Since 1927 New Zealand teams have participated in overseas competitions. As these are postal matches it is comparatively easy for local teams to compete. In 1931 a Wellington team was placed fourth in the London B.S.A. teams' match and in the following year this team came second. R. H. Nicholl, of Wellington Harbour Board club, won the international Presidents Match in 1931. In 1937 New Zealand took fourth place in the Dewar Trophy tournament. Canterbury won the B.S.A. Cup match in 1938 and again in 1960. During the 1950–51 seasons Wellington and Christchurch teams were successful in Empire postal matches. In addition to these, the Slazenger Shield is competed for between Australian and New Zealand teams.

One of the principal functions of the New Zealand Small-bore Rifle Association is to arrange the conduct of competitions. The first New Zealand small-bore rifle championship and men's teams' championship was held in 1925. In the following year a ladies' championship (“R” Cup) event was inaugurated. During the next few years the scope of the competitions was widened as new events were introduced. The men's interclub event was divided into five grades, special trophies being the Master Grade Association Cup; the Winchester Cup (1931) for A Grade; the Palma (1935) for B Grade; the Whitcombe and Caldwell Cup (1929) for C Grade, and the Sidney Tisdall Cup (1928) for D Grade. Since 1932 the Turner and Le Brun Cup has been awarded to the competitor gaining the highest aggregate score for the season. A special trophy – the Rhen-West “R” Cup – has been competed for since 1938 by teams using “R” type ammunition. For the duration of the war the New Zealand small-bore rifle championships were abandoned.

Until 1940 New Zealand competitions were organised by the Wellington executive with comparatively little aid from other associations. In 1946 an attempt was made to spread representation and a more fully representative executive was set up. The competitions were widened and several new events were introduced. In that year an annual inter-association match was instituted and, since 1949, a junior championship (Stoddart Cup) and junior inter-association competition have been held. In addition to these, the Ross Shield is awarded to the winner of the annual North v. South Island match.

Previously to the setting up of the national body, the miniature rifle sport had been catered for by a number of small, independent local associations. The New Zealand Miniature Rifle Association, now known as the New Zealand Small-bore Rifle Association, was formed following an informal meeting at Christchurch on 19 July 1924. During the succeeding months further meetings were held. On 28 March 1925 the first annual meeting, attended by delegates from 15 local associations, approved the constitution and rules of the new association. It thus became possible to regulate the conduct of competitions, and one of the first actions taken was to adopt the Ashburton printed target as the New Zealand standard target and to arrange for a uniform system of scoring. Points ranged from one to five so that the seven-bull match would count for a possible 35, and the 10-bull match for a possible 50. This system continued until 1927 when the value of the shots was changed to conform with those of the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs, London. In July of that year the New Zealand association affiliated with the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs and indicated that it wished to take part in the international competitions. In 1928, as a result of this, the New Zealand Association discarded the Ashburton target in favour of the Roberts target, and the checking system was changed from “out the line” to “a touch”. The Roberts target continued to be used for competitions until 1936, when it was replaced by the metric target.

(1814–75) and Edward Joshua (son, 1841–1911).

Pioneer runholders.

A new biography of Riddiford, Edward Joshua appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Daniel Riddiford was born in England in 1814. Some years after his father's death his mother married G. S. Evans, then a schoolmaster, who later qualified as a barrister and became an enthusiastic supporter of the Wakefield colonisation schemes. Probably through this association Riddiford, in September 1839, was appointed emigration agent in the New Zealand Company's (q. v.) first settlement, at a salary of £200 per annum. His duties were to receive immigrants on landing and to provide temporary habitation, particularly for women and children and any sick. Before leaving England he also arranged an agency business, with Captain E. Daniell as a partner, which would act on behalf of overseas land purchasers.

Riddiford arrived in Wellington in March 1840 on the Adelaide with his stepfather and Captain Daniell, and he immediately took up his official duties which were undertaken through the first phase of Company activity.

