(1791–1862).

Soldier.

Thomas Bunbury was born on 19 May 1791 at Gibraltar where his father was a Lieutenant in the 32nd Regiment. He attended several English boarding schools and in March 1807 gained his ensigncy in the 90th Regiment. In the following year he was sent to the Peninsula where he served till the end of the war. He took part in the siege of Oporto, the Battles of Talavera and Barrossa, had his horse shot from under him at Tarifa, and was present at the capture of Seville. After the close of the Peninsular campaigns, Bunbury was among the forces which invaded Southern France. He was at Nivelle, was seriously wounded at Nive, was present at the capture of Bayonne, and commanded the 6th Cassadores, a Portuguese regiment, in the battle of Toulouse. After the war he served for a short time with Lord Beresford's force in Portugal, where he was made a Knight of the Tower and Sword.

Towards the close of 1820 Bunbury returned to England, but shortly afterwards went to Paris where, to his family's dismay, he evinced a desire to become an artist. He was “saved” from this in 1822, however, when he was gazetted to the 80th Regiment, then stationed at Malta. In 1825, when the Duc d'Angouleme invaded Spain, Bunbury secured a temporary transfer to the 85th Regiment and took part in the campaign that followed. Thereafter, and until 1837, he served with the 80th in England. In the latter year he was sent to Australia. When Gipps assumed office as Governor of New South Wales he sent Bunbury to command the Norfolk Island garrison.

Early in 1840, when Gipps became concerned about Hobson's illness, he sent Bunbury to New Zealand with a small detachment of the 80th Regiment and instructed him to assume the government if the Lieutenant-Governor were still incapacitated. On his arrival he found Hobson much improved and anxious to have the Treaty of Waitangi confirmed by the South Island chiefs. On 28 April 1840 Bunbury sailed south in the Herald, which made its way by slow stages to Stewart Island. Port Pegasus was reached on 4 June and, as there were no signs of Maoris in the vicinity, he decided to proclaim the Queen's sovereignty by right of Captain Cook's discovery. On the return journey, after many signatures had been obtained, the Herald put into Cloudy Bay where, on 17 June, Bunbury took possession of the whole of the South Island “on the ground of cession by the several native chiefs”. Bunbury was gazetted Magistrate in May 1841; and in January 1844 acted as Deputy Governor during FitzRoy's absence from the seat of government. Shortly after this the 80th were ordered to India and Bunbury left the colony.

In November 1844, while on the voyage from Sydney to Calcutta, Bunbury was wrecked on one of the Andaman Islands, where he was largely responsible for saving the lives of over 600 troops and their dependants. He was awarded the C.B. for this. Bunbury commanded the 80th throughout the Sikh Wars (1845–46) and took part in the Sutlej campaign, being present at the Battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshah, and Sobraon. He retired from active service on 31 December 1849 and, shortly afterwards, returned to England, where he married.

For a time Bunbury made unsuccessful efforts to obtain a knighthood; he then devoted his leisure to writing his three volumes of Reminiscences. These were completed in 1858 and published in 1861. He died in England early in 1862.

In his Reminiscences, which are still most readable, Bunbury comments on the incidents and the persons he met in his lifetime of military service. His remarks about Hobson and the other members of the New Zealand “Establishment” show that he was a remarkably penetrating observer.

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

• Reminiscences of a Veteran, Bunbury, T. (1861)
• Hart's Army List, 1860
• Crown Colony Government in New Zealand, McLintock, A. H. (1958).

The Buller is the major river of the west coast of the South Island and is named after Charles Buller who did much to further the colonisation of New Zealand. Its Maori name, Kawatiri, is believed to mean “deep and swift”, an appropriate description of the river with the greatest flood discharge in New Zealand. With a lowest measured discharge of 2,290 cusecs, the highest discharge is 437,000 cusecs, but little electric power has been generated from it or its many important tributary rivers, although schemes to do so are now being put forward.

