(1828–98).

Botanist, naturalist, and teacher.

A new biography of Kirk, Thomas appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Thomas Kirk was the son of Baptist parents, George, a nurseryman, and his wife Sarah, a nurserywoman and florist. He was born at Coventry, Warwickshire, England, on 18 January 1828. Kirk early showed a talent for botany; he took his father's counsel to get a comprehensive grounding in it and began work in a nursery. Later employed in a large Coventry sawmill, Newarks, he gained a thorough knowledge of the timber business. Kirk studied mosses as well as the flowering plants of the county, and corresponded with several well-known botanists of that day including Borrer, Babington, Bloxham, and Perry.

On Christmas Day 1850 Kirk married Sarah Jane, daughter of Joseph Mattocks, a warehouseman. In 1862, due to his ill health and the poor economic conditions in Coventry, Kirk, with Sarah and children, George, Thomas William, Amy, and Harry Borrer, emigrated to New Zealand on the Gertrude. They arrived in Auckland on 19 February 1863, where Thomas set up in business as a timber merchant, travelling between that city and Big Omaha in the north. Full advantage was taken of opportunities for botanising, and his contributions of native plants to museum herbaria date from shortly after his arrival. Botanical collections in many parts of the world were enriched by his gifts. As timber merchant, as a surveyor in Auckland in 1864, and, later, as a freeholder in the Kaipara under the Auckland provincial 40-acre scheme, Kirk learned at first hand the difficulties experienced by settlers in a new land. On the nomination of Hutton, he became curator and secretary of the Auckland Institute and Museum on 1 June 1868 and was elected to the council at the following annual general meeting. From 1869 Kirk also held the positions of Deputy Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, and of Meteorological Observer, Auckland. He spent over 10 years in the Auckland Province, his main botanical explorations in that time being of Great Barrier, Little Barrier, and Arid Island in 1867; the north-eastern coast of North Auckland, 1869; Thames goldfield, 1869; Waikato district, 1870; Rotorua and Taupo districts, 1872. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1871. When, at the end of 1873, he resigned from the Auckland Institute, the council considered it a serious loss not only to the institute but also to the Auckland Province.

As lecturer in natural sciences at Wellington College, a position taken up in 1874 on the resignation of Hutton, Kirk found his true vocation. His lectures were models of instruction, and his ability to impart knowledge, together with his air of authority, won the respect and interest of his pupils. Professor Kirk became a well-known and esteemed figure in the Wellington community. The college was affiliated with the university until 1880, and when this affiliation ceased Kirk's appointment was terminated.

Closely identified with the Wellington Baptist Church from its formation in 1879, he held for several years the offices of deacon and secretary to the church, and was president of the Baptist Union in 1892 when the first decade of its New Zealand history was concluded. State aid for religion did not meet with his approval, and he vigorously opposed the acceptance by the church of a section set apart in the city for the Baptist denomination, even though the young church found the purchase of a site a heavy financial burden.

In 1881, as lecturer in biology and geology, Kirk replaced Hutton and Haast at Lincoln Agricultural College. He remained at the college until 1882 and returned for short periods both in 1883 and 1884. For Kirk, this was a time of frustration, ill health, and strain. His students none the less gave proof to their examiners of being well grounded in the practical branches of agricultural work.

Appointed Chief Conservator of State Forests in 1885, Kirk organised the first State Forests branch of the Department of Lands and Survey. Though not a forester, he was a strong advocate of scientific forest conservation and in his short term of office laid sound foundations. He recommended the formation of a school of forestry and pomology. His forest regulations greatly reduced the wasteful use of indigenous forests, and 800,000 acres were dedicated as forest reserves in his term of office. In 1888 depressed economic conditions led to the closing of the section and Kirk's services were dispensed with – a matter of great regret as he had hoped to ensure the future of the native forests and the wise utilisation of both major and minor forest products. During his term as Chief Conservator, Kirk commenced work on his Forest Flora, published by the Government in 1889. To this work, a descriptive account of the economic trees and shrubs comprised in the New Zealand flora, Kirk brought capabilities of a high order. On his compulsory retirement Kirk continued his botanical explorations, his major excursions being to Stewart Island, Auckland and Campbell Islands, and the Snares and Antipodes Islands. The vegetation of the latter had not previously been recorded.

