(1809–86).

Lawyer and banker.

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

John Bathgate was born on 10 August 1809 in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, where his father was a schoolmaster. His mother, Frances Hamilton Macdowall, died in 1813 and his father remarried two years later. Bathgate was educated at the Edinburgh High School and the Edinburgh University. In 1822 his father became headmaster of the English School at Peebles where John accepted an assistantship in 1826. For some years he was teaching and also engaged in land surveying for various patrons, one of whom arranged an apprenticeship to Dymock, a writer to the signet. In 1835 Bathgate was admitted to the Rolls of Procurators before the Sheriff and was in partnership with John Wilson, of Peebles, for three years. He then became successively Procurator Fiscal for the county, Town Clerk and Clerk to the Commissioners of Supply. He established the Peebleshire Monthly Advertiser and Tweedside Journal to promote the development of Peebles, and in 1851 joined his friends Chalmers and Thorburn in launching a new scheme for a railway to the town. In 1855 he accepted the office of branch manager to the Union Bank of Scotland as an adjunct to his business, and in the following year he opened the Peebleshire Savings Investment Society.

At the age of 54 he accepted an offer of £1,500 a year and a free house for five years as the colonial manager of the Bank of Otago, and arrived in Dunedin on the Star of Tasmania on 23 November 1863. In the following year he opened branches of the Bank at Invercargill and Queenstown. He also helped to establish the Dunedin Waterworks Co. and acted as chairman of directors for five years. When the bank was destroyed by a night fire in 1865, Bathgate opened for business the next morning in temporary premises. Two years later he resigned from the bank but agreed to continue his direction for a further year.

In 1868 he became manager and, for some months, editor of the Otago Daily Times. He was appointed Provincial Trustee in Bankruptcy in 1870 and later the same year was admitted as a barrister and solicitor. In January 1871 he was elected member of Parliament for Dunedin and accepted the portfolio of Justice and Stamps, resigning in 1874 on his appointment as Resident Magistrate and District Judge for Otago. In March 1871 he was elected to the Provincial Council and was appointed Provincial Solicitor. He established the Dunedin Saturday Advertiser in 1875, with Thomas Bracken as editor. He was granted leave of absence on full salary for a year in 1879 on condition that he gave lectures in Britain in order to promote emigration and investment in New Zealand. While in Britain he organised the New Zealand Mortgage and Investment Association of which he was manager from 1881 to 1885.

From 1876 until his death he was a member of the Council of the University of Otago. He was elected member for the Roslyn electorate in 1881 and accepted the offer by Stout of a seat in the Legislative Council in 1885.

Bathgate advocated the creation of a State Bank of Issue and published a pamphlet on the subject in 1884. He was a devout Presbyterian and a total abstainer, but his austerity was softened by a lively sense of humour and great kindliness. Felicitous and vigorous in speech, he had a sanguine and energetic temperament which contributed greatly to the success of his various enterprises.

Bathgate married, first, in 1842, at Edinburgh, Anne Cairns, daughter of Dr Andrew Anderson, by whom he had two sons and two daughters; and, secondly, in 1853, at Edinburgh, Mary, daughter of James McLaren, by whom he had one son and seven daughters. He died at Mornington, Dunedin, on 21 September 1886.

by Gloria Margaret Strathern, B.A., DIP.N.Z.L.S. formerly Librarian, Hocken Library, Dunedin.

• Extracts from the MS autobiography of John Bathgate, Bathgate J. (c. 1895)
• Otago Daily Times, 22 Sep 1886 (Obit)
• Saturday Advertiser (Dunedin), 27 Jul 1879.

(1845–1930).

Lawyer and writer.

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

Alexander Bathgate was born in Peebles, Scotland, on 4 August 1845, the second child of John Bathgate. He was educated at the English School in Peebles and the Edinburgh University. In 1863 the family emigrated to Otago and Bathgate joined the Bank of Otago which his father was managing, but later he transferred to the Bank of New South Wales. In 1866 he was sent to a branch on the diggings at Hamiltons and two years later to Cromwell.

In 1869 he took up law and signed articles with Gibson Turton, completing them with his father. He was admitted to the Bar in 1872 and commenced practice on his own account, later taking into partnership N. L. Buchanan; J. F. Woodhouse joined the firm in 1890. Both partners became his brothers-in-law, Jane and Edith Bathgate marrying Buchanan and Woodhouse respectively. From 1902 to 1908 he was chairman of the Industrial Conciliation Board of Otago and Southland, proving a capable and respected negotiator. In 1909 he retired from legal practice: thereafter he was a director of Kempthorne Prosser Ltd., the Otago Daily Times and Witness Co., the Trustees Executors and Agency Co., and Donaghy's Rope and Twine.