From its source at Lake Rotoiti (1,997 ft), it flows in a changing but predominantly westerly direction for 105 miles to reach the sea at Westport, crossing the north-trending geologic and topographic grain of the country. Most of its catchment area of 2,510 square miles is mountainous and nearly three-quarters of it are clothed in native bush. For most of its length the river flows in steep-sided gorges with many rapids, crossing wide gravel-floored plains or valleys at Murchison, Inangahua and the coast.

Westport (pop. 5,464), has a typical bar harbour through which passes much of the output of the Buller coalfield. Both the main railway line and the main road to Canterbury follow the Buller Valley from Westport to Inangahua. The road from Westport to Nelson leaves the Buller at Kawatiri, and that to Blenheim follows the river past its source at Lake Rotoiti.

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

(1838–1906).

Ornithologist.

A new biography of Buller, Walter Lawry appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Walter Lawry Buller was born at the Bay of Islands on 9 October 1838, the eldest surviving son of the Wesleyan missionary, James Buller. He was brought up at the Tangiteroria Mission Station, educated at Wesley College, Auckland, and early acquired a deep interest in natural history and, particularly, ornithology. Following a brief period of service with the Union Bank in Auckland, he visited the Chatham Islands in 1855 and in the same year was appointed Official Interpreter at the Magistrate's Court in Wellington. James Buller had earlier been appointed to the Wellington circuit.

In September 1857, probably again on the initiative of his father, he issued the first number of Te Karere o Poneke, a newspaper intended for the information and improvement of its Maori readers. Buller, with discerning shrewdness, interested Donald McLean, then Native Secretary, in the project and sought official support which was eventually forthcoming.

In September 1859 he was appointed to a position in the Native Department at £200 a year, primarily to report on the state of the South Island Maori population and their land reserves. This task he carried out during the ensuing two years with a break during July-August 1860 when he acted as secretary to the Kohimarama conference of Maori chiefs. In addition to editing the proceedings of the conference he was for a time editor of the Maori Messenger and its successor, Te Manuhiri Tuarangi, or The Maori Intelligencer. In January 1862 he was gazetted a Justice of the Peace and in the following month, when only 25, a Resident Magistrate, in March taking appointment under the Native Circuits Act in Wellington and the Manawatu.

His studies in New Zealand bird life had extended considerably. In 1862 he was secretary of the New Zealand Society and was already in correspondence with other scientists. Official duties at the same time were pressing. At intervals throughout 1865 and 1866 he was assisting Dr I. E. Featherston as interpreter and mediator in the protracted negotiations for the purchase of the Manawatu Block. Writing to von Haast in 1864, he referred to his expectation of an appointment as Civil Commissioner for the South Island at £500 a year, the duties of the position being comparatively light with “heaps of time for science”. The expectation did not materialise, nor did his formal appointment with three others to the position of Native Land Court Judge under the 1862 Act lead to particular responsibilities.

1865, however, was one of Buller's years, for he was with Sir George Grey before Weraroa Pa in the Taranaki campaign, in which his action in carrying dispatches from Weraroa to Wanganui earned him the New Zealand Cross. Earlier in the same year he had completed his exhibition Essay on the Ornithology of New Zealand which was awarded a silver medal. It was an admirable summary for a student of 27, although, as the world authority Otto Finsch pointed out, it had been “compiled almost exclusively” from G. R. Gray's list in Ibis and the same writer's notes to the Erebus and Terror voyage.

It was, however, merely the prelude to full-length work on the subject for which Buller sought Government support. His request for £300 to guarantee him against loss on consideration of his presenting his collection of bird skins to the Colonial Museum was granted with qualifications, but the transaction was one which his enemies did not allow him to forget. He rejected the allegation that he was a dealer as “unpalatable and distasteful”. While he did not buy and sell bird skins in a strictly commercial sense, he nevertheless commissioned collectors throughout New Zealand to obtain birds for his successive collections and for selected sales or advantageous exchanges. He had meanwhile been laying the foundations of his later fortune for, when a mere interpreter, it was said that he lent sums from his slender income at up to 20 per cent interest while he certainly exercised the uncommon privilege of borrowing from his official chief, Donald McLean, at a presumably lower rate.

