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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]

Captain Maurice Norman Bower

Captain Maurice Norman Bower, Town Clerk of Napier, was born in Caén, Normandy, in the year 1834, and is a son of the late Mr. George Edmund Bower, of the old Ordnance Department at the Tower of London. He was educated at St. Paul's School, London, and was a scholar there when Sir James Pren-dergast, subsequently Chief Justice of New Zealand, was the senior monitor. On leaving this school, Captain Bower went to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a cadet, where he remained two years. He afterwards served with the 13th Light Dragoons and the 10th Hussars in the Crimea. He returned to England when peace was proclaimed, purchased his discharge, and sailed for New Zealand. Captain Bower arrived in Auckland in 1857, joined the military stores department, in which he remained until the outbreak of the Waikato War, in 1863, when he received a commission as sub-inspector in the Colonial Defence force, then under the command of the late Colonel Nixon. On the death of Colonel Nixon, who died from wounds received in action at Rangiaohia, he was promoted to the rank of inspector, and served in all the operations against the natives in the Waikato until the corps was disbanded. He then joined the first Waikato Regiment as captain, and served with it at Tauranga, Opotiki, and the East Coast, until it was disbanded. He proceeded to Napier, and was employed as district adjutant and quartermaster at Wairoa, Poverty Bay, Waikare-Moana Expedition, Taupo, etc., from 1868 to 1873. In March, 1874, he was appointed town clerk and treasurer of the borough of Napier. Captain Bower married a daughter of the late Mr. John Mason, of Auckland, in 1857, and has, surviving, one daughter and two sons.

Captain M. N. Bower.

Captain M. N. Bower.