 'afterwards came a second message to announce that death had occurred. He had been in poor health during the past 12 months, his heart being the main cause of the trouble. . Sir Walter .has been residing near London, with his only daughter, the wife of Major Madocks, who was on Lord EarifurlyV staff when his lordship was Governor ■of New. Zealand. The other members of the deceased gentleman's family are two sons, Messrs. Leo arid A. Percy Buller, both of whom left Wellington for London an March last, and were at Home when: their father passed away.-

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. ' Sir Walter Lawry Buller, K.C.M.G., p.Sc.'," F.R.S., was '■ the descendant of an ancient Cornish family, and the eldest surviving ; son of the late Rev. James Buller. He was born on October 9, 1838, ;:t the Bay of Islands, and was educated at Wesley College, Auckland. Having early acquired a knowledge of the Maori language, he was appointed Government interpreter at '.Wellington in 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 individualization of the Kaiapoi Native Reserve. In 1861 he acted as •honorary secretary to the Kohimaram* conference of'native chiefs, convened by Governor Gore 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 Intellegencer (both of them Government publications). Li April, 1862. he was appointed resident magistrate- of the Mauawatu : and in April, 1865* jud« e of the Native Land Court. In the same year he was present at the taking of Wereroa. Pa (volunteer staff for which he received the New Zealand war medal. On that occasion, declining the protection of a military escort, he carried the Governor's despatches at' night through 40 miles of the enemy's, country, attended only by a Maori orderly, for which gallant 1 service he was mentioned in despatches. In 1866 he became resident magistrate.and sheriff of Wauganui, which office ; he held till 1871, when he went to England as secretary to the Agent-General. •' For.' a continuous period of 15 years he had held various Official appointments, chiefly in connection with native affairs, and had on eight different occasions received the special thanks of the Colonial Government. He entered as a student at the Inner Temple on November 20, 1871, and was called to the bar on. June 6, 1874. In the same vear he returned to New Zealand, and practised as a banister and solicitor of the Supreme Court with remarkable success till 1886, when he visited England as commissioner in connection with the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. For his • services on this Occasion he was created K.CM. 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. He was on the Mansion House Committee for the Paris Exhibition. 1889, and was elected a member of the Executive Council. For his services on that occasion he was decorated "officier" in the Legion of Honour. He represented the New Zealand Government on the governing body of the Imperial Institute from 1891 to 1896. As early as 1865, he obtained the silver medal of the New Zealand Exhibition for an "Essay on the Ornithology of New Zealand:" ' and subsequently published a splendidly 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 ihis; larger .work. Besides enjoying the dignity of a, British order, Sir Walter was a. Knight (first class) ' Austrian Order il of Francis Joseph, First Class Order of Frederick of Wurtemburg, Order of Merit (first class) of Hesse-Darmstadt, and "Officier do TTnstruction Publique" (gold palm of the academy). ; He was, awarded the Galileian medal by the Royal University, of Florence, and received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Tubingen. In 1881 he received the gold medal of the , New Zealand Exhibition for science and literature, and was elected a governor of the New Zealand Institute, of which he was also one of the founders. In 1900 he was made an honorary Sc.D., of Cambridge. - He married, in 1862, Charlotte, third daughter of Gilbert Mair, J.P., of Auckland, who died on November 1, 1891.