In 1871 he was granted leave on half pay and return fare to visit the United Kingdom to see the History of the Birds of New Zealand through the press, with the conditional responsibility of assisting his former associate and friend Featherston, now Agent-General, as secretary. He proved extremely useful in London, ably arranging, among other manifold duties, the New Zealand Court at the Vienna Exhibition. Delays in the hand colouring of the plates to the book – “colourists complain of my fastidiousness” – obliged him to seek an extension of leave with modification of the terms of his grant. Some of the history of this involved transaction is enshrined in parliamentary papers, but the unpublished recommendation of the Attorney-General, Prendergast, that there were grounds for pressing him for a refund of advances made was not acted upon. Buller, as recommended by Hector at the outset, presented the Government with 25 copies of the opus which met with general, justified acclaim.

While in London, again with characteristic energy and foresight, he had qualified for the Bar at the Inner Temple. Pressed to return immediately to relieve alleged Government embarrassment at his protracted stay, he resigned. Returning to New Zealand later in 1874 he immediately embarked upon an extremely lucrative practice, largely in Maori Land Court work. In 1884 he erected an ostentatious residence on Wellington Terrace, flanked and faced with Corinthian columns, and in 1891 he acquired the Papaitonga Lake estate, near Levin, which was to be his pride and a wildlife refuge during the time that he stayed in New Zealand.

The complex history of the Mua-upoko claims to the Horowhenua Block and Buller's part as trustee and adviser occupy some hundreds of pages of official reports, while Buller's trenchant denials of unethical conduct were issued as successive pamphlets. His actions at all stages may have been formally correct, but it would clearly have been wiser to have avoided grounds for misunderstanding. He was unsuccessful in his attempts to enter Parliament, but was a supporter of the Liberal administration in its early years, despite later bitterness with Sir John McKenzie over the Horowhenua Block. In 1891 he offered £2,500 to Ballance towards the party's purchase of a newspaper.

Meanwhile in ornithology his unchallenged pre-eminence had flowered in over 70 papers in the Transactions, some of them on other aspects of natural history. A photolithographic reproduction of the plates to the first edition with summary text was issued in 1882 as the Manual of the Birds of New Zealand. Once more in England in the 1880s he set about the preparation of the enlarged second edition of the masterpiece, prodding or cajoling his New Zealand correspondents into soliciting subscriptions. Following its issue in parts, the complete two-volume edition appeared in 1888. While again an outstanding and comprehensive survey, the colour reproduction was uneven in quality, but retains its position as the most sumptuous and complete representation of a section of the country's natural history. The Supplement, again in two volumes, with a smaller number of coloured plates, appeared in 1905.

Successive honours encouraged his labours – C.M.G., 1875; F.R.S., 1876; and K.C.M.G., 1886, with honorary degrees and many European distinctions. The History … is a truly monumental achievement of enduring interest and value. If the text does reflect the predominant contemporary interest in the number and varieties of species, there is still much of use to the wider ecological approach of today. Too frequently the work reflects the wasteful prodigality of nineteenth century collecting and often degenerates into a macabre recital of the relentless pursuit and destruction of species now extinct or very rare. Detailed observation of the life cycle was left to a later generation. In the Supplement Buller takes a righteous stand on the conservation policies then haltingly gaining acceptance – when his own collecting was virtually over. While aware of the influence of other factors, he ignores the moral aspects of the wholesale destruction which his own rapacity and that of other collectors had engendered.

Buller married Charlotte, daughter of Gilbert Mair, senior, in 1862. Lady Buller died in 1891, Buller dying in London in 1906. In his talents, energy, and successful pursuit of the full life in business, law, and science, matching an unwavering self-interest, he is the paradox of a Renaissance figure in nineteenth-century colonial society.

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

• CS/75/2332, National Archives
• Appendices to the Journal of the House of Representatives: G. 29 (1871)
• G. 2, 2a, 2b (1898)
• Journals of the Legislative Council: L.C. No. 6 (1896)
• History of the Birds of New Zealand, Buller, W. L. (1873)
• Supplement (1905).

