(Struthiolaria papulosa).

This fine shellfish grows up to 3 in. in height and is easily recognised by its massive white lip and radiate pattern of reddish-brown bands. It is representative of a family which has developed in New Zealand from Cretaceous times and apparently arrived here, via Antarctica, from South America. Related living species are now found only in Southern Australia, Kerguelen Island, and South Georgia. Our species lives half buried in sand at low tide on coastal beaches.

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

(1830–1916).

Speaker of the House of Representatives

A new biography of O'Rorke, George Maurice appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

George M. O'Rorke was born in 1830 at Moylough, County Galway, Ireland, the son of the Rev. John O'Rorke, an Anglican minister and large landowner, and Elizabeth, née Dennis. He took his B.A. with high honours in classics at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1852. Before long he emigrated to Victoria where he spent two years working on a station. He came to Auckland in 1854 with Henry Taylor, a college friend (later inspector of schools in Auckland), and commenced farming at Papakura and Onehunga. In 1858 he married Cecilia Mary (who died 19 September 1910), daughter of Alexander Shepherd, one-time Colonial Treasurer of New Zealand. He was clerk to Auckland Provincial Council (1859–60) and in 1861 was elected to the House of Representatives for Onehunga town, which area he represented, with one break, until 1902. Gazetted captain in the New Zealand Militia on 17 November 1864, O'Rorke saw service in the Waikato. He represented Onehunga on the Provincial Council from 9 November 1865 until the abolition of the provinces, and was the Council's Speaker during this period. He served on the Provincial Executive from November 1874 to May 1875, succeeding to the Superintendency on James Williamson's death on 16 February 1875. His term, however, was brief, and he yielded office five weeks later to Sir George Grey.

O'Rorke spent two sessions (1871–72, 1873) as Chairman of Committees in the House, and became Minister of Crown Lands and Immigration in the Waterhouse, Fox, and Vogel Ministries, and in the latter added the portfolios of Justice and Stamp Duties. He resigned his portfolios on 13 August 1874 when Vogel brought down his resolutions to abolish the provinces, a policy O'Rorke considered to be “political treason”. He became Speaker of the House on 11 July 1879, holding this office until 5 November 1902, except for the years 1891–93 when he was out of Parliament. O'Rorke was created Knight Bachelor in 1880, and was appointed to the Legislative Council on 25 June 1904, where he served until his death. He was admitted to the Bar in 1868, and was one of the first to take advantage of the Law Practitioners Act which allowed graduates of approved universities to qualify.

Sir Maurice took a great interest in education, and was a co-founder of Auckland Grammar School, serving on its Board of Governors from 1869, and as chairman from 1880. He was chairman of the Royal Commission on University and Secondary Education (1878), first chairman of Auckland University College Council (1883–1916), a member of the Senate of the University of New Zealand (1879–1916), and at his death on 25 August 1916 he was chairman of the Auckland Domain Board and of the Dilworth Trust.

As Speaker, O'Rorke's reputation stood very high in the Empire. His control over the House was complete, his knowledge of precedents faultless, and if there were no precedent for a ruling he never shrank from creating one. A convinced provincialist in politics, he regularly tabled motions for its restoration, and in his later years acquired wide fame as an advocate of Imperial federation. His attitude towards education was liberal and practical; he did much to foster public libraries in the Auckland Province, and he urged the widening of university faculties by the establishment of Chairs for Architecture, Music, Commerce, Law, and Divinity.

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

• The Times (London), 28 Aug 1916 (Obit). O'Rorke Letters, Diaries, & Papers (MSS), Auckland University Library.

(1832–1917).

Superintendent of Hawke's Bay, Minister of Public Works, member of the Legislative Council.

