Kaitaia, the principal centre of the northern part of Northland, is situated in the valley of the Awanui River. This river empties into the Rangaunu Harbour 10 miles north of Kaitaia, and the surrounding land is flat to gently undulating. Five miles west of Kaitaia is Ahipara Bay, the southern part of Ninety Mile Beach. Kaitaia is 4½ miles south by road from Awanui, its small river port and airport; 45 miles north-west of Okaihau, the nearest railhead; and 103 miles north-west of Whangarei, the nearest large centre.

Kaitaia is a shopping and servicing centre for a predominantly dairy farming district, with sheep farming in the hilly areas south of the town. The district is generally fertile. Former swamp land and land once worked for kauri gum have been reclaimed, but some land still requires to be brought into production. Important local industries are the processing of dairy produce, sawmilling, and lime production. General engineering, the manufacture of concrete products, joinery and woodwork are the main industries of the town.

Originally Kaitaia was a Maori village reached by canoe from Rangaunu Harbour via the Awanui River. In 1833 W. G. Puckey, a lay worker of the Church Missionary Society at the Bay of Islands, established a mission station there. The Anglican Church of St. Saviour's was built in 1843. The timber and kauri gum industries and the good farming land around Kaitaia, combined with the port facilities at Awanui, resulted in the gradual establishment of Kaitaia as the centre for the district. In 1922 Kaitaia became a town district, and on 1 September was constituted a borough.

The meaning of the name is obscure.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 1,799; 1956 census, 2,358; 1961 census, 2,704.

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

(1918–40).

Fighter pilot.

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

Edgar “Cobber” Kain was born at Hastings on 27 June 1918, was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, and studied mathematics at the University Tutorial School, Wellington, under Professor Von Zedlitz. While at school he played rugby, cricket, and excelled at athletics. He took up flying early in life and secured his “A” pilot's licence at Wigram in 1936. At that time he was a clerk in his father's commercial business, but he already had his eye on the Air Force and after obtaining his licence, he applied for a short-term commission in the Royal Air Force. He arrived in the United Kingdom in November of that year and, receiving his short-term commission in December, was enrolled as a pupil pilot at Blackburn, Lincolnshire. After further training at Sealand and Tern Hill, he was posted in November 1937 to No. 73 Fighter Squadron. He was made flying officer in 1939, and at the outbreak of the Second World War was appointed a section commander of No. 73 Hawker Hurricane Squadron. He flew on 80 fighter and escort operations over Le Havre, Louvres, Rheims, Verdun, and other parts of enemy-occupied territory, and was officially credited with the destruction of 12 enemy aircraft in fighter engagements. He was mentioned in dispatches in February 1940, and in March of the same year was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for a particularly daring exploit. He was flying on operations when he sighted seven enemy machines above him at 5,000 ft. He immediately gave chase and while pursuing them back towards the German lines he found another enemy fighter on his tail. Attacked from behind, and with his own craft considerably damaged, he engaged the enemy plane and shot it down. With his cockpit full of smoke and oil, he contrived by the greatest skill to get his machine down behind the Allied lines. The citation for the award referred to the magnificent fighting spirit Kain displayed in outmanoeuvring his enemy and destroying him.

The pity of it was that such a superb officer, with so splendid a record, should have been killed in an aircraft accident, quite unnecessarily, three weeks before his twenty-second birthday. On 7 June 1940 he was performing aerobatics on station in France at too low an altitude when his aircraft crashed and he was killed. He was buried in the Troyes Communal Cemetery in France. Flying Officer Kain became almost a legend during his brief but glorious career as “one of the few”. To his skill and daring he added an ebullience of temperament which made him a vivid and memorable personality wherever he was stationed. His friendly disposition and general lightheartedness earned him the sobriquet “Cobber”, and as Cobber Kain he is better known to the wartime generation of servicemen and civilians alike than as Flying Officer Edgar Kain.

by Ronald Jones, Journalist and Script Writer, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, Wellington.

• Fighter Squadrons, Monk, N. (1941)
• New Zealanders in the Air War, Mitchell, A. (1945).

