The conventional forms of European dancing were unknown to the Maori who evolved a number of rhythmic activities best described as posture dances. In their more vigorous expression these took on the character of a strenuous exercise and were danced with remarkable vigour and enthusiasm. On the other hand certain posture dances, such as those performed by well-trained young women, were marked by grace of action and appropriate song.

According to Maori legend, posture dancing had its origin in the coming of Hine-raumati, the Summer Maid, whose presence on calm, warm days was revealed in a curious quivering appearance in the air. This was the Haka of Tane-rore, he who was born of the Summer Maid and claimed Ra, the sun, as his father. Another variant interprets the phenomenon as the Dancing of the Summer Maid, and it is personified in Pare-arohi, who appears in the fifth month, and who mated with Rehua, who represents the heat of summer.

The haka was danced without weapons, in contrast to the war dances (tutu ngaruhu or peruperu) which were danced with spears, clubs, or other weapons in hand. The haka, which expressed a variety of emotions such as joy, anger, and sorrow, called for exceptional rhythmical skill. Many were marked by a curious, rapid vibration of the hands; other motions included a stamping in unison, facial distortion (protruding tongue and eyeballs), rhythmical out-thrusts and movements of the arms, as well as a swaying of the body. Haka performed in a sitting position were as a rule of a milder character, with swaying motions from the arms and bodies. Every haka had its expert leader who gave time to the music and the motions of the dance.

(Heptatretus cirrhatus).

This grows to about 2 ft in length, is exclusively marine and in habits is even more revolting than the lamprey, to which it is closely allied. Parts of the Otago trawling grounds are termed “hospitals” by fishermen on account of the large numbers of wounded fish which have received attention from the voracious hag fish. When placed in a bucket of sea water, this fish frequently exudes so much slime that the water becomes almost jellified.

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

(1915– ).

Cricketer.

Walter Arnold Hadlee was born at Lincoln, Canterbury, on 4 June 1915 and educated at Christchurch Boys' High School and Canterbury University. He first became prominent as a batsman for the Canterbury provincial team during the 1933–34 season. In 1935 he played for New Zealand against the visiting M.C.C. side, and, two years later, toured England with the New Zealand XI. He played against Australia in 1945–46, captained the New Zealand team which toured England in 1949, and played for New Zealand against England in 1950–51. Hadlee retired from cricket in 1951. During the period 1933 to 1951 Hadlee played in 11 test matches for New Zealand and in 116 first-class matches, including 54 overseas. Hadlee's batting records are as follows: 17 centuries (including three scored overseas); 198 in the Otago v. Australia match at Dunedin, 1945–46; an aggregate score of 7,421 runs in first-class cricket (including 2,768 scored overseas) and 116 in the New Zealand v. England match in Christchurch, 1947. He was awarded the Redpath Cup for the best batsman of the 1945-46 season. His record in seven innings during that season was: runs 449, highest score 198, and batting average 64·14. In addition to his cricket Hadlee represented Canterbury in rugby (1938) and Otago in hockey (1946–47). He was awarded the O.B.E. in 1950.

In 1965 Hadlee managed the New Zealand cricket team which toured India, Pakistan, and Britain.

(1814–1904).

Missionary, Bishop of Wellington, and Primate of New Zealand.

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

Octavius Hadfield was born at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, on 6 October 1814, the last of a family of 16. The Hadfield family traced its lineage through Derbyshire forebears to a Yorkshire seat. Octavius's father, Joseph Hadfield, married the elder daughter of General White, an Indian Army officer, and lived in affluence in London until a bank failure led to the removal of the family, first to Bonchurch and, later, to Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. The Hadfield family was remarkable for its longevity. Joseph Hadfield lived to the age of 93, his wife to 85; and the average age of their 12 children who survived to adult years was over 80. Octavius was a chronic asthmatic and his life was several times threatened by illness, but he survived until his ninety-first year.

At the age of four, Octavius left England with the rest of his family and for the next 10 years lived on the Continent, first at Brussels where, following the fashion of the time, he walked over the field of Waterloo, and then paid visits to Lille, Paris, and Tours. He returned to England in February 1829 and was admitted to Charter house. Two years later, while in the sixth form, he suffered ill health and returned home to recuperate. In 1832 he went up to Pembroke College, Oxford, where he lived in rooms once occupied by Samuel Johnson, but in May 1833 his health again broke down and he was forced to give up formal university studies. Eighteen months in the Azores restored his health and he returned to England in the summer of 1835 resolved to become a clergyman.

