(1901– ).

Historian.

A new biography of Beaglehole, John Cawte appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

He was made C.M.G. in 1958. Among his publications are the following: The Exploration of the Pacific (1934); New Zealand, a Short History (1936); The University of New Zealand (1937); The Discovery of New Zealand (1939); and Victoria University College … a History (1949). In addition he has edited The Journals of Captain James Cook, Vols. 1 and 2 (to be completed); and The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks (1961).

(1906– ).

Professor of psychology.

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

Between the Bay of Islands and the upper reaches of Hokianga Harbour is to be found evidence of numerous volcanic cones and lava flows, some more eroded than others, and hot springs, often a sign of quiescent volcanic activity. No less than 26 known centres of eruption have broken through and spread over the older basement rocks in an area southward from Matauri Bay to Taheke and eastward from Horeke to Paihia. Lava flows have partly filled valleys (Moerewa) and formed waterfalls (Kerikeri Bridge), lakes (Omapere), and swamps (Punakitere). The volcanic material is principally basalt, although much older andesites form the rugged outcrops, including St. Peter and St. Paul, near Whangaroa, to the north. A few small rhyolitic domes, like Putahi, are present. Near Pungaere are blocks of black volcanic glass called obsidian, which is not found on the neighbouring rhyolitic domes. The basalts can be divided into two groups, according to age, by sequence and degree of erosion. The older group (Horeke Basalts) includes among others, Te Whau, Tipene, and Otoroa, and is extensively eroded in many places to small isolated outcrops. Some of these deeply weathered lava sheets near Takou Bay have been prospected as a possible source of bauxite for an aluminium industry. Tauanui, Te Puke, Kawiti, and Te Ahuahu belong to the younger group (Taheke Basalts) that still retain their distinctive conical forms and well-formed craters. Their activity has continued into the last 2,000 years, although not recently enough to be recorded in Maori folk lore. The lava flow originating from Tauanui has travelled 15 miles down Punakitere Valley toward Hokianga Harbour. Abundant unweathered surface rocks are collected and used for stone fences. In pre-European times Maori warriors excavated the steep-sided, easily worked hills to great advantage as pa sites. Today the scoria and basalt are quarried for road materials.

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

The Bay of Islands is a drowned-river system on the east coast of North Auckland between Whangarei and Whangaroa Harbours. It comprises about 150 islands, as well as several inlets or arms leading into the bay, chief of which are Kerikeri Inlet, Waikare, Mangonui, and Purenua. The Bay was visited by Kupe and Ngahue in the tenth century and Toi called there some 200 years later. In 1769 Captain Cook was the first European to arrive there. Three years later Marion du Fresne established a shore base on Moturoa Island. He is said to have claimed “Austral-France” for his homeland and buried evidence on the island to that effect. Shortly afterwards the French navigator was killed in the course of a dispute with the local Maoris. Crozet, his second-in-command, bombarded the Maori settlement and, according to reports, killed 250.

In pre-European days the Bay of Islands was the seat of the powerful Ngapuhi tribe and the home of such notable chiefs as Te PahiRuatara, Hongi Hika (q.v.), and the two Pomares. HMS Daedalus visited the area in 1792, and in the early 1800s the Bay became the recognised watering place for ships whaling off New Zealand. The arrival of Marsden in December 1814 and the founding of the first mission at Rangihoua marked the beginning of permanent European settlement in New Zealand. In 1819 J. G. Butler founded a second mission at nearby Kerikeri and, four years later, Henry Williams established his mission at Paihia. The first inland mission was established at Waimate North in 1830, where Richard Davis set up the mission farm in the following year. In October 1831 thirteen chiefs from Kerikeri petitioned King William IV for protection against the French. As a result of this, two years later Busby settled at Waitangi as the first British Resident. The Beagle, with Captain Robert FitzRoy as commander (later Governor of New Zealand) and Charles Darwin as naturalist, anchored in the Bay in 1835. In 1837 Captain Hobson visited the Bay of Islands in HMS Rattlesnake.

Besides, the missions, by the mid-1830s the Bay of Islands boasted several small European settlements. The largest of these was Kororareka, with Otuihu being next in size, while J. R. Clendon had a trading post at Okiato and Gilbert Mair senior traded and did ship repairs at Wahapu. At the end of January 1840, when Hobson arrived as Lieutenant-Governor, one of his first duties was to select a fitting settlement to be his seat of Government. As Kororareka was scarcely suitable for the purpose it became necessary to form a secondary settlement in the district. Hobson chose Clendon's settlement at Okiato, which he immediately renamed Russell after Lord John Russell, the Secretary of State for the Colonies. It remained the capital until the following year, when the Government was removed to Auckland. On 1 May 1842 fire swept Russell, destroying Government House and the offices. The town was never rebuilt and the name was loosely applied to Kororareka, which was part of the Port of Russell. In January 1844 Governor Fitzroy formally incorporated Kororareka within the township of Russell. Despite the hopes of the British Government that the Treaty of Waitangi(q.v.) would begin an era of peace, the years 1844–46 were marked by violent disputes between European and Maori, the “War in the North”–including the cutting down of the flagstaff on Maiki Hill–and the sack of Kororareka by Hone Heke.