In 1932, largely through the efforts of the New Zealand Institution of Engineers, the New Zealand Standards Institution was founded, and in May 1934 the Building Code Committee was constituted by the General Council of the Standards Institution for the purpose of preparing Standard Model Building Bylaws for New Zealand. The object of the Building Code Committee was to produce a building code applicable to the special conditions of New Zealand in the form of a Model Building Bylaw, but sufficiently flexible to permit of the future introduction of approved innovations in materials and methods of construction. If, however, full advantage were to be taken of scientific and technical progress, the code or bylaw would require periodical review and revision. The first Model Building Bylaw was published in December 1935, and has been revised from time to time, the last complete revision being in 1955. A current revision is nearing completion.

In 1936 the Standards Institution was superseded by the Standards Institute, a branch of the Government. Among its many activities in the field of standardisation of commodities, processes, and practices, this institution sets up committees, on instructions from the Standards Council, to initiate new parts or revise the existing building bylaws. These are voluntary committees whose members are representatives of interested organisations such as the New Zealand Institute of Architects, the New Zealand Institution of Engineers, the Municipal Association, and the like. These representatives are selected for their specialised knowledge. At present the Building Bylaw Committee deals with the general layout of the bylaws, definitions, interpretations, and building permits; that on Steel Construction with Residential Buildings, Foundations and Substructures, Chimneys and External Walling Committees; the Loadings Committee with the basic loads to be used in design; and the Fire Protection Committee with fire-resisting construction and means of egress. Moreover, the Fire Rating Committee provides a list of fire-resisting ratings of materials and construction, and the Water Retaining Structures Committee deals with the design of concrete structures for the storage of liquids. The latest Committee to be set up is the Farm Buildings Committee which deals specifically with the design and construction of farm buildings as opposed to that of residential buildings. Finally, there is the Building Bylaw Sectional Committee which coordinates the work of all the Building Bylaw Committees and forwards their recommendations to the Standards Council.

The Model Building Bylaw is not a mandatory document but is published as being suitable for adoption by local authorities as their bylaw, and not until it is adopted by a local authority does it become legally valid. A recent survey has shown that, of the 108 cities and boroughs in New Zealand with a population in excess of 2,000, the model building bylaw has been adopted by 96, either in toto or with amendments, while four others have intimated their intention of adopting it. Many, if not all, of the local authorities which have not formally adopted the model building bylaw use it as a guide. In the absence of such model bylaws, each local authority would have to form its own. This would entail a considerable amount of work which would have to be done by each local authority through its own resources, with the addition of all the legal expenses involved. But the adoption of the model building bylaw goes further than the saving of administrative and legal expenses by a local authority. The standardisation of provisions regarding building construction leads to an acceptance of basic dimensions, types, and qualities of materials, with possibilities for savings both through large-scale production methods and through quality.

by Jack Ian King, F.R.I.B.A., A.M.I.ST.ENG.(LOND.), Chairman, New Zealand Standards Institute, Wellington.

A permanent society is one which has not, by its rules, any fixed date or specified result at which it shall terminate. Permanent societies consist of shareholders, depositors, and borrowers. The amount that any society can take on deposit is restricted to 75 per cent of the amount of its mortgages. This is a safeguard to depositors in times of stress. Profits are distributed to both capital and investing shareholders after making reserves. Borrowers do, in some cases, get a rebate on the interest paid by them.

A terminating society is one which, by its rules, is to terminate at a fixed date, or when a specified result is reached. This is usually conducted by means of the group system, which requires that when the specified result or period is reached, the group winds up and refunds of subscriptions, together with the profits, are made to its members. Thus, in a terminating society, the profits are shared by the members, less of course the cost of management. The life of these groups usually runs from 20 to 25 years from commencement.

Terminating societies have the larger membership in New Zealand, as is shown by the following table:

• Statistics for 1962–63 show that there were in New Zealand—

• 54 permanent societies with 34,237 shareholders and investing capital and shares £13,357,260 and

• 18 terminating societies with 280,733 shareholders with investing shares of £34,633,334.

Minors may become shareholders in a building society, but their parents or guardians must act for them until they attain the age of 18 years. They cannot, however, generally execute mortgages or purchase property until 21 years of age.