Early in 1836 he decided that, given health and strength, he would offer himself for missionary service. With the assistance of a brother who held the perpetual curacy at Whitchurch, he prepared for ordination. In October 1837 the Church Mission Society accepted him for mission work, but his lack of a university degree proved an obstacle to ordination. It was learned, however, that Broughton, the Bishop of Australia, was prepared to ordain suitable men without a degree for work in Australia and New Zealand. Hadfield left England in February 1838, arrived in Sydney in July, was admitted to deacon's orders in September, crossed the Tasman with Bishop Broughton at the end of the year, and was ordained priest at Waimate on 6 January 1839.

Hadfield lived at Waimate for some months, assisting in the work of the mission and learning to speak Maori. He was intended for the mission station on the East Coast, but when, in October 1839, Tamihana Te Rauparaha and Matene Te Whiwhi arrived at Waimate, seeking a missionary for the Kapiti-Waikanae district, Hadfield volunteered his services. Accompanied by Rev. Henry Williams, senior missionary, he arrived at Waikanae in January 1840 and found himself witness to a battle between the Ngati Awa of Waikanae and the Ngati Raukawa of Otaki. After Williams had negotiated a peace, Hadfield commenced his mission and, in order to avoid any appearance of partiality towards either tribe, established two headquarters and lived alternately at Otaki and Waikanae. The Ngati Awa were well disposed but Ngati Raukawa at first looked upon the Book as a poor substitute for rum and guns and it took two years to win them over. Except for breaks of three months in 1841, five years between 1844 and 1849, and a year between 1858 and 1859, when he was forced by illness to leave his mission, Hadfield lived and worked in the district for 30 years.

Hadfield's influence touched the life of his Maori flock at almost every point. His first contribution was as a peacemaker. In the troubled weeks after the Wairau Affray the Wellington settlement owed its safety largely to his restraining influence on Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata. Hadfield believed that the teachings of Christianity and the arts of civilisation should proceed together in mission work. “Next to the communication of direct religious instruction”, he wrote in 1847, “the object of the missionary ought to be the civilization of the natives in every way”. As well as preaching, teaching, and catechising, he instructed in diet, clothing, building, agriculture, and animal husbandry. By 1850 the Otaki mission was looked upon as a model. Selwyn, Grey, the Godleys, and others who worshipped at Rangiatea, the Maori church at Otaki, and inspected the new village, with its weatherboard houses and private gardens, were amazed at what had been achieved so quickly. They were observing Hadfield's mission at the moment of its greatest impact. In later years, when the European population at Otaki increased, when negotiations over the sale of land made for distraction, and when liquor was sold in the district, the mission was unable to retain the single-minded devotion of its converts.

The crucial testing time for the mission occurred during the Taranaki and Waikato Wars. Ngati Raukawa sympathies were strong for Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitaki who, before his return to the Waitara in 1848, had lived at Waikanae. Several times during the war years emissaries, first from the Maori King and later from Te Ua, appealed to the Otaki Maoris to join them against the Europeans. A few joined roving war parties, others lapsed into apostasy; but there were no hostilities at Otaki.

The early years of the Maori Wars were for Hadfield himself a time of great personal anguish. He was an acknowledged authority on the language, life, and customs of the Maori. Grey, during his first governorship, had sought his opinions on the administration of native affairs and was particularly indebted to him for his elucidation of the complexities of native tenure. Gore Browne bowed to his reputation, but heeded other counsels. When fighting broke out at Taranaki Hadfield astonished the settlers and confounded the Government by publicly defending the validity of Wiremu Kingi's claim to the disputed land. With Selwyn, Abraham, Martin, and Swainson, he pressed for the re-examination of the Waitara purchase and the recall of Governor Browne. For many months Hadfield was, as he said himself, very nearly the most unpopular man in the colony. He was attacked in the press as a “pious firebrand” and accused of “something not very unlike treason”. His own analysis of the Waitara dispute is cogently expressed in his letter to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, which was later published under the title of One of England's Little Wars; his replies to his critics are to be found in The Second Year of One of England's Little Wars and the transcript of his examination before the Bar of the House of Representatives. So great was the consternation caused by Hadfield's criticism of the Government that, on 14 August 1860, Parliament took the unusual step of summoning Hadfield and McLean, the Chief Land Purchaser, for judicial questioning. Hadfield stood for four hours before the Bar of the House and, relying solely on memory, answered the 89 carefully prepared written questions that were presented to him. No one in the House disproved his assertions, which were later fully vindicated when the Waitara purchase was studied afresh. It has been claimed of the period July 1861 – May 1863 that this was the last time when the policy of the country was modified by the voice of the Church of England.

