Men's basketball began in New Zealand in the late 1920s as a gymnasium activity in the various Young Men's Christian Associations. For technical help in its early stages the game relied mainly upon Mormon missionaries from the United States, many of whom were fine players still remembered in this country. The experiences of New Zealanders overseas during the Second World War brought many into contact with basketball. As a result, the game in New Zealand got a great impetus immediately after the war, though it was still played mostly in Y.M.C.A. gymnasiums–the only courts available. In 1946 the institution by the Government of a scheme of subsidies for local war memorial projects fostered the building of many fine stadiums, and the recent general prosperity of the country has been reflected in the efforts of city and borough councils to build further adaptable halls and sports stadiums.

The New Zealand Men's Basketball Association was formed in 1946 with 16 affiliated provincial associations comprising some 366 teams. By 1961 the number of associations was 31, comprising 750 teams. The New Zealand association is affiliated to the New Zealand Olympic and British Empire Games Association and to the International Amateur Basketball Federation.

Winners of the National Open Championship are:

Two championships were held before the formation of the association in 1946. These were won by Otago in 1938 and by Wellington in 1939.

From a purely recreational game, men's basketball in this country developed in the late 1930s into a widespread zone-defence pattern. Lack of experience and contact with international or American basketball resulted in a general adherence to this pattern until about 1956. Since then a growing appreciation and experience of the faster “man to man” patterns of play have seen the pace and spectator appeal of the game increase. Nevertheless, the game in this country has not kept pace with world basketball for three reasons–lack of money because of limited spectator accommodation; the temperament of the New Zealander who, generally, would rather play the game than practise it; and lack of facilities at secondary schools, with the result that players usually make a late start at the game.

The scene, however, is changing. The association is accumulating funds for the interchanges of visits by national teams with basketball nations in the Pacific. New Zealand players are also gaining a truer appreciation of their deficiencies and of the need for intensified training. And more and more schools are becoming actively interested in the game through the efforts of local associations and of officers of the Physical Welfare Branch of the Department of Education.

Three valuable visits have been made by American coaches under the auspices of the United States Foreign Service. John R. Wooden, head coach at the University of California, toured New Zealand in 1957, and Stuart K. Inman, coach at the San Jose State College, was here in 1961 and 1964.

by Robert Leslie, formerly Secretary New Zealand Men's Indoor Basketball Association, Dunedin.

(1879–1963).

Radio broadcaster.

A new biography of Basham, Maud Ruby appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Maud Ruby Basham was born in London, England, on 30 August 1879, the youngest of four children of Robert Taylor, architect, and his wife Eliza. Although christened Maud Ruby, she was known as Daisy from infancy. She was educated at an academy for young ladies, London; at Central School, New Plymouth; and at New Plymouth High School. She trained as teacher at Central and South Road Schools, New Plymouth.

Daisy Basham was brought to New Zealand with her brother and two sisters at the age of 10. At New Plymouth she completed her formal education and was encouraged in what were to be lifetime interests in the theatre, music, and the church. She became a pupil teacher in 1897, completed the four-year training course in three years, and qualified with first prize for the colony in science. In 1904 she married Frederick Basham, civil engineer, and bore him three children, Frederick, Geoffrey, and Barbara.

During the first half of her married life, in Hawera, Eltham, Waipukurau, and the Hauraki Plains, Daisy Basham taught singing and gave recitals in various cities and towns. In 1908, as on many subsequent occasions, she was contralto guest soloist in the Wellington Choral Union's Messiah, under the baton of Robert Parker. Her first radio broadcast was an experimental transmission from Wellington in 1923. “I put my head almost inside a big horn, like the H.M.V. dog,” she once said, “and sang Il bacio”. In 1926 she was first employed in radio by 1YA, Auckland, giving occasional broadcasts about composers and singing in duos and trios. As a children's session relief organiser, she became known as “Aunt Daisy”, and it was under this name that she became a broadcasting figure.

