OBITUARY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22733, 20 May 1937, Page 14

OBITUARY

MR. HENRY JAMES LOWE EX-COMMISSIONER OF LANDS A former Commissioner of Crown Lands in Marlborough. Taranaki and North Auckland, Mr. Henry James Lowe, died at his residence in Kimberley Road, Epsom, on Tuesday. Mr. Lowe, who was born in Nelson in 1862, was educated at Nelson College, and joined the stall of Sir .John Hall, who was then Premier, in ISSO. The following year Mr. Lowe was appointed a cadet in the Lands and Survey Department, and as a district surveyor carried out special triangulation with topography along the Rimutaka, Tararua, lluahine and Kaimanawa ranges from Wellington to Lake Taupo and across to Taranaki. He also made settlement .surveys at Forty-Mile Bush, Pohangina, Awarua and Waimarino. Mr. Lowe became chief draughtsman for the department in Taranaki and Auckland, and in 1919 become chief surveyor and Commissioner of Crown Lands in Marlborough. He occupied a similar position in Taranaki, and was also chairman of the Eginont Park Board. In 1923 he was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands and Kauri Gum Commissioner for the North Auckland district, which extended from Mercer to the North Cape. Mr. Lowe retired from the department in 1927.

NONAGENARIAN'S DEATH

MR. D'A DE JERSEY GRUT PIONEER SURVEY WORK A resident in New Zealand for SO venrs, and a pioneer surveyor in the North Island, Mr. d'Auvergne de Jersey Grut died at his residence in Empire, Road, Epsom, yesterday. He was in his 92iul vear. Mr. Grut. who was born on the island of Sark in the Channel Islands, came to the Dominion in 1856 with his parents, Mr, and Mrs. C. de ,T. Grut, and his mother's brother, Captain Charles d'Auvergne. They travelled from London in the ship Joseph Fletcher. Among the passengers on the Joseph Fletcher was the Hon. William Swainson. New Zealand's first Attorney-Gen-eral. He suggested that Mr. Grut, who then spoke only Guernsey French, and proposed to learn English on the vovage, should bo taught Maori, but the suggestion was rejected by his father, who objected to his learning anv "barbaric" language before the Queen s English. Mr. Swainson, who was a bad sailor, appointed young Grut as his honorary valet, however, and as a re : suit he'was able to converse in Maori when the Joseph Fletcher reached New Zealand. , , r After a short stay at Lyttelton, Mr. Grut's parents came to Auckland and settled in •Mount Eden on a farm where the Colonial Ammunition Company s factory now stands. Their house, which was built of pit-sawn kauri timber, is still standing. Mr. Grut joined the Public Service, and was a surveyor for many years. In 1883 he put through a road near Raglan at a time when the Maoris were rather restive. He was the only white man permitted on the job, and lived there with his wife and children. Later ho conducted surveys at Mangonui, Fortv-Mile Bush and Rotorna. After his retirement from the Public Service, Mr. Grut carried on a timber merchant's business at Pahiatua. He retired in 1915 and came to Auckland. His first wife died in 1922. He is survived by his second wife, five sons and two daughters.