(1877–1946) and (1878–1954).

Artists.

A new biography of Kelly, Annie Elizabeth appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Elizabeth Kelly, eldest daughter of Thomas G. Abbott, who came from Torquay, England, was born at Knights Town, Christchurch, on 12 April 1877 and received her early education privately before taking her Diploma of Fine Arts at the Canterbury College School of Fine Arts. In 1908 she married Cecil Fletcher Kelly, son of G. Kelly. Cecil Kelly was born in St. Albans, Christchurch, on 16 June 1878 and took his D.F.A. at Canterbury College School of Fine Arts. Their painting partnership was centred in Christchurch where they lived at 245 Montreal Street. Both artists were for a time private pupils of Van der Velden, and later they travelled in England and France, exhibiting in many galleries overseas.

Elizabeth Kelly was first represented at the Royal Academy in 1931 and later in 1934 and 1936. Her greatest success was in the Paris Salon, where in 1932 her portrait won honourable mention, and in 1934 for her “Miss Edith May” she received the silver medal of the Sociétié des Artists Français. In 1935 she held one-man shows, first at the Lincoln Art Galleries and, later, in the Walker Galleries, London. She also exhibited at the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal West of England Academy, the Royal Cambrian Academy, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the London Portrait Society, the Royal Scottish Academy, and the Birmingham Art Gallery. She was awarded the C.B.E. in 1938. Cecil Kelly was represented by a landscape in the Paris Salon of 1934 and the Royal Academy, London, in 1936. He also exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, the Walker Galleries, London, the Royal Cambrian Academy, and the Birmingham Art Gallery.

Both artists were represented in the Empire Art Exhibition and the Centennial Exhibition of New Zealand Art in 1940. They also exhibited widely in local exhibitions in New Zealand and Australia, and were particularly active in the Canterbury Society of Arts, being members of the council. Cecil Kelly was artist instructor on the staff of Canterbury College School of Fine Arts.

Elizabeth Kelly died on 4 October 1946, survived by her husband who died on 11 February 1954. They had no children.

Having been trained under Elliot at the Canterbury College School of Fine Arts, both artists started off with a strongly academic style which was modified by the result of their overseas experience. Elizabeth Kelly was primarily a portrait painter in oils, painting many distinguished people in New Zealand and England. Her portraits were always handled with care and sympathy. She developed a style that was completely satisfying to herself and was content to adhere to it, being never enthusiastic about modern movements in art. An excellent colourist, her landscapes were more interesting from the point of view of colour than form, but nevertheless showed considerable skill.

Cecil Kelly, an accomplished draughtsman, specialised in landscapes in oil. From being low in tone, his colour was influenced by the work he saw overseas, and gained a new vitality and brilliance. His brushwork became stronger and more decisive, and much of his later landscapes were broadly handled.

Cecil and Elizabeth Kelly were faithful in their landscapes to the same territory, in the main the environs of Lyttelton Harbour and the Canterbury foothills of the Southern Alps. Both artists are represented in the National Art Gallery and in the galleries at Christchurch and Dunedin. Elizabeth Kelly is also represented in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.

by Thomas Esplin, D.A.(EDIN.), Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Home Science, University of Otago.

• Art in N.Z., 1936–37
• Catalogue of Centennial Exhibition, 1940.

In September 1964, Sir Henry Kelliher, as chairman of directors of the Dawson Printing Co. Ltd., announced a watercolour competition sponsored by his company. Prizes of £200 (first) and 50 (second) were offered for the best watercolours submitted, depicting a subject of the artist's choice relative to New Zealand and not painted in an abstract manner. The competition was held in Auckland in April 1965. The joint winners were J. R. Duncan and (Mrs) E. Swinton.

by Stewart Bell Maclennan, A.R.C.A.(LOND.), Director, National Art Gallery, Wellington.

In 1956 H. J. Kelliher offered a prize of £500 for the best oil painting by a New Zealand artist depicting the visual aspects of a typical New Zealand landscape or coastal scene, executed in a realistic and traditional manner. He invited the New Zealand Fellowship of Artists (Inc.), Auckland, to organise the competition, and Mrs A. Pearse, Director of Dunedin Gallery; P. A. Tomory, Director of Auckland Gallery; and the visiting Australian artist, Ernest Buckmaster, to act as judges. The competition attracted 201 entries.

