According to words by captain Frederick Hutton: "He was Swiss, lately arrived in New Zealand with introductions from well-known European zoologists.

"[1] Suter began his colonial career by taking up a remote selection in the Forty-mile Bush in the Wairarapa region.

It is only in a story that a middle-aged townsman can ever turn backwoodsman with success, and so after about a year, Suter relinquished the hard and hopeless struggle.

[1] At this critical time captain Hutton, always a firm friend to zoologists, succeeded in obtaining for his protégé a post as assistant manager at the Mount Cook Hermitage.

He analyzed and documented the molluscs he had gathered from the Wairarapa region and around Mt Cook, and commenced writing his initial scientific papers.

In Switzerland he had formed a fine collection of European land and fresh-water shells, which was later acquired by the Australian Museum.

His friends, however, persuaded him that science would be better served if he relinquished the foreign shells and transferred his attention to the marine molluscs of New Zealand.

[7] Charles Hedley described Henry Suter's work as: "... excellent descriptions of small land-shells, illustrated with unusually clear and detailed drawings ..." with "... the jaws and radula of various minute snails.

After the Manual was completed, Suter was engaged by the Geological Survey to describe collections of Tertiary mollusks gathered by the Department.