Mr. Herman Augustus Bancke is a member of the Westland. County Council, for the Kanieri rid-riding. He was born in 1852, in Wellington, and is a son of one of the early missionaries. Till 1881, he spent the greater portion of his life in the Chatham Islands, but in that year he became associated with Westland, and engaged in mining. In 1904, on the report of the discovery of gold at Wilberforce, Mr. Bancke was asked by the County Council to report as to the best means of access to the field, with which he was so greatly impressed, that he gave up other mining ventures to take up a claim in the district. Mr. Bancke has been a member of the County Council since 1893.