The Heath report (1926) became the foundation on which today's governmental science is based. It recommended a Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, constituted as a special Department of the Government without any administrative authority, but with executive power in the conduct of scientific work for the benefit of industry, placed under the immediate supervision of the Prime Minister. Special consideration was given to such matters as agricultural research and here the report was particularly timely as it drew attention to the desirability of attaching the proposed dairy research laboratories to the new agricultural college to be set up in Palmerston North (Massey Agricultural College, now Massey University of Manawatu). Indeed, throughout his memorandum Heath was at pains to delineate the advantages of active collaboration between the scientific staff of the university institutions and the various State laboratories he envisaged. In general, with respect to agriculture, he advised that the Department (of Agriculture) should possess a scientific staff competent to undertake investigations into problems of immediate urgency. He saw the need for a number of new research institutes to serve the needs of the primary industries (fruit and fruit transport; cattle, sheep, and meat transport; economics, accountancy, and finance of farming; forestry and forest products) and envisaged the large secondary industries forming cooperative research associations. As a matter of the greatest urgency he recommended the establishment of a laboratory for standards and tests.

The report as a whole was both far-seeing and eminently practical in its detailed suggestion and was speedily acted upon, the Scientific and Industrial Research Act being passed in 1926. Under the Act the Department was established with a Permanent Secretary as administrative head, and an advisory Council of Scientific and Industrial Research reporting, however, not to the Prime Minister but to a Minister of the Crown. As amended by subsequent Acts (1931, 1945, 1952, 1958) the Council consists of a chairman, and not more than eight other members appointed by the Governor-General for a term not exceeding four years. Not more than two members of the Council may be officers employed in the services of the Government, who may be appointed as members of the Council by virtue of their office. The Permanent Secretary may attend and speak at all meetings, but may not vote. In addition to its more conventional duties, the Council is also responsible for the award of National Research Fellowships.

As an immediate outcome of the Act, the Dominion Laboratory and Dominion Observatory (from the Department of Internal Affairs), the Geological Survey (from the Mines Department), the Meteorological Office (from the Marine Department) and the Apia Observatory (from the Department of External Affairs) became the nucleus of the new Department. Some 10 years later (1936) a Plant Research Bureau (comprising Plant Diseases, Grasslands, Agronomy, Botany, and Entomology Divisions) was established at Palmerston North, and the Soil Survey became independent of the Geological Survey. In 1939 the largest unit of the Department, the Dominion Physical Laboratory, was formed and in 1959 the Institute of Nuclear Sciences was established with a New Zealand Atomic Energy Committee. These represent some of the landmarks in the development of what is now a large and most complex Department of State whose laboratories function over the whole spectrum of scientific activity – from fundamental studies in pure and applied science to service activities of a routine nature, required to maintain the work of government and industry. The organisation chart summarises the structure of the Department, the years in brackets denoting the dates of establishment of the units under their present designations, although in many cases the histories of these units can be traced much further back through changing titles and administrative arrangements.

In April 1964 it was announced that the name of the Dominion Laboratory would in future be the Chemistry Division, and that of the Dominion Physical Laboratory would be the Physical and Engineering Laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

With the establishment of the Geological Survey, the Government assumed an important function. Its direct interest in science, through its own laboratories and establishments, has continued to increase over the years and is now in the nature of an essential national investment. This increase was, naturally, both in depth and in breadth, leading to the formation of new institutions and to changing patterns of administration. In particular, from the turn of the century, various bodies and individuals, of whom G. M. Thomson was one of the most effective, pressed for a great increase in research, to be coordinated under a Minister with special responsibility for scientific affairs. The first tentative move made by Parliament was the establishment of a Board of Science and Art (1913), charged with the duty of recommending the printing or reprinting of certain scientific papers. But even this limited responsibility was further restricted by the requirement that such established publications as the Journal of Agriculture and the Bulletins of the Geological Survey and the Dominion Museum were not to come under its purview. Its chief contribution was the publication of a new journal, The New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology and the issuing of a bulletin series.

The First World War saw the Privy Council (1916) urging the New Zealand Government to follow its lead and take steps to examine the possibility of State encouragement to science, following which (1919) a select committee recommended the adoption of a scheme put forward by the New Zealand Institute and modified by the National Efficiency Committee, centred upon a Board of Science and Industry. Nothing, however, was done, although those concerned about the unsatisfactory position continued to press the Government for further action. This finally took the form of an invitation to Sir H. Frank Heath, Secretary to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (England), to visit New Zealand and advise the Government on a suitable organisation for promoting the application of science to industry. At the same time the Government had the advantage of a memorandum (1925) from Sir Ernest Rutherford on Scientific and Industrial Research.

Early History

The early history of science in any country may be pursued to the stage where organised knowledge merges into folk lore. Frequently the systematic collection, correlation, and transmission of empirical observations, leading eventually to clearly recognisable scientific endeavour, have been initiated within religious societies and establishments. In New Zealand one might look, therefore, to the work of the Maori priests (tohungas) for an indigenous contribution to science, and there did indeed exist recognisable schools of learning. The transmitted knowledge indicates a gift for precise observation and an accumulation of experience relating to such matters as agricultural practice and the effects of herbal remedies in the treatment of illness and disease. Beyond this, however, it is not possible to trace any threads of emerging science and it may be said that the history of science in New Zealand begins with the first visits of Europeans. It is equally clear that, inevitably, any such history will be largely a chronicle of scientific endeavour, as distinguished from the growth of scientific theory and law.