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

J. D. Ormond was born in 1832 at Wallingford, Berkshire, England, the son of Captain Frank Fredrick Ormond, RN, and of Frances, née Hedges. He was educated at Plymouth and, at the age of 16, came to New Zealand in the Ralph Burnell as the protég of E. J. Eyre, the newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New Munster. Their relationship became closer in April 1850 when Eyre married Ormond's elder sister. In December 1849 Eyre appointed Ormond as his private secretary and Clerk of the New Munster Executive Council. In June 1852, when the first native land purchases in Hawke's Bay were made, Ormond resigned and took up a sheep run near Waipukurau. For some years he busied himself developing his run but the agitation in 1858 for the creation of separate provincial institutions in Hawke's Bay led him to enter politics. On 7 March 1859 the Waipukurau electors returned him to the new Provincial Council of which he remained a member – successively representing Porangahau and Hastings – until the abolition of the provinces in 1876. He was Speaker of the Council in 1859, a member of the Executive (Provincial Treasurer) from April 1861 and, between 1863 and 1869, on four occasions, he acted as Deputy Superintendent to Sir Donald McLean. On 3 September 1869, when the latter resigned, Ormond succeeded him as Superintendent and retained this office until 31 October 1876. As might be expected of one of the first settlers in the province, Ormond took a keen interest in promoting public works and immigration. In his first years as Provincial Treasurer he proposed two such projects – draining Napier's swamps, and leasing the Ahuriri Plains for close settlement. Unfortunately, however, the province's finances precluded action being taken in either case. Ormond's superintendency saw considerable development in the province, and he undertook to carry out arrangements for some of the immigration measures that were a feature of the 1870s. The Fox Government proposed, in conjunction with their railway-construction and public works policy, to locate a number of Scandinavian immigrants in the area known as Seventy-mile Bush. At the Government's request, Ormond agreed to have the land surveyed and subdivided. In September 1872 Ormond accompanied the newcomers to Norsewood and Dannevirke where he arranged for the allocation of sections. His work in this connection is commemorated in Ormondville – the name given to one of these settlements.

Ormond represented Clive in the House of Representatives from February 1861 to November 1881, and Napier from July 1884 until October 1890. On 18 September 1869 he was appointed to succeed Donald McLean as “Agent for the General Government in the Province of Hawke's Bay and adjoining districts”, and in this position he had to organise supplies and reinforcements for Whitmore's East Coast campaign against Te Kooti. His efforts in this regard were given special commendation in Sir George Bowen's address at the opening of the 1870 parliamentary session. Ormond served briefly as Minister of Public Works under Fox (1871–72), and Water-house (1872). He was Secretary of Crown Lands, and Minister of Immigration under Atkinson (1876), and held the portfolios of Public Works, Postmaster-General, and Telegraphs in the reconstructed Atkinson Ministry of 1876–77. Ormond did not seek re-election after the 1890 session but, on 20 January 1891, accepted a seat in the Legislative Council where he remained until his death, in Napier, on 6 October 1917.

Ormond was one of the founders of Napier Grammar School which subsequently developed into the two high schools of today; he was also chairman of the Board of Governors when these moved to their sites on Scinde Hill. He was largely responsible for the Hawke's Bay Provincial Education Ordinance and always kept an interested eye upon its operation – in fact, there was, during his superintendency, one occasion when, in order to assist the inspector who was ill, Ormond personally inspected several of the province's schools. For many years after the passing of the Education Act (1877) he served as chairman of the Hawke's Bay Education Board.

In the field of local administration, Ormond was chairman of the county council and of the Napier Harbour Board. In connection with the latter, in provincial days, he had suggested the development of the Ahuriri Lagoon, and was instrumental in obtaining Sir John Coode's report on the project. Subsequently, when Coode's plan was discarded in favour of a breakwater scheme put forward by Goodall, another engineer, he became a strong supporter of the new scheme. Ormond was the chairman of the first Hawke's Bay Rivers Board where he made a great effort to induce the district to agree upon a uniform plan for soil conservation and river control.

On its foundation in 1863, Ormond was secretary of the Hawke's Bay Club. He was a promoter of the Hawke's Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society, the society's second show (1866) being held during his presidency. He was successful as an exhibitor, and his poultry, sheep, and horses regularly secured championship awards. The racehorses from his Karamu stud were deservedly famous and, over the years, won nearly every major racing and trotting trophy in New Zealand including the Auckland Cup, the New Zealand Cup, and, on two occasions, the Wellington Cup. Until the end of his life Ormond was a member of the New Zealand Racing Conference.

As an early settler of the district, Ormond participated in many of the native land deals, and the evidence shows that he was one of the few who was scrupulously fair in his relations with the Maoris. From relatively modest beginnings he so expanded his interests that, by 1871, he held six large sheep runs as well as two smaller farms; in that year his sheep tallied nearly 28,000. By 1907 his sheep and cattle operations alone were reaping him a profit of £5,000 a year. In addition to his own runs, Ormond was associated with other large land holdings, and, in 1876, one of these – the 30,000-acre Oruanui run on the shores of Lake Taupo – involved him in lengthy Court proceedings against Sir George Grey, the former owner. Besides his farming activities Ormond participated in many industrial ventures. He was among those who established the boiling-down and freezing industries in Hawke's Bay; and he was a promoter of the Buller Coal Co. and of the unsuccessful Maharahara Copper Mining Co., in the Ruahine foothills behind Dannevirke.