In 1894 Kirk was commissioned by the New Zealand Government to prepare a Flora of the colony, but it had not been completed when illness ended his life on 8 March 1898.

Reserved and dignified, fond of old-world courtesies, gentlemanly in his bearing towards all, Kirk combined an austere love of veracity and righteousness with a wholesome hatred of the mean and base. All efforts to benefit mankind won his approval, and all human goodness his admiration. He was an amiable man whose gift of humour endeared him to family and friends. Young people liked and trusted him, seeking his guidance freely. First and foremost student and teacher, Kirk was convinced that only a succession of earnest workers could ensure the success of research into the flora and fauna of any district, “those of the present taking up the work where it fell from the hands of their predecessors, and in their turn passing it on to those who reap the benefit of their labours”. His own family (five children survived him) was a remarkable example of the young following the tenets and teaching of the older generation.

For over 30 years Kirk corresponded with settlers and students in all parts of the colony, and botanists in many parts of the world, for years writing over 1,000 letters annually. For those 30 years, without stint or material recompense, he gave of his time and scientific knowledge to benefit the colony, and he died a poor man. His widow, left unprovided for, appealed to the Government for a compassionate allowance, but was denied it.

Sir Joseph Hooker wrote on Kirk's death: “This is a great loss to Botany, for indeed except the late Baron von Mueller there was no other cultivator of Botany in the Southern Hemisphere who could compare with him and I have been looking for years for the Flora of New Zealand by him as to a work of very great scientific importance”.

Kirk contributed papers to Nature, the Journal of Botany, London, the Linnean Society, and the Gardeners' Chronicle, and almost every volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, from Vol. 1 in 1868 to the date of his death, has numerous contributions from his pen. In 1875 his report on the durability of New Zealand timbers was published; his most important completed work, the Forest Flora of New Zealand, appeared in 1889; and in 1899 the portion of his unfinished Flora of New Zealand in a sufficiently complete state to be published was issued as the Students' Flora of New Zealand and Outlying Islands.

by Alan Drummond McKinnon, B.FOR.SC. Assistant Director (Forest Management) New Zealand Forest Service, Wellington and Lanna Coughlan, New Zealand Forest Service, Wellington.

• Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. 31. (Obit note.)

(1859–1948)

Biologist and teacher.

A new biography of Biography appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Kirk was born on 9 March 1859 in Coventry, the third son of the botanist, Thomas Kirk, who brought his family to New Zealand in 1863. He was educated at Auckland College and Grammar School, and at Wellington College (where his father had been appointed lecturer in natural science in 1873, the college being then affiliated to the University of New Zealand). After taking his M.A. in 1883, with honours in botany and zoology, Kirk spent the next 20 years as assistant inspector of Maori schools. Travelling widely in the course of his duties, he was able to collect plants and animals, both for his father's and his own studies. During this period he published four important papers on the New Zealand spongefauna, as well as other contributions, all of them in the Transactions of the N.Z. Institute. In 1885 he married Nancy Lamont, of Dunedin; they had two daughters, Ethelwyn and Gwyneth.