Hadfield was for 30 years a missionary; but first and always he was a churchman. His correspondence with Selwyn on the subject of the constitution of the Church of England in New Zealand dates from 1844; he was a member of the select committee that prepared the draft constitution and of the conference of bishops, clergy, and laity that adopted it.

Hadfield began his ministry as a missionary priest and ended it, 55 years later, as Primate of New Zealand. Throughout this entire period his association with the district and diocese of Wellington was continuous. His missionary district at first extended as far north as Cape Egmont and included the Wairarapa and the Marlborough Sounds. Selwyn appointed him Rural Dean of the Western District in 1844 and Archdeacon of Kapiti in 1849. Upon the creation of the diocese of Wellington in 1858, he was offered the See, but his health was precarious at the time and he declined. In 1870, when Abraham followed Selwyn to Lichfield and the office fell vacant, it was again offered to Hadfield and he accepted. He was elected primate in 1890, but retired three years later when he felt himself unequal to the responsibility. He retired to Edale, near Marton, where he lived until his death on 11 December 1904. His wife, Kate, third daughter of Archdeacon Henry Williams, whom he had married in 1852, died two years earlier. There were three children of the marriage.

Hadfield was a man of wide intellectual interests. In his youth he learned to read Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and to speak French, Spanish, and Portuguese. He became a master of Maori dialects and idioms. He was a keen student of metaphysics. As the century progressed he found himself out of sympathy with the sceptical tendencies prevalent in philosophy, science, and Biblical criticism. John Mill's system of morals he once dismissed as one of the most marvellous instances of the abuse of human ingenuity which could be produced. Darwinism he reprobated. Essays and Reviews revealed him as a fundamentalist.

His public reputation as a fearsome controversialist arose partly from his passion for truth and his determination that right should prevail, partly from his refusal to suffer fools gladly. He had, as he once said himself, more patience with vice than stupidity, for something could still be achieved with the vicious. “I believe”, he wrote, during the controversy over the Waitara purchase, “that great crimes ought to be called by their proper names and that the interests of truth and justice ought to be paramount to every other motive.”

Hadfield was called many things during his long public career. Jerningham Wakefield, who witnessed the first months of his missionary work, wrote that the Maoris named him Rangatira Pae, the mild white man, because he opposed their ancient customs not by anger or disgust but by gentle reason. Whalers at Kapiti thought he was a gentleman in spite of his being a missionary. Settlers who disagreed with his views on the rights of the Maoris or with his opposition to secular education spoke of him contemptuously as “a political parson”. In his later years he earned a reputation for being austere and dictatorial; but as bishop and primate he felt it his special duty to preserve the Church in New Zealand from changes that were perhaps unnecessary and might prove harmful. With it all he was a shy, reserved man, much loved and admired by those who knew him intimately.

Hadfield's formal writings were concise, transparently logical, and always to the point. They included: One of England's Little Wars (1861); The Second Year of One of England's Little Wars (1861); A Sequel to One of England's Little Wars (1861); various sermons and addresses; and Maoris of By-gone Days (1902). His analysis of Maori land tenure is in the Grey Collection; his evidence before the Committee of the House is printed in A.J.H.R., E-No. 4, 1860; his Letters to the Church Missionary Society 1838–1868 and the Hadfield Family Papers are in the Alexander Turnbull Library; and his Journal, 1839, and Letters to the Hadfield Family 1833–1890 are in the Wellington Public Library.

No satisfactory study of Hadfield has yet been published. He appears prominently in Rangiatea, Eric Ramsden (1952), and From Age to Age, H. W. Monaghan (1957). A useful chronicle of his life is given in Octavius Hadfield: Bishop and Pioneer, A Memoir, R. G. C. McNab, which was printed in instalments in The Press in 1931, and may be read in typescript in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

by William Leslie Renwick, M.A., Inspector of Primary Schools, Wellington.

