To the Wellington City Ballet goes the honour of being the company to produce the first completely all New Zealand two-act ballet. This was Children of the Mist, based on an adaptation of Maori legend by Leigh Brewer and James Carney, with choreography by Leigh Brewer, costumes and decor by Harry Baker, and original music by Christopher Small. The ballet proved highly successful at the box office and the music has since been recorded by the National Orchestra and broadcast on occasions.

Although Children of the Mist was a New Zealand “first” in many respects, it was not the first time music had been composed by a New Zealander for ballet. The honour for this goes to Alfred Hill who in 1908 composed special music for Canoe and War Cry, two ballets which were included in his Maori opera Tapu.

While, in a professional sense, ballet in New Zealand is a young art, many New Zealanders have already made their mark overseas as dancers. Three–Rowena Jackson, Alex. Grant, and Bryan Ashbridge, of Royal Ballet fame–have attained international status. Undoubtedly they have acted as an example and inspiration to hundreds of aspiring dancers, while others, such as Jonet Wilkie, Pauline Jones, Anne Rowse, Gloria Young, Russell Kerr, and Graeme Pickering, have attained soloist status with such well known companies as the Festival Ballet and the now defunct Borovansky Ballet.

by John James Carney, Chairman, Wellington City Ballet.

During this period interest in the art was kept alive by visits by the Ballet Rambert, the Borovansky Ballet, the Bodenweiser Ballet, and the Australian National Ballet Co. The Borovansky and Bodenweiser companies included New Zealanders in their ranks and this served to spur ballet enthusiasts into action. Early in 1954, therefore, a national ballet began to take shape. A School of Ballet was organised in Auckland by the Regional Council for Adult Education and conducted by Poul Gnatt, a distinguished dancer who, prior to his arrival in New Zealand, had been a principal danseur with the Royal Danish Ballet. Fired by the enthusiasm of the dancers who attended the school, Poul Gnatt founded the New Zealand Ballet Co. later in the year, and subsequently made limited tours throughout the country.

As with every other ballet company in the world, the New Zealand Ballet Co. was, and still is, seriously hampered in its activities by the lack of adequate finance. In its infancy it received invaluable support from the New Zealand Players Co., the Community Arts Service, and the various Regional Councils for Adult Education. The Government, too, assisted with generous grants from time to time, but it was not until the Government of the day established the Arts Advisory Council in 1960 and set aside the sum of £60,000 for the development of the arts generally, that the New Zealand Ballet Co. began to make financial headway. Certainly, in the years prior to 1960 the company would have foundered had it not been for the devoted enthusiasm of its founder and principal dancer/choreographer, Poul Gnatt.

The visit in 1959 of the Royal Ballet, headed by Dame Margot Fonteyn, served to whip up public interest in the art of ballet to a pitch previously unknown in the Dominion, and as a result the New Zealand Ballet Co. benefited. The company's first major national tour in 1960 was an outstanding success and demonstrated to New Zealanders in no uncertain manner that local dancers could present ballet on a professional scale. For this first national tour the company was fortunate in securing the services of Sara Neil (Wellingtonian Doreen Brown) who had returned home with her husband (Walter Rands-Trevor) after some years as a soloist with the Royal Ballet. Her husband had also been a soloist with the Royal Ballet and, together with Russell Kerr, who had also returned from overseas, Graeme Pickering, and Gloria Young, they provided a solid core around which Poul Gnatt was able to build a first-rate company. The programme included Les Patineurs, the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, Dream Visions, and Prismatic Variations.

Since 1960 the Company has made annual tours on a national scale presenting standard works and new ballets, notably Arthur Turnbull's Do Wack-A-Do and the Gnatt-Kerr ballet Prismatic Variations. In 1962 the company had the privilege of being the first company outside Denmark to produce the three-act Napoli ballet. Since 1962 the Company has added Petrouchka, One in Five, Casse Noisette, and Pavane to its repertoire.