In 1903 Kirk was appointed to the newly established chair of biology at the (then) Victoria University College, Wellington, where he rapidly proved himself to be an outstanding teacher. When his task ended with his retirement, in 1943, his successors inherited two large and active departments (of botany and of zoology) which Kirk had nurtured from their first humble beginnings. Over the same period Kirk contributed more than a score of research papers on Hydrozoa, Cephalopoda, vertebrate anatomy, zoological techniques, control of house flies, growth of trees, starch in timber, embryology, etc. This diversity of interests was typical, and characterised his teaching. He also served on the Senate and the Academic Board of the University of New Zealand, was for many years chairman of the Board of Management of the Dominion Museum, and was one of the original fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Kirk's self-effacing devotion to his work and his picturesque appearance (in later years enhanced by a shock of silver hair) were sufficient to make him a notable professorial figure; but what was more significant was the genius of the man, his outstanding personality, which made him not only a brilliant teacher, but a trusted – indeed revered – counsellor among his students. Merely to have known him was sufficient to be inspired by his ideals. His former students found ways to honour him during his lifetime, but it was the letters they sent him from all parts of the globe, to his last days, which best revealed the influence Kirk exercised on two generations of New Zealand scientists. At the present Victoria University of Wellington his memory is kept alive in other ways, by a Kirk Prize (in biological sciences), a Kirk Cup (for faculty rugby), and a fine bronze portrait plaque by Margaret Butler, subscribed for by his former students in 1940.

A classical background brought to his classes a Latin wit, making them something quite out of the ordinary. He gave up his weekends and evenings to part-time as well as to his fulltime students, who were inspired to work at all hours at research. These evening sessions were enlivened by anecdotes of older New Zealand naturalists whom he had known, and whose memory he could clothe with flesh and blood. Excessively modest, he seldom referred either to his father's or his own work. With the ingenuity of the pioneer, he could contrive complicated apparatus from such unlikely materials as plasticine, hose pipes, and string. Like Parker, he was entirely convinced that the Huxleyan “type-system” was the best method of instruction, basing his lectures and laboratory work on a limited series of representative species, from which generalisations were subsequently drawn. Whatever the limitations of the method – and they are many – the subsequent successes of his students in New Zealand and abroad demonstrated that his teaching was sound. Kirk's pedagogic principles were simple and practical – to train young minds to think independently, irrespective of what the textbooks stated, and to learn where to find information when required. Therein lay his genius, which was infinitely enhanced by his capacity for moderating a rigid mental discipline by that extra element which won the affection of his students. In Kirk's presence, science became an adventure into the unknown.

Kirk died at Hamilton on 15 July 1948.

by Howard Barraclough Fell, M.SC.(N.Z.), PH.D., D.SC.(EDIN.), F.R.S.N.Z., Associate Professor of Zoology, Victoria University of Wellington.

• Victoria University College, Beaglehole, J. C. (1949)
• New Zealand Science Review, Vol. 6, No. 2 (1948)
• Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Vol. 77 (1949).

(1897–1957).

Soldier, lawyer, and editor.

A new biography of Kippenberger, Howard Karl appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Howard Karl Kippenberger was born on 28 January 1897 at Ladbrooks, near Christchurch, the son of Karl Kippenberger, a schoolmaster who later became a farmer at Waimate. Educated at Christchurch Boys' High School and later at Canterbury University College, he was in the words of General Freyberg “a born soldier”. At any rate, at the age of 14 he discovered military history, a subject which was to be his consuming interest for the rest of his life. But practice had to accompany theory and at the age of 18 he volunteered for active service in the First World War. As a private, and later an N.C.O. in the 1st Canterbury Regiment, he took part in four attacks on the Somme during the autumn of 1916. He was repatriated after being seriously wounded in the right arm.

Kippenberger qualified as a solicitor in 1920 and later became manager and then a partner of the Rangiora branch of a Christchurch legal firm. During his 20 years in Rangiora, he served for eight as a borough councillor. But the Army was his great love: he built up what was probably the most comprehensive library of military history and textbooks in New Zealand and he joined the Territorials. Commissioned, he commanded the Rangiora platoon of the 1st Battalion Canterbury Regiment. In 1929 he was promoted to captain, in 1934 to major, and in 1936 to lieutenantcolonel commanding the 1st Cants.

On the outbreak of the Second World War he was given the command of the first South Island battalion in what was to become the 2nd New Zealand Division. He led this battalion, his “beloved Twentieth Battalion”, through the fighting in Greece, Crete, and Libya with the exception of a period in Crete during which he had command of a composite brigade. In the fierce fighting at Bel Hamed, in late November 1941, his battalion was badly mangled and he was wounded and taken prisoner. He organised an escape for himself and 20 others and, after a sojourn in hospital, became brigadier, commanding the 5th Infantry Brigade.

