The office of Ombudsman was created in New Zealand in 1962. The name, like the office, originated in Sweden and literally means an attorney or representative. The usual, though less meaningful translation, is “Commissioner”. The Ombudsman is an officer of Parliament appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the House of Representatives for a term equal to the life of a Parliament (usually three years). His principal function is to investigate complaints concerning administrative acts, decisions, and recommendations of Government Departments and certain other Government organisations. Decisions of Courts and administrative tribunals on the one hand and matters of policy on the other are outside his province. Nor has he any power in respect of the acts and decisions of local authorities, a fact that some have criticised.

In New Zealand, as elsewhere, there has been an increasing intervention by the State in the lives of its citizens. Few spheres of activity are unaffected by the exercise of administrative powers. Although this has brought benefits it has increased the opportunity for abuses, not necessarily deliberate, by the officials who wield these powers. Where administrative actions are illegal or without authority, recourse to the Courts gives an adequate remedy. Some decisions are made judicially by administrative tribunals, often with a right of appeal. In a few cases an administrative decision may be taken to Court on appeal, or to a special tribunal. There has hitherto been no adequate means, however, of reviewing on their merits most lawful acts or decisions in the ordinary course of administration. The only redress was political – to appeal to the Minister, seek the intervention of a member of Parliament, or petition Parliament. These were, and will continue to be, useful methods of redress, but for various reasons they are not always adequate.

Those seeking a solution to the problem turned to the law of some European countries which have machinery to remedy administrative errors and injustices. France has in the Conseil d' Etat something like an administrative Court to control the use of administrative powers. Sweden, since 1809, and Denmark, since 1954, have taken a different approach, and it was the Danish system that found favour in New Zealand. The new legislation resembles its Danish model in general approach and in many details.

The Ombudsman may investigate a matter on written complaint or on his own motion. A Parliamentary Committee may refer a petition to him for report. He cannot investigate a Minister's decision directly, but may investigate a Department's recommendation to its Minister. Certain acts and decisions, notably where the law already gives a right of appeal or review on the merits, are excluded. The Ombudsman has, moreover, a discretion in certain other cases not to investigate, for instance, if the complaint is delayed, trivial, or vexatious, or if the complainant has an insufficient personal interest in the matter.

Investigations are conducted in private. They are informal, but no adverse report may be made on anyone unless he has been heard. The Ombudsman may enter Government premises, examine files and papers, and obtain oral information on oath. Documents may be withheld only in exceptional cases, as, for example, where national security is involved. If the Ombudsman concludes that the act, decision, or recommendation in question was unlawful, unreasonable, or unfair, or was based on an unreasonable or unfair law or practice or on a mistake, or that a power has been used improperly, or that reasons for a decision should have been given, he will report to the Department or organisation concerned and recommend appropriate action. If his recommendation is not carried out, and he is still unsatisfied, he may report to Parliament. It is a principle of the legislation that the Ombudsman has no power himself to compel anything to be done or to alter a decision. His function is to recommend and report, leaving it to the Minister, if he wishes, to defend the act or decision in Parliament. The constitutional principle of ministerial responsibility is thus preserved.

It is too early to judge the success of this experiment in New Zealand. The standard of the Public Service is high. Already it is plain that, as in Denmark, most complaints are without foundation, but the correction of even a few injustices will be worth while. The Ombudsman's principal potential value, moreover, is the public's knowledge that a searching and impartial inquiry will be made into their grievances.

by Bruce James Cameron, B.A., LL.M., Legal Adviser, Department of Justice, Wellington.

Lake Omapere in Northland is situated 4 miles north of Kaikohe. It is 2¾ miles long and 2 miles wide. A number of volcanic cones are close to the lake and an ancient lava flow from one has blocked a valley and formed the lake, which is 780 ft above sea level. It has a remarkably constant depth of from 7 to 9 ft. Hot soda springs are found near the south-western shore. The lake bed, on which can be detected tree stumps of a submerged forest, was for many years of disputed Maori ownership. The low-lying swamp land surrounding the lake is an ideal habitat for the tall-plumed native grass (mapere), hence the name.

by Leslie Owen Kermode, B.A., Geological Survey Station, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Otahuhu.

From 1908 until 1920 New Zealand joined with Australia to send Australasian teams to the Olympic Games. Since 1920 New Zealand has taken part in the Olympics as a separate nation. The following are the New Zealand medallists from all Olympics since 1908:

(1883–1957).

Director of the Dominion Museum, naturalist.