Because of the fertile unexplored fields for study, it was natural that botanists, zoologists, and geologists would show keen interest in a country such as New Zealand. It is altogether remarkable to find such a large number of well qualified, at times outstanding, scientists who, in fact, overcame the inherent difficulties of access and study in the years preceding and immediately following the establishment of government in 1840 to record the first impressions and conclusions of scientific investigation. Cook's voyages had important scientific objectives, and on his first visit to New Zealand in 1769 the company included Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Daniel Carl Solander, who collected 360 species of plants and ferns. On his second visit in 1773 Cook was accompanied by Dr J. R. Forster, a German naturalist, and his son, who did botanical work at Dusky Sound and, on his third visit, a scholarly surgeon, Dr Anderson, was present. Then, in 1791, coming with Captain Vancouver, Dr Archibald Menzies spent some time collecting botanical specimens, and, somewhat later, Dumont d'Urville's expeditions (1824, 1827, and 1840) did similar work at the Bay of Islands and, subsequently, in other districts. About the same time (1826 and 1838) the Cunningham brothers Allan and Richard – Allan being official botanist to the Colony of New South Wales — were engaged in botanical studies in the Bay of Islands, and in 1835 Charles Darwin in the Beagle spent a short time in the same area. In the years 1840–42 the British Association for the Advancement of Science promoted the Erebus and Terror expedition, bringing to the Bay of Islands Dr D. Lyall and Sir Joseph Hooker, the latter being assistant surgeon and botanist to the expedition. This visit had noteworthy consequences in that Hooker met the Rev. William Colenso with whom, on his return to the United Kingdom, he maintained active scientific contact. This collaboration was extended to include such naturalists as Sinclair, Travers, Hector, and Buchanan, and resulted in the publication of the two volumes of Flora Novae Zealandiae (1853 and 1855) and Handbook of the New Zealand Flora (1864). About the time of Hooker's visit, the French expedition to Akaroa (1840) brought the eminent botanist Raoul as surgeon on the Aube. He was able to spend three years studying plant life at Banks Peninsula and the Bay of Islands and thereby made a most valuable contribution in this field. Altogether, as may be seen, the botany of New Zealand had been quite extensively studied at a remarkably early stage of European colonisation.

As settlement progressed and the physical resources of the country assumed greater significance, geological studies were systematically initiated. Along with this trend there also appeared professional scientists engaged on a continuing basis. The first of these was Dr Ernst Dieffenbach, appointed by the New Zealand Company in 1838 as surgeon and naturalist of the Tory expedition. He was told that “general information relating to navigation, geography, geology, botany, and zoology, and the traditions, customs, and character of the natives will be highly appreciated and will be communicated from time to time to the scientific societies in England”. He left New Zealand in 1841 and his Travels in New Zealand, published in two volumes in 1843, is the first general scientific account of New Zealand.

One of the first of the geologists was J. D. Dana, who visited the Bay of Islands briefly in 1840 as a member of the United States exploring expedition under Charles Wilkes, but it was not until 1858, when Ferdinand von Hochstetter arrived, that fully systematic studies were initiated. He came as geologist to the Austrian scientific ship Novara, and, on arrival in Auckland on 22 December 1858, was instructed by his commander to carry out an examination of the coalfields of the province. On the strength of this report, the New Zealand Government obtained leave for Hochstetter to carry out further investigations into the geology, natural history, and physical geography of the country. Over a period of nine months, in company with Julius Haast, he travelled widely in the North Island and parts of the South Island, particularly Nelson, to lay the foundations of New Zealand geology.

At this stage, with the value of such work recognised, steps were taken to appoint provincial geologists. Haast himself became provincial geologist to Canterbury (1861–68) and then director of the museum (1870–87); he was also first lecturer in geology at Canterbury University College (1873) and, later, first professor. Hector proved equally effective as provincial geologist to Otago on his appointment in 1861 and, as will be seen below, was to exercise a profound influence on the development of science in New Zealand. A third notable scientist, who served as provincial geologist at Otago, was F. W. Hutton, appointed in 1873 and holding also the positions of lecturer in geology and curator of the Otago Museum. He held Chairs both at Otago (1877) and at Canterbury (1880) where he later became curator of the Museum (1893).

Of the professional scientists working in other fields, perhaps the most important was William Skey, who joined Hector in Otago to do analyses; he later became Colonial Analyst.

The early history of science in New Zealand may be conveniently taken as extending to the mid-sixties, by which time the cumulative impression is formed of a vigorous beginning, characterised by a natural emphasis on the biological sciences and geology and by the efforts of one or two outstanding men. Work done in isolation, however, is rarely as effective as effort expended within a framework of communication and, at least partly, administration. Such needs were felt both by individuals and by the legislature and the next period was marked by the emergence of a pattern of effort.

Growth of Institutions

By the sixties, with established government and settled communities which included numbers of able professional and scientific workers, it became possible to set about the three major tasks, common to all countries, which must be undertaken if isolated individual effort is to be replaced by a more systematic pattern. These are the founding of appropriate institutions, the setting up of some instrument for the formulation of a continuing programme of work, and the creation of learned societies. The year 1865 saw an important step being taken with the establishment of the New Zealand Geological Survey, with Hector as its first Director. This decision by the Weld Government testified to a determination that the economic development of the colony should be aided by systematic, properly endowed scientific effort, and the choice of Hector proved a fortunate one. In addition to his scientific ability he was an able and forceful administrator. His responsibilities included also the Colonial Museum and the Colonial Laboratory (where Skey, following him from Otago, became Government Analyst), both established in 1865. Shortly afterwards (1868) the taking of meteorological observations, which had been systematically coordinated by the Auditor-General from as early as 1861, was brought under his control. These arrangements held until Hector's retirement in 1903, when the Colonial Museum, with the Meteorological Office, was placed as a Department under the Colonial Secretary, the Geological Survey and the Colonial Laboratory remaining under the Mines Department.

