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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Lands Office

Lands Office.

District Land And Survey Department. The Lands and Survey Officers for the Auckland district occupy a large portion of the Custom House. The staff is about the strongest in the Colony, numbering over forty. For the year 1896 no fewer than 2,000 mining survey plans were received for record, dealing with an area of 159,000 acres. The total area of the Hauraki Mining District is 1,056,000 acres, while that of Puhipuhi is 200,000 acres.

Mr. Lawrence Carroll Cussen. Inspecting Surveyor for Auckland district, was born in Limerick. Ireland, in 1844, and is a son of Mr. J. S. Cussen, a farmer and property-owner of that county. Educated at Tullabeg
Hanna, photo.Mr. L. C. Cussen.

Hanna, photo.
Mr. L. C. Cussen.

College, Ireland, Mr. Cussen went to India in the service of the old East India Company for a year or more, and returned to Ireland for a short visit before coming to this Colony in 1865. Three years later he joined the Survey Department under Captain Heale, and assisted Mr. O'Neill on the outbreak of the Thames gold-fields. He was subsequently engaged in the survey of the Auckland and Riverhead railway, and the Waikato railway—between Ngarnawahia and Hamilton—under the Public Works Department. In 1875 he removed to Otago, and assisted in the survey of the Main Trunk line, having charge of the section known as the Kaihiku section. A year later Mr. Cussen joined the staff of Mr. S. Percy Smith in Auckland, and for some fifteen years was engaged in major traingulations in the Auckland province, triangulating during that time more than 6,000 square miles of territory. For the past ten years he has been employed as field inspector for the Auckland district. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geological Society, and is the writer of many able papers on various subjects, including geology and physlography. He is an honorary and complimentary member of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. Mr. Cussen was married in 1876 to Miss Wallnutt, daughter of Mr. Charles Wallnutt, late of Searrif, County Clare, Ireland. Of ten children eight are daughters. In his days of greater leisure, Mr. Cussen was an enthusiastic footballer. He played with the Auckland representative team on several occasions, and claims to have taken part in the first match played in the northern capital. He was captain of one of the first Waikato teams.

Mr. Alfred Herbert Vickerman, District Surveyor for the Auckland District, is the youngest son of the late Dr. F. L. Vickerman, of Nelson. He was born at Spring Creek, Marlborough, in 1862, and educated at the Nelson College. After successfully passing the Civil Service examination he was appointed to a cadetship in the Survey Department at Nelson, in 1880. Three years later, on passing the surveyors' examination, he was promoted as assistant draughtsman in the Auckland office, and subsequently went into the field in 1888, as assistant surveyor. Mr. Vickerman was promoted in 1898 to the rank of District Surveyor. Upon the opening up of the King Country he was transferred to the roads branch, under Mr. C. W. Hursthouse, at Te Kuiti, and took charge of that office temporarily until he was transferred to the roads office, Auckland, Mr. Vickerman is of a retiring disposition, but he has merited his position by the faithful discharge of his duties.

Mr. Arthur Blundell Wright, Government Road Surveyor for the Auckland
Mr. A. B. Wright and Child.

Mr. A. B. Wright and Child.