The Kaikouras consist of two ranges, separated by the Clarence Valley, with the Inland Kaikoura Range to the north-west and the Seaward Kaikoura Range to the south-east. The Inland Kaikoura Range, 60 miles long, starts at Blue Mountain (4,080 ft), 10 miles west of Ward, trends in a south-westerly direction, and reaches its greatest height of 9,465 ft at the peak, Tapuaenuku (“Footsteps of the Rainbow God”). It terminates south-west of Turks Head (6,426 ft) in the Acheron Valley. The Seaward Kaikoura Range, 60 miles long, starts 20 miles south-west of Ward as the Sawtooth Range, trends in a south-westerly direction, rising to 8,562 ft at the peak, Manakau, and terminates south-west of Mt. Tinline (5,731 ft). Seen across Cook Strait the Kaikoura Ranges, snow clad in winter, are a magnificent sight from Wellington.

Both ranges started to emerge from the sea some 30 million years ago as a result of block faulting. This process is still active today and is shown by the presence of active faults which hug the southeasterly and, consequently, the steepest flanks of these ranges. In part due to climate, with seasonal dry north-westerly winds, and in part due to continuing uplift, but due also to overstocking and introduction of noxious animals since European occupation, the ranges and their flanks are to a large extent devoid of vegetation; only relatively small areas of tussock and mountain totara have been preserved. On the lower north-west flank of the Seaward Kaikoura Range manuka scrub covers large areas. Both ranges, and the intermontane Awatere and Clarence Valleys, provide good shooting of deer, pigs, goats, and rabbits. The intermontane valleys are used for sheep farming, while lately cattle farming has been developed. Paua shells at the bush line at 7,000 ft on the southern flank of Tapuaenuku suggest a Maori retreat of probably pre-European age.

Literally, the name Kaikoura means “to eat crayfish”. It is said that the full name is Te Ahi-kai-koura-a-Tamatea-pokai-whenua meaning “the fire which Tamatea-pokai-whenua made to cook crayfish”. The legendary traveller stayed at Kaikoura Peninsula to cook crayfish during a journey.

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

Kaikohe is situated in the North Auckland Peninsula almost midway between the Hokianga Harbour on the west and the Bay of Islands on the east. The town occupies a comparatively level site and the surrounding country is undulating, except to the immediate west, where Kaikohe Hill rises to 925 ft. To the north-east the land rises gently to prominent volcanic hills south-east of Lake Omapere. Kaikohe is 53 miles north-west of Whangarei, 56 miles north of Dargaville, and 23 miles south-west of Paihia. The nearest main port is Opua (port of Bay of Islands), 26 miles north-east. The Whangarei-Okaihau railway passes through the town.

The district supports a variety of farming activities including sheep, cattle, and dairy farming, and market gardening. Kaikohe is a servicing and distributing centre. Town industries include saw-milling, general engineering, the manufacture of concrete products, and joinery. The New Zealand Forest Service tree nursery and local headquarters are located in the borough and a grasslands research substation is maintained by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. The Northland College features rural education and runs its own 600-acre farm from which the bulk of Kaikohe town milk supply is drawn. Ngawha hot springs, 6 miles east, are a minor health resort.

Kaikohe was originally a Maori village called Opanga. In the nineteenth century the village was raided by a rival tribe and fugitives subsisted on berries among the kohekohe groves on Tokareireia (Kaikohe Hill). After this incident the place became known as Kai kohekohe and was later shortened to Kaikohe. The Rev. Samuel Marsden and party passed through the district in October 1819. Marsden also visited Kaikohe in 1837. Some years earlier the village had been converted to Christianity by Ripi, a lay mission worker. The district was the scene of fighting during the first Maori War. Hone Heke settled in Kaikohe after fighting ceased, and died there in 1850. Hone Heke, M.H.R. for Northern Maori, a grandnephew of Hone Heke the war chief, also lived in Kaikohe; and in April 1911 a monument to him was unveiled on Kaikohe Hill by Sir James Carroll acting Prime Minister. Kaikohe was predominantly a Maori settlement for many years. In 1914 the railway reached the town from Otiria and Whangarei but the section to Okaihau was not completed until 1926. The progress of the district was accelerated in 1919 when returned servicemen were settled on nearby farm lands. During the Second World War the United States Army had a base hospital built in the town and an Air Force bomber base nearby. Kaikohe was created a dependent town district of the Bay of Islands County on 13 November 1919; it became an independent town district on 1 April 1927; and on 1 July 1947 was constituted a borough.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 1,609; 1956 census, 2,122; 1961 census, 2,733.

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

(1855–1920).

Maori leader.

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

Henare Kaihau was a prominent Maori chief who, for many years, sought to bring together the followers of the Maori “King” and the Kotahitanga, a movement which embraced most of the other tribes.