In the provinces interest centred very largely on the development of the several museums, which acted as focal points for local scientific activity, their curators being men of great attainments. In Auckland the museum, now the Auckland Institute and Museum, had been founded in 1852 and was to achieve a high scientific reputation through the botanical genius of its curator, Thomas F. Cheeseman. Reference has already been made to the foundation of the Canterbury Museum under Haast in 1870, and in Otago the natural-history collection of material brought together by Hector for the New Zealand Exhibition, held in Dunedin in 1865, served as the genesis of a museum which, through the Otago Museum Act of 1877, became intimately linked with the University of Otago. Its first three curators, Hutton, Parker, and Benham, were or became Fellows of the Royal Society – a remarkable record.

In the history of science generally the growth of institutions has been paralleled by the development of scientific societies, and these have played a part out of all proportion to the costs of their establishment and maintenance. Often starting almost as informal clubs they have provided a forum for debate and have served to focus attention from time to time on matters of importance to the nation's scientific endeavour. Above all, they have been the common medium for the dissemination of the results of investigation and research, and their learned journals and publications constitute the true record and history of science.

In an age when the distinction between amateur and professional was less important or obvious than it now appears, and in a small isolated community whose very existence was witness to physical stamina and mental resilience, the influence of individuals and the interplay of personalities were clearly marked. There was also a catholicity of interest, reflecting the urgent need for all who possessed intellectual interests to share with others the fruits of special knowledge and study. The earliest society was the New Zealand Society, established in 1861, with Sir George Grey as president, Walter Mantell as secretary, and a distinguished list of vice-presidents and members. The flame thus kindled flickered fitfully over the next 15 years, with the society being reconstituted in 1867, again under Grey's chairmanship. It was renamed the Wellington Philosophical Society in the following year, and at the same time became incorporated with the New Zealand Institute. In the south, Haast founded the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury in 1862 and, even earlier, the Nelson Institute had taken root. The Literary and Scientific Institution of Nelson was born in 1841 on the New Zealand Company's ship Whitby, with Captain Arthur Wakefield as the chairman of its committee of management, at a stage when “Nelson” was a name only, with even the location of the settlement undecided. Meetings were held in 1842 and an immediate start made with the erection of a library and reading room. By 1858 plans were formulated by the provincial government to incorporate a literary and mechanics' institute within its jurisdiction, and the foundation stone of a new building laid by Hochstetter the following year. Its subsequent fortunes were mixed and it did not function as a learned society, but along with the smaller museums, mechanics' institutes, and so on of its day, its influence must have been considerable. Its history is typical of the high courage with which the early settlers embarked on their new life.

The founding of the New Zealand Institute in 1868 marked an important development, giving for the first time a well-constituted basis of scientific communication. The institute, owing its inception largely to the interest of Sir George Grey and Hector, was established under the New Zealand Institute Act of 1867, and Hector was appointed to the position of manager, which he occupied for 35 years. It was inaugurated in August 1868 by Sir George Bowen, the Governor, at a conversazione held in the Colonial Museum. In the same year the Auckland Institute was established, largely through the efforts of Hutton. The Wellington, Auckland, and Canterbury bodies, along with the Westland Naturalists' and Acclimatisation Society, constituted the societies incorporated in the institute, the Otago Institute being added in 1869. It was provided with a Government grant of £500, enabling it to proceed immediately with the major responsibility of publishing the Transactions, which it has done with vigour over the years of its existence.

The Act was important, not only in the setting up of the institute as a learned society, but also in bringing about the association with it of the Geological Survey and the Colonial Museum. As has been seen, with Hector's retirement in 1903 the grouping was changed and, under the New Zealand Institute Amendment Act of that year, the institute was established as an independent organisation under the Colonial Secretary's Department, with an elected president. A further change in the constitution was made in 1933 through the Royal Society of New Zealand Act, the present title of the body being the Royal Society of New Zealand.

First Academic Foundations

The universities have traditionally fulfilled the twin functions of teaching and research and it was to be expected that the growth of such institutions in a new country would have a most important influence, both direct and indirect, on the course of its scientific development. They arose first in the south — the University of Otago in 1869 and Canterbury College (now the University of Canterbury) in 1873 — and their genesis may be found in the minds of those who planned the early settlements. It would have been understandable and excusable if ventures of this magnitude, undertaken in isolation with every conceivable difficulty to contend with, had been abortive, burdened alike by insufficiency of resources and inferior staff. Fortunately, the early professors proved to be men of great academic attainment and remarkable personal qualities. From the start it was decided in Otago – and the pattern was adopted elsewhere — that the teaching of science should feature prominently in the activities of the University and, of the four foundation chairs, two were concerned with science, the Chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and the Chair of Chemistry. These were filled by the appointment of John Shand and James Gow Black respectively, with Hutton following a little later as Professor of Natural Science. In Canterbury, physics and chemistry were placed in the charge of Alexander William Bickerton, and mathematics with Charles Henry Herbert Cook; Haast followed a little later in the Chair of Palaeontology and Geology.

