Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Baker, S. E. W.

Baker, S. E. W., Civil Engineer, Surveyor and Architect, Auckland. Mr. Baker is a son of Dr. Shirley Walderman Baker, D.D., LL.D., ex-Premier of Tonga. He was born at Tongatabu, Friendly Islands, in 1860, and was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne. After revisiting the Islands for a few months, he came to New Zealand in 1879, and engaged in the profession of surveyor and architect in Auckland and the surrounding districts for five years. Early in 1885, Mr. Baker returned to the Islands, and entered the service of the Tongan Government, under which he held several positions of great responsibility and trust. In 1887 an attempt was made by the natives on his father's life. In attempting to secure the would-be assassins, Mr. Baker, junior, was shot in the arm, the bones and muscles of which were shattered. Mr. Baker was laid up for many months, and came to New Zealand to obtain medical advice. He again returned to the Islands with his father at the end of the same year, and came back to this Colony in 1890. Since then he has spent several years in the Tauranga district farming and surveying. Subsequently he was engaged as a compiler for the Otago section of this Cyclopedia, and afterwards followed his profession on the Molyneux and in other parts of the colony. Mr. Baker is well-known in the Auckland provincial district and greatly esteemed by all his friends. He has recently made arrangements for the importation of dredging and mining machinery, and is removing his quarters to Oamaru.