The rock exposed around the Bay of Islands is largely greywacke, and hence the country is steep to hilly. It was formerly bush clad and from the district large quantities of kauri timber, gum, and tanekaha bark were exported. Manganese was mined at several localities, notably Frenchman's Hill, antimony at Lanigan's workings near Rangi-taroe Trig. Station, and coal at Kawakawa.

The Forest Service has pine plantations near Waitangi and citrus-fruit growing is important at Kerikeri. In the hinterland of the Bay of Islands is a valuable farming area. Deep-sea fishing based on Russell and Otehei Bay, Urupukapuka Island, is becoming increasingly well known.

The Bay of Islands was named by Captain Cook during his visit there in 1769.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington and Robert Findlay Hay, M.A., B.E.(MINING), Scientific Officer, New Zealand Geological Survey, Otahuhu.

(1870–1958).

Authoress and prison reformer.

A new biography of Baughan, Blanche Edith appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Blanche Edith Baughan was born in 1870 at Putney, Surrey, England, and was the daughter of John Baughan, a London stockbroker. In spite of strong parental opposition she attended London University where, in 1892, she graduated B.A. with honours in Greek. About this time she joined the English Suffragette movement and also did extensive welfare work among the poor in the East End of London.

Blanche Baughan had always evinced a desire to travel and in the following years she visited many countries. She came to New Zealand about 1900, where she toured widely and wrote extensively about the many little known places she visited. Her pamphlets on Akaroa, Arthur's Pass, Milford Track, the Thermal Regions, and the Southern Alps contain some fine descriptive passages, and all have been reprinted many times. They were collected in her Studies of New Zealand Scenery (1916) and in Glimpses of New Zealand Scenery (1922). In addition she collaborated with L. Cockayne to write The Summit Road-its Scenery, Botany and Geology (1914).

In her day Blanche Baughan was widely known for her contributions to such literary journals as The Spectator (London), Bookfellow and The Australian (Sydney), and The Canterbury Times. Her first two volumes, Verses (1898) and Reuben and Other Poems (1903), appeared in England, but all her later works were published in New Zealand. Of these, Shingle-Short (1908) is a long verse monologue written in the New Zealand “dialect”, while her next volume, Brown Bread from a Colonial Oven (1912), is an entertaining collection of vivid prose portraits of many facets of colonial life. “Early Days”, from her last volume, Poems from the Port Hills, Christchurch (1923), captures, for a moment, life as it was in the early days of the Akaroa settlement.

Apart from her literary and descriptive writings Blanche Baughan was deeply interested in all kinds of social welfare. Her most outstanding contribution in this regard, however, was made in the field of penal reform. To this end she once joined the staff of the Point Halswell Women's Reformatory, Wellington, where she studied the problem in all its aspects. Early in 1924 she formed a Christchurch branch of the Howard League and, four years later, after she had toured New Zealand on its behalf, she formed the New Zealand Howard League for Penal Reform, which soon had branches in many centres. From her first-hand experience of conditions in New Zealand prisons she formed her ideas on the subject and obtained much material for her book, People in Prison, which was published anonymously in 1936. Prisoners, she believed, could be divided into two categories – the socially immature (those who are fully grown in body but not in social understanding), and the mentally defective. The former, who were by far the more numerous, could grow into good citizens if they were given the help that normal children require–namely, healthy outlets for their activities. For these, punishment should aim at being reformative rather than retaliatory. She urged that a magistrate be given the probation officer's report on cases before sentence was passed and that he should take this report into consideration when determining the type of punishment required.Although these ideas met strong resistance when they were first propounded, many of them have since been accepted officially and incorporated into the New Zealand penal system.

Blanche Baughan was interested in the welfare of the sick and handicapped and also in the prevention of cruelty to animals. She volunteered as a nurse during the 1918 influenza epidemic. She was an active member of the Red Cross and a foundation member of the Canterbury Women's Club. In 1935 she received the King George V Jubilee Medal for her literary and social services. She died on 20 August 1958 at Selwyn Avenue, Akaroa.

An indomitable campaigner for causes in which she believed, Blanche Baughan, by her educational background, her wide experience in many fields of welfare, and her ability as an authoress and publisher, was well fitted to be a leader in social work in New Zealand.

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

• F. A. De La Mare Papers, MS 144, Turnbull Library
• Australian MSS, Vol. III, Turnbull Library
• New Zealand Women's Weekly, 21 Nov 1935

(1909– ).

Aviatrix.