In Auckland (1882) and Wellington (1897) the beginnings were equally well made. In the former institution Frederick Douglas Brown held the first Chair of Chemistry and Physics, Algernon Phillips Withiel Thomas (later K.C.M.G.) the first Chair of Biology and Geology, and George Francis Walker the first Chair of Mathematics, the latter being succeeded on his untimely accidental death by William Steadman Aldis.

Victoria College had as its foundation Professors of Chemistry and Mathematics Thomas Hill Easter-field and Richard Cockburn Maclaurin, with Harry Borrer Kirk and Thomas Howell Laby following later in the Chairs of Biology and Physics.

Functioning together as the component units of the University of New Zealand, these four teaching institutions, together with the special schools which were attached to them, have constituted the seed beds for indigenous science.

(1877–1963).

Librarian, historian, and journalist.

A new biography of Scholefield, Guy Hardy appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Guy Hardy Scholefield was born at Dunedin on 17 June 1877, the son of John H. Scholefield, and grandson of John Hardy, Otago Provincial Secretary from 1861 to 1864. In 1908 he married Adela, daughter of M. R. Bree. He was educated at the Tokomairiro District High School, of which he was dux in 1894, and at Victoria University College. Subsequently he studied at the University of London, graduating B.Sc. in 1915 and D.Sc. in 1919. During his university education he established himself both in journalism and in the writing of history. In 1896 he joined the staff of the Bruce Herald, and three years later the staff of the New Zealand Times. From 1903 to 1904 he was associate editor of the Christchurch Press, and in 1906 chief of staff of the New Zealand Times. From 1908 to 1919 he was London correspondent of the New Zealand Press Association and a war correspondent. During this period he founded and edited The New Zealander (1916–19). He returned to New Zealand in 1919, when he was awarded the O.B.E. From 1921 to 1926 he edited the Wairarapa Age, and then became Parliamentary Librarian and Dominion Archivist, a position he held until 1948. In that year he was awarded the C.M.G. His long connection with journalism had an influence upon his scholarly activities, both in style and in subject-matter. His Twelve Prime Ministers (1946) is the work of a writer who is a journalist as well as a historian; and one of his last publications, Newspapers in New Zealand (1958), originally commissioned for the 1940 Centennial by the Newspaper Proprietors Association, is among his most important works. Further, as he testifies in the preface to this work, as Parliamentary Librarian he had paid special attention to his library's newspaper collection. He edited the first Union Catalogue of New Zealand Newspapers in 1938.

His first historical work was published soon after his arrival in England, New Zealand in Evolution (1909). The nature of this book is well indicated by its sub-title – “Industrial, Economic, and Political” – and by the fact that it is organised into chapters exploring various economic activities rather than into a narrative. No longer useful as a text book, it retains its value as an intelligent native's description of New Zealand in the early twentieth century. Ten years later he produced New Zealand and The Pacific. Thereafter there was a gap until the 1930s, which saw the History of the Tokomairiro District High School (1932), and then his only full-length biography, New Zealand's First Governor (1934), a life of Captain William Hobson. This work remains informative, though subsequent research and discussion on the circumstances of British annexation of New Zealand have left its overall approach well behind. Apart from his contributions to the Cambridge History of the British Empire (1933), the rest of Scholefield's publications relate to two further aspects of his life – first, his position as Parliamentary Librarian and, second, his role as an editor of biographical dictionaries.

In 1908, in conjunction with E. Schwabe, he edited Who's Who in New Zealand and the Western Pacific, the first of a series of volumes he was to edit until close to the end of his life. This kind of activity became more scholarly when he edited the two-volume Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (1940), which has been since its publication an essential tool for students of New Zealand history.

His position as Parliamentary Librarian is reflected in two works already referred to (Twelve Prime Ministers and Newspapers in New Zealand), and more particularly in the Parliamentary Record 1840–1949 (1950), a compendium of detailed information about the political history of New Zealand. The General Assembly Library holds, as well as an impressive range of newspapers, several important manuscript collections. To one of these collections Scholefield devoted a great deal of editorial labour, labour which resulted in the publication in 1961 of the massive two-volume The Richmond-Atkinson Papers (qq.v.). These volumes reproduce many of the letters and journals of members of these two linked families from the time of their arrival in the 1840s to the end of the century. They contain a vast quantity of interesting and useful material. This work was Scholefield's last publication.

During his long and active life Scholefield belonged to a number of learned and professional societies and led a prominent public life. He was a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the Hakluyt Society; secretary and life member of the Institute of Pacific Relations; president of the Wellington Historical Society; chairman of the Wellington Provincial Historical Committee in 1939, and a member of the National Historical Committee in 1938, two organisations concerned with centennial publications. He was also first president of the New Zealand PEN (1934–37), a fellow of the Library Association (Great Britain), president of the New Zealand Library Association in 1940, and chairman of the State Literary Fund Advisory Committee from 1948 to 1950. In 1935 he was awarded a Carnegie travelling fellowship. He was also a frequent broadcaster on international affairs. He died at Wellington on 19 July 1963.