To support her family in the depression year of 1933, Aunt Daisy joined 2YA, Wellington, as a professional broadcaster, giving musical and children's programmes. Later she worked with 2ZW, Wellington, her first experience of commercial broadcasting, and with 1ZR and 1ZB, Auckland, the latter directed by C. G. Scrimgeour (“Uncle Scrim”) and owned by The Fellowship of the Friendly Road. In her morning session she helped with the relief work of this station and became so popular that in 1935 she was invited by both major parties to stand for election to Parliament. She declined.

In 1936 station 1ZB became part of the Government's Commercial Broadcasting Service and Aunt Daisy began direct advertising in her morning session on 30 October, with immediate and marked success. The next year her session became a network programme, originating from 2ZB, Wellington, and it remained so for 25 years until her death.

Aunt Daisy visited the United States in 1935 and again in 1938, when the New York Post dubbed her “The Dynamo From Down Under”. When, during the Second World War, New Zealand became a major American base, she was chosen as a semi-official “goodwill ambassador” to the United States. Her individual radio manner, marked by a rapid and fluent monologue on the most diverse subjects, won the affection of Americans during 26 broadcasts and one television appearance in their country.

Until two weeks before her death on 14 July 1963, Aunt Daisy broadcast her half hour of personal conversation and recommendation of products each weekday, beginning at nine in the morning. Her services to radio and her public service in New Zealand and abroad were recognised with an M.B.E. award in 1956.

Aunt Daisy was just under 5 ft of concentrated energy and will. At the age of 54 she began a professional career in a new medium and became its first lady, as well as a public figure. The attitudes of curiosity and wonder, which helped to provide her with broadcast material, were served by a high intelligence, a retentive memory, and widely acceptable standards of judgment. It was these qualities, together with a genuine concern for people, which made her through radio a loved friend or companion of a high proportion of her countrywomen and of many men as well. She ignored most of the conventions of radio broadcasting and by simply being herself became both the most successful saleswoman and the most popular broadcaster of her time.

by Alexander Sydney Fry, Journalist, Wellington.

• Aunt Daisy And Uncle Sam, Basham, M. R. (1945)
• The Aunt Daisy Story, Fry, A. S. (1957).

(1819–1907).

New Zealand's “Baron Munchausen”.

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

According to his own account, Barry or Berry (there is some doubt as to his correct surname) was born in Dublin in or about 1819, and went to London at an early age. Many years later, when he interviewed Arthur Orton, the Tichborne “claimant”, he told the authorities that he was born in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire. Barry's early life is poorly documented, but the following incidents are vouched for in their main outline by two independent sources. Barry came out to Sydney as a prisoner in the Red River (probably in 1829). He was assigned as a servant to one Smith, a butcher in George Street. At that time Barry was known as “Sydney Nobby”. After his sentence expired Barry was generally believed to have joined Jackey Jackey's bushranger gang, to have taken part in the gang's depredations in New South Wales, and to have been present when a Bank of New South Wales building was undermined and the safe robbed. Later, Barry served as “Jimmy Ducks” on a whaling voyage and, in 1851, went to California when the rush from Sydney took place. He returned to Victoria in 1855 or 1856 when he started a butchering business (under the name of Berry) at Brown's Diggings near Ballarat. From Brown's, Barry came to Otago in 1861 or 1862.

In 1862 Barry was at Wetherstones goldfield, Tuapeka, where he sold tripe, cow heels, and trotters which he begged from the carcass butchers who, being old Victorians, gave him the offal in order that he might make a“rise”. Later in the same year he was in similar business at the Dunstan and at Clyde. He arrived in Cromwell in February 1863 and set up as a butcher in partnership with H. Murray. They succeeded in breaking the monopoly enjoyed previously by the only other butcher in the area and, on 29 June 1864, Barry was presented with a gold watch in recognition of the fact that he had been instrumental in lowering meat prices to 6d. a pound. In 1866 he was elected first Mayor of Cromwell. During this time he also dealt in livestock as an auctioneer, and acquired a choice farm known as Towans in the Mt. Pisa foothills near Cromwell. He also showed his natural ebullience in a number of ways, many of which have become legend. In spite of these (or perhaps with their assistance) he was re-elected in 1867.

It is recorded that, as a protest against Provincial Government proposals to alter election arrangements, Barry locked the Court door and took away the key. He was charged with assault, but received only a nominal fine. In 1868 he called a public meeting because the school committee had refused to investigate his charges that the school teacher had used unbecoming language to him. The meeting is reported to have treated the charges as “a good joke”.

