Abstract
THE name of Stephenson Percy Smith, whose death is reported at New Plymouth, New Zealand, is probably more widely known than any other among students of Polynesian ethnology. Mr. Smith was born at Beccles in Suffolk, and arrived with his parents at the infant settlement of New Plymouth on February 7,1850. In 1855 he entered the Government Survey Department, passing upwards through all grades and becoming Surveyor-General in 1889, a post which he held till his retirement in 1900. Among a number of important and arduous departmental undertakings carried through with conspicuous ability were the survey following the great eruption of Tarawera, and the mapping and charting of the Chatham Islands and the Kermadecs. His ability in affairs was recognised and made use of by the New Zealand Government on several occasions, perhaps most notably when he was dispatched to Niue, where he drew up the constitution under which that island has prospered ever since.
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S., H. S. P. Smith. Nature 110, 187 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/110187a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/110187a0