(1839–99).

Congregational minister, and Inspector-General, Education Department.

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

William Habens was born in June 1839, the son of Matthew Habens and Mary Ann, née Hayter. He was educated at Puget School, Brighton, at Hackney College, and graduated B.A. at London University in 1862. In the same year Habens married Anne, daughter of Thomas Mellish, of Brighton. He was ordained to the Congregational Church pastorate in 1863 and shortly afterwards sailed for New Zealand in the Canterbury. For 15 years he was in charge of Trinity Church, Christchurch, which was designed by B. W. Mountfort and built during Haben's ministry. Later he served a term as president of the Congregational Union.

As a citizen, Habens was remarkable for his ability and for his farsightedness, particularly in the field of education. When the provincial councils were abolished (1876) and the national system of free, compulsory, and secular schools was created by the Education Act of 1877, Habens was appointed the first Inspector-General of Schools. In 1879 he acted as secretary to the Royal Commission on the University of New Zealand and its relations to the secondary schools of the colony, and was largely responsible for its exhaustive and useful report. Later, on the retirement of Dr John Hislop, Habens was appointed Secretary of Education. In these positions he earned high praise for the part he played in organising the new Education Department. On Habens, also, fell most of the responsibility for integrating and coordinating the various education systems which had flourished under the provincial councils. He devised and instituted a scheme for the comparative classification and payment of teachers in State schools. In the early 1890s, Habens took an important part in founding the New Zealand Public Service Association. At this time his health became indifferent, and his zeal for long hours of work further undermined his constitution. He died very suddenly in his office in the Museum House, Museum Street, Wellington, on 3 February 1899.

Tact, originality, independence of thought, and thoroughness in attention to detail characterised all Haben's work, and he was highly regarded both by teachers and by the officers of his Department. To perpetuate his memory his friends and admirers established the fund from which the University of New Zealand annually awards the Habens Prize.

by Herbert Alexander Horace Insull, M.A., DIP.SOC.SC., Principal, Marlborough College, Blenheim.

• Education in New Zealand, Butchers, A. G. (1930)
• Fifty Years of National Education in New Zealand, 1878–1928, Davey, I. (1928)
• Evening Post, 4 Feb 1899 (Obit).

Haast River, named after Sir Julius von Haast, rises near Haast Pass in the Southern Alps and flows north in a deep, narrow mountain valley to join the much larger Landsborough River, to which it gives its name. The river then follows a west-north-westerly direction through a glaciated, relatively wide, gravel-floored valley with high, nearly vertical sides broken by hanging valleys and stream fans, to the narrow coastal plain, reaching the sea 60 miles from the source and 145 miles south-west of Greymouth.

The catchment area of 510 sq. miles consists mainly of rugged mountains often exceeding 5,000 ft in height, with their lower slopes clothed in native bush. The river, fed from permanent ice on the Alps and the Hooker Range, is subject to flash floods, the greatest measured discharge being 257,000 cusecs. The minimum flow is not known.

A highway extends from Haast (pop. 102) at the mouth of the river to Haast Pass and Wanaka, in Otago, and a bridge at the mouth of the river gives access to a road being built southwards from Westland. The new route will be opened in late 1965 and will be a magnificent tourist attraction.

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

Haast Pass (1,842 ft) is the first low pass in the Main Divide of the Southern Alps south of Mt. Cook, over 50 miles to the north. Although the pass had long been known to the Maoris and was the route used by the war party of Te Puoho, it was not until 1861 that it was reached by a European, J. H. Baker, a surveyor. The first European to traverse the pass was Charles Cameron, a prospector, who crossed it in January 1863, a few weeks before Haast made his transalpine journey to the West Coast. For some years Cameron's claim was doubted; the point, however, was settled in 1881 when T. N. Brodrick discovered Cameron's powder flask at the summit of Mt. Cameron, to the west of the pass.

The low altitude of the pass is due to glacial diffluence during the late Pleistocene ice-age. The high precipitation of snow on the western side of the Main Divide must have built up the level of the glacier in the Upper Haast Valley until part of the ice flowed south across the divide into the Upper Makarora Glacier. Evidence of such origin is supported by the typical glaciated U-shape of the Haast Pass.