In September 1869, he rediscovered the Carrick gold reef and produced a spate of publicity which started what is described as “the quartz reef mania” in Cromwell. Barry and his party formed the “Royal Standard Syndicate”–after which Barry appeared to lose interest. This was possibly because of the success of his first lecture on “Forty Years of Colonial Experience”, which he delivered in Cromwell on 7 December 1870. For the next few years he moved about restlessly, lecturing in many places and acting as auctioneer and carcass butcher. He returned to Australia in May 1872, but was back the following year and running the Prince of Wales Hotel in Queenstown. During his lecture tour in Australia, Barry claimed to possess considerable property in Bathurst. The lectures, however, were not a success financially, and Barry's passage back to New Zealand was paid by his Dunstan friends. In Queenstown, in November 1874, he again described himself as holding valuable property, this time in Ballarat.

The period of hotelkeeping was terminated with another typically Barry incident, in which he and a crony were charged with theft. The case was dismissed, and Barry was soon moving through Arrowtown and Cromwell as an auctioneer. At this stage he began writing his book, which was roughly to follow the pattern of his lectures. The manuscript was already in shape in July 1878 when he gave readings from it in Dunedin, an evening's entertainment filled out with songs by himself and other performers. On this occasion he was on his way to Wellington in an endeavour to persuade the Government to sponsor a trip to England, where he was prepared to act as publicity agent, and this story is one of Barry's most entertaining. During June and July 1878 Barry found that he had “worked out” the Otago goldfields. Recalling that, as Mayor of Cromwell, he had entertained Sir George Grey when he was Governor of New Zealand, Barry conceived the idea of becoming an Emigration-Agent-Lecturer to advertise New Zealand throughout England. He arranged for a numerously signed memorial recommending himself for the office. As Sir George Grey (then Premier) held out no hopes for Barry's employment, Barry decided to seek a personal interview with him in Wellington. On the journey from Dunedin he assumed the rank of “Captain”, on the grounds, as he put it, that he wanted to stand well with the “swells”. The Government did not appoint him to any office, but Barry appeared in England in July 1879, armed with a number of introductions to important people. He addressed several meetings, one of them in Peckham, at which he extolled New Zealand as the land of opportunity. His book, Ups and Downs, had been revised by a New Zealand journalist (Thomas Bracken). It was published in London, while he continued giving lectures, selling copies of the book, and quite uncannily managing to catch the public eye. It was at this time that his enemies were most inclined to point out that whatever publicity he attracted tended to illuminate “Captain” Jackson Barry rather than New Zealand.

In England, Barry sought and obtained permission to interview Arthur Orton, the Tichborne “claimant”, and recognised him as one Thomas Castro, an old Victorian miner. Orton on his side recognised “Captain Jackson Barry” and his Indian retainer. One who had known Barry in Australia and Otago pointed out to the Home Secretary that “Captain” Barry's rank was of very recent vintage, and that he had never had an Indian servant either in Australia or Otago. The informant stated that it was a well-known fact that “Old hand” convicts had a system of “telegraphing” between themselves, and that without doubt Barry and Orton had made use of this mode of communication. Barry's identification of Orton produced press comment, but did not influence the course of the trial.

In 1880 Barry was back in New Zealand, where his book was received with some amusement. A lecture tour saw him at Lawrence, Dunedin, Clyde, and Cromwell, with varying results. At Timaru he was greeted with rotten eggs. His constant tours took him into the, to him, comparatively unknown territory of the North Island. He dealt with this new atmosphere in his own Barnumesque way, by building up a “story” which would impress the Northerners. With him on the stage at Auckland was an old whaler he claimed to have met in 1835 (Barry would have been 16 then, but at least it was possible), and three Maori chiefs. He had a long audience with Tawhaio in July 1882, and was made godfather to a child of Te Ake. One of the chiefs then presented him with one of his daughters as prospective wife, together with a concession to mine for tin in the King Country. Barry, no doubt pleased at these testmonials to his oratory, went reef prospecting to Te Aroha, while the Native Land Court debated the legality of the tin concession.

