OBITUARY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17635, 27 May 1919, Page 5

OBITUARY.

JUDGE H. W. BRABANT. A Press Association message from Wiakatane states that Mr G. A. Brabant has been notified that his father. Captain Herfif t ' l^ lam T Br , al^ lt ' &M - and judge of theNaWe Land Court of New Zealand,died at Napier on Sunday, aged 81 years Deceased was born at Mayfair, London, and educated at private schools and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Hβ landed at Auckland in September, 1859. He visited Taranaki a year later, and until '■"- I£o7 was engaged in farming: pursuits, when : he entered the civil service ss clerk to the ' bench at Raglan. In 1871 he was appointed resident magistrate at Opotdki; in May, 1876, ho was transferred to Taaranga, where he remained till 1888. He was appointed a judgo of the Native Land Conrt in December, 1886. In 1889 he was appointed resi- . dent magistrate at Wanganui, and on the passing of "The Magistrates Court Act, 1893," he became a. stipendiary magistrate of the Wanganui, Hawera, Marton, and : several other courts. He was gazetted a captain in the New Zealand Militia in 187 L Three years later .he was appointed a coroner for New Zealand. From 1876 to 1888 he was in charge of Native affairs in the Bay of Plenty district, and from 1876 to 1886, except for a short. interval, he was ii _ commissioner under the Taaranga Dα- ■ trict Lands Act. He -was the first chairman of the Rotorna Town Board. In 1893 in conjunction with Mr District Judge Kettle, he <was engaged in the preparation of the rules of practice and formulary under - "The Magistrates Court Act, 1893.", In February, 1897, Judge Brabant was trans- : ferred from Wanganui to Auckland, whence • he-_ was _ transferred to Napier, where he ' retired into private life. He was married, and had a family of 10 sons and throe, daughters.

MR ALEXANDER BARRON.

A Press Association message from Wellington announces the death, at the age of 79 years, of Mr Alexander Barron, formerly of the Board of Land Purchase Commissioners,' and Under-secretary of Crown Lands and Superintending - Surveyor. Ho was born in Moray, in the North of Scotland, where he was educated at private schools. ' After a few years spent in tho West of Scotland and the North of Ireland, Mr Barron came out to New Zea- » land, arriving at Port Chalmers in 1861Hβ entered the civil service in of that year under the late Mr •Arthur, afterwards Chief Surveyor of Otago. In Otago Mr Barron -served the Provincial Government of Otago in the Survey Department, Land Department, and Public Works Department. Shortly before the abolition of the provinces Mr Barron, while acting as an assistant engineer in the Public Works Department of Otago. was selected by the late Mr J. T. Thomson (later Surveyorgeneral in New Zealand) as his first assistant in the organisation, of a General .Survey Department for the dominion. Since that time he had. charge of tho head office and the general administration of the department. In 1891 he was gazetted Undersecretary of Crown Lands in addition to his other office.