There can be no doubt that Scholefield was an important figure in the early period of New Zealand historical writing. As William Pember Reeves comments in his introduction to New Zealand in Evolution, the scenery, the pioneers, the racial struggles, and the political experiments of the colony had been written about in many books, “But, so far, the evolution of our trade and industry have never been adequately examined….” To have opened up so important a field is a considerable feat. Economic history has gone some distance since, but this was a sound beginning. Similarly, political history and biography have become considerably more sophisticated and complex over recent years, but Scholefield's work in these spheres, if not a beginning, was a very useful contribution. Again, though the Richmond-Atkinson volumes are not beyond criticism, they are, at the time of writing, unique examples of their genre in New Zealand. In all, the scholarly achievement of Scholefield may aptly be designated a useful contribution to New Zealand's awareness of its past.

by William Hosking Oliver, M.A.(N.Z.), D.PHIL.(OXON.), Professor of History, Massey University of Manawatu.

• New Zealand Libraries, Aug 1963 (Obit)
• New Zealand Listener, 9 Aug 1963 (Obit)
• Evening Post, 19 Jul 1963 (Obit).

(1882– ).

Novelist.

A new biography of Scanlan, Ellen Margaret appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Nelle Scanlan was born at Picton on 15 January 1882, the daughter of Michael Scanlan, sergeant of Police, and Ellen Scanlan, née Kiely. She was educated at the Convent of Mercy, Blenheim, where she began writing fiction, verse, and plays when she was nine years of age. Before the First World War she wrote many stories and sketches for New Zealand newspapers and, also, her first novel. She joined the Manawatu Daily Times as subeditor and was, for a time, acting editor. In 1921 she was the only New Zealand journalist to cover the Washington Conference and travelled widely in America, Canada, Europe, and East Asia. During this period she contributed articles to newspapers in England, Canada, the United States, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1927 she covered the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York; and in the same year moved to London, where she became a member of P.E.N., promoted the foundation of the New Zealand Centre, and reported several international conferences. She has published the following novels: Top Step (1931), Primrose Hill (1931), Tides of Youth (1933), Winds of Heaven (1934), Ambitious Harvest (1935), The Marriage of Nicholas Potter (1936), Leisure for Living (1937), Pencarrow (1937), A Guest for Life (1938), Kelly Pencarrow (1939), March Moon (1944), Kit Carmichael (1946), The Rusty Road (1949), Confidence Corner (1950), and The Young Summer (1952). In 1963 she published her autobiography, Road to Pencarrow.

In 1965 Nelle Scanlan was awarded the M.B.E.

(Notovola novae-zelandiae).

This is the large scallop with one valve convex and the other one flat. They occur throughout New Zealand on muddy and sandy flats at low tide and in deeper water. They are very abundant in Tasman Bay and on the mud banks of the Manukau and Kaipara Harbours. This scallop swims by suddenly closing the shell with a snap, which sends out a jet of water that propels the shellfish in sudden leaps. Queen scallops are our most delicately flavoured shellfish. The Maori name is tipa.

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

(Chlamys zelandiae).

This scallop has a small, scaly-ribbed shell of two equally convex valves. It is brilliantly coloured – lemon, yellow, red, orange, lilac, purple, or delicate greys, and is one of the most attractive shells of the New Zealand beaches. Living examples are obtained by turning over boulders at low tide. The shell is fastened to the rock by strong threads which are associated with the foot of the animal.

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

(1872–1940).

Leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party and Prime Minister of New Zealand.

A new biography of Savage, Michael Joseph appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Michael Joseph Savage, the sixth son (and eighth child) of Richard and Johanna Savage, was born at Rothesay, near Benalla township, Victoria, Australia; on 23 March 1872. His parents were of Irish stock. Richard Savage, son of Richard and Mary-Anne Savage, née Keenan, was born at Downpatrick near Portaferry, Ireland; his mother, Johanna, daughter of Joseph and Mary-Anne Hayes, was born at Limerick. His father had immigrated to Australia in 1856 and eventually settled in the Benalla district, working two sections at Tatong and Rothesay. Michael left the Rothesay State School at the age of 14 years and for the next seven years worked for a Benalla storekeeper. He was an athletic and powerful youth and earned some local fame as a weightlifter and also as a debater. His mother had died when he was only six years of age and his early life was saddened by further family bereavement. In the two years following 1891 he lost his sister Rose and brothers Joe and Hugh. In 1893, a year of financial crisis, he found himself unemployed and went to New South Wales where he worked on the properties of Sir Samuel McCaughey and, later, on farms in the Riverina district.

In 1900 Savage returned to Victoria and began work in the alluvial gold mine at North Prentice near Rutherglen where he met the young “Paddy” Webb. Webb, Savage, and George Hunter established the first Political Labour League in North Prentice and also a local cooperative society of which Savage was, for a time, manager. When Webb left for New Zealand in 1906 (attracted as were many other Australian workers by Seddon's reputation for enlightened labour legislation) Savage took over much of his political work. At Webb's repeated urging he himself left for New Zealand the following year and arrived in Auckland on Labour Day, 1907. He originally intended to go on to Denniston but was deterred by reports of the West Coast climate and remained in the North Island. After a short time in a flaxmill in the Manawatu he took a job as a cellarman in Hancock's Brewery, Auckland, which he retained until his election to Parliament. It was in Auckland incidentally that he began to use his second name, because he was told that it was harder to get a job if one's name was “Mick”; hence he was usually known as “Joe” Savage to his intimates in New Zealand.