Following the taking up of sheep runs in the Wairarapa by Clifford, Weld, and others, Riddiford, about 1846–47, occupied the Orongorongo station, with an effective lease from 1 April 1848, over some 7,000 acres between the Wainuiomata and Mukamuka Rivers. Until 1910, however, it was substantially a Maori leasehold with restricted flat grazing and Riddiford soon sought elsewhere for a better property. In 1848-49 he arranged the Maori lease of the Te Awaiti Block on the East Coast, estimated, at the time of issue of the formal Crown licence six years later, to include about 30,000 acres. Riddiford, his wife (Harriett, née Stone), and family lived at Orongorongo station until 1855, when he moved into his Woburn property in the Hutt Valley. In 1858–59 Riddiford withstood a challenge to his Orongorongo title from C. E. Luxford, who had negotiated a separate lease over part of the block concerned.

After Daniel Riddiford's death at Woburn, Hutt, on 20 March 1875, his eldest son, Edward Joshua (1841–1911), took over the management of the properties. Edward, later known as “King” Riddiford, was born at Port Nicholson in 1841 and educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, and Scotch College, Melbourne. On leaving school he spent some time in Australia and thence made his way to the Otago goldfields. In 1862, however, he returned to the Wairarapa and, at the age of 21, took over the management of Te Awaiti block which, later, he was to inherit. Edward's experience of sheep and cattle grazing in Australia well qualified him to push vigorously ahead with plans for the development of Te Awaiti; moreover, as a pastoralist, he was well in advance of the farming practice of the day. Glenburn station, north of Te Awaiti, was purchased in 1900, and Tablelands, near Martinborough, a little later, as well as other smaller properties elsewhere. Riddiford was a very shrewd buyer, both of stock and of property. Although there have been larger stations and greater personal fortunes in New Zealand's pastoral history, the Riddiford properties represented for the period a most significant aggregation of stock and land.

by Austin Graham Bagnall, M.A., A.L.A., Librarian, National Library Centre, Wellington.

• New Zealand Times, 24 Mar 1875 (Obit).

The Richmond Range extends from Tophouse Saddle through Red Hill–which is the highest mountain in this range (5,875 ft) – and continues through Bushy Top, Rintoul, Old Man, Richmond, Fishtail, and Baldy Peaks to Mount Riley, a distance of 50 miles. The range is bounded to the south-east by the Wairau fault-angle depression, to the north by Pelorus River and the Sounds, and to the northwest by the Bryant Range, which leads off from Old Man. The vegetation of the south-western part consists mainly of tussock, while the north-eastern part of the range is covered mainly by indigenous forest.

The south-western part of this range – Red Hill – is well known as part of the “Mineral Belt”, which consists mainly of old rocks of volcanic origin. Minerals and trace elements associated with the dunite and serpentine of the belt are chromite and copper ore, which are found mainly on Dun Mountain on the northerly extension of this range; nickel and cobalt occur as trace elements, serpentine is in inexhaustible supply, while asbestos occurs in thin veins in the serpentine.

Further to the north-east in this range the schist rocks have yielded reef gold and have also been the source of the alluvial gold found in the Wakamarina and Mahakipawa Valleys, whose streams drain the north-western flank of this range, and in the Waikakaho Stream, which drains the south-western flank of this range. A quartz lode at Deep Creek in the Wakamarina Valley has yielded a few tons of scheelite (tungsten ore).

The Hon. Mathew Richmond was a pioneer runholder of Marlborough. His station, Richmond Brook, was managed by his son, A. J. Richmond. The name probably honours the son, who was long resident in Marlborough.

by Geert Jan Lensen, New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.

(1801–87).

Superintendent of the Southern District of New Zealand, member of the Legislative Council.