The rocks of the Haast Pass are mica schists similar to those in neighbouring parts of Westland and Otago. The belt of schists crossing the pass is generally finer-grained and softer than the general average and this may have been a determining factor in establishing the pre-glacial drainage and the location of the pass. The sequence of schists and gneisses now traversed by the Haast Pass Road is one of the most complete and interesting exposed anywhere in Otago or the Alps and has received detailed attention from geologists both before and after completion of the new highway. These examinations have led to the development of new theories on rock metamorphism that have been widely applied to other parts of New Zealand and also to similar schist terraces overseas.

by George William Grindley, M.SC., New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.

(1822–87).

Geologist and explorer.

A new biography of Haast, Johann Franz Julius von appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Julius von Haast was born on 1 May 1822 at Bonn, Germany, the son of Mathias Haast, a merchant, sometime burgomaster. He seldom used his full name, Johann Franz Julius Haast. He studied geology and mineralogy at the University of the Rhine but did not graduate. Little is known of his early life; apparently he travelled as a merchant, and had some connection with August Krantz, dealer in minerals. His first wife died before he left Germany.

In 1858 Haast came to New Zealand to report on immigration prospects for a shipping firm. He accompanied Hochstetter in his explorations (1859), and remained to make a topographical and geological survey of the West Coast on behalf of Nelson Provincial Government, in an arduous journey (1860) down the Buller and Grey Valleys, in company with James Burnett and five others. He reported favourably on the Greymouth coalfield, discovered by Brunner, discovered the Westport coalfield (Mt. Rochfort), and found traces of gold in West Coast rivers.

In November 1860, W. S. Moorhouse, Superintendent of Canterbury, urgently asked Haast to report on the Port Hills, where contractors for the Lyttelton Tunnel had abandoned their contract on striking hard rock. Haast suggested that hard lava would be limited, and a new contract led ultimately to completion of the tunnel. Meantime he was appointed as Provincial Geologist (February 1861). Haast's Canterbury explorations (1861–68) included journeys to the Rangitata, Ashburton, and Rakaia headwaters, to the glacier region near Mt. Cook, and to the West Coast south to Franz Josef Glacier (which he named). He also traversed Haast Pass. These and many lesser investigations resulted in the publication of The Geology of Canterbury and Westland (1879).

In 1863 he married Mary Dobson, daughter of Edward Dobson, Provincial Engineer, sister of (Sir) A. D. Dobson. Haast played an active part in the intellectual life of Christchurch, founding the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury (1862) and Canterbury Museum (opened 1870), of which he was the first director (1869) and to which he devoted his later life. He built up the collection by using moa bones from Glenmark Swamp for advantageous exchanges. After the termination of the Provincial Geological Survey, Haast reported on Canterbury subjects to the Colonial Geological Survey in Wellington. With Bishop Harper he founded Canterbury Collegiate Union (1872), precursor of Canterbury University College (affiliated with the University of New Zealand in 1874), and lectured there in geology, and, later, also at Lincoln College. He was appointed professor of geology in 1876 and was a member of the Senate of the University of New Zealand (1880–87). He visited Europe in 1886 as New Zealand Commissioner at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition (London, 1886). The foundation of the Imperial Institute resulted from his memorandum, written on the suggestion of the Prince of Wales. Haast died on 16 August 1887, shortly after his return to Christchurch.

Haast's contributions to science brought him a world reputation. He was awarded a doctorate of philosophy of the University of Tübingen (1862), was elected F.R.S. (1867), and received the honorary degree of D.Sc. (Cambridge) in 1886. The Emperor of Austria conferred on him a hereditary knighthood in 1875. He was created C.M.G. in 1883 and K.C.M.G. in 1886, and was honoured by many learned societies.