Belonging to the Ngati Teata hapu, Kaihau was educated at Archdeacon Maunsell's school at Waiuku, his birthplace. His sister married King Tawhiao and he himself was later a chief adviser to Kings Mahuta and Te Rata. He stood for Parliament (Western Maori) twice before being elected in 1896, when he was Mahuta's nominee. He was a man of strong personality and is credited with having had considerable influence on legislation affecting the Maori people. He was finally defeated by Maui Pomare in 1911 and he died at Waiuku on 20 May 1920.

by John March Booth, M.A., DIP.ANTHR.(LOND.), Secretary, New Zealand Maori Council, and the Polynesian Society, Wellington.

• N.Z.P.D., 29 Jun 1920
• New Zealand Times, 10 Oct 1907.

Kaiapoi is situated on the northern part of the Canterbury Plain, on the banks of the Kaiapoi River, a tributary of the Waimakariri River. The surrounding country is alluvial plain, but within 15 miles it rises gradually on the north and west to the outer foothill ranges of the Southern Alps. The South Island Main Trunk railway and the main highway leading north from Christchurch pass through Kaiapoi. Christchurch, the nearest city, is 12 miles south by road (14 miles by rail). Kaiapoi is a river port about 3 miles from the mouth of the Waimakariri River and provides berthage for small coastal vessels.

The main activities of the district are dairying, mixed farming, and market gardening. Some forestry work is carried on in several small plantations nearby. At Wetheral (3½ miles north-west) there is a flourmill. The servicing functions of Kaiapoi are somewhat limited because of its proximity to Christchurch City. There are, however, several important industries in the town and these include a meat freezing works, a fellmongery, a woollen mill (established in 1875 and the first in Canterbury), sawmills, and a concrete tile works. Other industries include general engineering and the manufacture of joinery, furniture, and lace web fabric for furniture.

Kaiapoi is said to have come into existence in the late 1840s as the recognised north bank ferry station on the north branch of the Waimakariri River, which then flowed close to the town site. The first few houses at Kaiapoi appear to have been constructed in 1851. Near Tuahiwi (5½ miles north), now marked by a monument, is the site of the Kaiapohia Pa, a stronghold said to have been built c. 1700 by a chief named Te Rahautahi. Kaiapohia originally was heavily fortified and was further protected on three sides by a lagoon. In 1830 Te Rauparaha and his war party made an unsuccessful attack on the pa and were forced to retire. Te Rauparaha returned in 1831 with a strong force of musketeers and after nearly three months' siege made preparations for the burning and final assault. Te Matenga Taiaroa and some 200 of the garrison, seeing the position was untenable, left the pa hoping to create a diversion further south. The pa, however, was destroyed and the remaining defenders killed. In December 1864 Kaiapoi Municipal Council was established to administer the affairs of the township which was constituted a borough in 1868.

The meaning of the name Kaiapoi is obscure.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 2,246; 1956 census, 2,738; 1961 census, 3,109.

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

(Podocarpus dacrydioides).

This pine was formerly the most beautiful tree of lowland swampy forests throughout the country; but the stopbanking of rivers and the draining and conversion of swamps to pastures have caused the forests of kahikatea largely to disappear except on the West Coast. The tree has been noted for the density and purity of the stands it forms in swampy areas. Here it is a truly gregarious species and a few hundred stems per acre of mature tree are common. When peaty swamps are drained, kahikatea tree stumps in similar densities are sometimes exposed, indicating earlier forests. It is also present in forests other than swamp forest, but in these it is rapidly being cut out.

Kahikatea grows to heights of over 150 ft and is the tallest of New Zealand forest trees. In diameter it is seldom more than 3 to 4 ft and the trunks have a long slender appearance topped by a smallish ragged crown. It is a conifer belonging to the same genus as other important forest trees such as matai, P. spicatus, and totara, P. totara. Leaves are small and awl-shaped. Juvenile plants are particularly sparse in branching habit and in leaves. Seeds are small and rounded, borne on a red receptacle, and are often produced in profusion.

The timber is non-durable and especially subject to damage by house borer (Anobium). Nevertheless, it has many excellent properties including the absence of odour. This caused it to be in great demand for butter boxes, cheese crates, and tallow casks in the days before fibre-board containers. Consequently there was then a sizable export trade in the timber to Australia and Europe. White pine is still used for casks.

by Alec Lindsay Poole, M.SC., B.FOR.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Director-General of Forests, Wellington.

