MAKERS OF OTAGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3995, 7 October 1930, Page 9

MAKERS OF OTAGO.

PIONEERS OF THE PROVINCE.

XXXIX.—M ALT ER HENRY I’EAR-

SON, 1832-1911.

Walter Henry Pearson, who was associated most of his life with the province of Southland, came to live in Dunedin after his retirement, and finally spent his last few years in Hawke's Bay. Born at Mangapury, in India, in 1832, Pearson was the son of Mr John Thomas Pearson and the grandson of the Advocate-general of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal. Like all Anglo-Indian boys, he went to England for his education, and returned to India in 1849. When in his twentieth year he went from India to Australia, where he lived until 1855, when he sailed in the little schooner Caledonia for Port Chalmers. * He arrived here on March 30, 1855.

Pearson’s first intention on reaching New Zealand was to go on the land, and, in company with James Saunders and Peter Napier, he explored the country, then unoccupied, which is now known as the Maniototo Plain. Returning to Dunedin, he joined James and William Saunders in the purchase from Napier of the Waipori run with stock. The Saunders brothers had come across from Australia with him. Pearson did not find pastoral life very congenial, and in May, 1857, he took a position in the Land Office at Dunedin, where he was much more suitably placed. Already the settlers in South Otago were complaining , of the neglect of the Otago Government, and before the year was out it was decided to open a branch of the Land Office at that remote spot in order to obviate the complaints of delay and expense. Pearson was appointed in October, 1857, to open the office, and he proceeded at once to his new duties, which were carried out at first in a wattle-and-daub hut with a thatched roof in Tay street. His mission from the Otago Waste Lands Board was “ to encourage and assist the settlement of the waste lands and to remove some of the grievances of the settlers."’ He was an excellent man for the task, for throughout life, although often involved in heated political disputes, he imported an unfailing courtesy and tact into his. dealing with others. Three montlis after his arrival Captain Elies, who had been appointed collector of customs at the Bluff, moved iftto Invercargill as receiver of lana revenue. In February, 1858, Pearson was appointed a justice of the peace. Before long the grievances of Murihiku culminated in the establishment of the new province of Southland.- When the Provincial Council was elected Pearson, though holding an official position, was returned as a member for Waihopai, and he was forthwith entrusted with the formation of a government. His official position as commissioner of Crown lands for Southland (and a member of the Waste Lands Board), combined with his political position as a member of the Council and head of the executive, was likely to cause some friction even in a less irritable community than that of Southland. But for a year or two things went smoothly endough. Pearson and the superintendent (Menzies) worked well together until 1803, when they had a radical difference of opinion as to the action which Southland should take to profit by the goldfields at Lake Wakatipu. Pearson believed that though the field was politically outside the boundaries of Southland it was naturally her commercial orbit, and that she should make a bold bid to capture the trade of the goldfields, even to the extent of appointing a gold receiver at Queenstown and providing an escort to bring the treasure down to Invercargill. Menzies, feeling that this would -be an improper intrusion upon the domain of the mother province, would not agree, and eventually Pearson resigned from the Government and the Council. The golden opportunity for Southland, he considered, had been allowed to slip. By and by Menzies did to some extent adopt his suggestion, tut the wealth could not be diverted to Invercargill. - Next year (1864) Pearson, hoping to find a modus operand!, returned to the council as member* for but

only to become involved almost at once in a constitutional conflict with the superintendent. In July, 1864, Pearson being again entrusted with the formation of an executive, his prospective colleagues demanded that the superintendent should -accept full and complete responsibility in the government. On purely provincial matters he was to be controlled entirely by his executive, while on matters delegated to him by the general Government he was to consult the executive, and as to correspondence he was to show it all to them before answering. They would acept office only on these terms. This peculiar position was not at all to the liking of the superintendent. Menzies rightly complained that to accept such terms would reduce him to the position of a cipher. There was no way out of the impasse, and a month or two later Pearson once more resigned from the council and devoted himself to his paid post as perhaps the leading official in the province. The finances were in a disastrous condition.

Next year, 1865, he came back to the council as a member for Waianiwa, and a few months later he was again head of the executive. He remained in office for five months. In February, 1867, he retired from the council, but at the general election a few months later he was elected for Oteramika, which he represented until within a few months of the reunion of the provinces. Under no misapprehension as to the capacity of Southland to carry on, he moved early in 1868 that the time was ripe for the abolition of'the whole provincial system and the substitution of real local government through county and borough councils; but the motion was withdrawn for lack of support. In that, year again Pearson led the executive for a few months, and again in 1869, when reunion was imminent, he took office from March to May. How masterful he was is evident from the fact that in May the superintendent (Taylor) wrote complaining, of his acts and correspondence with officials behind the superintendent’s back. “ A Government so divided,” he said, “ can expect nothing but disaster.” The executive stood by Pearson, and Taylor took the strong course of dismissing them from office.

But things were now fast drawing to their appointed close. Overtures were made by Otago for reunion, and in August, 1869, John Ross, Pearson, and Johnston were appointed commissioners to meet three from Otago to recommend a basis of reunion. They brought down a report recommending the reabsorption : of Southland in Otago, with eight members in the Otago Provincial Council, and expressed the hope that this would ■prove the first step towards a United . Middle Island Government. The report was adopted in November, 1860, after many stormy sittings, and Southland returned sadly to the fold, practically bankrupt. Pearson remained at the Invercargill Land Office until Iris retirement in 1884. His reports in his official position are full of interesting and literary matter and sidelights upon the, events of the time. For eight years, 1880-SB, he was a member of the School Commissioners of Otago. After retiring, Pearson came to live in Dunedin. In 1898 he contributed to the jubilee number of the Otago Witness an interesting page of reminiscences of the early days of Southland. His last few years he spent at Napier, where he died on September 1, 1911, aged 79. He was twice married, but had no family.