A new biography of Oliver, Walter Reginald Brook appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

W. R. B. Oliver was born in 1883 at Launceston, Tasmania, the son of Henry Oliver, and of Josephine Caroline, née Stevenson. When his parents moved to New Zealand and settled at Tauranga in 1896, Oliver attended the district high school. Later he joined the Customs Department, was stationed at several New Zealand ports, and rose to become a Senior Examining Officer.

While still in Tasmania, Oliver showed an interest in natural history and began his collection of shells. This interest appears to have crystallised about 1906 when he joined a group of enthusiasts in Christchurch. At this period he began recording observations of all botanical and zoological phenomena which came his way. These notes, together with publications and extracts from magazines, developed gradually into what he called his “system”– an extensive, magnificent record of all aspects of biology in New Zealand and abroad. In 1908 Oliver accompanied F. S. Oliver, W. Wallace, and T. Iredale on a 10 months' expedition to Sunday Island in the Kermadecs. The experience gained there gave him confidence to produce articles and papers embodying his own investigations. The First World War interrupted his scientific studies, but in 1919 on his return from overseas service he spent five weeks at Tahiti, where he gathered botanical and zoological specimens for the Dominion Museum. In 1920 he joined the staff of the Dominion Museum as Senior Scientific Assistant, and was engaged until 1925 in revising Cheeseman's Manual of New Zealand Flora. About this time he began attending courses at Victoria University College where he won a senior scholarship in zoology and, in 1928, graduated M.Sc. with first-class honours. In the previous year he had been elected a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

In 1928, on the death of Dr J. Allan Thomson, Oliver became Director of the Dominion Museum, and held the position until his retirement in 1947. He was thus responsible for planning the exhibits when the museum moved to its new site on Wellington's Mount Cook. In 1937–38 Oliver was awarded a Carnegie Travel Grant which enabled him to visit many of the world's great museums, where he studied planning and administration techniques and gathered many ideas later to be incorporated in the Dominion Museum's collections. Oliver published in 1930 his monumental New Zealand Birds (revised and enlarged edition 1955), which quickly became the standard reference work in this field. In 1934 he produced a paper, Revision of the Genus Caprosma, for which he gained the doctor of science degree. The Royal Society of New Zealand awarded him its Hector Medal and Prize in 1936 for his botanical researches and, in 1950, its Hutton Memorial Medal, in recognition of his zoological and botanical attainments.

Oliver was active in many learned societies, including the Swedish Plant Geographical Society, the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (its New Zealand secretary for 40 years, and president in 1944), the British Ornithological Union, the Fiji Society, and the Malacological Society of London. He was a fellow of the Linnean Society, and of the Zoological Society of London. He was president of the Wellington Philosophical Society (1929–30), Government representative on the Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand for many years (president from 1952 to 1954, and editor of its Transactions from 1948 to 1954), first president of the New Zealand Association of Scientists, chairman of the Botany Section of the Seventh (Auckland, 1949) and Eighth (Manila, 1953) Pan Pacific Science Congresses and, in 1953, he presided over the Eighth Royal Society of New Zealand Science Congress.

On 7 September 1920, at St. Paul's Church, Devonport, Auckland, Oliver married Isabella Anne (1895–1954), daughter of Ebenezer Robertson Cardno, merchant, and by her he had one son and two daughters. He married, secondly, at Masterton, on 24 February 1956, Helen Charlotte, daughter of James Miller Laing of Invercargill. Oliver died on 16 May 1957 at 26 Ventnor Street, Seatoun, Wellington.

In 50 years of an intensely active life Oliver published 69 books, papers, and articles, which covered most fields of natural science. His work on New Zealand Birds ranks him with Sir Walter Buller. Although the full importance of his work is still scarcely appreciated outside scientific circles, and in spite of his apparently slight physique, and shy, unassuming manner, Oliver made an impact on the New Zealand scientific world which will cause his work to be long remembered. His unique biological collections, together with the voluminous data which made up his “system”, was bequeathed to the Dominion Museum.

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

• Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Vol. 85 (1957) (Obit) and Bibliography
• Emu, Vol. 57 (Dec 1957) (Obit)
• Evening Post, 17 May 1957 (Obit).

Lake Ohau, on the boundary between Canterbury and Otago, 112 miles by road from Timaru, has an area of about 23 sq. miles, and lies 1,704 ft above sea level. Its 460 sq. miles of catchment, which extend to the main divide of the Southern Alps, are drained principally by the Dobson and Hopkins Rivers and their numerous tributaries. The inflow varies between 400 and 13,700 cusecs, and averages about 3,000 cusecs. Unlike the other two Mackenzie Country lakes, Pukaki and Tekapo, Lake Ohau is not predominantly glacier fed, although there are small glaciers in the heads of the main valleys. The water is clear and cold (46°F). The present lake occupies the lower end of a glaciated valley and is confined by a moraine 16,000–18,000 years old.