A second competition was held the following year with three prizes of £500, 200, and 100. By arrangement with the Council of the Academy, the exhibition was staged in the gallery of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington. Robert Johnson, now of Sydney, and S. B. Maclennan, Wellington, judged over 250 entries. The geographically central location and facilities available at the academy proved so convenient that five subsequent competitions have been staged there. In 1958 there were prizes of £500 and 200, plus 10 merit awards of £25 each. The number of entries increased to 295. From 1959 till 1962 there have been three major prizes of £500, 300, and 100, and nine merit awards of £25. The entries for those years were 299, 376, 428, and 476. The prize money has now been increased to the first prize of £500, a second of 200, and a third of £150, together with eight merit awards of £25 each, and a special prize of £100 for the best entry by a competitor under 21 years of age.

The judges, nominated by H. J. Kelliher, have been M. Napier Waller (Australia), 1958; William Dargie (Australia), 1959; Rubery Bennett (Australia), 1960; William Dargie, 1961; Douglas Pratt (Australia), 1962; John Loxton (Australia), 1963; and Claude Muncaster (England), 1965.

The New Zealand Fellowship of Artists has been responsible until 1962 for organising the competitions and has attended to such matters as the circulation of notices, entry forms, receiving and cataloguing of entries, supervision of exhibitions, and picture sales. During the year 1962, however, H. J. Kelliher announced the appointment of a trust to administer future awards, thus definitely establishing the competition as an annual event.

Future competitions are to be conducted on the same basis as at present and the award will be called the Kelliher Prize for New Zealand Subject and Landscape Painting. Consideration was also to be given for setting up another trust to ensure that the art prize would be continued in perpetuity.

(1896– ).

Business Magnate and art patron.

A new biography of Kelliher, Henry Joseph appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Henry Joseph Kelliher (Keliher) was born at Waikerikeri Valley, Clyde, Central Otago, on 2 March 1896, the son of Michael Keliher, a gold miner, and Mary, née Carter. He was educated at Clyde School and served with the First New Zealand Expeditionary Force during the First World War. In 1930 he founded and became managing director of Dominion Breweries Ltd. He is also the managing director of the Mirror Publishing Co., the Dawson Printing Co., and Kelliher and Co., Ltd., an Auckland indenting and merchandising firm, and was associated with Sir Ernest Davis in the New Zealand Distillery Co. Ltd. For a term, 1936–42, he was a director of the Bank of New Zealand and his interest in currency reform was shown in his book New Zealand at the Crossroads (1936) and in his submissions to the Monetary Commission of 1956. In 1934 he founded the League of Health of New Zealand Youth for setting up a scheme of free milk for school children. He is best known in recent years for his establishing the Kelliher Art Prize for landscape painting. His principal private interest is maintaining a breeding stud for racehorses and Ayrshire cattle on Puketutu Island in Manukau Harbour. He was knighted in 1963. He is also a knight in the Order of St. John.

(Nestor notabilis)

Three of the six native species of the parrot family have apparently always had a limited distribution – the Antipodes Island parakeet, the orange-fronted (or alpine) parakeet, and the kea. The last two are found only in the South Island. The kea is primarily a bird of open mountain country and, though perhaps less abundant than either of the two common parakeets (the yellow-crowned and red-crowned), there is no doubt that it is the most familiar of the New Zealand parrots and the one whose habits are best known. “Most familiar” may be taken to have both possible meanings, for no other New Zealand bird can match the kea for curiosity, lack of fear of man, playfulness, and, perhaps, intelligence. This engaging combination leads to behaviour ranging from the merely amusing to the downright unintentionally destructive. Attacking sheep is included among the latter. This is undoubtedly a very rare fault, but many keas are destroyed to pay for the sins of a few. Those people, however, who do not readily accept hearsay for truth, may rejoice that the species seems little the worse, so far, for its persecution.

Keas breed chiefly above 2,000 ft and nests are made in rock crevices. About four white eggs make up a clutch and, although the breeding season is usually said to be winter (most unusual for birds), there are records for spring and summer, so the question of the main season needs to be more fully investigated.

Plumage is mainly olive-green but the under surfaces of the wings are bright vermilion. The most obvious difference between the sexes is that the beak of the male is longer and more curved than that of the female.