In 1859, at Te Aute, Hawke's Bay, Ormond married Hannah, the sister of G. E. G. Richardson, a Napier merchant and co-founder of the Richardson Line of coastal steamers. By her, he had three sons and two daughters.

Although one of the largest land holders in Hawke's Bay, Ormond is now remembered chiefly for his public services. In provincial politics he became known as Sir Donald McLean's alter ego, a fact which has to a large extent tended to obscure Ormond's own contribution, particularly in regard to public works. In 1858 he was one of the prime movers in the campaign to secure provincial separation from Wellington. Fifteen years later he realised that the provincial system had served its purpose and was thus one of the three Superintendents in the House of Representatives to vote for abolition. Throughout his political career Ormond continued a feud with Sir George Grey. This had its origin in the 1840s over Grey's treatment of Lieutenant-Governor Eyre, was fanned by their differences over the land question and over the Oruanui run, and culminated, in 1877, in the Grey Party's attempt in the House of Representatives to have Ormond impeached for his share in the Heretaunga Plains purchase. In the bitter debate which followed, Ormond cleared himself of the charges. Gisborne who knew him, described Ormond as “a man of great mental power, cool, observant, cautious and resolute; a deep thinker but lacking in sympathy. He was indifferent to office and dropped out at the first opportunity to devote himself to the affairs of his district”.

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

• Ormond Papers (MSS), Hawke's Bay Museum and Art Gallery
• N.Z.P.D. Vol. 25 (1877)
• Hawke's Bay Herald, 8 Oct 1917 (Obit).

One of the main rivers of Southland, it rises in the Thomson mountains west of Lake Wakatipu and flows 105 miles southward to enter Foveaux Strait by the New River estuary near Invercargill. The catchment area is some 448 sq. miles, and major floods occurred in March 1913 of 84,000 cusecs at Winton and in June 1955 of 19,686 cusecs at Lochiel Bridge. A representative rate of flow at Mossburn Bridge on 12 October 1954 was 7,047 cusecs. The upper reaches of the river flow in mountainous sheep-farming country, but the main reaches lie across the plains of the Waimea district and Southland. The river, which is generally clear, flows over a gravel bed and is used at several places as a source of domestic and municipal water supply. The major intake near Branxholme, north of Invercargill, supplies that city and Bluff with much of its water. The estuary near Invercargill affords facilities for boating.

Like many Maori place names, the meaning of Oreti is obscure. Perhaps the name was originally Koreti which means “a snare at yonder place” or “the snare”. If Koreto, the meaning is “trickling down”.

by Bryce Leslie Wood, M.SC., New Zealand Geological Survey, Dunedin.

In its objects, organisations, customs, and methods, the Priory in New Zealand of the Most Venerable Order of St. John of Jerusalem follows the Grand Priory of the Order in England (itself the inheritor of objects and customs of the voluntary confraternity founded at the end of the eleventh century); and although the widest practicable degree of autonomy is conferred on the Order in New Zealand, it remains subject to the statutes approved in the Grand Priory's royal charter. All members of the order must be citizens or nationals of New Zealand or its dependencies, must profess the Christian faith, and must have performed, or be prepared to perform, good service for the order and for its work in accordance with its mottoes – Pro Fide (For the Faith) and Pro Utilitate Hominum (For the Service of Mankind). All admissions to or promotions within the order are sanctioned by Her Majesty the Queen, as sovereign head of the order.

The first New Zealand centre of the St. John Ambulance Association was formed in Christchurch in 1885, followed later in the same year by Wellington. The Dunedin Ambulance Division, formed in 1892, was the first St. John Brigade unit organised in New Zealand and the first to be established outside the United Kingdom. The first nursing division in New Zealand (and only the second outside the United Kingdom) was formed in 1895, and in 1904 the first brigade district was constituted. The first cadet division was formed at Wanganui in 1927.

On 7 January 1910 administration of the order's work was undertaken by a Dominion executive. A commandery was established in 1931 and became a priory on 16 September 1946. The Governor-General is prior of the order in New Zealand, which is administered by a Priory Chapter and Priory Council. The three foundations of the order are the St. John Ophthalmic Hospital in Jerusalem, the St. John Ambulance Association, and the St. John Ambulance Brigade.