But, though ageing, Barry was not becoming set in his ways. He lectured in Marlborough in 1883 on “Kings and Chiefs I Have Met and Cannibals I Have Seen”, and was again involved in trouble when the charge was made that his material came out of a book by Archibald Forbes. As a variation in technique, he challenged, and beat, a man named Maxted in a horse race.

The West Coast, Dunedin, Poverty Bay, and other places saw him in 1883. He appeared for a time with the skeleton of a whale, which he sold to the Dunedin Museum. In Cromwell he announced his intention of retrning to the King Country to marry the chief's one-eyed daughter–and then he was in a Sydney again. Here occurred an odd flashback to the Tichborne case. He was fined in a Sydney Court for assaulting one Tichborne Smith. Barry addressed the Court for an hour, apparently to everyone's enjoyment, and produced a wi tness called Edward Orton. But this was merely a prelude to greater things. Aged 65, he next appeared in a boxing ring, and in July 1886 he gave a in a boxing ring, and in July 1886 he gave a “farewell” concert which was most successful. But Barry took some time to leave Sydney and, later, made several more “farewell” appearnces in Melbourne and Adelaide. It was 1891 before he was back in New Zealand, on the old Cromwell, Bannockburn, Queenstown circuit. Finally the Native Land Court granted him his tin licence, but after a time in the King Country (and a term in hospital in Auckland) he was asking for coalmining rights.

At 79 he brought out a new book, entitled Past and Present, and Men of the Times, and petitioned the Government to grant him a pension in consideration of his services to the colony. Even this was not the end. He paid a last trip to Sydney, remaining there until August 1905.

He died in Christchurch on 24 April 1907, and was well remembered in his passing. A verse by Thomas Bracken does not overstate his case:

‘Who told about the wondrous ores
That lie around New Zealand's shores,
And showed Sir George his Cromwell boars?
Why, Captain Jackson Barry!’

William Jackson Barry was a strange phenomenon in which it is difficult to separate legend from fact. In legend he was a stormy, impetuous, two-fisted character out of the romantic past–and it must be said that Barry himself wilfully did nothing to dispel that legend. In fact he was friendly, humorous, justice loving, and generally well liked–and was undoubtedly New Zealand's greatest literary liar. He was New Zealand's de Rougemont, as de Rougemont was Australia's Munchausen. It is a strange reflection that Australia may also well claim him as her own.

by Cedric Raymond Mentiplay, M.A., DIP.JOURN., Journalist and Parliamentary Press Correspondent, Wellington and Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• Governor's Files G2/2, G26/1, G28/8 (MSS), National Archives
• Heart of the Desert, Parcell, J. C. (1951).

(1894– ).

Chief Justice of New Zealand.

A new biography of Barrowclough, Harold Eric appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Harold Eric Barrowclough was born at Masterton on 23 June 1894 and educated at Otago University. A distinguished record in the First World War included the Military Cross, the Croix de Guerre, and the command of 4th Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. After the war he commanded the Otago Regiment and, in 1930–31, 3rd New Zealand Infantry Brigade. With the advent of the Second World War he was made Brigadier commanding 6th New Zealand Brigade in the Middle East, later becoming G.O.C. of 3rd New Zealand Division and, still later, of the New Zealand Pacific Forces. He was awarded a D.S.O. with Bar, Military Cross, first class, and the United States Legion of Merit. He was appointed Chief Justice of New Zealand in 1953, and became a member of the Privy Council in 1954, in which year he was made K.C.M.G.

(1807–47).

Wellington pioneer.

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

The name of Richard Barrett, or “Dicky” Barrett, as he was known and revered by the Maoris, is intimately associated with the earliest history of Wellington. On his marriage with Rangi he became connected with one of the high-born Maori families. When he was greeted in 1839 in Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound, by Colonel Wakefield and Edward Jerningham Wakefield in the ship Tory, he was commissioned to pilot the vessel into Port Nicholson, and he brought her to anchorage off the beach of Petone in September 1839. But he did more than that. He acted as interpreter and liaison officer between the new arrivals and the Te Wharepouri, Te Puni, and Wi Tako families in the reception of the immigrants and the first purchases of land in the Wellington area.

