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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
[Man

of the Bench of the Native Lands Court (1882-91) Major Mair investigated some thousands of titles, and passed through his court over two million acres of native land, clothing it with an English title. He has contributed several papers on scientific subjects to the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. Major Mair, who holds his rank in the New Zealand Militia, was Government agent and resident magistrate at Waikato from 1870 to 1882, and now resides at Auckland. He married at Alexandra, N.Z., on May 15th, 1872, Miss Jane Black.

Mais, Henry Coathupe, M.I.C.E., was born at Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol, and educated at the Bishop's College, being articled to a civil engineer in 1841. Having made a special study of railway construction, he sailed for Sydney in 1850, with machinery to start an engineering and foundry establishment. This scheme, however, was abandoned, and he was appointed acting engineer of the Sydney Railway Company, and in 1851 accepted employment under the City Commissioners, which he resigned in 1856. Two years later he removed to Melbourne, and assisted in the construction of the Melbourne and Sandhurst Railway until 1862, when he became manager of the Melbourne and Suburban Railway. In March 1867 Mr. Mais accepted the position of Engineer-in-Chief of South Australia, and in Jan. 1871 he was appointed, in addition, General Manager of Railways. In 1876, when the work of the position was redistributed, he retained the post of Engineer-in-Chief and Engineer of Railways and Harbours and Jetties. Mr. Mais resigned in April 1888, and is now in practice in Melbourne as a consulting engineer.

Maniapoto, Rewi, latterly known as Manga, a chief of the Ngatimaniapoto tribe, acquired a high reputation as a fighting general during the Waikato campaign in 1863. He was nominally the Maori leader during the attack upon and investment of the Orakau Pa by the British forces under Sir Duncan Cameron, but the gallant escape of the beleaguered garrison was planned and carried into execution by the young chief Hitiri Paerata. Rewi was, however, a prominent figure during the whole of the troublous times, and his influence with a large section of the insurgent tribes was paramount. At the conclusion of the war the Government marked their sense of this chief's adherence to the rules of civilised warfare by giving him a section of land in the Kihikihi township and building upon it, at the public cost, a comfortable residence. Most of the lands of his tribe were included within the confiscated boundary, but some provision was made for them by the powerful Waikato tribe.

Maning, Frederick Edward, late Native Lands Court Judge, New Zealand, was the eldest son of Frederick Maning, of Johnville, co. Dublin, Ireland, at which place he was born on July 5th, 1812. His father, attracted by the free grants of land to settlers in Van Diemen's Land, emigrated with his family to that colony, arriving at Hobart in the ship Ardent on May 24th, 1824. His son, being of an adventurous spirit, went to New Zealand in 1833, when twenty-one years of age. New Zealand was not then a British colony, but Mr. Maning acquired land from the Ngapuhi tribe at Hokianga, and took up his residence among the Maoris at Onaki, and rapidly acquired a thorough acquaintance with the laws and customs of the Maoris. This led to his being appointed a judge in the Native Lands Court, in which capacity he served for many years. He had lived among the Maoris, and looked upon himself as a "Pakeha Maori," by which name he was generally known. He published an interesting book embodying his experiences among the natives, called "Old New Zealand, by a Pakeha Maori." This is regarded as the most admirable picture of life in New Zealand in the olden time ever issued; it was republished in London in 1876, with a preface by the Earl of Pembroke. Mr. Maning died in London on July 25th, 1883. His only other published work was a small book entitled "The War in the North," which gave an account of the first Maori insurrection under Honi Heki and its suppression by the Imperial forces. The story is told from the Maori point of view. It is appended to Lord Pembroke's edition of "Old New Zealand." Judge Maning married a Maori wife. He rendered considerable services to the English in the Honi Heki war in 1845, and later in the war of

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