Mathew Richmond was born in 1801 at Salisbury, England, the son of Major Richmond, of Kilmarnock, Scotland, an officer of the Royal Scots' Greys. He entered the Royal Military College in 1814 and, in 1817, went to South Africa where he enlisted in the Cape Corps. In 1818 he transferred to the 11th Regiment of Foot, gaining his captaincy in 1826. He served with Canning in Portugal (1828–29), and was stationed in the lonian Isles (1829–38) where he acquired a reputation as a just and competent administrator. In 1839 Richmond went to New Brunswick as Deputy Judge Advocate-General for the 96th Regiment and, later in the same year, accompanied this regiment to New South Wales.

In June 1840 Richmond was appointed one of the Commissioners to examine land claims in New Zealand. He was in Wellington at the time of the Wairau Affray and succeeded in maintaining order in the difficult days following. On 12 July 1843 he was appointed Chief Police Magistrate for the Southern District and, on 1 February 1844, he became Superintendent. The Southern District of New Zealand comprised all settlements lying to the south of a line drawn due eastwards from Cape Egmont, and Richmond was chief executive and judicial officer over this territory. As he was responsible only to the Governor and to the Colonial Secretary in Auckland, the southern settlers bitterly criticised the appointment. When Lieutenant-Governor Eyre arrived to assume the Government of New Munster in August 1847, Richmond became Resident Magistrate at Nelson – a post he held until 1853. On 11 June 1853, following Dillon's sudden death, Richmond became Commissioner of Crown Lands in Nelson, which position he held until 1858.

On 23 June 1853 Sir George Grey appointed Richmond to the Legislative Council where he played an active part, being Chairman of Committees from 1865 to 1879. Major Richmond was popular with all who knew him, and was awarded the C.B. in 1860 for his military services. He died at Nelson on 5 March 1887.

In 1830 Richmond married Mary Smith, by whom he had a son and a daughter. His son, Andrew James (1832–80), represented Nelson and Colling-wood in the House of Representatives from 1861–80.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• Superintendent of the Southern District Files (MSS), National Archives
• Crown Colony Government in New Zealand, McLintock, A. H. (1958)
• Evening Post, 7 Mar 1887 (Obit).

(1822–98).

Engineer, artist, and politician.

A new biography of Richmond, James Crowe appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

James Crowe Richmond, the younger brother of C. W. Richmond, was born at the family home in London on 22 September 1822. He was educated at the Hackney Grammar School and, later, after the family moved to the Isle of Wight, at Hove House, Brighton. He attended University College, London, in 1839 and left with a strong wish to follow a career in art, where his natural talent was early displayed. He decided, however, to accept an apprenticeship to Samuel Clegg, a civil engineer – and relative – and specialised in railway engineering. In 1842 he entered the employment of Samuda Brothers and, three years later, went to I. K. Brunel as a member of his South Devon railways staff. Here he became interested in the “atmospheric railway”, a scheme of Clegg and Samuda's for driving engines under atmospheric pressure and, more important, he met John Staines Atkinson, like himself an engineer, and so began the friendship between the two families.

The depressed economic conditions in England at the time were affecting many and turning the thoughts of a number to emigration. J. C. Richmond as early as 1841 had been attracted by the possibility, and when in the following year his Hursthouse relatives left for New Zealand, he had a firm link with the new colony. In August 1848 Richmond recorded that it was a year since he had had any steady active employment and he was again considering emigrating or at least farming. By May 1849, however, both alternatives were rejected temporarily while he contemplated making a career in art. In December 1849 he began lessons at Leigh's drawing academy, but three months later was thinking of acquiring a Midlands pottery business. This scheme, too, was abandoned, and he was prepared to throw all energy into art and to go to Dresden and Rome later in the year. But in June 1850 it was finally settled that, with his younger brother, Henry Robert Richmond, he should sail for New Zealand, a decision prompted partly by the sailing of the Pekin with relatives, including the rest of the Hursthouse family.

