Skeet, Henry Lufkin, 1835-1882 (Person)

From his obituary:

"Our telegrams yesterday morning announced the death of Captain Skeet, for many years a resident of Tauranga, and well-known to all old settlers here. Captain Skeet came to Tauranga in 1865 as District Surveyor - the Survey Office was then in the house now occupied by Mr Tadhunter, in Devonport Road - which appointment he held until 1868 when he was succeeded by Captain Turner. Captain Skeet was Captain of the Auckland Volunteer Engineers, and as such raised a Volunteer corps in this district, and took an active part during the disturbances in 1866-67, and was present at the actions of Whakamarama, Irihanga, Tanata, Mainene, and Kaimai, in all of which he distinguished himself.... Captain Skeet in 1870 was appointed Engineer to the field force under Colonel Sir George S. Whitmore, K.C.M.G., and conceived the sapping operations at Te Kooti's great stronghold at Ngatapa, when the Colonial Forces distinguished themselves, and completely routed the enemy, The late Captain Skeet married, in Tauranga, the widow of the late Mr Dalziell, of the First Waikato Regiment, who, with a numerous family, survives to mourn his loss". Bay of Plenty Times, 8 November 1882, page 2.

(Captain Skeet's first wife Harriet, the mother of his children, appears to have died in 1872. A copy of the marriage certificate for the second marriage on 17 May 1875, noted above, was found in the papers of Archdeacon Brown). 

Captain Skeet's name appeared regularly in the Bay of Plenty Times while he lived and worked in Tauranga (courtesy of a search in Papers Past), attending meetings and often ending up on the resulting committees - e.g. to try and establish a flour mill in Tauranga, setting up the Mechanics Institute, forming a Masonic lodge, trying to set up a Jockey Club, buying trout for the Acclimatisation Society and running the cricket club, as well as agitating about immigration to the area. He wrote articles for the Bay of Plenty Times under the title of "In the Street" and sat on both the Highway and School boards.