Versatility of interest is reflected by Haast's voluminous publications, which include accounts of expeditions and geological surveys, descriptions of fishes, whales, and fossil birds, reports on building stones, plant distribution, underground water, coalfields, goldfields, and earthquakes, discussions of Pleistocene glaciation, moa hunters, rock paintings, humanism and realism in education, and the moral influences of horticulture. He lectured on art and produced competent landscape sketches, sang in public, and played the violin. He named many South Island rivers and glaciers, creating (in his own words) a kind of Pantheon for his illustrious predecessors and contemporaries in science, exploration, and politics – for example, Hooker and Mueller Glaciers, Mounts Elie de Beaumont and De la Beche, the Lyell Range, the Clyde River, and Lake Hochstetter. His geological studies are the basis for later work: his classification of Canterbury rocks, his recognition of the effects of past glaciation, his interpretation of the Canterbury Plains as “fans”, and his views on the structure of Banks Peninsula. Much of his work on the extinct moas and eagle Harpagornis (which he named) is retained in modern classifications. He brought a geologist's stratigraphic approach to problems of early human succession in New Zealand. In explorations in the Southern Alps Haast collected many new alpine plants (e.g., Haastia) which were described by J. D. Hooker, one of a wide circle of European correspondents.

The modern reader may find Haast's writings on natural science prolix, but those who have built upon his foundations are unstinting in their praise of his acute observation and sound judgment. Likewise his museum, once hailed as the best south of the line, seemed but an overcrowded storehouse 60 years later, yet students continue to benefit from his discoveries and collections.

Haast's pursuit of his objectives won him critics and enemies as well as admirers – he quarrelled with T. W. Hackett, antagonised W. T. L. Travers, and fell out with Hector when he publicly accused A. McKay of appropriating the results of his Moa Bone Point excavations. Moreover, he solicited honours more avidly than many might think proper. Yet such traits were offset by his jovial personality and lively enthusiasm for his science, amounting to a lifelong devoted passion that fully entitles him to his place as one of the greatest pioneers in New Zealand science.

by Charles Alexander Fleming, O.B.E., B.A., D.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Chief Paleontologist, New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.

• The Life and Times of Sir Julius von Haast, Haast, H. F. von (1948).

(1815–1901).

Explorer, Colonial Governor.

Eyre was born at Hornsea, Yorkshire, on 5 August 1815, the third son of Anthony William Eyre, incumbent of Hornsea and Long Riston. He was educated at Louth and Sedbergh Grammar Schools and intended to enter the Army. Signs of a weak chest and delay in obtaining a commission decided him to take up a popular alternative career for the younger sons of English gentlemen — farming in one of the colonies. With £400 in his pocket he arrived at Sydney in March 1833 and went to live with a settler in order to learn something of farming. He then bought a farm of his own on the Hunter River.

This was an insufficient adventure for him; soon after South Australia was founded he drove 1,000 sheep and 600 cattle from Monaro, New South Wales, to Adelaide, thus becoming the first of the “Overlanders”. His taste for exploration being whetted, he conducted expeditions between 1836 and 1840 from the Liverpool Plains to the Murray, from Sydney to Port Phillip and thence to Adelaide, and from King George Sound to the Swan River. He also explored the interior from Port Lincoln and Adelaide. In 1840, however, he began the greatest and most difficult of his journeys, taking charge of an expedition to open communication between South and West Australia. The party which left Adelaide on 18 June 1840 consisted of himself and five white men and two aborigines, together with some horses and sheep. After the most terrible privations he managed to reach Albany, Western Australia, with one surviving companion, an aboriginal, on 7 July 1841. He clearly proved that land communication between the two parts of Australia was not a practical proposition, and to this extent the expedition was a failure, but his determination, skill, and endurance had placed him in the forefront of Australian explorers.

On his return to South Australia Eyre took up land near the Murray River and at the same time was appointed Resident Magistrate and Protector of Aborigines. Serious conflicts between the settlers and the aborigines had taken place in this district, but during Eyre's three-year tenure of office he managed by exceptional kindness, combined with firmness, to pacify and win the confidence of the aborigines and to establish peaceful relations with them. In 1845 Eyre returned to England where he undertook the publication of Expeditions into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound, 1840–1.