Kahawai (Arripis trutta) is abundant throughout New Zealand and is an excellent sporting fish, readily taking a spinner and invariably putting up a good fight. Like the kingfish, the flesh, which is rather dry and tasteless fresh, is improved with canning. Large schools of kahawai are often seen in northern waters, usually indicated by screaming, dipping, and diving flocks of terns, both of which are taking their individual toll of small schooling fish. The kahawai is greenish-grey to silvery below, and spotted with brown.

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

The skill of the hydrographic surveyor has its basis in the principles of land surveying. Where the topographic surveyor measures a position and height, the hydrographer measures a position and the depth of water. Indeed, part of his work consists of land surveying, for the topography and coastline adjacent to the water area have to be depicted accurately and, of course, the control for the water-work has to be established by normal triangulation methods. For these reasons a hydrographic surveyor is part seaman and navigator, and part land surveyor, a mixture that demands, for success, a particularly patient and painstaking personality. In recent years the instruments available to a surveyor have been greatly improved. The advent of the echo sounder is perhaps the largest single factor in increasing his output, and this, added to the use of lightweight alloys in instrument manufacture and the development of plastics as stable media for plotting his work on, have all helped to enhance the accuracy of his final product. They have also made his existence less reliant upon brute strength, for the lead no longer has to be heaved. Until a few years ago horizontal sextant angles, observed simultaneously by two observers, was the main method of fixing the position of the soundings. Today electronic means are being introduced to do this, and Lachlan was fitted in 1958 with a system widely used in other countries; a remarkable device designed to fix the ship to an accuracy of 5 metres at a distance from the controlling points of 150 miles. Radar is also extremely useful for surveying on a small scale, particularly in poor visibility. It is limited in use for large scale work by the accuracy with which distances can be measured. Basic seamanship and surveying knowledge remain the same as they always did and, as far as the skill of the individual surveyor is concerned, the only difference the new methods mean to him is an increasing requirement to be an electronic expert.

A typical day for the surveying ship begins with the crew being awakened by the quartermaster on watch, calling them over the internal ship's broadcast system at six o'clock in the morning. If the survey of a port or anchorage is in progress, then the ship will be at anchor in the survey ground and the first of the day's tasks will be to lower the sounding boats. Three boats fitted with echo-sounding equipment are normally carried. They spend the daylight hours working among the rocks and shoals off shore, also in the shallow water running up to the beaches. Each one traverses the water area allocated to it on parallel lines, rather like a ploughman turning the furrows up and down a paddock. The echo sounder produces on a wide paper tape a continuous record of the depth of water, and at the end of the day this tape can be compared with the positions the boat has passed through, which are also plotted on a field board. The related depths can then be inked on the board, and contour lines joining the positions of equal depth can be drawn.

Meanwhile the ship will have been traversing back and forth in the area of deeper water, a similar system being used to record the positions and depths plotted during her day's work. Towards dusk she will anchor, and the smaller craft will return to be hoisted inboard, replenished with fuel, food, and water, and prepared for the next day when they will again be away surveying. If the work on hand happens to be one of the small-scale coastal sheets, then the electronic fixing device will be used to control the ship. As visibility does not affect this equipment, the hours of darkness, as well as daylight, can be used for sounding. On some of the remoter parts of the coast this is particularly useful, as anchorages for the ship are few in number and usually a long way from the scene of operations. Thus the ship can survey continuously for twenty-four hours a day. This is a great asset although more time has to be spent in harbour maintaining the hull and machinery.

Today there are two units working in New Zealand. The major one is still HMNZS Lachlan; her internal layout now greatly altered and modernised. The second unit consists of two converted ex-harbour defence motor launches, HMNZ ships Takapu and Tarapunga. Both craft are 72 ft long with twin engines and, being highly manoeuvrable, are ideal for surveying ports and their approaches. Recently they were formed into an independent unit under the command of an officer qualified to take charge of surveys. In 1961 they carried out a survey of the Manukau Harbour, including the bar and approaches. This was their first major assignment. The previous survey of the port was done by HMS Pandora in 1853.

Chart compilation and drawing are in the hands of a team of civilian hydrographic officers and draughtsmen who work in the Hydrographic Branch of the Navy Department in Wellington. Charts are printed by the Government Printer, whose final product reflects the painstaking effort put into the work by all concerned. New Zealand's charts are of a high international standard and much experimental work has been done by the branch in the use of colour plates for depicting land and water detail.