The objects of the St. John Ambulance Association are instruction in first aid and the provision of necessary equipment, and instruction in home nursing, child welfare, and hygiene. Lecturers in first aid and nursing are registered medical practitioners and State registered nurses. The association issues about 7,000 certificates of proficiency each year. Its ambulances, representing about 60 per cent of all ambulance transport in the Dominion, travel more than a million miles a year in transporting over 100,000 cases. Most of the drivers are unpaid volunteers. Roadside first-aid posts, mobile clinics, and linen guilds are among other St. John activities.

The St. John Ambulance Brigade trains and maintains a body of men and women thoroughly efficient in first aid and auxiliary nursing. It provides reserves for the medical services of the armed forces and public hospitals (through trained voluntary aids) and is ready for any emergency. All service is voluntary. Members must pass annual examinations and must attend not less than 12 practices each year to remain efficient. Cadet divisions afford boys and girls the opportunity to learn and practise first aid, home nursing, and other subjects conducive to the training of good citizens. The distinctive uniform of the St. John members are seen at all public gatherings.

by G.M.

(Family Orchidaceae).

The orchid comprises one of the largest families of flowering plants, containing as it does over 15,000 species. It is also one of the most widely spread families, for members are found in most parts of the world although the plants themselves are never very numerous in any one place. The peculiar structure of the flowers, designed principally for special insect and sometimes bird fertilisation, makes the family distinctive. Beautiful and grotesque flower development is to be seen especially in tropical species. These have been varied a great deal further by hybridisation, for they are cultivated very widely indeed. Such cultivation is a highly developed art.

In New Zealand there are some 60 species, most of them insignificant in appearance by comparison with many other orchids. Nevertheless, they are noteworthy because they are the representatives of such a large and universal family. The best known is perhaps Dendrobium cunninghamii, found perched on trees throughout lowland forests. It has large, many-flowered racemes of whitish or pinkish flowers, each about three-quarters of an inch across. Earina mucronata is also epiphytic on trees throughout lowland forests and has white, sweet-scented flowers. E. autumnalis is a somewhat similar species, but frequently occurs as a ground plant in beech forest. The most abundant species outside forest areas is Microtis uniflora. It has a single, tubular leaf on a stout stem growing to a height of up to 2 ft above ground level. The single flower spike bears numerous small green flowers. Bulbophyllum pygmaeum is a minute species growing on the trunks of trees. It has a small bulb at the base of each leaf which acts as a water storage organ. This ability to store water is displayed by many orchids, particularly in their root systems. The outer surface of roots is usually spongy. Gastrodia cunninghamii is a curious orchid found in damp bush. It has a thick, starchy root-stock from which a stem, clothed with brown scales, grows about 2 ft high. The flowers are a dirty green, spotted with white, and have an unpleasant smell. Pterostylis is one of the larger New Zealand genera containing about a dozen species or more. They are all terrestial plants with mostly large, greenish flowers possessing boat-shaped hoods. From the lower lip two long, acuminate points jut up. P. banksii is one of the most abundant of New Zealand orchids.

Many of the New Zealand orchids occur also in Australia. Nearly all the genera are found in both countries and about eight genera are confined to them.

by Alec Lindsay Poole, M.SC., B.FOR.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Director-General of Forests, Wellington.

On 30 March 1864 Colonel Haultain informed General Carey that Maoris were present in force at Orakau, a village about 3 miles south-east of Te Awamutu. When Carey reconnoitred, he found them building a pa on the crown of the slightly rising ground at Rangataua, about 400 yards from the mission church. The earthworks were oblong, about 80 ft by 40 ft, and formed a redoubt with an external trench and high parapet. Inside this was another trench well traversed against an enfilading fire and converted into a series of dugouts for protection against shellfire. The defenders were Waikatos and Ngati Maniapotos, reinforced by a party of 140 from the Tuhoe and related tribes. They were led by Rewi Maniapoto.