While in recent years the New Zealand Ballet Co. has tended to dominate the ballet scene, a great deal of enterprising work has been performed by the United Ballet Co. and Ballet Workshop in Auckland and the Wellington City Ballet.

The history of ballet in New Zealand can be divided into two distinct periods: before, and after, the Second World War. In the first period, from 1840 to 1946, New Zealanders relied principally on overseas artists and companies to provide them with ballet entertainment, though in the twenties and thirties amateur dancers were active in a limited way; while in the second period, from 1946 until the present day, overseas companies have had to share honours with the New Zealand Ballet Co. and amateur ballet companies in Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch.

Exactly when ballet–as distinct from amateur dance recitals–was first introduced into New Zealand is difficult to establish. Dancing was certainly part of the earliest theatrical productions, but it was not until 1926 when the celebrated ballerina Anna Pavlova and a full company, including many international stars as well as the choreographer Michel Fokine, visited the Dominion, that theatregoers were given the opportunity of seeing full-length ballet of international standard. As in Australia, Pavlova's visit sowed the seeds of classical ballet in New Zealand. A New Zealander, Thurza Rogers, was a soloist with Pavlova's company, and after the tour young girls and would-be ballerinas flocked by the hundred to dancing classes in all the principal towns.

The Pavlova company's tour proved so successful that J. C. Williamson Theatres, who promoted the tour, had no hesitation in arranging tours in 1937 and 1939 by Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo (the second company) and the Covent Garden Russian Ballet (de Basil's first company).

Thus, from 1926 until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, New Zealanders were not isolated from the influence of ballet at international level for the Covent Garden company included such famous ballet personalities as Irina Boronova, Anton Dolin, and David Lichine. These visits also paid rich dividends outside the box office; they kept interest in the art alive and provided a valuable stimulus to the strong body of amateur dancers who continued year after year to study the art without much hope of their ever being able to take up a professional career as a dancer.

After each visit by an overseas company, there was, of course, talk about the possible establishment of a ballet company in New Zealand but it was not until 1947 that any active move was made towards formation of a national ballet company. Throughout 1947 and well into the next year, letters were published in daily newspapers as well as weekly and monthly magazines and newspapers urging the Government to take active steps towards the establishment of a national theatre which would include drama, opera, ballet, and music. On all sides there seemed a keen demand for a national ballet company, and when the Government in 1947 made bursary grants to promising dancers to further their studies overseas the future looked bright. But six years later the enthusiasts were still talking and writing to the newspapers and nothing had been done in connection with the establishment of a national ballet company.

A statue of John Ballance stands in Parliament grounds, Wellington, directly in front of the General Assembly Library. It is somewhat dwarfed by the larger one of Seddon. Writing on 13 April 1897 to William Pember Reeves, the Agent General for New Zealand in London, Edward Tregear, head of the Labour Department and one of the more prominent civil servants of the day, said: “We have had a ceremony of unveiling the statue of ‘Ballance’… In my eyes the statue is hideous beyond words; it is very good style for a cemetery but is no more like our dear dead chief than I am like the Apollo Belvedere–and that's ‘a far cry’. The Trade Council ought to be prosecuted for debasing the populace with such examples of Art, but poor fellows, they did their little best to try and show honour to a man they honoured. ‘Forgive them, they know not what they do’–should be written on the pedestal. Such a statue adds a new terror to Death.”

by Angus Ross, M.C. AND BAR, M.A.(N.Z.), PH.D.(CANTAB.), Professor of History, University of Otago.

• Ballance Papers (MSS.), Turnbull Library
• The Review of Reviews, May 1893, “Character Sketch–The Hon. John Ballance,” Stout, Sir Robt.
• Notable New Zealand Statesmen, Scholefield, G. H. (1946).

(1839–93).

Prime Minister, newspaper editor and proprietor.

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

John Ballance was born on 27 March 1839, the eldest son of Samuel Ballance, at Glenavy in County Antrim, Ireland. His father was a farmer, a descendant of seventeenth century Puritan immigrants to the north of Ireland from England. His mother was Mary, née McNiece, a Quaker.