The brothers accordingly sailed on the Victory in October, landing in Auckland on 1 February 1851. They decided to walk south to Taranaki. Knowing only a smattering of Maori they travelled south to the Waikato and Waipa Valleys, visiting the Rev. B. Y. Ashwell at Tukapoto and the Rev. Buttle at Te Kopua, and thence over to Kawhia and along the coast to their destination. In the settlement they bought a small section and set about the usual pioneering tasks of erecting a house, clearing, and fencing. In April 1852 other members of the family in England decided to follow, eight in all sailing in the Sir Edward Paget in November. In Taranaki eight holdings totalling about 1,000 acres were acquired by the Atkinsons and Richmonds. After clearing part of his section and building a cottage, J. C. Richmond left for England in March 1854 with the intention of painting and, possibly, marrying. In May 1855, enjoying the friendship of Basil Holmes, he spent four months sketching in the Isle of Arran and again seriously considered making it his vocation. He meanwhile resumed his profession of engineering, working on railway construction in Belgium for a time in early 1856. In October 1856 he married Mary Smith and, with his wife, again reached New Zealand in May 1857.

Under the spur of family responsibility and the example of his elder brother, he participated energetically in the political activities of the province. In August 1857 he declined a seat in the Legislative Council and in November was defeated in an election for the Provincial Council. C. W. Richmond was by this time a member of the Stafford Ministry and James's correspondence with his brother reveals on the one hand the judicious, dispassionate approach of a statesman and, on the other, the strongly partisan, impetuous judgment of the provincialist. J. C. Richmond joined the Taranaki Rifle Volunteers and, in October 1858, was elected a member of the Provincial Council for Grey and Bell and was appointed Provincial Secretary and member of the Executive from the following April.

At the time of the Waitara purchase, the family correspondence makes it plain that J. C. Richmond advocated purchase and enforcement of Te Teira's sale by force of arms. In a statement in the Legislative Council on 1 August 1888, long after the event, he defended himself against the charges which Rusden had made in the History of New Zealand. Richmond stated that when the survey was first decided upon, he drafted a reply to the Central Government to the effect that the survey would be forcibly resisted and that warfare, if it began, would spread over the whole Island. Such a cautious, monitory dispatch would be in contrast to his general attitude at the time of the Waitara crisis. It may have been drafted, but it has not been found.

In April 1860 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives for Omata, which was ironically stated at the time to possess five houses and one stockade. During the Maori troubles Mrs Richmond, with many other Taranaki women and their children, was evacuated to Nelson, J. C. Richmond building a cottage in town. From January 1861 he was writing for the Taranaki Herald and from December 1861 he edited the Nelson Examiner, having earlier declined an invitation from Domett to be Provincial Engineer for the Province. In March and April 1862 he visited the Buller diggings and did some sketching. In December 1862 he was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands, Nelson. He visited the Wairau and Amuri districts and, following separation of Marlborough from Nelson, defined the boundaries of the provinces. He was a member of the Executive of the Nelson Provincial Council from March 1863. Alfred Saunders requested his resignation on political grounds in March 1865. In June he was invited to join the Weld Ministry as Colonial Secretary, which post he held for four months. He resigned his seat after the sudden death of his wife in October 1865, but agreed to go to the Legislative Council for a session.

In August 1866 he was appointed Minister of Native Affairs in the Stafford Ministry, continuing, at the same time, his leader writing for the Nelson Examiner and Wellington Independent. No more difficult time in which to make a significant change in policy could be faced with the Hauhau campaigns still at their most critical stage in certain areas. Military considerations dominated thinking. In 1867, at the time when the dissatisfaction of Otago with the goldfields administration of the Central Government had become strained, Richmond made a courageous tour through the province as spokesman for the Government viewpoint. In June 1868, on the eve of Te Kooti's escape from the Chathams, he was rash enough to forecast that the native difficulty was at an end. With the intensification of the campaign against Te Kooti, he did what he could to bring the campaigns, both on the East Coast and in Taranaki, to a successful conclusion. He, however, miscalculated the readiness of Maori auxiliaries to defend areas far removed from tribal lands and he lacked skill in dealing with them. Richmond must therefore share the responsibility for the defeat of the Stafford Government and the change in its policies. He had, however, anticipated peace, and in February 1869 had outlined proposals for a treaty with the Maori King.