A new biography of Batten, Jean Gardner appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Jean Gardner Batten was born at Rotorua on 15 September 1909 and educated at Cleveland House College, Auckland. From the age of 18 her unswerving ambition was to be the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia and, after two failures, she was successful in May 1934. The next three years were marked by a series of record flights, notably those from Australia to England, April 1935, England to Brazil, November 1935, and England to New Zealand, 1936. She received numerous honours and trophies from many countries and organisations. In 1936 she was awarded the C.B.E. Her publications include Solo Flight (1934) and My Life (1938).

Very little is known about the ecology of New Zealand bats. Although reports of bats since 1930 include all provinces, as well as Little and Great Barrier Islands, Kapiti Island, Stewart Island, and several of its adjacent smaller islands, the species are nowhere abundant. In the North Island most records come from the Rotorua-Waikaremoana and Upper Wanganui River districts, while in the South Island the north-western corner appears to support the highest densities. Generally, bats are seen at forest margins, in cleared areas adjoining forest, or over rivers, lakes, swamps, etc., when these are near forest. The reduction in bat distribution during the last century has paralleled the extensive reduction of forested areas. Both species have failed to colonise urban areas. Most sightings of bats are made on fine, warm nights and, although only one or two individuals are usually seen, some flights of several dozen bats have been observed over water. The flight of both species is characterised by frequent changes of direction. Some records suggest that the short-tailed bat flies later than the long-tailed bat and that its flight is more direct than that of the latter species. The long-tailed bat emerges in the evening about half an hour after sunset. Sometimes short-tailed bats have been captured in dense forest after flying into lanterns or lighted huts. During the day both species may roost in hollow trees or caves. Sometimes individuals are found beneath the curled bark of trees, and there are occasional instances where bats have been disturbed amongst the folds of sacks in old sheds. Usually the number of bats found together is small, but colonies up to about 30 short-tailed bats and several hundred long-tailed bats have been observed. Whether such large colonies are formed only during certain months of the year for reproductive purposes, as is the practice with many bats in other countries, is a question that as yet remains unanswered.

by Peter David Dwyer, M.SC., Lecturer in Zoology, University of New England, Australia.

(Mystacina tuberculata (Gray))

The short-tailed bat is unique amongst all bats and has consequently been placed as the sole representative of a special family, the Mystacinidae. It is probably the remnant of some ancient, more widespread, fauna and over long periods of isolation in New Zealand has undergone remarkable specialisations. These, being superimposed upon characters shared with the more primitive groups of bats, make family relationships difficult to interpret. It is recognised (diagram 2) by its long and rather pointed ears, by its prominent nostrils, and by its short stumpy tail which projects for about½ in. from the upper surface of the small, leathery, tail membrane. Its total length is usually between 2½ in. and 3 in.The remarkably robust limbs and large feet are also characteristic, and the double talons of the claws are a feature not known in any other bat. The wing span reaches from 10–12 in. and the fur colour may vary from light grey, through brown, to black. Individuals of the short-tailed bat from the Stewart Island region differ quite strikingly from North Island and northern South Island representatives. They are larger and more robust, with relatively short ears which do not reach beyond the nostrils as is the case in the northern form.

At rest a complicated wing-folding process occurs whereby the wing tips are enclosed in small pockets at the sides of the body, just forward of the thighs. The only exposed portions of the wings are thickened and leathery, thus protecting the more delicate regions from possible injury. Similarly, the delicate portion of the tail membrane can be tightly rolled against the body leaving only a thickened basal region exposed. This strange folding process is unique amongst bats. In combination with the robust limbs, large feet, and specialised claws, it permits the short-tailed bat especial freedom upon the ground or in trees. It is likely that this bat may obtain much of its food by hunting in such situations.

(Chalinolobus tuberculatus (Forster))

This bat is a member of a genus with representatives in Australia, New Caledonia, and several other Pacific islands. The genus belongs to a cosmopolitan group of simple-nosed bats (Vespertilionidae), and New Zealand's long-tailed bat is probably a comparatively recent immigrant, for it is very similar to one Australian species. It is easily recognised, when caught, by the 1½ in. tail which is almost as long as the rest of the animal, and is included in a large tail-membrane which stretches between the legs (diagram 1). The ears are small and rounded, scarcely reaching above the fur of the head, and all the limb elements are long and slender. When fully extended the wings span 10–11 in., but at rest they are furled inconspicuously against the sides of the body. Fur colour varies greatly from black to reddish or chocolate brown.

Bats are the only flying mammals. Their wings are delicate membranes stretched between the greatly lengthened bones of the hand. In some species a tail membrane between the legs provides an additional aid for flight. Except for these membranes, bats, like other mammals, are furred. They have sharp-pointed teeth and suckle their young. The ability to avoid obstacles by detecting echoes of high-pitched sounds is characteristic of the smaller bats. This faculty enables them to fly safely in dark caves, which frequently form daytime roosts, and it is also important for locating their insect food. Two species of bat occur in New Zealand. They are the only known native land mammals and are representatives of two distinct bat lineages. The Maoris called them “pekapeka” and they were the subject of an old native proverb predicting evil. They are named, respectively, the long-tailed and short-tailed bat.