Ballance was educated at the local national school. At the age of 14 he left home and, for four years, was apprenticed to an ironmonger in Belfast where he learned the rudiments of commercial practice. In 1857, when 18 years old, he secured employment in an ironmongery warehouse in Birmingham, where his education proceeded rapidly. In Birmingham, then “a centre of Radicalism and home of self-culture”, he attended classes at the Midland Institute, concentrating on the study of history and modern politics. He belonged to various literary and debating societies, acquiring something of a reputation as a speaker and as a writer of articles for the press. As a traveller for his firm he gained impressions of social conditions in nineteenth century industrial England.

In 1866 Ballance migrated to New Zealand, where he settled in Wanganui. Lacking the capital to make a satisfactory start on the land, as he had intended to do, he opened a jeweller's shop on Taupo Quay. In 1867 he gave up shopkeeping in favour of newspaper publishing. On 4 June 1867 Ballance and his partner, A. D. Willis, brought out the first number of the Herald, a penny evening paper which appeared three times a week. Later, Ballance became sole proprietor and editor, making a reputation in Wanganui as an energetic, well informed writer of independent mind. In 1868 Titokowaru's attacks on Wanganui and Patea opened a fresh phase of the Maori Wars in which Ballance had peculiarly mixed fortunes. In his paper and at a public meeting, which he summoned, he played a leading part in founding a cavalry unit. His vigorous denunciation in the Herald of a proclamation which ordered all men into the ranks of the militia led to his arrest. After his release, he served in the cavalry at Nukumaru and around Waitotara, earning promotion first to corporal and then to cornet. But, contrary to traditional practice in the services, Ballance also acted as a war correspondent for his paper. One Herald article was so fiercely critical of the Government's war policy that Ballance's commission was cancelled without any official inquiry.

In 1873 Ballance entered politics, standing for the Egmont electorate. The main issue was provincialism versus centralism. As a supporter of Stafford's “Centralist” policy, Ballance retired in favour of Sir Harry Atkinson who was elected. In 1875 Ballance entered the House of Representatives as a member for the Rangitikei, speaking and voting in favour of the abolition of the provinces. Two years later, Ballance severed his connection with the Atkinson Government and, following his natural inclinations, he joined the Liberals under Sir George Grey. In January 1878 he became Commissioner of Customs and Minister of Education in the Grey Government, and in July of the same year he became Colonial Treasurer. The outstanding feature of his Budget was the introduction of the land tax, aimed not at speeding up subdivision but at raising revenue in an equitable manner. It imposed a tax of a halfpenny in the pound on the unimproved value of landed estates valued at more than £500. Ballance also favoured an income tax on companies' profits and an excise duty on beer but neither of these measures was accepted by the Parliament of the day. After a series of differences and quarrels with Sir George Grey, in which both men apparently lost their tempers, Ballance resigned from the Government in July 1878 but continued to support it in the House.

In 1879 Ballance became a member for Wanganui, and in the next two years he enhanced his reputation as a debater and political strategist. In the 1881 election, however, he showed overconfidence and a neglect of tactical considerations by going with friends to assist and vote in a neighbouring constituency with the result that he himself was defeated by four votes. Local sympathy for the strong-arm policy of John Bryce against the Maori prophet, Te Whiti, at Parihaka, which Ballance had criticised, also contributed to his defeat. In 1884, however, Ballance was returned to Parliament by a substantial majority for the constituency of Wanganui which also re-elected him in 1887 and 1890.

In the Stout-Vogel administration, which held office from September 1884 till October 1887, Ballance took over the portfolios of Lands, Defence, and Native Affairs. Advancing ideas which he had publicised in newspaper articles and in a pamphlet, A National Land Policy (1882), Ballance sought to limit the alienation of Crown lands, on the one hand, and the undue aggregation of land by a few private monopolists, on the other. His scheme of village settlements was designed to cure unemployment and to get more people on the land. It was not an unqualified success, partly because of the poor choice of areas for development. Nevertheless, in 18 months, over 1,000 families were placed on the land. Ballance also set aside the large National Park of some 66,000 acres on the slopes of Tongariro and Ruapehu. As Defence Minister, during the Russian scare of 1885, he instituted a system of coastal defences and fortifications. As Native Minister, he began negotiations with the Maoris of the King Country and, through his “one policeman policy”, dispensed with the services of military forces for preserving law and order among the Maoris.