“Kip”, as he was generally known not only in the 20th Battalion and the 5th Brigade but throughout the whole New Zealand Division, took the brigade back to the Western Desert to build the El Adem box before moving east to join the Division in Syria. Then followed the fighting and breakout at Minqar Qaim, the battles of El Mreir and Ruweisat Ridge, the holding of the line, and in October-November the turning of the tide at El Alamein, in all of which the infantry brigadier played a prominent part and was awarded his first D.S.O. During the fighting across North Africa to Takrouna in Tunisia, Brigadier Kippenberger led the 5th Brigade apart from the occasions, when in General Freyberg's absence at Corps Headquarters, he was acting major-general in command of the Division. In that year he won a bar to his D.S.O. After furlough he resumed command of the 5th Brigade at the Sangro in Italy and in February 1944 again took command of the Division as it faced up to Cassino. On 2 March, while descending Monte Trocchio, Major-General Kippenberger stepped on a mine and had one foot blown off and the other so badly shattered that it was later amputated.

After convalescence in England, he took control of the repatriation of New Zealand prisoners of war released from Germany. In 1946 he returned to New Zealand to become editor-in-chief of the war histories, which he was determined should fittingly record the national effort in the Second World War. His own autobiographical account of his war, Infantry Brigadier, appeared in 1949 and was acclaimed a classic in its field. Unit and campaign histories indicate how high were the standards he demanded of the authors. Taken together they constitute a formidable achievement and will remain a monument to a man who inspired great efforts in soldiers and writers alike. “Kip” held office on many committees; he was Dominion president of the R.S.A. from 1948 to 1955, served on the New Zealand Patriotic Fund Board, the Canteen Fund Board, the national executive of Heritage, the National Art Gallery, and Dominion Museum, and as colonel of the Canterbury Regiment. In keeping with his outstanding record and services he was awarded many honours, the C.B.E. in 1944, the C.B. and the Legion of Merit (U.S.A.) in 1945, and the K.B.E. in 1948. Sir Howard was known by his title or as “The General” to some, but to the great majority he was “Kip”, the name which will remain a household word with those who served under him during the war. He died in Wellington on 5 May 1957.

“Kip” was an outstanding soldier because he dedicated himself so completely to preparing himself and his men for whatever task seemed likely to be assigned to them. His years of reading and study were all part of that preparation. His men trusted him absolutely because they knew how dedicated he was to their interests and to the good name of the battalion or brigade he commanded. At once sensitive and stern, he had the powers of imagination, decision, and determination which mark a great leader. By his own example, and by his pre-battle talks to his officers and men, he inspired greatness in others; they felt they simply could not fail “Kip” and they acted accordingly. Although he normally spoke so quietly that it was difficult to hear him, he spoke both with knowledge and with feeling and he was always listened to intently. He set high standards but he retained a sense of dry humour and never lost the common touch. His feeling for his men may be expressed in his own words: “Few were saints, but they were men whom one was proud to command and in whose midst their commanders felt humble”. That feeling was strongly and warmly reciprocated. His courage was great and most notably shown in the way he conquered the tragic consequences of his wounds by learning to walk again and to carry on without self-pity or a word of complaint.

A stained glass window at Christchurch Boys' High School and the Kippenberger Memorial Fellowship, founded by the New Zealand Returned Services Association, help to commemorate his life and work.

In 1922 Kippenberger married Ruth Isobel Flynn, of Lyttelton. They had two sons and a daughter.

by Angus Ross, M.C. AND BAR, M.A.(N.Z.), PH.D.(CANTAB.), Professor of History, University of Otago.

• Infantry Brigadier, Kippenberger, H. K. (1949)
• 20 Battalion and Armoured Regiment, Pringle, D. J. C., and Glue, W. A. (1957)
• Evening Post, 4,11,18 Apr 1953
• Evening Post, 6 May 1957 (Obit).