Barrett had then been in New Zealand for about 10 years, and had already been actively embroiled in the internecine wars between Taranaki and Waikato Maoris. He was born at Rotherhithe, London, and went to Australia in his teens. There he attached himself to John Agar Love, master of the trading brig Tohora, and came to New Zealand. Tiring of the Tasman, and having married a young Maori chieftainness, he settled in New Zealand, and after wide peregrinations up and down the West Coast of the North Island, he took up shore whaling from the Marlborough Sounds. He superintended the erection of the first temporary housing for immigrants in Wellington, and while doing so bought what is now the Hotel Cecil site to build a hostelry for himself. This he did by buying a house that had been brought all the way from England by Dr G. S. Evans, and converting it into a hotel. Barrett's Hotel at Thorndon, until it was all but destroyed in the earthquake of 1855, was the social and political hub of the new settlement. It saw levees, banquets, stage shows, and balls, and housed vice-royalty and politicians for years.

By the time the hotel was destroyed Barrett had been dead eight years. His death at the early age of 40 was widely mourned. He was a man of infinite tolerance, happy go lucky and good humoured, with “the shape of a small calf whale”. He was idolised by the Maoris, high and low, and commanded the deep respect of the Pakeha newcomers, from politicians down to drunken sailors and whalers. “He had the largest heart of any man in New Zealand”, wrote W. Partridge to Mr Justice Chapman after his death. His sunny nature was legendary, and as interpreter and agent for the Maori tribes the “rotund and merry Barrett” was a force to be reckoned with in the early days of the colonisation of the capital.

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

• Early Wellington, Ward, L. E. (1928)
• The City of the Strait–Wellington and its Province, Mulgan, A. (1939).

(1822–97).

Artist and chemist.

A new biography of Barraud, Charles Decimus appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Born in Surrey, England, in 1822, Charles Barraud was educated at Camberwell and after serving his apprenticeship to a chemist and druggist in Southampton, spent some time in that business. In 1849, at Southampton, Barraud married Sarah Maria Style, by whom he had five sons and two daughters. Shortly after his marriage, in the same year, he and his wife emigrated to New Zealand on board the Pilgrim. Arriving in Wellington, he was in business as a chemist in Lambton Quay till 1887, when the misfortune of having his premises burned down caused him to retire. He was the first president of the New Zealand Pharmacy Board, and in philanthropic matters he took a real interest, being treasurer of the Convalescent Fund of Wellington Hospital for several years, and chairman of the Sailors' Rest from 1892.

From his youth Barraud had displayed artistic talent, and for the first 26 years of his life in New Zealand he travelled widely in his spare time over a large area of the North and South Islands, sketching in the various provinces, and recording his impressions of the attractions of New Zealand. Many of these sketches he worked up to a larger scale, and the climax of this activity came in 1875 when he decided to sail to England to take advice on the publication of his work. This was published in 1877 under the title New Zealand, Graphic and Descriptive, his publishers being Samson, Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, the lithographer being C. F. Kell, while the descriptive material was edited by W. T. L. Travers. The book contained 24 full-page colour lithographs of landscapes and numerous other plain lithographs and woodcuts dealing with aspects of native life in New Zealand. Several of the lithographs are of considerable historic interest, particularly that portraying the Pink and White Terraces which were destroyed in the Tarawera eruption . The painting from which the lithograph was made is in the Alexander Turnbull Library Collection, Wellington. From an artistic point of view, his “Otira Gorge”, “West Coast Road”, and “Orakei Korako” are outstanding, the composition being sounder than in much of his work. Barraud was a warm supporter and founder member of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and became its first president, holding that office until his death. He had also been a member of the Otago Art Society from 1876. During his life he devoted much of his time to assisting and encouraging younger artists.

Barraud died on 26 December 1897. Two sons had artistic talent. E. Noel Barraud was a painter in watercolour and a member of the first Council of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Art. He died in England in 1920. The other son, W. F. Barraud (1850–1926), specialised in etching.