Primarily vegetarians, keas nevertheless eat insects, worms, and, when chance offers, meat from deer and goat carcasses. They have a considerable repertoire of calls, most of which are noisy and unmusical. Perhaps the most characteristic is a descending and rather querulous eeee-aaa from which the Maori name is derived.

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

(1774 ?–1854).

Maori chief.

A new biography of Kawiti, Te Ruki appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Kawiti, the fighting chief of Kawakawa (Bay of Islands), was a member of the Ngati-Hine hapu of the Ngapuhi. He was a rival and enemy of Hone Heke, but through the exigencies of war became his ally. Kawiti's name stood at the head of those who signed the Treaty of Waitangi, but he soon became dissatisfied with the new order. He joined Heke's rebellion more out of loyalty to his people in their quarrel with the Government than from any desire for plunder, although many of his followers did not share this selfless attitude. Heke and Kawiti joined forces at Te Uruti, near Kororareka, where Heki cut down the flagstaff while Kawiti launched a diversionary attack on the town. Kawiti lost a son in the fighting, was slightly wounded himself, and his men were twice dispersed. He retired to Puketutu pa where Imperial troops, aided by Waka Nene's warriors, attacked him. In this siege his second son, Taura, was killed. Undeterred, Kawiti built a strong pa at Ohaeawai, though he could no longer count on the support of Heke, who had been wounded and was anxious for peace. On 24 June 1845, in the hope of ending the northern rebellion, Colonel Despard made a foolish attack on the unbreached fortifications of Ohaeawai, suffering heavy losses. Kawiti, however, evacuated the pa and sought peace, but as Governor FitzRoy demanded some of his land as compensation he decided to fight on. He built Ruapekapeka pa (the “Bat's Nest”), which was a revelation of the Maori genius for adapting their traditional military engineering to the standards of European warfare.

When Sir George Grey assumed the Governorship and made peace overtures, Kawiti was conciliatory but Heke preferred to fight. Colonel Despard laid siege to Ruapekapeka and opened such a fierce bombardment that Heke was unable to enter with reinforcements. On Sunday, 11 January 1846, Waka Nene and Patuone reconnoitred and, finding the pa all but deserted – the defenders having gone out to attend a church service – they led a small force which captured it after meeting only token resistance. Kawiti wrote to the Governor seeking peace and was granted free and unconditional pardon. He moved to Waionui, where he lived for a while, refusing to have anything more to do with Heke. Kawiti's grandson, Parata, encouraged him to make his home at Tamati Pukututu's pa, where he became reconciled with Nene. He joined the Church and moved to Pakaraka to be near Henry Williams, being baptised on 20 February 1853. Shortly after this, on 5 May 1854, Kawiti died and was succeeded in his chieftainship by his son, Maihi Paranone.

Kawiti possessed a noble and chivalrous nature and was a pillar of strength to the Ngapuhi. It was his misfortune that in the early years of the new regime he had to choose between two loyalties – the abstract sovereignty of the Crown and what he believed were the needs and aspirations of his people. Under the circumstances it is not surprising that he chose the latter.

by Robert Ritchie Alexander, M.A., DIP.ED.(N.Z.), B.T.(CALCUTTA), PH.D.(MINNESOTA), Teachers' Training College, Christchurch.

• Heke's War in the North, Burrows, R. (1886)
• Hone Heke's Rebellion, Rutherford, J. (1947)
• The New Zealand Wars, Cowan, J. (1955)

Kawhia Harbour is a large inlet on the west coast of the North Island approximately midway between Auckland and New Plymouth. The profusely indented harbour was formed by the partial submergence of an ancient river valley whose many branches were drowned by a rise in sea level. More than half the area is shallow or tidal, and five main estuaries, all navigable by launch, wind between high, cavernous limestone cliffs crowned with native bush.

Although the harbour is 8 miles both in greatest length and in greatest width, a bar effectively obstructs large shipping from using the port. South from the entrance the craggy ocean coast sweeps westward to Albatross Point and, to the north of the entrance, just below high-tide mark, is Te Puia Spring situated on a desolate beach backed by miles of drifting, black sand dunes. On the northern shore inside the entrance, and near the town of Kawhia, is the final resting place of Tainui, one of the ancestral Maori canoes that made its first landfall near Cape Runaway on the east coast. The name Kawhia (“abundance of everything”), which was not at first applied to the town, is derived from awhia, the ceremony performed by Maoris when visiting a new district. Te Rauparaha, the great warrior chief, was born at Kawhia.