In the Opposition of 1887–90, Ballance was the outstanding leader, although he was not formally elected leader until 1889. During those years he not only adapted the theoretical teachings of Cobden, Bright, Marshall, Sidgwick, and other English politicians and thinkers, to practical New Zealand needs but also turned more deliberately towards winning the support of the growing working class in the towns. At the election on 5 December 1890, the year of strikes in London, Australia, and New Zealand, Ballance led the Liberals to victory. In addition to his Liberal following of 37, he could count on the six Labour members and some of the seven independents for support. On the resignation of the Atkinson Government in January 1891, Ballance became Premier, Colonial Treasurer, and Commissioner of Customs in a Liberal Government which contained only one other member with previous ministerial experience (Buckley in the Legislative Council), but did contain men such as R. J. Seddon, J. McKenzie, W. P. Reeves, and J. G. Ward. In 1892 Ballance added James Carroll, a half-caste Maori, to the Cabinet as a representative of the Maori race.

To fulfil election promises was no easy task, but Ballance set the pace with a Land and Income Tax Bill which instituted direct taxation and also put a graduated tax on land, as well as repealing the former inequitable property tax. He also imposed for the first time a totalisator tax of 1½ per cent of the money passed through the racecourse totalisators. Associated with his determination to reduce Government expenditure and to enforce retrenchment until the economy of the depression-ridden country was placed on a sounder footing was his refusal to go to the London market for any loans. He held that a self-reliant financial policy would end a period of “servile dependence” and would improve New Zealand's prospects in the future. His Ministry inaugurated the era of social legislation for which, under the Liberal-Labour Government New Zealand became famous, with a new Factory Act, an Employers' Liability Act, and four other Acts designed to improve conditions of labour for workers of different kinds.

Ballance's Government was accused of being socialist. The term “State Socialism” was frequently used by the Opposition press as a term of opprobrium. But Ballance and his colleagues were really concerned with “legislating for the masses” in what they believed to be a practical way rather than with implementing plans to erect a socialist State. The Legislative Council or Upper House of Parliament remained the great stumbling block to much of the Government's legislation. No fewer than five important Government Bills and three minor ones failed to pass the Legislative Council in a manner satisfactory to Ballance's Government. These Bills included McKenzie's Land Bill which was considered to be of primary importance in the Liberal programme and the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Bill introduced by Reeves. The more conservative side of the Legislative Council had been strengthened in January 1891, that is, after the decisive election of the previous month, by the addition of six nominees of the retiring Atkinson Government. Ballance therefore asked that the Governor, Lord Onslow, should appoint 12 new Liberal nominees. Lord Onslow refused on the ground that this would mean “swamping” the Upper House. His successor, Lord Glasgow, took a similar stand. Ballance had already in 1891 succeeded in having the tenure of office of a new Legislative Councillor reduced from life to seven years but he was determined that government in New Zealand should be by the elected representatives of the people and not by the nominees of past Governments. He insisted that the question at issue should be submitted to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Marquess of Ripon, who ruled that, as Imperial interests were not affected, the Governor should accept the advice of his Ministers. Throughout the controversy Ballance acted with quiet dignity, but, in a private letter to his intimate friend and former colleague, Sir Robert Stout he referred to Lord Ripon's decision as “the completest vindication of the rights of the people under responsible government which has perhaps ever been made”. Of Ballance's 12 nominees, four represented Labour, a fact which emphasised the democratic character of the Government. Ballance also insisted that the prerogative of pardon should be exercised by the Governor only on the advice of his responsible Ministers.