C. D. Barraud painted mainly in watercolour, but also did a few oils. He attempted some portraits of notable Maori chiefs, but as paintings they were much inferior to his landscapes. He belongs to the same period as John Gully but is not of the same talent. Barraud's work is inclined to be laboured and lacks subtlety of colour. Only occasionally does he rise above the detail that preoccupies his attention. He favoured late afternoon or approaching sunset effects. His real importance lies in the record he left of early New Zealand scenes and he must therefore be regarded primarily as a topographical artist. His original works are to be found in several New Zealand Galleries and libraries.

T.E.

• New Zealand Times and Evening Post, 28 Dec 1897 (Obit)
• Wellington Independent, 28 Jan, 18 Mar 1865.

Barracouta (Thyrsites atum), manga of the Maoris, is a long narrow fish attaining a length of almost 4 ft and a weight of 8 lb. It is found throughout New Zealand and Australia and extends both to South Africa and to South America, usually occurring in surface schools. It is predacious and is notable for the unrelenting fury with which it attacks other fish, sometimes larger than itself. The teeth are long and pointed like needles. The upper part of the body is dark grey with bluish reflections and the lower part silvery grey. The barracouta is most abundant in the South Island, where it is regarded as an important edible fish.

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

(1820–85).

Otago colonist and writer.

James Barr was born at Glasgow in 1820, the son of Peter Barr, manufacturer, and Helen, née Graham. Little is known of his early life beyond the autobiographical details he later contributed to the Otago Witness, under the pseudonym of Peter Gentles, which suggest that he was brought up in accordance with the strict standards of the day. Together with his brother, he emigrated to Otago in the Mariner and arrived at Port Chalmers in June 1849. They took up land at Halfway Bush, near Dunedin, apparently with little success, for in 1851 Barr left for Sydney. Five years later he was back in Dunedin where he set himself up in business as merchant and accountant. In a quiet way Barr played an active part in public affairs. He was not interested in colonial politics but, as an ardent provincialist, he supported Macandrew, the Otago Superintendent, in the stirring campaign of 1876 against the abolition of the provincial system of government by the General Assembly. He also shared in the many social and educational activities of the community, was first secretary of the Early Historical Society of Otago, and was a promoter of several early building societies.

On 4 July 1861, at Dunedin, Barr married Sophia Dickson. There was no issue. He died at Dunedin on 4 April 1885 in his sixty-fifth year.

Barr was a man of happy disposition, fond of a joke, and full of anecdote. As a writer he displayed charm and humour, sharpened at times by a native shrewdness. These are the qualities that give distinction to his chronicle of early Otago, The Old Identities (1879). The book is essentially an appraisal of a fast-vanishing past, somewhat sentimental and nostalgic in temper but free from a blind worship of the Otago “Pilgrim Fathers”. With more than a touch of irony, Barr questions the standards of piety of the Free Church settlement and the soundness of many of its colonising principles. He rather damns the Rev. Thomas Burns with faint praise; is somewhat warmer in his appreciation of old Cargill; is enthusiastic, or almost so, of Macandrew and his myriad schemes; sees through Sir George Grey as a “pawky” fascinator of men and women; and, withal, smiles benignly on the foibles and follies of the community at large. All in all, The Old Identities gives Barr a not unworthy place in the ranks of such writers of the pioneering era as Charlotte Godley, Lady Barker, and Edward Jerningham Wakefield.

by Alexander Hare McLintock, C.B.E., M.A., DIP.ED. (N.Z.), PH.D.(LOND.), Parliamentary Historian, Wellington.

• Otago Witness, 11 Apr 1885 (Obit)
• Otago Daily Times, 24 Apr 1885 (Obit).

(1814–1905).

Early surveyor and politician.

John Wallis Barnicoat was born in June 1814 at Falmouth, Cornwall, the son of John Barnicoat and of Elizabeth, née Bullock. He was educated at Falmouth Proprietary School, articled to a civil engineer, and practised his profession in England until 1841 On 23 February 1842 he arrived at Nelson in the Lord Auckland and was employed by the New Zealand Company surveying the Moutere and Waimea districts. He was engaged to survey the Wairau and was present at the Affray, but managed to escape with Tuckett's party to Cloudy Bay. He surveyed the Motueka and Takaka districts and in 1844 accompanied Tuckett and Monro when they explored the south-eastern coasts of the South Island to find a suitable site for the New Edinburgh settlement. In the same year Barnicoat took up land at Richmond. He explored Pelorus Sound in 1846 and, two years later, was nominated as one of the two arbitrators to settle the New Zealand Land Company's claims. In 1850 the Government sent Barnicoat and John Tinline to find a suitable land route between Nelson and the Wairau.

