MR ALFRED SAUNDERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1424, 15 June 1899, Page 43

MR ALFRED SAUNDERS.

A SUBSTANTIAL AND WORTHY COMPLIMENT. CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday. At a large gathering of representative people from all parts of Canterbury, Mr Alfred Saunders, ex-M.H.R., who is leaving for England, was presented with an address and a purse of sovereigns. The speakers referred in eulogistic terms to Mr Saunders’s worth as a colonist, and wished him a safe voyage and speedy return. [This will be Mr Saunders’s second visit to England, he having been Home in 1870-72. He has had a varied and honourable career as a colonist. At the age of twenty-one he emigrated to Nelson in the Fifeshire, in September, 1841. He took an active interest in the welfare of the province, and was elected to the Provincial Council, and subsequently was returned as representative for Nelson in Parliament. He was offered and declined the position of Colonial Treasurer in the Fox Ministry, but was twice Superintendent of the province of Nelson. It was during his term' of office in that capacity that Burgess, Kelly, Levy and Sullivan, the perpetrators of a horrible series of murders, were brought to justice. After Mr Saunders’s return from the Old Country in 1872 he was elected to the House of Representatives as member for Cheviot and Lincoln. He was chairman of the Civil Service Commission in 1880,' and recommended drastic reductions. Mr Saunders remained in public life up till last general election. He has contributed to the literature of the colony by writing “Our Domestic Birds,” “Our Horses,” and more recently an “Early History of New Zealand,” the first volume of which has evoked warm commendations. Mr Saunders will be seventy-nine years of age next Monday.]