Eyre arrived in England with a strong letter of recommendation to the Colonial Office from George Grey, then Governor of South Australia. The Constitution Act of 1846 for New Zealand being recently passed, Earl Grey assumed that Grey, now Governor of New Zealand, would be glad to receive his protégé as Lieutenant-Governor — a position created by the Act. Eyre was accordingly commissioned in November 1846, and set sail for Wellington, where he arrived on 7 August 1847. His appointment, however, was not welcomed with much enthusiasm by Grey; although the two men admired each other's energy and achievements they were evidently antipathetic. Eyre started off on the wrong foot by taking an inflated view of his position, which was, in fact, to be strictly subordinate to Grey's. In spite of this having been explained to him at the Colonial Office and in spite of Eyre's experience under Grey in South Australia, which should have taught him that Grey was a man determined to be complete master in his own house, Eyre attempted to take up an independent line. The settlers, also, misled by the title of Lieutenant-Governor, expected Eyre to be more than a resident agent of the Governor-in-Chief, Grey. Notwith-standing early, sharp lessons from Grey to the contrary, Eyre obstinately retained an exalted view of his functions; from feeling frustrated he became resentful and embittered. Eyre made a few attempts to explore New Zealand. With one exception these were unceremoniously cut short by Grey; this was his successful ascent of Mt. Tapuaenuku (9,460 ft) in the Kaikoura Range.

The Wellington settlers soon decided that Eyre was a pretentious nincompoop, and having done so, ignored him, while the local officials took little trouble to hide their contempt. Eyre plunged on from blunder to blunder, almost every move earning a reprimand from Grey. He opposed Grey's Provincial Councils Ordinance, he crossed swords with Grey over the calling of the New Munster Legislative Council for a second session, he complained to the Colonial Office behind Grey's back. Grey took a simple but effective revenge for this show of independence; he moved from Auckland to Wellington, thus displacing Eyre in the administration, but instead of transferring Eyre to Auckland (as was provided in the Constitution Act) he appointed Major-General Pitt to be Lieutenant-Governor in Auckland. Eyre was thus left to kick his heels and fume, jobless and despised, in Wellington. The correspondence between the two men vividly illustrates their different temperaments and abilities: Eyre's lengthy, tedious, self-justificatory dispatches; Grey's neat, unanswerable, incisive, snubbing epistles. Grey lost no opportunity of gently but unmistakeably informing the Colonial Office that Eyre was far more of a hindrance than a help.

In 1853 Eyre returned to England and in 1854 was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of St. Vincent in the West Indies, followed by his appointment in 1859 to Antigua as acting Governor-in-Chief of the Leeward Islands. After 18 months' leave in England, he was commissioned in 1862 to administer the Government of Jamaica during the absence of Sir Charles Darling. In 1864 Darling relinquished the appointment and Eyre was confirmed as Governor-in-Chief of Jamaica.

Jamaica was then passing through a depression caused partly by a lengthy drought and the economic disturbances due to the American Civil War. There was much intense poverty among the negro inhabitants, who were at the time being excited by a religious revival. The constitutional arrangements for the island were causing dissatisfaction and the administration was impaired by graft and corruption. For the first two years of his administration Eyre felt his position to be merely that of a caretaker, and he was reluctant to alter radically the arrangements made by his incompetent predecessor, despite the apparent danger signs. These were forcibly pointed out in a report written in early 1865 on the state of the island by Underbill, the Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, who, in addition, suggested how they might be improved. In his misguided attempt to refute this well-meant and constructive report, Eyre erred in making it a public issue, and to make matters worse published the curt and heartless reply of the Colonial Office to a humble petition addressed to the Queen by some distressed negroes. The “Queen's Advice”, as this reply came to be known, added fuel to the smouldering fire. G. W. Gordon, a negro politician, published a manifesto calling attention to the people's wrongs. Although inflammatory, this was hardly seditious, but it was one of the immediate causes of a serious riot at Morant Bay. Here property was destroyed and 28 persons, white and negro, were killed.

Eyre then proclaimed martial law as the riot had grown into a rebellion, gathered military forces, and crushed the rising. The suppression of the rebellion was attended by many terrible barbarities: 354 persons were executed after summary trials, 85 were executed without trial, and many were savagely flogged without trial. All that can be said in extenuation is that many of the Army officers were young and inexperienced, and the memory of the Indian Mutiny was still vividly fresh in their minds. Gordon, who gave himself up in Kingston, which was not under martial law, was handed over by Eyre to the Army. He was then tried, after a fashion, and hanged.

Public outcry in England led to the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the events on the island. This vindicated Eyre and commended him for his skill, promptitude, and vigour in suppressing the rebellion, but found that martial law had been continued too long and that the punishments given had been excessive. Eyre was then superseded. Passionate feelings for and against him were roused in England: J. S. Mill, T. H. Huxley, and Herbert Spencer were prominent in the anti-Eyre faction, while Carlyle, Kingsley, Tennyson, and Ruskin supported him. Attempts were made to bring Eyre to trial for murder, succeeding in 1868 in his being charged with a long list of misdemeanours. He was found not guilty, but was then harrassed by a series of civil suits. In 1872 Parliament voted Eyre £4,133 to defray the costs of these prosecutions, and he was given a pension as a retired Colonial Governor.