Savage soon became active in the trade union movement in Auckland. In 1910 he was an Auckland delegate to the National Conference of the Trades and Labour Councils which showed in its deliberations a rather greater militancy than was the norm in that highly moderate organisation. (Webb was, of course, at this time, a prominent leader of the rival organisation, the militant Federation of Labour, formed on the West Coast in 1908–09.) In 1911 Savage stood for Auckland Central as a candidate of the New Zealand Socialist Party which allied itself to the “Red Federation”, but although he polled quite well he was soundly beaten by the Liberal incumbent. In the 1914 elections he was again unsuccessful in Auckland Central, this time as a candidate of the Social Democratic Party, the political party which, with its industrial counterpart, the United Federation of Labour, was formed at the Unity Congress of July 1913. Savage was a prominent member of both organisations but at this stage he was not in the first rank of leadership.

Savage joined the New Zealand Labour Party on its formation in June 1916 and at its first annual conference the following year he caused a considerable stir by moving a remit “that State ownership and manufacture and sale of liquor be added to the State ownership section of the platform”. The proposal was amended merely to provide for the inclusion of the alternative of State control on the ballot paper for the triennial liquor referenda (which in those days aroused as much interest as general elections); yet even this caused the resignation of James McCombs, the first president of the party and a staunch prohibitionist. Despite the controversy, Savage was elected national secretary of the party in 1919. That same year he was elected to the Auckland City Council and Hospital Board, and in the general election in December he won Auckland West for Labour, a seat which he retained for the rest of his life. After these successes, pressure of work obliged him to relinquish the post of party secretary. In 1923, on the resignation of McCombs, who had rejoined the party late in 1918, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Party.

Savage played a conspicuous, but in no sense a predominate role in the affairs of the Labour Party in these years. In the House he was, of course, a leading speaker and he interested himself particularly in social questions. In his maiden speech in Parliament he strongly advocated the establishment of a pensions system based not on the poverty of the recipients but on the service they had rendered to the community. He was usually a member of the principal committees set up from time to time by annual conferences, to study various policy matters: notably the Land Policy Committee, which he chaired, and which recommended to the 1927 conference a complete review of the Party's land policy. It is not unfair to say, however, that Savage was not a principal architect in policy making – in this sphere he was less influential than either Peter Fraser or Walter Nash. Nor was he well known in the country when, after Harry Holland's death in October 1933, he was elected Leader of the Parliamentary Party. In the infancy of broad casting and in the absence also of much personal publicity for Labour members in the press, either by advertisement or otherwise, it was, of course, difficult for any Labour figure to make a wide spread public impression.

In the years between 1933 and 1935 Savage worked hard to remedy this defect and there can be no doubt that his personal appearances were of considerable advantage to Labour. Savage was a very different personality from Holland, for he radiated amiability and he possessed a sympathetic platform manner. He had the ability to strike a chord in the average member of his audience. He did not impress with cleverness; the image was rather of humanity, sincerity, and a fund of common sense. His appeal was essentially that of the average man, not of the intellectual or the expert.

In his speeches in the 1935 election campaign Savage made great efforts to allay middle class fears, to minimise the novel, radical, or socialist content of the party's policy (which had in truth been heavily eroded in the years since 1916), and to emphasise that Labour sought only to perpetuate the New Zealand progressive tradition. The result of the election was a smashing victory for Labour. There can be little doubt that in any case the Government would have been decisively beaten, but that the margin was so great may be attributed in some measure to Savage's personal role.

As Prime Minister, Savage took the portfolios of External Affairs, Native Affairs, and Broadcasting, but he did not permit himself to become immersed in departmental detail. Rather, he concerned himself with the overall direction of policy and particularly with the image the Government presented to the public. He became, in effect, something of a specialist in public relations. He had developed an effective broadcasting technique and once in office he determined to use the radio to the utmost in order to counter the lack of sympathy, often amounting to hostility, displayed towards his Government by the bulk of the daily press. For the same reason, in 1936, he instituted broadcasting of the proceedings of Parliament and so added a new dimension to New Zealand politics.

Although he had not played any notable part in Labour's considerations of international matters in earlier years, the Prime Minister made some personal impact in world and Commonwealth affairs. The new Government was from the first disturbed at the trend of world events, both in Europe and in the Pacific. In 1937 Savage attended the Imperial Conference in London – where, as a Labour Prime Minister, he attracted considerable publicity – and he sought to obtain from the United Kingdom Government some specific assurances concerning the speed and the weight of British assistance which might be available to aid Australia and New Zealand in the event of Japanese aggression. The United Kingdom was, however, understandably vague and the New Zealand Government became increasingly anxious. On its initiative a defence conference between Britain, Australia, and New Zealand was held in Wellington in April 1939. The conference did much to convince the Government and the personally optimistic and anti-militarist Prime Minister of the need to strengthen the Army. In consequence, with considerable success (and perhaps at the prompting of his senior colleagues, notably Fraser), Savage lent the full weight of his personal popularity to the Army recruiting campaign. Despite his and his Government's doubts about some earlier aspects of United Kingdom policy and despite his personal reluctance to come to terms with the realities of the situation, Savage concluded that the Commonwealth “must sink or swim together”. The Government's approach was epitomised in his broadcast at the outbreak of war on 3 September 1939.

In domestic affairs his Government fared well although it had its share of problems, particularly in the exchange crisis of 1938–39. Labour fought the 1938 general election on its overall record, but as the campaign developed, two issues became paramount: the introduction of the social security scheme, and the personality of the Prime Minister. The two became fused in an aura of humanism and welfare (not socialism), aptly symbolised in Savage's description of the Social Security Bill as “applied Christianity”. The 1938 victory, even greater in terms of real support than that of 1935, was in part a personal tribute to the Prime Minister; the year 1938 represented the summit of his career.