Many building societies recommend borrowers to insure their lives for the amount of the mortgage. This insurance decreases as the amount of the mortgage decreases yearly. The premium may be a single payment by the borrower or added to the mortgage and repaid over the term of the mortgage. The premium based on the age of the insured is very low – for example:

For £1,000, 16-year term, the premium payable fortnightly is:

Savings bank departments are operated by several societies. They are subject to Government restriction on the amount they may accept by way of ordinary deposit and the amount of savings bank deposits. Clients may make deposits and withdrawals on similar lines to the Post Office Savings Bank.

Each society functions as an individual establishment with its own particular features, but is affiliated to the New Zealand Building Societies Association, which body attends to building society problems at national level.

by John Laurence Arcus, Secretary, New Zealand Building Societies Association, Wellington.

The objects and purposes of building societies are twofold – first, to provide a common savings pool from which members can finance the purchase of a home; and, secondly, to encourage thrift. This latter aim is furthered by the investing member having a safe and attractive method of regular saving, while the borrowing member attains a similar goal by a regular reduction in his loan indebtedness.

In New Zealand there are two classes of societies allowed by the Building Societies Act, namely, permanent and terminating. Of these, 54 are permanent and 18 terminating. The constitution and conduct of a building society are strictly regulated by the Building Societies Act 1908. Its rules, and any amendments made from time to time, must be approved by the Registrar of Building Societies. The rules must provide for the audit of the accounts, the number and appointment of its directors, and the manner in which they are to be remunerated, the power to accept deposits, and the repayment to members of share subscriptions. Officers of a society are required to give security for money passing through their hands. This is usually given by a fidelity bond issued by an insurance company.

A building society raises its funds by subscriptions from its members. These funds are used to make advances to its members secured by first mortgages on freehold or leasehold land, or interest therein. Seldom do societies lend on vacant land, and societies cannot own land or buildings except for the purpose of their office accommodation. Repayment of a mortgage is usually by fortnightly or monthly instalments, which includes interest in the case of a permanent society. Loans in terminating societies are either free of interest or by auction or tender, and the fortnightly or monthly instalment represents a sum which will repay the loan and premium (if any) during the term of the mortgage.

There was no conscious attempt to apply scientific methods to problems of the building industry before the disastrous Hawke's Bay earthquake in 1931. This event, however, revealed the necessity for the establishment of an experimental station to deal with indigenous problems of the building industry and, in particular, with the fundamentals of design in relation to earthquake forces. A Building Regulations Committee set up by the Government a few days after the disaster reported to Parliament in June of the same year, emphasising both the importance of preparing an interim uniform building code to take account of earthquake forces and also the need for research into our problems as a background for a permanent code. This led to the establishment in 1932 of the New Zealand Standards Institution and to the appearance in 1935 of the first Standard Model Building Bylaw. In the same year a deputation from the building industry met the Prime Minister of the day and presented him with a scheme for investigating engineering and architectural aspects of earthquake problems, involving the establishment of an experimental station. A Building Research Committee of D.S.I.R. was thereupon appointed and, somewhat later, F. W. Furkert, formerly, Engineer-in-Chief, Public Works Department, was appointed interim Director of Building Research. On his advice the Government invited Sir Reginald Stradling, from the United Kingdom, to visit New Zealand and report on the country's requirements in this regard. Sir Reginald presented a monumental report, the most notable feature of which, however, was the request for an annual expenditure of some £250,000 to meet the needs of the country. The report was the subject of much interdepartmental discussion and after the target figure had been whittled down very considerably, the whole proposal was eventually wrecked, through lack of agreement on the salary appropriate to a director of the proposed establishment.

In the meantime, however, other building problems were making themselves felt, particularly following the establishment of the State Advances Corporation and its subsequent accumulation of case histories of building failures. In 1944 the Corporation asked D.S.I.R. to investigate the cause of the sudden increase of mould growth on the ceilings and walls of so many houses under its jurisdiction. The solution of this problem by the Dominion Physical Laboratory, which took some three years, was followed by investigations into the importance of thermal insulation and of more efficient heating in domestic dwellings. At about the same period Dominion Laboratory, D.S.I.R., became interested in problems of paint and its behaviour on New Zealand timbers and under New Zealand climatic conditions. This research has developed into quite an important section of the new laboratory at Gracefield.