Bathgate had been strongly affected by the treeless landscape of Central Otago. He was also distressed by the destruction of vegetation around Dunedin and considered that public opinion should be educated to appreciate the importance of planting for the development of the beauty, fertility, and natural resources of the country. At a meeting of the Otago Institute, of which he was a life member, he read a paper on the Conservation and Extension of the Amenities of Dunedin and its Neighbourhood which resulted in the formation of the Dunedin and Reserves Conservation Society, later the Dunedin Amenities Society, with Bathgate as secretary. In 1891 he published A Plea for the Establishment of Arbor Day, which he wished to see celebrated in every settlement.

For a time he was part owner of the Saturday Advertiser, a weekly journal established in 1875 to “foster a national spirit in New Zealand and encourage colonial literature”. He published his first book Colonial Experiences in 1874; he was the author of two volumes of poetry Far South Fancies, 1889, and The Legend of the Wandering Lake, 1905; and two novels, Waitaruna, 1881, and Sodger Sandy's Bairn, 1913. His writing shows a lively, candid intelligence but lacks literary distinction. He edited Picturesque Dunedin in 1890 for the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, and Dunedin and its Neighbourhood in 1904 for the Dunedin meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. With the cooperation of other leading citizens, he founded the Dunedin Art Gallery with a nucleus of paintings from the 1889 Exhibition, and was president of the society from 1890 to 1922.

He was convinced that the development of Central Otago, based on primary industries, was essential for the economic welfare of the province. He supported the Central Otago Railway League, and was its president for some years. He was a founder and first president of the Otago Expansion League which was established in 1912 to promote the development of the provincial district.

Practical, idealistic, and romantic, Bathgate was motivated by a passionate affection for Otago. He married Fanny, daughter of J. Turton, of Manchester, in 1873. He died on 9 September 1930.

by Gloria Margaret Strathern, B.A., DIP.N.Z.L.S. formerly Librarian, Hocken Library, Dunedin.

• Colonial Experiences, Bathgate, A. (1874)
• Otago Daily Times, 11 Sep 1930 (Obit).

(1868–1954).

Clergyman and meteorologist.

Daniel Cross Bates was born on 9 June 1868 at Spalding, England, the son of N. Bates, a farmer, of Spalding. He was educated in England, first at Spalding Grammar School and then at Salisbury Cathedral School and St. Augustine's College. Later he spent some time in Australia and while there became a minister of the Anglican Church. He was ordained at Newcastle in 1892 and came to New Zealand in 1898, being for some time vicar at All Saints' Church, Invercargill. During 1902 Bates served with the 9th New Zealand Contingent in the Boer War, attaining the rank of Chaplain-Colonel. He was present at Vereeniging when peace was signed in May 1902 and was awarded the Queen's Medal for service in South Africa. On his return to New Zealand he retained his interest in military affairs and was later awarded the Officers' Territorial Decoration and the Long Service Medal.

Because of an illness contracted in South Africa, one of the more serious symptoms being a loss of voice, Bates was obliged to retire from the church in 1903. In the same year he joined the staff of the Colonial Museum relieving the director, A. Hamilton, of the large amount of climatological work which was at that time a museum responsibility. Weather forecasting was then carried out by the Weather Reporting Office under the direction of Captain R. A. Edwin. In 1906, however, Edwin, in addition to his forecasting duties, assumed responsibility for the climatological work and Bates became his assistant. He succeeded Edwin as Director of the Meteorological Office in 1909 and served in this capacity until his retirement in 1927. During this period he was also for a number of years the Director of Meteorology for the Army, being specially concerned with the meteorological requirements of military aviation. On retirement he was appointed consulting meteorologist to the New Zealand Government.

In addition to his meteorological interests Bates also participated actively in the life of the community. He played a considerable part in the discussions leading to the establishment of the Wellington Zoological Gardens at Newtown in 1905. He also helped to found the New Zealand Numismatic Society and was its first president. His time was also freely available to seamen and others connected with shipping. In this connection he was an honorary member of the Merchant Service Guild and the Marine Engineers' Guild, and gave valuable service to both these organisations. In his later years, although he took occasional services for the Church of England, he was also interested in the Greek Orthodox Church and became their pastor for a time. He died at Wellington on 7 August 1954.