The excitement of the campaigns and the victories, however, and the élan which the party generated in these years, concealed for a time a growing division in the ranks of the Parliamentary Party. There had developed within it a monetary reform wing, whose most articulate spokesman was John A. Lee; and as early as 1932 and 1933 there were some differences on the relative merits of borrowing or the issue of credit to finance recovery. Savage's own views on financial questions were vague and many of his public statements would seem to support an approach akin to Social Credit. Yet this must be assessed in the context of the time, for Labour agreed with the Social Credit contention that there was a lack of purchasing power in the economy. Moreover, Savage qualified his more important statements with warnings of the inflationary dangers of the excessive issue of credit and in office he firmly supported the cautious policies of his Minister of Finance. The developing conflict, however, throws further light on his personality. Contrary to the prevailing popular image of almost undiluted benevolence, he could be wilful and arbitrary. Under pressure of work and failing health, Savage controlled the Labour Caucus in a manner sometimes tactless and autocratic, which goaded his critics. The impetuous Lee burst forth with intemperate public criticism of the Government and, most sharply of all, of Savage himself.

The Prime Minister's health had begun to deteriorate seriously in mid-1938 but the gravity of his illness was known to few even of his colleagues until he underwent a major operation in August 1939. Perhaps because he did not know that his condition was incurable, Savage did not resign; instead, Fraser became Acting Prime Minister. These circumstances gave to the Lee affair a terrible bitterness and the 1940 annual conference expelled Lee from the party. Savage died at his home in Wellington on 27 March 1940, while the conference was in session. He was buried in Auckland. He had remained a bachelor throughout his life and had no relatives in New Zealand.

The special circumstances of his career make Savage a very difficult man to assess. He became leader at a time when the particular qualities he commanded were most opportune. In 1933 Labour needed not so much strength or brains as public benevolence, which Savage personified; he led a vigorous Government which knew what it wanted to do and was able to carry it out partly because it enjoyed a following wind in the form of rising prices; he gained sympathy by being subjected to sharp personal attack while in failing health; and he died in the midst of the chastisement of his tormentors and while the popularity of his Government, if not at the peak of 1938, was yet at a very high level. In consequence, public grief at his death assumed proportions never before known in New Zealand and in memory he has become enshrined to many both as martyr and as saint.

Savage was not as able intellectually as were his principal lieutenants; he was not nearly as well read as Holland or Fraser, and he had a simplicity of approach which sometimes amounted to naïveté. There were even doubts in some quarters at the time of his election as Leader whether he had sufficient ability and personality for the job. Yet from that time he grew in stature. He could be shrewd, logical, and tough-minded, and he had two priceless gifts for the politician: the ability to take the public's pulse, and to project a personal warmth and friendliness to a mass audience. The secret of his remarkable appeal must, however, lie to a great extent in the New Zealand of the early thirties, in an electorate more hungry in a social than in a physical sense, longing for reassurance, and for personal security. Savage's personality provided the public with a sense of kindliness in government. Moreover, as far as the general public were concerned, this simplicity was by no means a handicap. The world experts had prescribed, in vain, for the Great Depression: let a plain man have his say. One must conclude therefore that, pre-eminently, Michael Joseph Savage was the man for his times.

by Bruce Macdonald Brown, M.A., New York Office, Department of External Affairs.

• Michael Joseph Savage, New Zealand Labour Party (1940)
• The New Zealand People at War, Wood, F. L. W. (1958)
• New Zealand Truth, 27 Mar 1940 (Reminiscences of Hon. P. C. Webb)
• The Rise of New Zealand Labour, Brown, Bruce (1962).

(1820–95).

Superintendent of Nelson.

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

Alfred Saunders was born on 12 June 1820 at Market Lavington, Wiltshire, one of the 10 children of Amram Edwards Saunders, a well-to-do flour-miller, and of Mary, nèe Box. He was educated privately and attended Dr Day's school in Bristol for a year. From 1834 until 1838 he worked in his father's business, being stationed principally at Bath. He spent a year at Congresbury, Somerset, where he managed a mill and bakery belonging to John Wilmott, a Quaker. Through his association with the Quakers, Saunders met Frederick Tuckett and became interested in the affairs of the New Zealand Company. He decided to emigrate to New Zealand; and in September 1841 Saunders sailed in the Fifeshire for Nelson, where he arrived on 17 January 1842. Saunders set up as a flourmiller in the Waimea district and, shortly afterwards, became secretary of the Land Purchase Society, but resigned after the Wairau Affray because he considered the society had exceeded its functions. In 1845 he moved to Australia, where he remained until about 1849. On his return to New Zealand he took an active part in the settlers' campaign for self-government. For 10 years following 1855 he represented Waimea South on the Nelson Provincial Council and served as Provincial Secretary, under Robinson, for two years (1863–65). In 1860 his political career was interrupted briefly when the Nelson District Judge, W. T. L. Travers, gaoled him for contempt of Court. Saunders' seat in the Council automatically became vacant, but his constituents re-elected him while he was serving his sentence. Thereupon Gore Browne intervened to pardon him – the first occasion in which the Royal Prerogative was invoked for a political offence in New Zealand. On 1 February 1861 he was elected to represent Waimea in the House of Representatives, but resigned three years later in order to give his attention to the provincial secretaryship. In 1865 he defeated Barnicoat for the superintendency, holding office until 1867 when he resigned to visit England. During his term Saunders took strong action to apprehend Burgess and the Maungatapu murderers. From 1867 until 1872 he lived in England; he then returned to New Zealand and settled in Canterbury. He was elected to Parliament for Cheviot in 1877 when his sympathies caused him to support Grey. In 1880 Hall appointed him chairman of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service. The Commission's report, which led to the removal of the Chief Railway Commissioner in each island and to the retrenchment of many lesser officials, made its members extremely unpopular and cost Saunders his seat in 1881. He returned to Parliament for Lincoln, 1889–90, and Selwyn, 1890–96. when he retired from politics.