Other Dominion Laboratory activities which relate to building problems are – pozzolanic replacement of cement in concrete; metal corrosion, notably copper and brass; and, more recently, developments in concrete technology based on light-weight aggregates. In 1945 the heavy clay industry contributed funds towards the establishment of a Pottery and Ceramics Research Association, located first at Wellington but later transferred to Gracefield, Lower Hutt. Here the behaviour of local clays for brickwork and of local sands for mortar has been examined; further, a scheme for reinforced brickwork has been carried to the pilot stage.

In 1947 the Forest Research Institute at Rotorua was set up as a branch of the New Zealand Forest Service. Laboratories devoted themselves to investigations relating to the utilisation of native timbers, such as their equilibrium moisture content under New Zealand climatic conditions, as well as their nailholding properties. The Institute has also played a large share in the development of timber preservation.

These scattered and very little coordinated attempts to assist the building industry have at no stage been directed by a central organisation having a wide field of reference, such as the United Kingdom Building Research Station at Watford. Since the Stradling report, attempts have been made a number of times to interest successive Governments in the matter, but with no success. The classic reply has always been—“what contribution is the building industry itself prepared to make towards any experimental establishment”? In an endeavour, therefore, to awaken interest in some scheme for financing a research station, the Master Builders' Federation in 1957 called together representatives from a comprehensive number of organisations in contact with the building industry. The response from most of these organisations was not encouraging; but eventually the New Zealand Master Builders' Federation and the New Zealand Institute of Architects decided to initiate, without any other financial assistance, a technical information service for the benefit of members of the two organisations. Thus was founded, in 1959, the Building Research Bureau of New Zealand, which has since made a significant contribution to the fund of technical knowledge accumulating for the benefit of the industry.

Recently the Bureau has developed a proposal for the establishment of a National Building Research Council, as an incorporated and autonomous body for the control and prosecution of building research to meet the needs of the country. A draft Bill framed around this scheme has been presented in 1965 to the Government; and representatives of the industry have recently been invited by the Government to meet officers of Ministry of Works and D.S.I.R. to discuss this proposal, along with other related matters, and in due course submit a report to Cabinet. The industry is hoping that, as a result of these negotiations, New Zealand will be removed from the stigma of being the only modern country in the world without at least one experimental building research station, responsible for coordinating investigations into technical problems over the whole field of building and civil engineering.

by Lyndon Bastings, B.A.(N.Z.), M.SC.(N.Z., CAMB.), D.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Director, Building Research Bureau of New Zealand, Wellington.

(1866–1938).

Historian, journalist, politician.

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

Buick was born and educated in Oamaru, and trained as a carpenter. As a young man he moved to Blenheim and soon became interested in public affairs. He joined the Irish National League and on its behalf lectured in Wellington and Christchurch in favour of Home Rule. He also toured the West Coast. He became a convinced temperance advocate. In 1890 Buick was returned to Parliament by the Wairau electorate. Although at that time no formal Labour Party existed, Buick, with his working-class, self-educated background, is considered one of the earliest Labour members. He adhered to the Liberals led by Ballance, who invited him to become organising secretary of the National Liberal Federation, in which capacity he toured the whole country. Buick was re-elected for Wairau in 1893, and became Liberal Whip in Seddon's Government, but lost his seat in 1896 through too great independence of outlook and disagreement with his party.

Buick now devoted himself to journalism, buying a third share in the Manawatu Standard. While working with this journal in Palmerston North, he then entered the field of history with two volumes on local history, Old Marlborough (1900) and Old Manawatu (1903). In 1903 he bought an interest in the Dannevirke Advocate and while living in the Hawke's Bay, published An Old New Zealander (1911), an account of the career of Te Rauparaha. In the same year he visited England. On his return he disposed of his interests in Dannevirke and moved to Wellington, where in 1913 he joined the United Press Association, first acting as parliamentary reporter. He remained in this employment until his retirement in 1933.