Ballance was interested in external affairs. In the Pacific he favoured an expansionist policy in the Cook Islands and objected to any increase in French influence in the New Hebrides. He opposed New Zealand's entry into any Australian or Australasian federation.

During 1892 Ballance became seriously ill and although, as his health permitted, he continued to attend to ministerial business up until 23 April 1893, he died after two operations on 27 April 1893, the first Premier of New Zealand to die in office.

Despite his lack of formal academic training, Ballance was a studious scholarly man who read both widely and deeply on political and social questions. Gentle and kindly, he was no weakling but a man of great sincerity and considerable determination. His kindness of heart was such that he was sometimes imposed upon. His private secretary claimed that, despite the irksome cares of office, Ballance was never irritable and always showed the most amazing patience. Neither particularly brilliant nor ready in debate, he was nonetheless a clear and forceful speaker who prepared his main speeches with elaborate care. In this respect, he improved with experience and, as Leader of the House, he built up a reputation for knowledgeable speaking and great courtesy.

Ballance's greatest contribution to New Zealand history lay in his quality as a leader and in his success in forming a strong political party which was able to hold the reins of office for 20 years. In opposition, he successfully welded the Liberal members into a team, and, in power, he fused the Liberal and Labour elements among his supporters into one party. Seddon inherited not only a policy and a political programme but also an instrument of political power. Ballance's colleagues paid high tribute to his qualities as a man.

Seddon said:

“He has been a good, true, and faithful servant to the colony. Parliament will miss his wise counsel and the great ability which distinguished his efforts as a legislator and a public man. He was ever generous alike to opponents and friends. He was a wise counsellor, and he had the entire confidence of those whom he led. I can go further, and say that he was loved and respected by all; and I might say truthfully that we shall never see his like again. I am unable to do full justice to his worth. His life proves that he sought not riches; but what he did seek, and what he obtained, was the good will of his fellow-men.”

Stout recorded:

“He had a magnetic power of attaching people to him; no one had warmer friends. This very power, however, led many people to be bitterly opposed to him, and he had as every public man has, some bitter, sometimes not very scrupulous foes; but even to his bitterest opponent he was always considerate.”

Reeves held that:

“Though too quiet and unassertive to be popular with the masses, he was solid enough to be respected, amiable enough to be liked by friends and too unaggressive to be hated by enemies.”

Ballance was twice married: in 1863 he married Fanny Taylor, who died in 1868, and in 1870 he married Ellen Anderson. He had no children but adopted one of his nieces.

Balclutha is situated on alluvial flats on the banks of the Clutha River half a mile upstream from the point where the river divides into the Matau and Koau branches to enclose the 10-milelong island of Inchclutha. The main business area of the town stands on the south bank of the Clutha River and a residential suburb called North Balclutha occupies the northern bank, the two being linked by a fine modern bridge. The surrounding country consists of alluvial flats and terraces which rise to gently undulating downland. The Dunedin-Invercargill highway and the South Island Main Trunk railway pass through Balclutha. A branch railway links Balclutha with Tahakopa in the Catlins district, 43 miles south-west. Dunedin is 51 miles north-east by road (53 miles by rail), Gore is 47 miles north-west by road or rail, and Kaitangata is 8 miles south-east by road.

The main activity of the district is sheep farming but there is some dairying and cash cropping. Cheese is produced at Paretai (10 miles southeast), and at Stirling (3 miles south-east). At Benhar (5 miles north-east) there are large pottery, pipe, and sanitary-ware works, and a lignite mine. At Finegand (2 miles south) there is a meat freezing works. Flaxmilling is carried on at Otanomomo (4 miles south). Balclutha is the servicing and distributing centre for practically the whole of the lower Clutha basin. Town industrial activities include general engineering, the manufacture of concrete products, joinery, and furniture.