A short distance inland from Hauturu on the eastern shore is to be found the most southerly natural habitat of the kauri tree.

In 1858 Ferdinand von Hochstetter, an Austrian geologist, arrived in New Zealand with the Novara expedition. He travelled extensively as guest of the Auckland Provincial Government and, while at Kowhai Point on the southern shore of Kawhia Harbour, discovered the first New Zealand ammonite fossils. Since then many palaeontologists, both amateur and professional, have visited the miles of cliffs around the harbour that expose a very considerable fossil record extending from Jurassic times.

In 1881, after making peace with King Tawhiao, the Government attempted to open the harbour for shipping and trade, but were frustrated for a time by Maori renegades who destroyed the navigation beacons in the harbour and obstructed the development of the fertile hinterland.

by Leslie Owen Kermode, B.A., Geological Survey Station, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Otahuhu.

Kawerau is situated on the flat land in the central valley of the Tarawera River and immediately northwest of the 2,697 ft cone of Putauaki (Mount Edgecumbe). By road the town is 36 miles northeast of Rotorua and 20 miles south-west of Whakatane. Kawerau is linked to the Bay of Plenty railway line by a branch line from Hawkens, 8 miles north, to Murupara, 36 miles south. The branch railway, carrying goods traffic only, gives access to Mount Maunganui, 53 miles north-west, the nearest deep-water port. The principal farming activities of the district are sheep, cattle, and mixed farming. The major primary industry is forestry. Extensive exotic forests, chiefly of Pinus radlata (q.v.), cover the Kaingaroa Plain extending southward from Kawerau. The town of Kawerau came into existence in 1954 as a centre for the processing of forest products, and is the most industrialised town in New Zealand. The large pulp and paper mills dominate its life.

In pre-colonial times the Kawerau district probably supported a considerable Maori population. Evidence of former occupation is still seen in vestiges of pa earthworks and village sites. Prior to 1953 there was only a small farming population in the district. The sites of the town and mill were suggested by the Department of Lands and Survey. The town site was located on land under development by the Department, and the mill site, separated from the town site by the Tarawera River, was bought from its Maori owners. A factor influencing the choice of the mill site was the presence of geothermal power. The construction of the mill and the building of a model town began in 1953. The shops were planned on the shopping court principle with rear vehicular access and are separate from the service industrial area (garages, bakeries, etc.). In 1953 the Kawerau and Murupara branch railway was commenced and it was operating fully by 1957. Kawerau, the original name of the town locality, commemorates Te Kawerau, a grandson of Toi. The Borough of Kawerau was constituted on 1 April 1954.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 49; 1956 census, 2,740; 1961 census, 4,413.

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

(1808 ?–88).

Maori chief.

A new biography of Kawepo, Renata Tama-ki-Hikurangi appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Renata Kawepo was born about 1808 in the Ngatiteupokoire hapu of the Kahungunu Tribe of southern Hawke's Bay. He was present at the head of his warriors at the actions at Omarunui, Wairoa (Hawke's Bay), Turanganui (Gisborne), Patutahi, Te Karetu, Ngatapa, and Te Porere. This last engagement was under Colonel McDonnell against Te Kooti on the plain north-east of Mount Tongariro. Here he had an eye gouged out by the wife of a Hauhau with whom he was in personal combat, and he is famed for his refusal to allow his followers to kill her in revenge. Although Kawepo furnished 300 warriors to aid the Government in the Te Kooti campaign, no payment was made – even for the rations his men consumed. For this reason Kawepo and his tribesmen were forced to sell land to the Pakeha to pay the expenses of protecting them.

Despite his consistent support of Pakeha law and order, this dignified chief of the old school refused Government pay, the proffered rank of Major, and even a seat in the House of Representatives and, later, in the Legislative Council – because, as he claimed, his position as a high chief was sufficient rank in itself. The only reward he would accept for his services was the Queen's Sword of Honour.

by Walter Hugh Ross, Journalist, Taupo.

• Defenders of New Zealand, Gudgeon, T. W. (1887)
• Reminiscences of the War in New Zealand, Gudgeon, T. W. (1879)
• Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 65, No. 3 (1956), Sorrenson, M. P. K.