Outside his political career Saunders was active in temperance circles and converted Fox to this cause. He differed with the movement's leaders, however, and in later years confined his efforts to a personal demonstration of the benefits of total abstinence. Saunders was deeply interested in education and strongly supported the introduction of the “Nelson system”. He was one of the first governors of Nelson College and Ashburton High School and served on the Nelson Provincial Board of Education and the North Canterbury Education Board. In Canterbury he owned a large sheep station and was responsible for introducing Leicestershire and Southdown sheep and, also, the large and small breeds of Berkshire pigs. He wrote several works on farming. Most notable among these are Our Domestic Birds (1883) — a practical treatise on poultry production — and Our Horses — or the Best Muscles Controlled by the Best Brains (1886). Finally, between 1896 and 1899, he published his two-volume History of New Zealand, 1642–1893. Although this work is interesting for the light it throws upon New Zealand politics of the period, both colonial and provincial, as a “history” it has little merit.

On 1 January 1847, at Sydney, Saunders married Rhoda Flower (died 1898), daughter of an old Nelson colonist. There were five sons and two daughters. After his wife's death Saunders went to England where, on 6 October 1899, he married his cousin, Sarah Box. He returned to New Zealand towards the end of 1904 and died at May's Road, Christchurch, on 28 October 1905.

Saunders was too uncompromising in his views to make a successful politician and twice declined ministerial office because he would not adjust his opinions to meet those of his colleagues. His own ideas had been shaped by an early association with Herbert Spencer's family, but his style in controversy is reminiscent of William Cobbett. In the cut and thrust of parliamentary debate Saunders preferred the mace to the rapier.

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

• Tales of a Pioneer — Episodes in the Life of Alfred Saunders, Saunders, A., and Saunders, E. (jt. ed.) (1927)
• Nelson Colonist, 31 Oct 1905 (Obit)
• The Press (Christchurch), 30 Oct 1905 (Obit)
• Lyttelton Times, 30 Oct 1905 (Obit).

(1860–1942).

Novelist and poet.

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

William Satchell, elder son of Thomas Satchell and Hannah, nèe Mordey, was born on 1 February 1860 in London, where his father was a high civil servant with literary interests, who edited several books and two magazines, and became Surveyor-General before his death in 1887. William was educated at Hurstpierpoint and Heidelberg University. His friend Allan Fea recalls him returning from Germany in “a velvet coat and smoking cap” to set up as a publisher in London. But the business failed after he had put out books of poems, essays, and sermons, including his own Bedlam Ballads and Straitwaistcoat-Stories (1883) and Will o' the Wisp and Other Tales in Verse and Prose (1883).

As these youthful publications had little success, Satchell sailed for New Zealand in May 1886 with Elmer J. Brown. After inspecting land in the Waikato and Whangarei districts, they took up a Maori block at Waima, Hokianga. On 15 November 1889, Satchell married Susan Bryers (died 1937), a grand-daughter of Joseph Bryers. Two years later he gave up the farm because its title was invalid, becoming storekeeper at Waima until 1893, when he was forced out of business by the depression and returned to Auckland.

In April 1894 his humorous tale, Why I Came to New Zealand, was the first of many stories and poems in the New Zealand Graphic over the pseudonym “Saml. Cliall White”. He also contributed to the Sydney Bulletin and was influenced by the Australian “bush” school of writers of the eighteen-nineties. His book, Patriotic and Other Poems (1900) was well received in Auckland, and during the following year he edited The Maorilander, a shortlived literary magazine, most of the contents of which he wrote himself.

Satchell's first novel, The Land of the Lost (1902), was a realistic story of the North Auckland gum-fields, drawn from his experiences and observations at Waima. It was followed by a second masterly study of pioneer Hokianga settlers, The Toll of the Bush (1905), and a third novel, The Elixir of Life (1907), which was based on incidents during his voyage out. These books were deeply rooted in their colonial setting and showed a considerable advance in fictional technique over earlier New Zealand novels.

In 1909 Satchell became secretary to the Auckland Horticultural Society, and in 1920 accountant to the S. P. Gibbons Timber Co. During these years he lived mainly at Mount Roskill, Auckland, where he raised a family of nine children. His novel of the Maori Wars, The Greenstone Door (1914), was based on long research and personal inspection of the battle areas in the Waikato. It has been continually reprinted and is now recognised as a classic of the period, with its authentic historical portraits and its passionate plea for better understanding between the two races.

Satchell was a small, shy man with an aristocratic demeanour which led to him being known to his friends as “the little Duke”. In 1939 he was awarded a Civil List pension. He died in Auckland on 21 October 1942. His poetry is largely popular and satirical, but in fiction his outstanding qualities of literary craftsmanship, his sense of humour, deep understanding of pioneer and racial problems, and sustained narrative skill establish him as the first major New Zealand novelist.

by Phillip John Wilson, M.A., Author, Wellington.

• Recollections of Sixty Years, Fea, Allan (1927)
• The Maorilander — A Study of William Satchell, Wilson, Phillip (1961).