After two unsuccessful attempts to re-enter the House of Representatives, in Wellington in 1870 and in Nelson in 1872, he left for Europe in 1873 to arrange for the further education of his children. A happy blend of sketching and work – he was back in railway engineering in Algeria in 1875–76 – enabled him to keep in close touch with his family until his return to New Zealand in 1881. He stood for Nelson and Waimea almost immediately, but was defeated. In 1883 he was appointed to the Legislative Council and was assiduous in his attendance there until his retirement in 1892. He died at Otaki on 19 January 1898.

Richmond was an excellent example of a man of talent and sense of duty who engaged in public life as an obligation befitting one of his background and education. He was a perceptive, shrewd judge of his fellows and could appraise a situation with artistic insight rather than from a cool, reasoned, political judgment. He was a poor speaker and was not equipped for the rough and tumble of electioneering. Gisborne said that he was talented without genius and philosophic without enthusiasm. His talents and his energy are perhaps best displayed in his artistic legacy. Working chiefly in watercolours, he was a sensitive and thoughtful interpreter of the New Zealand landscape and is one of the few significant artists of the period. Today he is well represented in various New Zealand art galleries and private collections.

by Austin Graham Bagnall, M.A., A.L.A., Librarian, National Library Centre, Wellington.

• The Richmond-Atkinson Papers, Scholefield, G. H. (ed.) (1960)
• James Crowe Richmond (Exhibition), Auckland Art Gallery (1957).

(1821–95).

Politician and Judge.

A new biography of Richmond, Christopher William appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Christopher William Richmond was born on 12 July 1821, the eldest son of Christopher and Maria Richmond, née Wilson. His father, a barrister, belonged to a noted Unitarian family from the north of England. William Richmond was educated at a private boarding school and at Hackney Grammar School. He commenced his legal studies when 16, first with S. Aspland, in London, then with Winter, Williams, and Williams. For health reasons he spent much of the years 1841–43 in the south of France with his mother and other members of the family. With the widening of his cultural background came an improvement in health, although he was frail constitutionally and throughout life a sufferer from asthma.

He was called to the Bar in 1847 and, discouraged by slow progress in building up a practice, he pondered on the possibility of emigrating. He enjoyed the lifelong friendship of Richard Hutton, headmaster of the Unitarian school of Hove House, Brighton, and, later, editor of the Spectator. With Hutton and other contemporaries of intellectual calibre and like outlook, he developed and extended a deep and perceptive interest in philosophy, theology, the social sciences, and literature.

In September 1852 he married Emily Elizabeth Atkinson, thus forging the first close link between the two families brought together by the recent friendship of his brother James with John Atkinson. The young couple were inevitably influenced by the Atkinson and kindred Hursthouse interest in emigration to New Zealand, and William decided to follow the example of James who had already left. The severing of direct association with the cultural amenities of the Old World probably meant more to C. W. Richmond than to most, but with his wife he sailed for the colony on the Sir Edward Paget, arriving in May 1853.

Physically more handicapped for the rugged work of bushfelling and farming than were his relatives, William set about building up a small conveyancing practice in New Plymouth. Possessing a strong political consciousness, he had delayed his departure for New Zealand until the passing of the Constitution Act of 1852 had ensured representative government for the colony. In November he was elected to represent New Plymouth in the General Assembly. The first promptings to political activity sprang from the frustration of the land-restricted Taranaki settlers disturbed by the intertribal warfare among local Maoris over land sales. Stafford, early impressed by his ability, invited him to join the Government, and in June 1856 he was appointed Colonial Secretary. Following Sewell's departure for England in September, he exchanged the portfolio for that of Colonial Treasurer. Painstaking, conscientious, with immense application and a ready pen balanced by a scrupulous attention to detail, Richmond quickly established his administrative reputation, although he found the perpetual jostling for influence and dealing with sectional claims distasteful. The combination of a strong sense of public duty with a lively self-confidence both sustained his energy and prompted his repeated statement that only the certainty that the reins would fall into reckless or unworthy hands obliged him to remain in politics.

