Administrator

Death of Former Norfolk Is.

MR. M. V. MURPHY, a former Administrator and Chief Justice of Norfolk Island, died in Sydney on June 30 at the age of 78 years. He had been associated in various official capacities with Norfolk Island for 30 years, and did much to im prove lease-holdings on the island.

He was attached to the Royal Commission which was sent to N.I. in 1896 to report on the Island’s affairs and effect surveys. Subsequently, he carried out surveys on Lord Howe Island and adjusted land disputes. He made a survey of all the hold ings, and he laid out the township of Kingston, N.I.

In 1900 Mr. Murphy joined the British survey ship Britannia, which was engaged on that part of the All-Red cable route between New Zealand and Queensland, via Norfolk Island. Later, he supervised for 15 months the erection of the cable station at Anson Bay, and the building of a wind ing road down the steep coastal escarpment.

As secretary to the Royal Commission to Nor folk Island in 1903, he again spent some time on the island. In 1905 he was appointed officer-in charge of N.I. affairs, under the direction of Mr.

William Houston, Deputy Administrator, whom he succeeded on the latter’s resignation in 1913. Later in the year, he became Chief Magistrate and Ad ministrator, and guided Norfolk Island’s destiny until his resignation in 1920. Six years later he returned to the island for six months to reorganise the administration.