In 1914 Buick published his most important historical work The Treaty of Waitangi, which was to be republished twice, the third edition (1933) being prompted by the gift of the Treaty House property to New Zealand by the then Governor-General, Viscount Bledisloe (Buick commemorated the proceedings which celebrated this gift in Waitangi Ninety-four Years After (1934). In 1926 he published New Zealand's First War and in 1928 his second most considerable book, The French at Akaroa.

After his retirement from journalism Buick was given a research appointment on the staff of the Alexander Turnbull Library in succession to that student of the Maori, Elsdon Best. He became the first chairman of the National Historical Committee set up by the Government to oversee the celebration of the centennial in 1940, and it was unfortunate that his work for this project, with its extensive publications programme, was cut short by his death, in Wellington, on 22 February 1938. He left a widow but no children.

Buick had been a Justice of the Peace early in the century. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society after the publication of his Waitangi volume. In 1933 he was created C.M.G. By his will he gave £1,000 to the Hocken Library, Dunedin, and £12,000 to the National Art Gallery.

Buick's writings included three books on the moa, considered from an historical rather than a scientific point of view. He also had a lifelong interest in music and wrote two books on musical topics.

The Treaty of Waitangi deals with the whole transaction of the negotiations at Waitangi in February 1840 and the subsidiary negotiations leading to the later signing of copies of the treaty in various parts of the country. The work is thorough and detailed. Buick handled the allied topic of the French settlement at Akaroa in 1840 with the same thoroughness. He had the ability to marshal facts effectively and his practice as a journalist made his historical writing picturesque and fluent. It is remarkable that a man without very much formal education, who was indeed largely self-educated, should have achieved work of this quality.

Buick's whole career is typical of his time, but he was himself a man far above the average in his intellectual capacity. He had a business sense which was also unexpected, publishing the Waitangi book at his own risk but profitably, as he also did with some of his other books. It was typical of the modesty of his personality and his simple mode of living that he should have left an estate far larger than any of his friends would have predicted and devoted it largely to public objects.

by David Oswald William Hall, M.A., Director, Adult Education, University of Otago (retired).

• New Zealand Parliamentary Guide Book, Russell, G. W. (1895)
• Otago Daily Times, 23 Feb 1938 (Obit).

(Platyzosteria novae-zelandiae).

Maori bug is the commonly accepted name for the largest endemic cockroach of New Zealand. The insect is common over most of the country except east of the main divide of the South Island. Its natural habitat is the floor of forest and bush lands but it has invaded, and successfully colonised, the farming and urban lands. In these areas it lives in all ground situations where shelter of grass, stones, logs, and general debris occurs and it is known to invade houses. The roach feeds on decaying vegetable and animal matter and in houses has been known to destroy cloth materials. All stages of the Maori bug are shining black. Adults measure up to 1 in. in length and, like all endemic cockroaches in New Zealand, are wingless. This species is capable of liberating a characteristic, unpleasant odour when disturbed.

by Roy Alexander Harrison, D.SC., Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Zoology, Lincoln Agricultural College.

(1812–83).

Wesleyan Missionary.

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

Thomas Buddle was born in 1812 at Durham, the son of Matthew Buddle, a member of a prominent Church of England family. At 17 he joined the Wesleyan Church at Barnard Castle, Durham, where he soon became a lay preacher. Although he did not have the advantage of a college education, Buddle studied divinity, and in 1835 was accepted by the Wesleyan Conference as a probationer. He was attached to the Daventry Circuit in Northhamptonshire and spent the four years of his probation at Huntington, St. Neots, and Peterborough. In 1839 he was ordained by the Conference at Liverpool, and, shortly afterwards, accepted an offer from the Wesleyan Missionary Committee to serve in the New Zealand mission.