Despite the fact that Richmond represented a small province where Maori-European relations were tense, he consistently took a broad view where issues affecting both the General and the Provincial Governments were concerned. He supported the provincial system as the best way of meeting local needs, but was opposed to the extension of provincial powers at the expense of the Central Government. Indeed, for much of his period of office, family correspondence, particularly with his brother, J. C. Richmond, shows him trying to view problems nationally and earning reproaches for not regarding himself as a dedicated advocate of local issues.

Although not formally appointed Minister for Native Affairs until August 1858, he was particularly concerned with Maori administration from 1857. In the middle of the year, for example, he accompanied Governor Gore Browne on a visit to the Waikato and made some comments on the growing strength of the “King” movement – the voice of a people crying out to be governed – which if neglected or misected would prove a grave danger for the future. He favoured the retention of the Crown's right of pre-emption of Maori land instead of its transfer to the provinces as was being currently advocated. In July, on the appointment of Parris to the post of District Land Purchase Commissioner in Taranaki, with the Waitara Block in mind, Richmond advocated caution and not the strong hand concerning proceedings over a disputed land title.

He was chiefly responsible for the passing of five Acts dealing with Maori affairs during the 1858 session of Parliament. The more important of these were the Native District Regulation Act and the Native Territorial Rights Act. The former was to permit European-type bylaws to be adopted in Maori districts as a step towards local responsibility and control. The Native Territorial Rights Act was an attempt to provide for the issue of certificates of Maori land titles as a step to the individualisation of title and to make sales of such titles easier. The lengthy supporting memorandum accompanying the Act is most significant as the basis of Richmond's view of Maori land rights to which he adhered consistently throughout the subsequent Waitara debates and post-mortems. This Act, which has been viewed as the first real attempt by the New Zealand Parliament to grapple with Maori affairs, was liked neither by the land purchase officers nor by the Governor. Richmond's opinion in his statement that the view that the Maoris were entitled to an absolute grant in fee simple to tribal lands was “mischievous and unfounded” was rightly criticised. Gore Browne considered that it implied that the Maoris were not entitled to their unoccupied lands, a Waitangi Treaty provision which the British Government had already upheld. Richmond earlier would appear to have recognised that chiefs possessed the right to veto land sales, but the general lack of appreciation of the principle whereby a chief could veto the sale of “customary” land, as distinct from areas individually occupied confused all Government statements and policies, although in part understood by Martin, Swainson, and the “Clerical Party”. The Act was disallowed by the Secretary of State in May 1859.

Richmond, meanwhile, was with the Governor at the fateful Taranaki meeting of March 1859 at which Te Teira's offer to sell the Waitara Block was made. In January 1860, as a member of the Executive Council, with his Cabinet Colleagues, the Governor, and Colonel Gold, he was a party to the decision to proceed with the survey of the block despite opposition. His own heavy administrative burden had only temporarily lightened. Sewell, on his return, had been reappointed Colonial Treasurer, but resigned two months later to leave Richmond to pick up the duties once more. Stafford, later in the same year, considered it necessary to go to England, leaving Richmond the virtual head of the Government for some six months.

