Death Of Mr. J. S. Meek

MR. J. S. MEEK, who died on October 1, in Sydney, was known to the old-timers of Papua and New Guinea as “the man who made a bigger for tune out of bugs than any of us ever made out of gold.”

Mr. Meek’s father was a taxidermist in England; and he was given by the Rothschilds a contract to search the tropical islands of the South Pacific for entomological specimens. It was almost a new field, and produced many new insects. The Rothschild interests had first call on his discoveries; but, after that, he could sell them where and how he liked. Thus, a new butterfly would produce an astonishing sum. Mr. Meek collected all around the great island of New Guinea, and in the Solomons, and elsewhere. About 1900, he settled down on a dairy farm on Sariba Island (near Samarai); and about 1920 he retired, and lived in Australia. He married a Miss Eichorn, the daughter of a German entomologist who settled in Cooktown a long time ago. One of his sons is a medical practitioner.