Kawau Island, whose name stems from the many shag colonies there, lies just off shore in Hauraki Gulf, due east of Warkworth and 30 miles north of Auckland City. Approximately 5 miles long and 3 miles wide, the island is almost split in two by Bon Accord Harbour, which opens towards the mainland, so forming a fine natural anchorage. Much of the area of nearly 5,000 acres is clothed in native bush to which many exotic plants have been added. The highest point is Grey Heights (596 ft). The island is made up mainly of steep south-west dipping indurated greywacke and argillite of the Waipapa Group within which are pillow lavas, cherts, jaspilites and, near South Cove, associated copper and manganese ores. The overlying Waitemata Group sandstone and mudstone crops out along the north-east and south coasts and west from Ladys Bay. Contorted bedding is common in these rocks and fossils are found at Brownrigg Point and Fossil Point. Greensands at Fossil Point also show calcareous “cannon-ball” concretions of varying size and roundness.

The Maoris have left relics of their prior occupation of the island in the form of numerous earthworks, ovens, and middens which have yielded human bones. The history of early European ownership of the island is bound up with the involved processes of land transactions of that period. It is worth noting that the island was originally purchased from the Maoris by J. Taylor in 1837.

Conflicting dates have been given for the first discovery of manganese on the island, the accidental discovery of copper during mining of the manganese, and the opening of a rival mine. The original purchase of land and mineral rights extended down only to high-water mark and the authorities subsequently granted a separate lease of the mineral rights off Kawau below high-water mark. This led to the establishing of a second mine between high- and low-water marks and to bitter litigation between the mine owners. This was halted only when the senior company bought out the other and amalgamated the two mines. The period for which the mines worked, their total output, and the reasons for their closing are not clear, but it is known that £60,000 worth of copper was extracted in a four-year period and that the workings were certainly closed by 1869. The probable output of about 3,000 tons almost certainly exhausted all the richer ore, and the low value of the remaining ore may well have been the more pressing of a number of reasons for abandoning the workings. The workings were dewatered in 1909, but no ore was extracted, and drilling in 1953–55 failed to find a workable extension of the lode.

In 1862 Sir George Grey purchased Kawau, and the mine manager's house was converted into the imposing Mansion House at considerable expense. To the generally drab native bush, brightened only by the colourful rata, pohutukawa, clematis, kowhai, and manuka, were added exotic trees and shrubs from temperate and subtropical regions around the world. Fruits were acclimatised and it was during this period that the first prolific New Zealand grapefruit, known as poorman orange, was isolated. Regardless of expense, animals and birds were imported to grace Grey's “earthly paradise”. In this setting Sir George entertained lavishly – both commoners and celebrities, Pakeha and Maori, receiving his hospitality. In 1868 Prince Albert enjoyed shooting on the island, although at that time Grey had retired from public life.

In 1888 Grey sold the island on which he had spent most of his fortune. The island then passed through a number of hands until in 1910 the inevitable subdivision began. By then the Mansion House had already become a guest house for visiting yachtsmen. With improved roads to Sandspit on the mainland, the island now attracts touring motorists as well. The section, covering some 86 acres around the Mansion House, has been repurchased and some exotic trees planted. For today many of Grey's imported trees and shrubs have gone, as well as birds and animals. Whereas the zebras never became acclimatised to their new home, the monkeys did so well that they had to be exterminated as pests. The deer, opossums, and, above all, the wallabies also flourished, but attempts to eliminate them have proved futile and, with the kookaburras and royal palms, they remain as the more notable legacies of Sir George Grey's earthly paradise. Kawau may never again attain the glory of its past days, but the lovely walks through bush to vantage points, such as that on Grey Heights, to small secluded beaches or to rocky coasts, are no less attractive now that the exotic has merged into the native.

by Frederick Ernest Bowen, B.SC.(DURHAM), New Zealand Geological Survey, Otahuhu.

• N.Z. Journal of Geology and Geophysics, Vol. 4 (1961), “The Geology of the Cape Rodney – Kawau District, Auckland”, Hopgood, A. M.
• Sir George Grey, 1812–1898, Rutherford, J. (1961)
• Kawau Island, Sheffield, C. M. (1962)
• Fourth Triennial Mining Conference, Otago School of Mines (1959), “The Sulphide Lode on Kawau Island”, Williams, G. J.