Mr. T. Hall (vide page 341) was transferred to Napier as District Land Registrar on the 1st of February, 1896.

Mr. James Meacham Batham, J.P., District Land Registrar and Registrar of Deeds for the Wellington District, and Examiner of Titles for Wellington and Marlborough, who is the son of a solicitor, is an old Government officer. Born in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, and educated at the local grammar school and privately, he was brought up to the law. Arriving in Wellington in 1864, after a few years' colonial experience Mr Batham became Examiner of Titles for Westland, and subsequently Registrar of the Supreme Court and District Land Registrar, besides other offices. He was transferred to Auckland in 1875, and the following year to Napier, as District Land Registrar and Deputy Commissioner of Stamps. In 1881 he was appointed to Christchurch, and on the 1st of February, 1896, to the position he now holds. In 1878 Mr. Batham was married to a daughter of the late Captain J. J. Symonds, of Onehunga, and has two sons and two daughters.