Kinleith, a sawmilling and timber processing establishment for the production of pulp and paper, is situated on the volcanic plateau in the upper Waikato basin. The settlement is 18 miles south-east of Putaruru by road or branch railway. Afforestation was extended over large tracts of pumice land within a 12-mile radius of Tokoroa from 1924 onwards. In 1952 rail communication with Putaruru was established and sawmills and processing plant were erected. In 1953 the works began producing timber, pulp, and paper. The works' employees of the controlling company reside at Tokoroa, 4 miles north-west.

Kinleith is named after the Kinleith paper mills, situated by the Water of Leith in Scotland, where Sir David Henry served his apprenticeship in the papermaking trade.

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

Two members of the kingfisher family occur in New Zealand, the introduced Australian kookaburra, which has a very restricted range in the northern part of the North Island, and the widely distributed native kingfisher or kotare of the Maoris. The New Zealand bird, Halcyon sancta vagans, is the local race of a species that occurs from New Zealand to Australia, New Guinea, Eastern Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia, and it differs from the other local races (or subspecies) in minor characteristics, such as bill size, intensity of the colour of the plumage, and so on.

Kingfishers are to be found on and about the three main islands and the Kermadecs, but not on the Chathams or the sub-Antarctic islands. Their habitat is open country or forest edge and they are common near lakes, rivers, estuaries, and the sea. European settlement has benefited the species by incidentally supplying it with a greater variety of food than it originally enjoyed, with more extensive feeding areas and a greater choice of nesting sites.

Diet varies with locality; kingfishers living near the coast eat a considerable quantity of crabs from mud flats, and shrimps and small fish from pools. Away from the sea the diet consists of worms, insects, lizards, and freshwater fish. In both places fruits, small birds, and mice are taken when the opportunity arises.

Nests are made in cavities dug in rotting trees or clay banks and a clutch consists of four to five white eggs. The most characteristic call is a staccato “kek, kek, kek, kek”. During the breeding season a bubbling “kree, kree” is heard. Both sexes are alike in appearance, being deep green and ultra-marine above, buff below, with a broad buff collar. The black bill is large and powerful.

by Gordon Roy Williams, B.SC.(HONS.)(SYDNEY), Lecturer in Agricultural Zoology, Lincoln Agricultural College.

These names are given to a fish similar to barracouta both of which belong to the snake mackerel family and not to the families suggested by their common names. A true hake, sometimes called whiting or English hake, does occur in New Zealand although it is scarce. Southern kingfish, Jordanidia solandri, is found throughout New Zealand in depths from 30 to approximately 200 fathoms and is more abundant about and south of Cook Strait than elsewhere. It is a silvery fish growing to about 4 ft in length, similar in general appearance to barracouta but stouter and with two lateral lines instead of the one lateral line of barracouta. Kingfish is a name used about South Island coasts; hake is a widely used term about Cook Strait and some part of the North Island.

by John Moreland, B.SC., Zoologist, Dominion Museum, Wellington.

Kingfish (Seriola grandis), or haku of the Maoris, is an excellent sporting fish which readily takes a spinner and puts up a lively fight. It grows up to 4 ft in length with a weight of up to 100 lb. It somewhat resembles a trevally, but has a thicker, more rounded body and is more elongated. The colouring is greenish blue above and silvery white below. Fresh kingfish is rather dry and flavourless, but canning improves the flavour.

by Arthur William Baden Powell, Assistant Director, Auckland Institute and Museum.

*Separate figures for each county not available.

by Samuel Harvey Franklin, B.COM.GEOG., M.A.(BIRMINGHAM), Senior Lecturer, Geography Department, Victoria University of Wellington.

• The Land Utilisation Survey of North-east Taranaki, Department of Lands and Survey (1962)
• Livestock Farming in the North Island – a Study in Production Trends and Potentials, White, J. U. (1954)
• New Zealand Geographer, Vol. 6, Oct 1950, “Te Kuiti and the Northern King Country – a Region of Agricultural Transition”, Fox, J. W.