On 2 August 1853 Barnicoat was returned to Nelson Provincial Council for Waimea East, which constituency he continued to represent until the abolition of the provinces. He was Speaker of the Council from 1858 to 1876, Deputy Superintendent on three occasions, and Acting Superintendent for three months following Robinson's death. He unsuccessfully contested the superintendency on two occasions: against Robinson in 1862 and Saunders in 1865. On 14 May 1883 he was called to the Legislative Council where he remained until 21 June 1902. Besides these political offices, Barnicoat was intensely active in local affairs, being chairman of the Waimea Road Board (1857–77) and Waimea County Council (1877–83). He was interested in education and served on the Board from 1856 until 1889, being chairman from 1878 and a trustee under the Nelson Trust Funds Act. He was one of the founders of Nelson College and remained a member of its Board of Governors from 1856 until 1896. In addition to these interests he was, at different times, chairman of the Hospital Board, a visiting justice to the asylum, and a director of the Waimea Flax Dressing Co. For nearly 50 years Barnicoat was closely associated with the Church of England in Nelson, serving on the Archdeaconry Board from 1856 and on the Synod from 1859 until 1899, as well as holding other diocesan offices.

In 1849, at Nelson, Barnicoat married Rebecca, daughter of William Hodgson. He died at Hardy Street, Nelson, on 2 February 1905 leaving two sons and three daughters.

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

• John Wallis Barnicoat–a Biographical Sketch, Gunn, V. R. (n.d.)
• The Colonist (Nelson), 3 Feb 1905 (Obit)
• Evening Post, 3 Feb 1905 (Obit).

(1865–1946)

Professor of surgery and founder of the Australasian College of Surgeons.

A new biography of Barnett, Louis Edward appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Sir Louis was born in Wellington on 24 March 1865, the son of Alfred Barnett, J.P., the fourth of seven children. He was educated at the Sydney Street Primary School in Wellington and at Wellington College where he won, in 1883, a Junior University Scholarship leading to two years at the University of Otago Medical School. He was one of the early students at this school, which had opened in 1877 and was still confining its activities to teaching only the first two years of the medical course. He was taught by such pioneers as Professors John Scott, T. Jeffrey Parker, Lindo Ferguson, and James Black. Barnett then proceeded to Edinburgh University, graduating M.B.C.M. with first-class honours in 1888. He was appointed a house surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, London, where he worked for two years building up a reputation which led later on to the establishing of a Middlesex Scholarship for the Otago Medical School. In 1890, at the age of 25 years, he gained his F.R.C.S., England. He was the first New Zealander to secure this qualification, the blue riband of British surgery. He returned to New Zealand in 1891 and entered private practice and university teaching. In 1892 he married Mabel Violet Fulton, youngest child of James Fulton, M.L.C., of the Taieri. There were five children.

For the next 33 years he worked and taught in Dunedin, establishing a national reputation for safe and sound surgery. He was the first surgeon in New Zealand to wear rubber gloves and a gauze mask in the operating theatre, an action which for a time was much criticised.

Sir Louis retired in 1925 at the age of 60 and went to live at Hampden, but he continued there his long-term studies on hydatid disease, organised the Australasian College of Surgeons, and promoted the growth of the Otago branch of the British Empire Cancer Campaign. He was knighted in 1927 and died on 28 October 1946.

Sir Louis had wide interests in the university and the community. He was a most generous benefactor, establishing the Ralph Barnett Chair of Surgery in memory of a son killed in action in 1917 in the course of the First World War, and he also gave liberally to the Medical Library and towards the purchase of a university sports field. He was a most kindly, cheery, humble person, with a deeply ingrained love of humanity.

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.

• Otago Daily Times, 29 Oct 1946 (Obit.).