AFTER 45 YEARS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16772, 11 October 1928, Page 4

AFTER 45 YEARS

SURVEYOR-GENERAL'S RETIRE MENT

After 45 years’ service, the SurveyorGeneral. Mr. \V. T. Neill, will retire on .superannuation at, the end of the year.

Korn at Carluke, in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1866. Mr. Neill arrived at Dunedin with his mother in 1874. He joined the Lands and Survey Department at Dunedin as a cadet in 1883, and after undergoing office training, lie was attached to a field party at Queenstown, under Mr. E. 11. Wilmot, ex-Surveyor-General, then a district surveyor, for two years. After passing the surveyor's examination, he assisted Mr. J. Strain l*fm. 1.N.0., district surveyor. ami afterwards Kurveyor-Deneral, in pioneering roads through Gatlins Hush. Otago, lor six years he was on gaged in the llawkes Lay and Poverty Hay districts in surveying land tout was being opened up for settlement, and in 1893 In' returned to Otago, where he took an active part in subdividing the large estates that were being acquired by the. Ooverunient under the Land for Settlement Act. In 1899 Mr. Neill was associated with Dr C. ( . Karr. E.It.G.S.. in the initiation of the magnetic survey of the Dominion. A topographical survey of the country in the vicinity of Dunedin was one of tiie many surveys completed by him, and he was actingload engineer for Otago for one year. He was appointed a district surveyor in 1901. Chief Inspector of (Surveys in 1918, and Stirvevor-General in November 1920. Mr. Neill is chairman of the South and North Island Electoral Commissions and of Ihe Surveyors’ Hoard, and is a member of the Geographic Hoard, the Gowrnincnt Life Insurance Investment Hoard, the Hoard of Examiners under the Mining Act, the Observatory Committee, and the International Hoard of Longitude.