Carey planned a threefold attack on the position and dispatched Major Blythe and Captain Blewitt to surround the pa with small forces, while he advanced, more directly, with the main body. At dawn on 31 March the troops were in position, but failed to take the pa by direct assault. Carey then decided to approach it by means of a sap while, at the same time, his infantry were drawn close to prevent the defenders from breaking out. During the afternoon 200 Tuwharetoa, under Te Heuheu Horonuku, were seen on a nearby eminence, but well-directed shellfire discouraged their attempt to relieve the pa. On 1 April Carey received reinforcements and work continued on the sap. Early in the morning on 2 April Carey had one of his six-pounder Armstrong guns moved into the sap to within point-blank range of the earthworks. At noon Sir Duncan Cameron arrived on the field and, being impressed by the defenders' courage, he offered them an opportunity to surrender. Rewi refused and, shortly afterwards, the attack was renewed with grenades and shells. The gun in the sap breached the earthwork and Rewi abandoned the pa. For two hours his party was followed by cavalry; nightfall, however, terminated the pursuit and the survivors escaped.

Maori casualties in the engagement were high. Out of the 300 defenders (men and women), 150 were killed and most of the remainder were wounded. Twenty-six wounded and seven unwounded prisoners were taken in the pa. British casualties, out of a force of 1,474, were, according to the official return, 15 killed and 54 wounded. The attacking force comprised units of the Artillery, Engineers, 12th, 18th, 40th, 65th, and 70th Regiments, together with the Colonial Defence Cavalry, the Militia, and the Forest Rangers, the latter being under Jackson and Von Tempsky.

Little now remains of the Orakau pa because the Kihikihi road runs through the middle of the defences.

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

Opotiki is situated between the mouths of the Waioeka and Otara Rivers where they enter the head of Opotiki Harbour, an estuarine lagoon opening to the south-eastern shore of the Bay of Plenty. The town occupies flat land. The surrounding alluvial plain, known as the Opotiki Flats, extends 5–10 miles south into the foothills of a mountainous hinterland. The Whakatane-Gisborne section of main highway via Waimana and Waioeka Gorges passes through the town. By road Opotiki is 38 miles east of Whakatane and 93 miles north-west of Gisborne (218 miles via Te Araroa). Taneatua, the nearest railhead, is 31 miles south-west.

The main farming activities of the district are sheep and cattle raising, dairying, and agricultural farming. Maize is an important crop. Milling of native timber is carried on in the vicinity of Toatoa (23 miles south-east). Opotiki is the chief commercial centre of the south-eastern Bay of Plenty district. Town industrial activities include the manufacture of butter, clothing, joinery, and concrete products; bacon and ham processing; and sawmilling.

Opotiki was originally the most populous of several Maori settlements in the vicinity of Opotiki Harbour and was known as Pakowhai. It was a main settlement of the Whakatohea tribe. In August 1861 the Rev. Carl Sylvius Volkner arrived at Pakowhai to establish a mission station and, with Maori help, built a church. When the Whakatohea allied themselves with the Maori “King” movement in 1864, Volkner took his wife to Auckland for safety. During his absence Hauhau emissaries converted most of their tribe to the cause and, subsequently, the mission station was sacked. Volkner was brutally murdered when he returned in March 1865. A punitive expedition arrived by sea on 8 September 1865 and landed at the present town site. Fighting ensued and the hostile inhabitants fled. Intermittent skirmishing with the Hauhaus continued in the immediate district until about the middle of 1868. Most of the original Opotiki settlers were members of the 1st Waikato Regiment who were allotted sections. With the expansion of farming the town grew as a market centre. Opotiki was linked to Gisborne by road by 1900. Until May 1955 Opotiki was a minor port used by small vessels and berthage was provided in the Otara River at the town. Goods for the town and surrounding districts were also landed at Kutarere on the eastern side of Ohiwa Harbour and were carried by road 12 miles to Opotiki. The port of Opotiki was reopened during 1956 and was used up to March 1959. Kutarere was used until October 1959. Opotiki was created a town district in 1874 and in 1911 became a borough. Opotiki is said to be a contraction of Opotikimaitawhiti, which was the name of a spring on the coast near the present town. The literal meaning of the present name is “the place of children”.

On 11 and 12 March 1964 the Opotiki district experienced the worst flood within living memory. The Otara and Waioeka Rivers broke their banks and flooded the business area of the town; and, when the Waimana River burst its banks, the nearby settlement of that name had to be evacuated. In Opotiki two people lost their lives during the flood.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 1,998; 1956 census, 2,346; 1961 census, 2,559.

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

This name was given to a young female bottlenosed dolphin (genus Tursiops) which throughout the summer of 1955–56 frequented the beach at Opononi, Hokianga, inviting repeated human contact and playing with bathers and children in a manner not previously recorded for a wild dolphin since Roman times.