Although Bates did not have the extensive technical training possessed by those meteorologists who followed him, he was a colourful personality and did much to interest other scientists and the general public in meteorological work. He also served the community in a great many ways and is probably the best remembered of New Zealand's early weathermen.

by Jack William Hutchings, B.A., M.SC., Senior Principal Meteorologist, Meteorological Service, Wellington.

• Evening Post, Aug 1954 (Obit).

(1850–1915).

Lecturer in obstetrics and gynaecology in the University of Otago and a leader in New Zealand medicine.

Batchelor was born in 1850 on Norfolk Island, where his father was the Church of England chaplain. He was educated in England, where at the age of 16 he was apprenticed to a country medical practitioner in Essex. Subsequently he attended Guy's Hospital Medical School, qualifying in medicine in 1871. He commenced medical practice at Stratford-on-Avon when an attack of haemoptysis led him to decide to emigrate to New Zealand. He came out as medical officer on the Margaret Galbraith and settled in Dunedin in general practice in 1874. In 1877 he was appointed a member of the honorary staff of the Dunedin Hospital, and in 1886 to the position of lecturer in the Medical School of the University of Otago. Throughout the next 26 years he held this position and built up a Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. At the age of 65 he served in the First World War and was responsible for the organisation to control venereal disease in New Zealand troops in Cairo.

Ferdinand Batchelor was a man of commanding presence and of a dynamic personality. He was a natural leader of men and throughout his life led many campaigns to improve the conditions in the Dunedin Hospital and Medical School. He was largely responsible for the provision of better operating facilities in the hospital; for the introduction of bacteriology into medical teaching and hospital practice; for the introduction of diagnostic radiology; and for the securing of an obstetrical hospital for teaching medical students. Professionally he was to the fore in gynaecology. In 1891 he published his findings of 100 cases of abdominal surgery at a time when abdominal surgery was still in its infancy. He resigned his lectureship in obstetrics and gynaecology in 1909.

He was president of the first Intercolonial Medical Congress held in Dunedin in 1896 and was a leader in all medical matters in Dunedin, and indeed in New Zealand. He died at Ocean Beach, St. Kilda, Dunedin, on 31 August 1915.

Batchelor was a man of tremendous energy, full of new ideas which he advanced with great and sometimes impetuous advocacy. In Dunedin no citizen was more highly respected. A Batchelor Memorial Medal was struck to commemorate his great contribution to New Zealand medicine.

In 1872, at Ochendon, England, Batchelor married Eliza Annie Jordison, by whom he had one son and two daughters. He later married Margaret Forbes Thomson (who predeceased him) in 1906, at Invercargill.

by Charles Ernest Hercus, KT., D.S.O., O.B.E., U.D., M.B. CH.B.(N.Z.), M.D., D.P.H., B.D.S., F.R.C.P., F.R.A.C.P., F.R.A.C.S., Emeritus Professor, University of Otago.

• Medical Practice in Otago and Southland in the Early Days, Fulton, R. U. (1922)
• Annals of the University of Otago Medical School, 1875–1939, Carmalt Jones, D. W. (1945)
• The Otago Medical School under the First Three Deans, Hercus, C. E., and Bell, F. G. (1964).

During the 1920s, although several attempts were made to arrange visits by overseas teams, lack of finance and differences in playing rules effectively prevented New Zealand participation in international competition. In 1938 a New Zealand representative team toured Australia playing seven-a-side matches under Australian rules. During this visit officers of the two national associations agreed to draw up basic playing rules with a view to forming an Inter-Empire Association which was to be inaugurated at the Centennial Tournament, Wellington, in 1940. Later, the English Association decided to participate; however, owing to the war both the conference and the visits of Australian and English teams were cancelled.

In 1948 an Australian team toured New Zealand. Playing under Australian rules, the visitors won the nine provincial games as well as all three tests. Although discussions with a view to drafting uniform rules were held and some progress made, the Australians could not be persuaded to abandon their seven-a-side rule in favour of New Zealand's nine.

In 1954 a team from the New Zealand Minor Associations toured Fiji at the invitation of the Fijian Basketball Association. A return visit took place in 1957, when the Fijians won 25 of their 28 matches.

