SKEY, WILLIAM (1835-1900) was the son of a London lawyer who died while he was an infant. He worked on a farm, and under the influence of one of his guardians, who had leisure and means to pursue the hobby, he made a study of chemistry. He erected a laboratory on the farm to test manures. On another place he experimented in distilling spirits from beetroot, and for three years operated a still, but at a financial loss. In 1860 he came to New Zealand with his brother Henry, spent two years bushfelling and mining at Gabriel's Gully, and in 1862 was appointed laboratory assistant to Hector in the geological survey of Otago. There he pursued his studies under the analyst (Charles Searles Wood, A.R.S.M., F.C.S.), whom he succeeded in charge of the laboratory. In 1865 he was transferred to Wellington as assistant in the Geological Survey department, from which he was transferred in 1893 to the Mines department. Skey made discoveries in metallurgy and chemistry which were of great value to the mining industry. He contributed many scientific papers to the Philosophical Society and the Chemical News, and published also a volume of verse The Pirate Chief and Other Poems. He died on 4 Oct 1900.

Trans. N.Z. Inst., pass.; Cycl. N.Z., i (p); family information; Evening Post, 4 Oct 1900.

Reference: Volume 2, page 156

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