With the onset of the Taranaki War, he privately followed the dangers and fortunes of his relatives with anxiety and compassion while properly maintaining his political detachment. In September 1860 he was concerned with a Native Offenders' Bill which the Government found it expedient to drop after Richmond had independently discussed some compromise with the Governor. In December he drafted a lengthy series of comments on Sir William Martin's attack on the Waitara policy. This paper, published both officially and as a separate pamphlet, was impeccably consistent with his earlier views, but attempted to justify the purchase on what are clearly seen to be inadequate grounds. In the wider context of race relations his view that Wiremu Kingi's resistance constituted rebellion, which should cease before any fuller consideration could be given to Maori claims, may merely have given edge to both swords. His standpoint was, however, strengthened by the view that a clash was inevitable, although it was unfortunate that his own lack of knowledge and perception, in common with that of others, should have been the limiting factor in making an impolitic and unjust cause the test case. The views which he held on the question were restated later, notably in correspondence with Lady Gore Browne in 1864 and with F. A. Weld in 1878.

In July 1861 a parliamentary select committee justly exonerated him from a loosely worded charge by Featherston that he, Richmond, as a member of the executive, had exerted improper influence in regard to the purchase of land in Taranaki.

He shortly afterwards resigned his Cabinet seat to accept a legal partnership in Dunedin with T. B. Gillies, vacating his New Plymouth seat in January 1862. He already had Otago links through the purchase in 1858 with Stafford, Bell, and Steward of a share in the Idaburn run, which he retained for 14 years. The practice, although busy and lucrative, was contrary to the “very taste and feeling” of his nature. Unexpected relief was in sight when he received the offer of the judgship for the newly constituted Otago circuit, which he accepted in September 1862. In 1865 he resisted most tempting offers from Stafford to return to politics, the premiership being offered him if he so wished.

In 1873 he acted as chairman for the Heretaunga Commission of Inquiry to investigate alleged malpractices in the purchase of the Heretaunga Block. At a most critical time in its deliberations the Commission was saved by his tact and judgment, although its final report, in the light of the evidence today, appears a somewhat legalistic compromise.

Two years later Judge Richmond visited England, where some of his family of seven were left for further education. His later correspondence with them has warmth, wit, and natural grace of style, but reflects a satirical scepticism regarding some aspects of the burgeoning social democracy of his last years. His philosophical interests were sustained throughout life, his original unitarianism having changed to the seeming paradox of an idealistic theism with rationalistic overtones. Two addresses to the Nelson Institute in 1869, Man's Place in Creation and Modern Aspects of Natural Theology, alike show his up-to-date knowledge of scientific theory and his own traditional position, little modified in his later essay on Materialism (1881). He died in Wellington on 3 August 1895.

In politics his ability, high principles, and devotion to duty had carried him early to the highest office. As a Judge his integrity, humanity, and standing as a jurist made him the most noteworthy of his contemporaries.

by Austin Graham Bagnall, M.A., A.L.A., Librarian, National Library Centre, Wellington.

• The Origins of the Maori Wars, Sinclair, K. (1959)
• The Richmond-Atkinson Papers, Scholefield, G. H. (ed.) (1960)
• Evening Post, 5 Aug 1895 (Obit).

Richmond is situated near the eastern fringe of the Waimea Plain about 1 ½ miles south of the head of Tasman Bay. Within 2 miles south of Richmond the plain is broken by the foothills of the Gordon, Richmond, and Bryant Ranges. To the west the land rises more gradually to the gentle outer slopes of the Moutere Hills. Nelson is 8 miles north-east and is linked to Richmond by main highway.

The rural activities of the district are mixed farming and cash cropping, sheep farming, fruit-growing, market gardening, tobacco and hop growing. In addition to providing market and trade services, Richmond has several industries. These include freezing works, processing vegetables, knitwear mills, and a concrete-pipe works. Sawmilling, timber dressing, and the manufacture of joinery and furniture are also carried on. In recent years Richmond has become a dormitory town for Nelson, and the city's outlying suburbs extend close to the borough boundary.

