PEARSON, WALTER HENRY (1832-1911) was born at Mangapury, India, the son of John Thomas Pearson, and grandson of the advocate-general of the supreme court of judicature in Bengal. He went to England for his education, and returned to India in 1849. In 1852 he went from India to Australia, where he lived until 1855, when he sailed in the schooner Caledonia for Port Chalmers, arriving on 30 Mar 1855.

Pearson's intention was to go on the land, and, in company with James Saunders and Peter Napier, he explored the country now known as Maniototo plain. Returning to Dunedin, he joined James and William Saunders, who had come across from Australia with him, in the purchase from Napier of the Waipori run. Pearson did not find pastoral life congenial, and in May 1857 he took a position in the land office at Dunedin. Already the settlers in south Otago were complaining of the neglect of the Otago government, and before the year was out it was decided to open a branch of the land office at Invercargill in order to obviate complaints of delay and expense. Pearson was appointed in Oct 1857 to open the office, and proceeded at once to his duties, which were carried out in a wattle-and-daub hut with a thatched roof. His commission from the Otago waste lands board was "to encourage and assist the settlement of the waste lands and to remove some of the grievances of the settlers." He was an excellent official, imparting unfailing courtesy and tact into his dealings. Three months after his arrival Elles, who had been appointed collector of customs at the Bluff, moved into Invercargill as receiver of land revenue. In Feb 1858 Pearson was appointed a justice of the peace.

The grievances of Murihiku culminated in the establishment of the new province of Southland. When the Provincial Council was elected Pearson was returned as member for Waihopai, and he was forthwith entrusted with the formation of a government. His official position as commissioner of crown lands for Southland (and a member of the waste lands boards), combined with his political position as a member of the Council and head of the executive, tended to cause friction. For a year or two things went smoothly enough. Pearson and the Superintendent (Menzies) in 1863 had a radical difference of opinion as to the action which Southland should take to profit by the goldfields at Lake Wakatipu. Pearson believed that though the field was politically outside the boundaries of Southland the province ought to make a bold bid to capture the trade of the goldfields, even to the extent of appointing a gold receiver at Queenstown and providing an escort to Invercargill. Menzies would not agree, and Pearson resigned from the government and the Council. The golden opportunity for Southland, he considered, had been allowed to slip. In 1864 Pearson, hoping to find a modus operandi, returned to the Council as member for Waihopai, but only to become involved in a constitutional conflict with the Superintendent. In Jul, being again entrusted with the formation of an executive, his prospective colleagues insisted that the Superintendent should accept full and complete responsibility in the government. On purely provincial matters he was to be controlled entirely by his executive, while on matters delegated to him by the General Government he was to consult the executive. Menzies complained that to accept such terms would reduce him to the position of a cipher. There was no way out of the impasse, and Pearson once more resigned from the Council and devoted himself to his paid post as the leading official in the province. The finances were in a disastrous condition. In 1865 he came back as a member for Waianiwa, and a few months later was again head of the executive. In Feb 1867 he retired from the Council, but at the general election a few months later he was elected for Oteramika, which he represented almost until the reunion of the provinces. Under no misapprehension as to the capacity of Southland to carry on, he moved early in 1868 that the time was ripe for the abolition of the whole provincial system and the substitution of local government through county and borough councils. The motion was withdrawn for lack of support. Again that year Pearson led the executive for a few months, and in 1869, when reunion was imminent, he took office again. His masterful conduct was evident from the fact that the Superintendent (Taylor) wrote complaining of his acts and correspondence with officials behind the Superintendent's back. "A government so divided," he said, "can expect nothing but disaster." The executive stood by Pearson, and Taylor took the strong course of dismissing them from office. Overtures were made by Otago for reunion, and in Aug 1869 John Ross, Pearson, and Johnston were appointed commissioners to meet three from Otago to recommend a basis of reunion. They brought down a report recommending the reabsorption of Southland in Otago, with eight members in the Otago Provincial Council, and expressed the hope that this would prove the first step towards a united Middle Island government. The report was adopted (Nov 1869) after many stormy sittings, and Southland returned to the fold, practically bankrupt.

Pearson remained at the Invercargill land office until his retirement in 1884. His reports are full of interesting and literary matter and sidelights upon the events of the time. For eight years, 1880-88, he was a member of the school commissioners of Otago. After retiring, Pearson lived in Dunedin. His last few years he spent at Napier, where he died on 1 Sep 1911.

Pearson's publications were A Review of the Position of Southland (1866); In Memoriam Sir John Richardson (1879), and The Financial Position of the Colony of New Zealand; its Extrication by the Sale or Lease of its Railways (1887).

Who's Who N.Z., 1908; Cycl. NZ., iv (p); Hocken; McIndoe; Pearson in Otago Witness, 22 Mar 1898; Otago Daily Times, 3 Oct 1930 (p).

Reference: Volume 2, page 82

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