The nature of the country along the coast had become fairly well known by 1839 due to visits by sealers and whalers. Port Molyneux, at the original mouth of the river, was at first the main distributing centre and place of entry for the whole of the lower Clutha basin. A small party of speculative land purchasers or their representatives arrived at Port Molyneux by the Portenia from Sydney in 1840. Their land claims were subsequently disallowed, but George Willsher and Thomas Russell held on and became the first agricultural settlers permanently established in South Otago. Frederick Tuckett, with David Monro and Maori guides came overland from Otago Harbour in May 1844. Tuckett made a sketch map indicating land considered suitable for farming and recommended the purchase of what was later called the Otago Block. Charles Henry Kettle arrived in 1847 to arrange the survey of the Otago Block. The portion lying south of the Clutha River, comprising substantially the district now served by Balclutha, was surveyed in detail by Andrew Wylie, Alfred Wills, and Edward Jollie. The first settlers arrived in the district in 1849. James McNeil may be regarded as the founder of Balclutha. His farm included the present town site and he also established a river ferry. The locality was known to the Maoris as Iwikatea but in McNeil's time it became known as Clutha Ferry. The river provided the earliest means of communication and in August 1863 the s.s. Tuapeka began a regular service on the river as far as Tuapeka Mouth. The river service ended in 1939. After the discovery of gold at Tuapeka by Gabriel Read in 1861, the primitive road system was improved. A coach service began to run between Dunedin and Clutha Ferry in January 1861 and between Invercargill and Dunedin via Clutha Ferry in 1864. The township grew steadily and in 1863 town sections were surveyed at what is now North Balclutha.

The first bridge across the Clutha at Balclutha was opened in 1868. In 1875 the Dunedin-Invercargill railway reached the north bank at Balclutha and the rail link with Invercargill was completed in 1879. In 1878 a serious flood occurred, Balclutha was flooded, and the road bridge destroyed. The lower course of the Clutha changed and Port Molyneux was ruined as a port. Soon after, stopbanks were erected to protect the town from further flooding. The names Balclutha and Clutha were chosen by the prospective Scottish settlers in 1846 so that the future principal town of South Otago would have an association with the city of Glasgow. Clutha is the ancient name of the River Clyde, and Balclutha means “town of the Clyde”. Balclutha was constituted a borough on 10 August 1870.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 2,624; 1956 census, 3,323; 1961 census, 3,928.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.

(1827–1922).

Member of the Legislative Council.

William Douglas Hall Baillie was born on 22 February 1827 at Fredericton, New Brunswick, the eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Baillie, a Waterloo veteran who was then Surveyor-General of the colony, and of Elizabeth, née Monckton Hall. He was educated at the Royal Military College, Woolwich, and in 1846 was commissioned in the 24th Foot Regiment, spending the next six years in India. Baillie served in the Punjab Campaigns of 1848–49, including the passage of the Chenab and the Battles of Sadoolapore and Chillianwallah, and Goojerat. In 1853 he returned to England where he was promoted to the rank of captain and acted as Commandant at Chatham and also at Chichester. In 1857 he resigned from the army and came to New Zealand in the Oriental. He took up a 5,000-acre run on the Wairau, but later sold this and settled at Para, near Picton. Baillie entered local politics and was elected to the Marlborough Provincial Council, representing Wairau Valley from 1860 to 1865 and Tuamarina from 1869 to 1876. On 28 August 1861 Baillie was elected Superintendent, his term being one of the most difficult in that province's turbulent political history. He was succeeded by Thomas Carter on 25 March 1863, but remained in the Council as Speaker and, later, as a member of the Provincial Executive and Deputy Superintendent. On 8 March 1861 Gore Browne called him to the Legislative Council, where he remained until his death 61 years later. From 1879 until 1902 Baillie was Chairman of Committees. He continued his interest in military affairs and acted as Colonel-Commandant of the Marlborough Militia and Volunteers. In 1881 he led the Marlborough and Nelson contingents in the expedition under Bryce against Te Whiti.

Although after about 1890 Baillie was troubled by increasing blindness, he attended meetings of the Legislative Council regularly until 1919. He retained his seat there until his death at Maoribank, Upper Hutt, on 24 February 1922. His term of 61 years of continuous membership of the Legislative Council remains unequalled in New Zealand. He was also the last of the life members to sit in the Council.