The Hydrographic Surveying Service of the Royal New Zealand Navy is now firmly established as an asset to the country. In international circles it has become known as one of the smallest but most efficient organisations of its kind, and is an active member of the International Hydrographic Bureau. Moreover, the Service has invariably maintained harmonious relations with all the authorities, commercial and governmental, who have a stake in New Zealand's maritime affairs.

by Lt.-Cdr. Geoffrey Lewis Haskins, A.R.I.C.S., GRAD. N.Z.INST.SURV., Naval Hydrographic Surveyor in Charge of Survey, Royal New Zealand Navy.

• Manual of Hydrographic Surveying, G. Brit., Admiralty (1948).

The first determined effort to survey the coastline of New Zealand and adjacent waters took place in 1848. On this date Captain J. Stokes, RN, in command of HMS Acheron, an auxiliary paddle steamer, began the task which was to cause his name to be inscribed with honour in the annals of the hydrographic surveying profession. Until the British Admiralty dispatched Captain Stokes on his mission to New Zealand, the only charts of the coastal regions and ports were those published as a result of Captain James Cook's exploratory voyages. A few local plans had been surveyed by Charles Heaphy, and other early pioneers, under the auspices of the New Zealand Company; an occasional HM ship, notably HMS Herald (1840), contributed soundings of anchorages visited in the course of their regular duties. But the expedition mounted in Acheron was to provide a complete coverage of all the coastline. The object was achieved in 1855. The final three years of the period saw Commander B. Drury, in HMS Pandora, a small brig, completing the work by surveying the small harbours and bar-protected rivers of the North Island. Very few people today realise the immensity of the task that was undertaken so successfully, and how the results provided the basis, until very recently, for almost all the charts of New Zealand published by the British Admiralty and other hydrographic offices.

That part of the east coast lying between Gable End Foreland and the Hauraki Gulf was revised during the early years of this century by HMS Penguin, an auxiliary steamer, but until 1937 practically no further surveying was done in our waters. Stokes and Drury laid the firm foundations of our modern hydrography and, indeed, were responsible for building the greater part of the structure still resting upon them.

HMS Endeavour, a converted coal-burning steam yacht, under the command of Captain A. G. N. Wyatt, RN, began the resurvey of the coast in 1937. In agreement with the New Zealand Government, who were to assist with a part of the costs involved, the Admiralty undertook to provide a complete scheme of new charts for the country involving the resurvey of much of the coastline and many of the ports and anchorages. It was calculated that the task would take about 20 years, but not included in this calculation was the advent of the Second World War. Shortly before the outbreak of war, Endeavour departed from the shores of New Zealand for the last time, having sounded out all the area from Mercury Islands to the Bay of Islands. She had earned a wonderful name in the country's maritime history for the work she completed, and her commander subsequently became the Hydrographer of the Navy. Many will still remember the vessel's graceful lines, and quite a number of her company later settled in New Zealand.

After the war the Admiralty had very heavy commitments for surveying work to be undertaken in many parts of the world and they were unable to send a surveying ship to New Zealand. As this state of affairs was likely to continue to be the case for some years to come, a solution to the problem was sought by the Government. It was suggested that the Royal New Zealand Navy should continue the work begun by Endeavour and, to assist this young, newly formed service, experienced senior officers and ratings would be lent by the Admiralty and Royal Australian Navy. There were no trained hydrographic surveyors in New Zealand and it was very obvious that our charts needed extensive modernisation. The suggestion was welcomed and in October 1949 the Surveying Service of the Royal New Zealand Navy was born.

HMAS Lachlan, an Australian surveying frigate built in 1944, was acquired on loan pending the construction of a suitable vessel for local conditions. As HMNZS Lachlan, she began work on the coast very soon after being handed over and, due to the generosity of the Royal Australian Navy, the loan agreements were extended until she was purchased in 1963. This ship is still the core of the service.

Much ground has been covered since Commander J. M. Sharpey-Schaffer, O.B.E., RN, took command of the Lachlan in 1949. One of the young New Zealand officers who joined the ship originally as a junior watchkeeper is now the Hydrographer, Royal New Zealand Navy, and all the officers and crew are personnel of that service. The results have been excellent; out of a chart scheme of 28 coastal charts, nine have been published, and 25 of the 30 port and port approach charts originally planned are also available for sale to the public. Further schemes are in hand to enlarge the scope of the coverage of our waters, and the requirement for new types of chart continually arises. The contribution to maritime safety is not the only factor to prove the usefulness of the surveying service, for it has been found that the development of new industries often depends on finding new ports and sea lanes. The hydrographic surveyor has had, and no doubt will continue to have, quite a generous hand in contributing to the nation's expanding economy.