Mr. Edmund Marriott Dawe, who was for about thirty years a Civil Servant, and is a well-known old Canterbury settler, was born at Ilfracombe, Devonshire, in 1840, and educated at Sherborne and Wey mouth in Dorsetshire. He is the youngest son of the late Major Chas. Dawe, of the 46th and 8th Foot Regiments, who had twenty-five years service in India, the West Indies and Sydney, and held a high position as a Freemason; and is a member of an old-established county family in England—Dawe or Dawes of Ditcheat Manor, Somerset. Mr. Dawe was brought up to the profession of an architect, engineer, and surveyor, and arrived in Lyttelton in the ship “Indiana” in 1858, to join his brother, Mr. W. H. Dawe, in farming operations at Halswell. The brothers were afterwards located at Ellesmere, where they engaged in dairying and horse-breeding. The subject of this sketch was subsequently on the West Coast gold-fields for about six years engaged in surveying. From 1876 to 1878 Mr. Dawe was assistant engineer to the Christchurch City Council. In 1871, he paid a visit to England, and returning in the following year, joined the Public Works Department in the North Island. During his career as a surveyor, Mr. Dawe had many exciting experiences. On one occasion his survey party was stopped by the rebel Te Kooti and they had to run for their lives a distance of about thirty-five miles, Mr. Dawe nearly losing his life in crossing the Wairoa river. On another occasion he was threatened by the murderer Sullivan, and had many narrow escapes from falling down old shafts overgrown with fern and in crossing rivers. Mr. Dawe retired from the service in 1886, and now resides at Chelborough House, Bryndwr, Fendalton. He was initiated in the Foresters' Order in Timaru, but is unattached. In 1878 he married a daughter of Mr. Edmund Amyes, of Oakhampton, Hornby, Canterbury, and has one daughter and two sons.