As a politician Baillie was an able and extremely diplomatic negotiator, but one who would never sacrifice principle for expediency. He was not motivated by any desire for office and, indeed, attained it accidentally. Once he had attained it, however, he demonstrated that he did not intend to use it for personal aggrandisement. It was unfortunate that, at the time of his death, there were no members in Parliament who could remember Baillie during his political heyday. On that occasion, those who knew him merely recorded that he was “an extremely kind and courteous man, although very forceful as a military leader”.

On 11 July 1854, at West Thurrock, England, Baillie married Hannah Maria Ann, daughter of John Greensill and cousin of Lord Roberts. They had three sons and one daughter.

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

• Hart's Army List, 1856
• Evening Post, 25 Feb 1922 (Obit)
• Dominion, 27 Feb 1922 (Obit)
• New Zealand Times, 27 Feb 1922 (Obit).

(1865–1943).

Editor and critic.

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

Baeyertz was born in Melbourne in 1865, the son of Charles Baeyertz, bank manager. The family may have had a German origin (Belgian and Hungarian also suggested) but had been domiciled in Britain for several generations. His mother gave up her Jewish faith for the Church of England when she married, and after her husband's early death carried on for many years an evangelical mission in Australia, America, and Britain.

C. N. Baeyertz was educated at Wesley College, Prince Alfred College (Adelaide), Hahndorf Gymnasium, and Melbourne University. He married late in 1886 (four children) and in 1892, after losses in the Melbourne land boom, came to New Zealand and began a career in journalism in Dunedin. Baeyertz became music critic to the Otago Daily Times but late in 1892 he started his own journal the Triad (sponsored initially by the Dresden–later, Bristol Piano Co.) which soon claimed a unique place in the musical and literary life of the growing country. “A Monthly Journal devoted to Literature, Art and Music”, it was well produced, with copious illustrations, and paid great attention to criticism of the arts, as well as opening its pages to local writers. Its correspondents covered the musical and literary life of the whole country, but its special flavour was derived directly from the vigorous, well informed, and fearless criticisms of its editor. Baeyertz was several times involved in libel actions; the most notable was in 1913 when an ageing singer failed to secure damages after the Triad had compared his voice to a “pig's whistle”. The Triad would not accept advertisements, or even free seats, for any performance it was going to criticise. Baeyertz was his own factotum and was very successful in canvassing advertisers, and the art and musical supplements issued free to subscribers were paid for by advertising.

After 20 years' prosperity in New Zealand, in 1915 the Triad began publication in Sydney, but did not do so well. Baeyertz's own connection with the journal ended about 1925, when he became editor, briefly, of the Sydney Sunday Times, but thereafter engaged, very fruitfully, in broadcasting and in teaching voice production.

Baeyertz visited America in 1908, England in 1919. He was much in demand as a judge of speech and singing in competitions both in New Zealand and Australia where his meticulous standards made him formidable, as did his appearance. Pat Lawlor has described the “Mephisto-like Baeyertz (his pointed beard and tall fierce presence conveyed this impression).”

Baeyertz published a tourist guide to New Zealand in 1902, and in 1924 he brought out in Australia a four-volume series of correspondence tuition in correct English, public speaking, and voice production.

He died on 5 June 1943 in New South Wales.

Baeyertz based his criticism on a profound knowledge of music and certain phases of literature (e.g., Shakespeare). He had a prodigious memory which enabled him to master many languages. His son has written: “Buoyant is a good description of his whole vibrant personality”. His work for the Triad made him the greatest New Zealand editor and critic of his time.

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

• N.Z. Magazine, Sep-Oct, Nov-Dec 1943
• Baeyertz and his “Triad”, Baeyertz, R. E. (typescript in Hocken Library).

by Ian Gray Russell, formerly Official Historian, New Zealand Badminton Federation (Inc.), Wellington.