Lindley Murray Bell died of pneumonia, following influenza, on November 15th, 1918, at Paeroa, Auckland, New Zealand, aged 34 years.
He was for upwards of six years a student at the Waihi School of Mines, where he obtained First Class Certificates in practical assaying (junior and senior) and the metallurgy of gold. He was also appointed an assayer of gold under the N.Z. ‘Customs Laws Consolidation Act, 1882,’ and received a battery superintendent’s certificate under the N.Z. ‘Mining Act, 1905.’
In 1902 he acted for a short time as assistant surveyor at the Talisman Consolidated Mine at Karangahake, which was followed by 11 months spent in a similar capacity at the Woodstock Mine. He then entered the employment of the Waihi G. M. Co., Ltd., in the cyanide, amalgamation, clean-up, and melting and assay departments.
For about eight months, in 1908, he returned to the Talisman Consolidated as chief assayer during the company’s own assayer’s absence on leave, and on the completion of that term he was appointed chief bullion assayer and chemist at the Waihi Mine, a position which he held until 1914, when he transferred his services to the National Bank Refinery at Paeroa.
Mr. Bell was elected an Associate of the Institution in 1911.
Vol. 29, Trans I.M.M. 1919-20, p. 418