Richmond dates from June 1842 when T. J. Thompson and J. W. Barnicoat secured a contract from the New Zealand Company to survey and subdivide for settlement an area of 20,000 acres in Waimea East district. Their survey camp, on the rise now occupied by the Anglican Church, formed the nucleus of a settlement, which was a rising village by 1845. The village was named Richmond in 1846, on the suggestion of George Snow, an early resident who came from Richmond-on-Thames, Surrey. “The Star and Garter” was licensed in 1846 and is possibly the oldest-established hotel in New Zealand still in business on the original site and under the original name. On 13 February 1886 Richmond was proclaimed a town district, and in 1891 it was constituted a borough.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 1,973; 1956 census, 2,515; 1961 census, 3,472.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.

(1810–78).

Superintendent of Otago, Speaker of the Legislative Council, social reformer.

A new biography of Richardson, John Larkins Cheese appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

J. L. C. Richardson was born on 4 December 1810 in Bengal, India, the son of Robert Richardson, a civil servant in the East India Company, and of Marianne, née Romney. Intended for the company's military service, Richardson was educated at Addis-combe College (near Croydon), England, and, in 1828, returned to India where he joined the Bengal Horse Artillery. In 1834, at Agra, India, he married Charlotte Laing, by whom he had one son and two daughters. He served in the Afghanistan campaign (1842), and was aide-de-camp to Sir Harry Smith throughout the Sikh Wars, being twice wounded. In 1846 he became Commissary-General of Ordnance at Ferozpore, a post he held until his retirement from the company's service in 1852, with the rank of major. Richardson had visited Cape Colony in 1848 but, not being impressed by the country, made a brief trip in 1852 to New Zealand where he travelled extensively in Otago, Wellington, and Taranaki. On his return to England in 1854 he published, anonymously, an extremely readable account of this journey under the title A Summer Excursion in New Zealand. In 1856, having decided to settle permanently in New Zealand, Richardson brought his children to Otago where he purchased in the Clutha district a station he named Willowmead. Although he was content to lead the life of a country squire, he was elected in February 1860 to represent Clutha in the Otago Provincial Council, becoming its Speaker two months later. By virtue of this office he was obliged to lead the impeachment proceedings against James Macandrew, the Superintendent, and as a consequence Richardson assumed the Superintendency. He was elected to this office on 17 May 1861 and served until 7 February 1863 when he was defeated, largely on account of the new goldfields vote, by John Hyde Harris, his former deputy.

In 1862 Richardson was elected to the House of Representatives for Dunedin City, and in 1863 for Dunedin Suburbs, which he represented until his defeat in 1866, when the Government found him a seat in Taranaki. He served as Postmaster-General in Weld's Ministry (1864–65), and in the reconstructed Stafford Ministry (1866–68) without portfolio. He represented Stafford's Ministry in the Legislative Council until his elevation to the Speakership in 1868. In the 1870s Richardson was appointed New Zealand's commissioner to report on the British – New Zealand accounts outstanding from the Maori Wars, a task he carried out most competently. In politics Richardson remained a staunch provincialist, and supported Grey on the land question. He also aided Bradshaw in his controversial Act (1873) to limit female labour in factories.

Apart from politics, Richardson took a keen interest in education, defence, and the Anglican Church. He founded, and was honorary captain of, the Otago Boys' High School Cadet Corps. He supported female education, and in November 1869 was chosen Vice-Chancellor of the newly constituted Otago University. On the death of the Rev. Dr Burns in January 1871, Richardson succeeded to the Chancellorship until ill health forced him to retire in 1875. When, as a mark of public esteem, Richardson was presented with a large popular subscription, he devoted this money to founding the “Richardson Scholarship” available to students attending Otago University. He was knighted in 1874, and died at the Imperial Hotel, Dunedin, on 6 December 1878.

Sir John Richardson, or “the old Major” as he was universally known, was a loved and respected figure. He was a popular lecturer, a polished conversationalist, and a witty and entertaining public speaker. His funeral evoked a great public demonstration and it is perhaps fitting to note that the then Minister of Lands, the same James Macandrew whom he had impeached so many years before, declared the occasion a State funeral.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• Bruce Herald, 10 Dec 1878 (Obit).