Provincial District, was born at Singapore, India, in 1852, and educated at Madras College, and the University of St. Andrew's, Scotland. He was afterwards articled as a page 179 civil and mechanical engineer at Kircaldie, where he learned civil engineering with Messrs Sang, and the mechanical branch with Messrs Douglas and Grant. Mr. Wright arrived in New Zealand about the year 1876, and obtained employment as overseer under Mr. Errington, who was then constructing the Auckland water works. On the completion of those works in 1878 Mr. Wright joined the Survey Department as draughtsman in the Auckland office, and was appointed Road Surveyor in 1880. Since then he has been engaged chiefly in laying out and forming roads, and in the drainage of swamps in the north of Auckland. He has also designed and superintended the construction of several large bridges, including those built across the Waipa river at Ngaruawahia, and the Mangakahia and Wairua bridges at Whangarei, Mr. Wright has been twice Worshipful Master of Lodge St. Andrew's, 418, S.C.
Mr. William Charles Kensington, Surveyor and Chief Draughtsman of the Auckland District Lands and Survey Department, has been in the service of the State for more than thirty years. The eldest son of Mr. Charles Jephson Kensington, of Princettin Worton, Wiltshire, England, the subject of this notice, was born in Cricceth, Wales, in 1845. He received his primary education at private schools, and studied at Grosvenor School, Bath, and at King's School, Bruton, England. At the age of eighteen, Mr. Kensington came to Auckland per ship “William Miles,” and, joining the Militia, he served through the East Coast campaign of the Maori War as an ensign. In those stirring times he saw much active service on the East Coast, and was present at many exciting skirmishes with the Maoris. Returning to Auckland at the end of the campaign, he was appointed captain of the Auckland Cadet Volunteers, and received the New Zealand War Medal in recognition of his services. In 1864 Mr. Kensington entered the Lands and Survey Department. During the absence of his chief he has frequently acted as Commissioner of Crown Lands and Chief Surveyor. Mr. Kensington has always taken a warm interest in public affairs. Before the Government took over the industrial schools he was joint secretary with Col. Haultain for those institutions, and until the present hospital boards were established, he was a member of the old board. At a later date he was a member of the Mt. Albert School Committee. In church matters he takes a prominent part, and occupies the position of synodsman in connection with the Anglican Church. In 1873 Mr. Kensington married a daughter of Lieut.-Col. Wm. Henry Kenny (73rd Regiment), sometime member of the Legislative Council, and has three sons and three daughters.
Mr. Thomas Matthew Taylor, Receiver of Land Revenue for the Auckland Land District, was born in Wellington in 1852, and is the son of the late Mr. Thomas Taylor, bandmaster of the 65th Regiment. Mr. Taylor was educated in Auckland at the Military School, and at the Catholic High School. He became a cadet in the Auckland Provincial Land Office in 1869, and, on the abolition of the provinces in 1876, was transferred to the Lands Office under the General Government, being promoted to his present appointment in 1892. Mr. Taylor was married in 1881 to Miss Alice M. Taylor, daughter of Mr. John Taylor, who is referred to in another article as inspector of railway carriages and waggons. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have an only daughter.
Mr. Eugene Bellairs, who is at present (1900) attached to the gold mining branch of the Survey Department at Auckland, occupies a unique position, inasmuch as he is probably the sole survivor of the historic Wairau Massacre. The son of the late Captain J. H. Bellairs, of the Royal Navy, the subject of this notice was born in Brittany, France, in 1824. Educated in his native place and at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, Mr. Bellairs came to New Zealand early in 1843. Landing at Nelson, he joined one of the survey parties despatched to survey the Wairau Plains on behalf of the New Zealand Company. Shortly after beginning operations, all the survey parties were turned off the land and their huts burnt to the ground, by order of the Maori Chief, Rauparaha. Mr. Bellairs subsequently joined the ill-fated expedition, sent by the Government to apprehend the chiefs who were responsible for this act. The result is well-known, for about twenty Europeans, including most of the leading men of Nelson, were creuelly and treacherously massacred, after their surrender to Rauparaha under promise of safety. Mr. Bellairs was one of the few who effected their escape. Following is a quotation from a local newspaper:-“Shortly afterwards he joined his cousin, Captain Bull, who, with a detachment of his regiment (H.M. 99th), was stationed on the Blue Mountains (New South Wales), in charge of a stockade where some 300 convicts were engaged in road-making. In 1846 Mr. Bellairs accompanied, as a cadet, the first overland expedition that ever attempted to reach South Australia by the Darling River. This party was organised by a Mr. Ray, with a view of taking to Adelaide a mob of cattle and horses. The trip took ten months to accomplish. At the time, they were considered to have been very fortunate in getting through, as the blacks were known to be the very worst they could have encountered, and more especially as the expedition numbered only sixteen all told. Shortly after his arrival in Adelaide, Mr. Bellairs received an appointment on the survey staff, under Captain Frome, R.E., and at the end of the ‘forties’ surveyed a road through the 120 mile scrub desert between the Murray River, near Lake Alexandra, and the Tatitara country. This subsequently, in 1850, became page 180 the highway to the Victorian Goldfields, effecting a saving of some seventy-five miles, as compared with the old Mount Gambier Road. Mr. Bellairs, after the action at the Eureka Stockade, took cypher despatches for the officer in charge of the Ballarat military encampment—a Major Thomas—to General Macarthur, whom he found encamped at Ballan, on his way with reinforcements to support that officer. About 1862 Mr. Bellairs returned to New Zealand, and was engaged by the Government in making surveys under the late Major Heaphy, during active operations in the Waikato.” Mr. Bellairs was married in Tasmania in 1855 to the second daughter of Mr. H. Priaulx, Assistant Commissary General of that colony.

Mr. George A. Kallender. Accountant of the Auckland branch of the Crown Lands Department, has been in the service over twenty years. Born in India in 1853, where his father—General Kallender, of the Madras Cavalry—lived, the subject of this notice received his education at private schools in England, and, returning to India, remained in that country for five or six years. He came to New Zealand in 1875, and two years later joined the Civil Services as clerk and draughtsman. Mr. Kallender married in 1879 the daughter of Mr. Vercoe, settler, of Auckland.