The improvement in conditions during the postwar period is reflected in the general statistics for the region. After a period of stagnation the rural population has resumed growth, though slowly, 4·73 per cent being the increase for 1951–61. The area in grass has increased by 54,980 acres during the same period. The percentage increase in sheep shorn, 31·3 per cent, is above the national rate of 29·73 per cent, but the increase in lambs shorn, 49·02 per cent, has not obtained the national level. Logging remains an important activity, especially as this region contains a fair proportion of the remaining indigenous timbers of the North Island. The Titanomagnetite (Taranaki) ironsands still await acceptance as an exploitable resource. They are exposed as blue-black to dark grey beach and dune sands along most of the coast, but are concentrated particularly around the Kawhia and Aotea Harbours and Lake Taharoa, where the deposits are described as vast. The iron content of the sands is not great and the titanium content is much lower, but one of the few estimates made assesses the ore-mineral content of the Taharoa sands as equivalent to 153 million tons of iron. If an industry were established there is no likelihood whatsoever of its being located near the raw materials and the gain to the region arising from the exploitation of these sands would be only incidental.

With so few towns in the region, it is obvious that the primary industries rather than the manufacturing industries are the principal sources of wealth: 72·40 per cent of the total population are located in rural areas, though this percentage is a little exaggerated because it includes the populations of the small towns, such as Kawhia (324), National Park (391), Owhango (422), Raurimu (312), and Manunui (948); figures are for 1961. During the decade 1951–61 total population increased by 12·82 per cent, well below the national average, the increase being concentrated mostly in the towns. The Maori population, though not large, forms a significant element in the regional population (25·59 per cent) and has increased by 33·97 per cent, a figure which does not indicate any considerable emigration from the region.

The principal features of the region, its isolation and the difficulty of its terrain, remain unchanged. In the light of modern technologies its pastoral potential obviously needs re-evaluation, but these achievements must now be attained in face of steady if not falling prices and limited market opportunities.

Aotuhia lies to the south of Whangamomona, in the valley of the Whangamomona Stream, which is a tributary of the Wanganui River. The bushland, mostly under tawa, was opened up in 1893 and excellent pastures were established on the steep hills. In the early twenties the pastures began to deteriorate rapidly and became infested with bracken, hard fern, and manuka scrub. Erosion was accelerated and eventually 23,500 acres were abandoned. The remaining farmers were forced to leave the area during the Second World War after heavy rains had so extensively damaged the roads as to render their repair uneconomic. The area is now totally abandoned. About Whangamomona itself the farmers managed to hold out. The small holdings were aggregated into workable units and the roading problems were not so difficult. But it was clear that fundamental research directed towards an understanding of local soil conditions and an improvement of pastures would provide the only long-term solution to their problems. The research received Government support and the subsequent investigations have proved basic to the consolidation of the farmers' position. After more than 60 years of European occupation half the area, 54·4 per cent, remains in forest, and a quarter, that is, 24·8 per cent, is in scrub and scattered grass. Only 17·2 per cent of the total area now remains under grass.

As a result of this history the Western Uplands acquired a popular reputation as a difficult farming area. It came rather as a surprise, therefore, to learn in the post-war years that, when evaluating the livestock potentiality of the North Island, the officers of the Department of Agriculture reckoned the Western Uplands to have, after the Central Plateau and North Auckland, the highest “most likely potential” for increase in livestock numbers during the period 1948–75. In obtaining this potential increase the region would move in importance from the rank of seventh to that of fifth among the North Island livestock regions. High prices enabling the greater use of fertilisers, especially with aerial topdressing, would increase the cattle-carrying capacity of the pastures and therefore control second growth – thus ran the reasoning behind the estimates. And therefore, even in Whangamomona County, land development by the State is under way once more. At Kohuratahi 6,407 acres and at Mount Dampier 6,151 acres are undergoing development, and progress is being made in the Pohokura district. In the Whangamomona area alone a total of 54,611 acres is considered as suitable for development.