Following upon the visit of the All-Australia team to England in 1956, the English Association called a meeting to discuss the formation of an international body. Two years later New Zealand adopted the proposed international rules, including the controversial seven-a-side rule, for domestic play. In 1960 New Zealand representatives attended the inaugural meeting of the International Federation of Women's Basketball and Netball Associations at Colombo. During the same year a New Zealand team successfully toured Australia, the games being played according to the new international rules. Early in the 1961 season New Zealand formally ratified these and, in August 1963, a New Zealand team took part in the first international tournament at Eastbourne, England. This was won by Australia with New Zealand in second place. International tournaments are to take place every four years, the venue being: Perth (1967), Jamaica (1971), and New Zealand (1975). The New Zealand team's record at the first international tournament was:

by Leona Mary Coatsworth, Secretary, New Zealand Basketball Association (Inc.), Christchurch.

In 1925 the New Zealand Cup was donated anonymously and this became the premier New Zealand basketball trophy. Four years later the president of the Canterbury Association donated the Annie Brown Cup for the runners-up in the Dominion Tournament. In 1932, when there were 15 associations affiliated, the Dominion Tournament was split into two grades. On this occasion, Mrs R. S. McInnes, the former President, donated the President's Cup for the winners of the second grade Tournament while the Hayhurst Cup was presented for the runners-up. In 1936, because of the increasing numbers of teams competing, a third grade competition was instituted, with the Kiwi Trophy for winners, and the Armstrong Shield for the runners-up. During the war many sub-associations went into recess and no Dominion Tournaments were held until 1945. By 1958 the third grade competition had grown unwieldy and it was decided to institute a fourth grade. The winners' trophy, the Allen Challenge Shield, was presented by the Rotorua Association, and the runners-up trophy, the Hastings Cup, was presented by the President of the Hawke's Bay Association. The following are the winners of the Dominion Tournament trophies since their inception:

Women's Basketball is controlled by the Council of the New Zealand Basketball Association, which meets once a year, and a New Zealand Executive, of six members, which meets more frequently. Local basketball fixtures are organised by the district associations, or sub-associations, to which local teams are affiliated. In the 1963 season there were 35 district associations (including 73 affiliated sub-associations), and 3,570 teams–or 24,990 girls playing basketball regularly.

In 1935 a new body, the New Zealand Basketball Referees' Association, took over the functions of the Rules Committee of the New Zealand Basketball Association. The N.Z.B.R.A. also has a special Board of Examiners for referees.

Women's basketball was introduced into New Zealand in 1907 by the Rev. J. C. Jamieson, Travelling Secretary of the Presbyterian Bible Class Union, who had seen the game played in Australia. In that year a demonstration match was played in a paddock between Eden and Epsom, Auckland, and as a result several teams were formed from the Y.W.C.A. and Bible classes. Gradually the game spread to other centres and associations were constituted in Auckland, Canterbury, Otago, and Wellington. As there were wide divergencies between the rules adopted by these bodies, inter-association competitions could not be organised. In 1922 the four associations commenced negotiations to form a national association and to adopt uniform rules. The first interprovincial match was played in Wellington in 1923. In May 1924 the New Zealand Basketball Association was inaugurated; the association's colours–black with a silver fern emblem–were adopted; and it was decided to hold a Dominion Tournament annually from 1926. At the first annual meeting held in August 1925 at Wellington, the constitution was drafted and the playing rules of the Otago Basketball Association were adopted.

The New Zealand Women's Indoor Basketball championship winners are as follows:

by Zena Bell Gay, President, New Zealand Women's Indoor Basketball Association, Nelson.

Women's Indoor Basketball is a comparatively new sport in New Zealand. It was first played on a competitive basis by the Y.W.C.A. which also organised national tournaments. In 1946 the New Zealand Women's Basketball Association (Inc.) was formed. During the first two years of its existence, the Association had its headquarters in Wellington but in 1948 they were transferred to Nelson. National and Island championships have been held annually since 1947. The numbers of teams competing has made it necessary to divide these into three grades: A; A Reserve; and B grades. Of these, the A and A Reserve grade championships–having eight teams in each–are held at a separate fixture to the B grade. The Island A and B grade championships are held as separate fixtures in their respective Islands. At present there are 4,000 players registered with the New Zealand Women's Indoor Basketball Association but there are a number of unaffiliated players in the smaller centres.

In 1958, a New Zealand team toured Australia and competed in the State championships. During this tour 13 matches were played, New Zealand winning 11 and losing 2. Two years later an Australian team visited New Zealand and won 2 out of 3 test matches.

Late in 1964 a New Zealand team toured Australia and played 12 matches, winning 6 and losing 6.