Eyre then lived in quiet retirement in Yorkshire, where he died on 30 November 1901. He left a wife, Adelaide, daughter of Captain Ormond, R.N., four sons, and a daughter. He married Miss Ormond in New Zealand in 1850; her brother J. D. Ormond was his private secretary.

Eyre was stubborn, obstinate, and unteachable. These qualities, however necessary for the explorer of parched continents, were positive disqualifications for an administrator. In New Zealand he could not do much harm — in fact, he was merely a rather pathetic figure of fun — but in Jamaica nemesis overtook him and he played out his tragedy with the world for his audience. But Carlyle's view of him as a “hero” possibly penetrates further to the truth than his opponents' conception of him as simply the villain of the piece.

by Michael Wordsworth Standish, M.A. (1920–62), late Dominion Chief Archivist, Wellington.

• Eyre: Governor-General's Archives, Dispatches, Eyre/Grey, Grey/Eyre, Grey/Colonial Office, 1847–1853 (MSS), New Zealand National Archives
• Parliamentary Papers (Great Britain), 1846–53
• Crown Colony Government in New Zealand, McLintock, A. H. (1958)
• The Sugar Colonies and Governor Eyre, Mathieson, W. L. (1936)
• The Myth of Governor Eyre, Oliver, Lord (1933).

Several New Zealanders have made careers in former Northern Rhodesia. The most noteworthy of these are:

Bean, Leonard, M.B.E.

(1914– ).

Permanent Secretary, Northern Rhodesia.

Leonard Bean was born in 1914. He was educated at Takaka District High School, graduated from Canterbury University College, and after active service from 1939 to 1945 was appointed an administrative cadet in Northern Rhodesia. In 1948 he became a District Officer and, in 1957, a Senior District Officer. He was Provincial Commissioner 1960–61, when he became one of the country's nine Permanent Secretaries.

Dorman, Thomas Edwin

(1914– ).

Senior Education Officer.

Thomas Dorman was born in 1914 and attended Southland Boys' High School and the University of Otago. From 1943 he served with the armed forces and, two years later, was appointed to Cyprus as an Education Officer. In 1957 he transferred to a similar position in Northern Rhodesia where, in 1962, he was promoted to Senior Education Officer.

Lascelles, John Hawdon, O.B.E., T.D.

(1911– ).

Company director.

John Lascelles was born at Christchurch, New Zealand, on 21 April 1911. He was educated at Christ's College, New Zealand, and at Balliol College, Oxford. From 1948 to 1950 he was assistant secretary of the British Iron and Steel Federation. He went to Rhodesia in 1953. J. H. Lascelles is now director and executive vice-president of Chambishi Mines Ltd., Chibuluma Mines Ltd., Mufulira Copper Mines Ltd., Rhodesian Selection Trust Ltd., and Roan Antelope Copper Mines Ltd. In addition to these he is a director of the following companies: Baluba Mines Ltd.; Chilanga Cement Ltd.; Chisangwa Mines Ltd.; Choma Mines Ltd.; Kadala Mines Ltd.; Luapula Mines Ltd.; Mwinilunga Mines Ltd.; Ndola Copper Refineries Ltd.; Rhodesia Congo Border Power Corporation Ltd.; Rhodesian Iron and Steel Co. Ltd.; Rhodesian Selection Trust (Exploration) Ltd.; Rhodesian Selection Trust (Investment) Ltd.; and R.S.T. Mine Services Ltd.

Symon, G. A., M.B.E.

(1921– ).

Senior District Officer, Northern Rhodesia.

Symon was born in 1921. He was educated at Wellesley College, Wellington, and at Victoria University College. From 1940 to 1945 he served with the armed forces and in 1946 joined the Colonial Service in Northern Rhodesia. He became a District Officer in 1948, and Senior District Officer in 1962. In 1961 he was awarded the M.B.E.B.J.F. and H.M.R.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington and Heather Margaret Reid, B.A., Housewife, Dunedin.