MR. C. B. SEALY MURDERED.

Putaruru Press, Volume II, Issue 42, 7 August 1924, Page 3

MR. C. B. SEALY MURDERED.

FORMER ARAPUNI ENGINEER. Pioneer in Upper Waikato. The tragic termination of a brilliant career is involved in the murder of Mr. Christopher Byers Sealy, the New Zealander who was reported from Fiji last Friday to have been found shot dead near Suva, the sum of £4OO which he was carrying in a bag on his motor cycle being missing. The late Mr. Sealy had a fairly lengthy connection with the Upper Waikato, doing yeoman service in the pioneering work of the timber industry and the Arapuni scheme. The son of a Public Works official, Mr. Sealy entered the Lands and Survey Department as a junior under the former commissioner and chief surveyor of the Auckland Lands District, Mr. H. M. Skeet, and showed unusual aptitude for surveying and outside work generally, to the extent that he was lately described by Mr. Skeet as a “ natural engineer.” Mr. Sealy later joined the staff of Mr. Fulton, the prominent Wellington engineer, and it was in this capacity that he came to the Upper Waikato about the year 1903 and made the survey for the extension to Taupo of the Taupo Totara Timber Company’s railway, while later also he was engaged in the provision of many miles of bush tramway for the company. His biggest work, however, was probably his recognaisance surveys of timber bushes in the Upper Waikato and Taupo districts, including’ the Taupo Totara Timber Company’s and the great Tongariro block. Subsequent milling of the timber and check surveys by the Forestry Department have proved Mr. Sealy’s figures as remarkably accurate, and Mr. Sealy is considered by authorities to have been the foremost measurer of standing timber in the Dominion. His work in this regard was toilsome and involved great care and patience. He was also engaged by Mr. Fulton in surveying the proposed tramway for the Tongariro Timber Company connecting with the Main Trunk. Later Mr. Sealy was appointed by the Public Works Department as engineer in charge of the investigation works at Arapuni, which comprised the driving of an elaborate system, of tunnels and shafts to explore the strata comprising the dam site and the carrying out of experiments to ascertain the pressure-resisting qualities and porosity of the rock. He left Arapuni to accept an important appointment on the Public Works staff of the Fijian Government, who delegated to him the difficult task of finding a route for a main arterial road from Suva through the island. Despite the difficult nature of the country Mr. Sealy found a very satisfactory route, and was then deputed to construct the road. It is presumed that: he was taking the pay out to workmen on this undertaking when he was murdered and robbed.

He was a man of sterling character and had many friends among the Europeans and natives of these parts. A brother is the headmaster of the Patetere school (Salvation Army Training Farm), Putaruru. The late Mr. Sealy was about 40 years of age and leaves a wife and two children.