The dolphin was first noticed by Hokianga fishermen in early 1955, when it followed their boats, alone. During that year it was found to enjoy being scratched with an oar, and closer contact began to be made. It froliced around small boats and followed them to the shore, and with the coming of summer it began to encounter humans in the water. Being presumed a male it was at first named Opononi Jack, by association with Pelorus Jack. This was later shortened to Opo.

By Christmas 1955, at the height of the holiday season, Opo could be relied on to appear almost every day, and could be summoned by the sound of an outboard motor, audible to her from a great distance. Certain children, especially, established friendly contact. She permitted stroking and scratching, and even short rides by smaller children. One girl, Jill Baker, was notably successful and believed that the dolphin recognised and enjoyed her presence. Children or adults who were rough were avoided. As in the last known similar case (at Hippo, about A.D. 100, described by Pliny the Younger) the dolphin drew large crowds to the tiny township. They were not as at Hippo an embarrassment to local resources but a source of profit. A committee of protection was formed and notices were erected asking for careful behaviour.

It was found that Opo enjoyed playing with a rubber beach ball. She would toss it high in the air with her snout, rushing forward to let it fall on her back. She also turned over, rolled the ball along her belly and flipped it upward with her tail. She played similar games with a beer bottle, and alongside a boat would present her throat for scratching with an oar. A movie film records that on one occasion when schoolchildren formed a ring by linking hands, Opo entered the ring, tossed a beach ball, and gently swam out again. No child was injured by her movements and no one was bitten during about four months of frequent contact.

As with Pelorus Jack, official protection was asked for, and this was promised early in March 1956. By Order in Council the Fisheries (Dolphin Protection) Regulations 1956 were to become law at midnight on March 8. On that day the dolphin did not appear as usual, and a search began. On 9 March she was found dead, jammed in a rock crevice where the tide issues from a large rockpool at Koutu Point. Local belief was that, either deliberately or accidentally, she was stunned by a gelignite blast. (Explosives are illegally used to obtain fish.)

The news caused sorrow throughout the country. In Whangarei on 10 March a girls' hockey team wore black armbands on the field. The Governor-General, Sir Willoughby Norrie, telegraphed his sympathy to the children of Opononi. The animal was identified by E. G. Turbott as a Tursiops, about three-quarters grown. Hence it had probably lost its mother before weaning (cf. Pelorus Jack). Opo was buried beside the R.S.A. hall and her grave was decked with flowers. Later, the sculptor Russell Clark carved and donated to Opononi the figure of a boy and dolphin, in Hinuera stone. (For a fuller account, see A Book of Dolphins, Alpers, A.)

by Antony Francis George Alpers, Editor, Caxton Press, Christchurch.

(1853–1911).

Thirteenth Governor of New Zealand.

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

Lord Onslow was born at Bletsoe, Bedfordshire, the only son of George Augustus Onslow (1813–55), nephew of the Third Earl, and of Mary Harriet Ann, eldest daughter of Lieutenant-General William Loftus of Kilbride, County Wicklow. He was educated at Eton, and Exeter College, Oxford, succeeding his great-uncle as Fourth Earl in 1874. On 3 February 1885 he married Hon. Florence Coulston, eldest daughter of Alan Legge, Third Lord Gardner. He served, successively, as Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria, Under-Secretary of State for Colonies, Vice-President of the Colonial Conference (1887), and Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade.

Onslow was appointed to succeed Sir William Jervois as Governor of New Zealand on 24 November 1888, and assumed his duties on 2 May 1889. On the defeat of the Atkinson Ministry in 1891, he appointed a number of Legislative Councillors on their advice. This was contested by the incoming Ballance Ministry, but Onslow defended the legality of his action, and the ensuing constitutional difficulty added considerable interest to his term of office. He resigned the Governorship in February 1892, and returned to England where he served as Under-Secretary of State for India (1895–1900), for Colonies (1900–03), and President of the Board of Agriculture, with Cabinet rank (1903–05). He was Chairman of Committees and Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords (1906–11) and died at his son's house in Hampstead on 23 October 1911.

In spite of constitutional differences, Lord Onslow maintained excellent relations with his Ministers, and his interest and influence remained ever at the service of New Zealand Ministers visiting London.

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

• Seddon Papers (MSS), National Archives.