Buddle came to New Zealand in the Triton and arrived at Hokianga in May 1840. At first he was stationed at Whaingaroa (Raglan), but a few months later, following Tamihana Te Rauparaha's request for a mission to be established in the Porirua district, Buddle was assigned the task. Unfortunately, the schooner taking him south was wrecked on Kawhia bar and he returned to Whaingaroa. When Bumby, the General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Missions in New Zealand, visited the station soon afterwards he directed Buddle to open a new mission at Kaihotea, a site near Te Kopua, on the Waipa River. This was one of two such sites presented to the Wesleyans by Te Wherowhero. Buddle reached Kaihotea on 2 November 1840. During the four years he spent in this district he baptised several influential chiefs and opened native schools in many villages in the territory lying between the upper Mokau and Taupo. During this period Buddle acquired a fluent command of the Maori language and also became an expert on Maori folklore and customs. In May 1844, at the request of the Maoris and in common with Ashwell, Morgan, Whiteley, and Wallis, he accompanied his tribe to the great meeting held at Remuera to welcome Governor FitzRoy.

The flair for organising, which Buddle had shown in his Waikato Mission, together with his manifest popularity among the Maoris, drew his superiors' attention to his merits, and, very much against his will, he was put in charge of the Wesleyan Native Training Institution in Grafton Road, Auckland. This was a special Methodist college for training native teachers for service in mission schools and, at the time when Buddle was appointed, it had 20 pupils. In addition to his college duties, Buddle acted as financial secretary to the Wesleyan Missions in the South Seas during the time the headquarters remained in Auckland. He spent the next 22 years ministering to Maori and European congregations in Auckland and was chairman of that district for some years. He served as one of three Wesleyan representatives on Wm. Williams' (q.v.) Maori Bible Revision Committee; and, as one “intimately acquainted with the idiomatic niceties of the Waikato dialect”, Buddle assisted in revising Maunsell's translation.

Buddle attended the first Australasian Wesleyan Conference in Sydney and was appointed to the Manukau Circuit. He was president of the Australasian conference in 1861 and of the first New Zealand conference in 1874. During these years he served on several circuits, including Christchurch (1866), Wellington (1870), and Nelson (1873). He became chairman, successively, of the Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington districts. When the conference established a Wesleyan Theological College at Three Kings, Auckland, Buddle became its first principal – a position he occupied until 1881. He retired from the active ministry in the following year, but continued as a supernumerary until his death.

Besides his missionary work, Buddle played an important part in the Maori political movements of his time. In May 1860, with McLean. Williamson, and Selwyn, he attended the great meeting at Ngaruawahia and took part in the discussions. Later in the year he published a small pamphlet – The Maori King Movement in New Zealand – in which he set forth his views on the Maori problem. He did not think the King Party would fight unless the Government provided it with a pretext. If the King Movement were left to its own devices, it would collapse because “it lacked the unity of purpose without which no such organisation could survive”. His view in this matter coincided with McLean's, but Buddle also thought that the land question lay at the root of these troubles, because the Maoris had got the idea that the Europeans wanted to buy all the land.

Buddle took a keen interest in education and was a member of the Senate of the University of New Zealand from 1874 until 1880 and served on the Council of Auckland University College. He died at Grafton Road, Auckland, on 26 June 1883.

In September 1839, at Barnard Castle, Durham, Buddle married Sarah, daughter of William Dixon, and, by her, he had five sons and five daughters.

In his day Buddle was noted for his knowledge of Maori traditions and folklore. Although he was often consulted when Grey was compiling his Polynesian Mythology, Buddle never published any detailed study in this field. The Aborigines of New Zealand, two lectures which he delivered in 1851, contain much interesting material which he had gathered from Maoris who had grown up in pre-European times. In 1873 he delivered two lectures on the theme Christianity and Colonisation Among the Maoris. In these Buddle summed up the impact of Christianity upon Maori tribal life. After referring to the various benefits introduced by the missionaries he offered the following conclusion: “The fact is we have expected too much, we have looked for civilisation equal to our own. We forget how many centuries it took the European race to reach its present elevation; yet we have expected the Maoris to overtake us in half a century.”

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

• Transcript of Thomas Buddle's Diary 13 June, 1840 – 29 December, 1840. Turnbull Library
• The Maori King Movement, Buddle, T. (1860)
• Supplements to the “Nelson Evening Mail”, 23, 30 Aug 1873, “Christianity and Colonisation Among the Maoris”, Buddle, T.