The water level in Lake Ohau is not controlled, but the Ohau River contributes water to the Waitaki River on which is the 105-megawatt Lake Waitaki hydro-electric station. Other stations under construction or planned will also use water from the lake.

The name Ohau occurs frequently among Maori place names and the meaning usually accepted is the literal one, “windy place”.

by Leslie Eric Oborn, A.O.S.M., New Zealand Geological Survey, Christchurch.

Ohakune is situated on undulating land immediately south-west of Mount Ruapehu. The North Island Main Trunk railway passes 2 miles north-east of the town's business centre, at Ohakune Junction. From Ohakune Junction a branch goods railway line connects with Raetihi. Rochfort, on this line, is the goods railway station serving Ohakune. Raetihi is 9 miles west of Ohakune, Waiouru is 17 miles south-east by road. By rail Ohakune is 202 miles north of Wellington, and 224 miles south of Auckland.

The main farming activities of the district are sheep and cattle raising. There is some market gardening and berry fruit cultivation. Timber is milled in the 17,000-acre Karioi State Forest (8 miles south), and native timber is milled in the district, notably at Horopito (9 miles north). Ohakune is a servicing and distributing centre. Sawmilling and general engineering are the only important industrial activities in the town. It is a base for mountaineering and other outdoor activities in the south-western part of the nearby Tongariro National Park.

About the middle of the seventeenth century a Maori village located at Rangataua, 3 miles south-east, was attacked and the inhabitants were driven from their homes by Ngati Raukawa raiders. The raiders threw 75 of the slain victims into Rangatauanui, the larger of the two lakelets called Rangataua Lakes (3 miles south-west). The dozen or so survivors fled to Mangaorongo and established a pa in a clearing in dense bush on the present site of Ohakune. The road from Pipiriki to Ohakune was commenced in 1892, and by 1894 it was available for vehicle traffic throughout. By 1896 it was in good summer condition as far as Karioi. Substantial progress northwards towards Waimarino did not take place until the middle 1890s. In 1883 Rochfort commenced the first engineering reconnaissance for the Marton – Te Awamutu section of the North Island Main Trunk railway, and Ohakune became a base for his work. The town site later became a permanent camp for railway and road construction workers. By March 1908 the railway line had reached Ohakune, and on 3 August the rails were linked on Manganuioteao Viaduct (14 miles north). On 6 November the last spike was ceremoniously driven by the Prime Minister, J. G. Ward. Settlement of the town is considered to have commenced in the early 1890s. The period of railway construction activities was followed quickly by intensive timber milling. As the forest was cleared, cattle and sheep were introduced and farming progressed. Ohakune was constituted a town district in August 1908 and in November 1911 attained borough status.

The meaning of the name Ohakune is obscure

POPULATION: 1951 census, 1,621; 1956 census, 1,626; 1961 census, 1,542.

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

Immediately below the upper water masses there is another water mass, the Antarctic Intermediate Water. This is derived from a mixture of Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Waters which sink at the Antarctic Convergence and spread north almost as far as the Equator. The vertical distribution of salinity shows a minimum value at depths somewhere between 800 and 1,200 metres, and this salinity minimum marks the core of the Antarctic Intermediate Water. As this water moves towards the north it mixes with the over and underlying waters and the salinity minimum becomes less and less pronounced.

Two water masses present below the intermediate layer are Deep Water and Antarctic Bottom Water. The Antarctic Bottom Water is formed near the Antarctic continent and, being very cold and dense, it sinks and spreads northwards. This water has been traced well north of the Equator. The Deep Water originates mainly in the high latitudes of the North Atlantic Ocean where surface waters are cooled. The consequent increase in density causes the cooled water to sink and it spreads southwards. South of the Equator the Deep Water continues in southward movement above the northgoing Antarctic Bottom Water and below the northgoing Antarctic Intermediate Water, and eventually helps to replace the water that is moving away from the Antarctic Ocean. It may be seen, therefore, that a huge process of turnover operates within the ocean. The rates involved in this turnover process are not yet known, but long-term studies involving the radioactive carbon-dating of sea water are being carried out both in New Zealand and overseas.

by Norman MacKillop Ridgeway, New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, Wellington.

The surface water movements just described give rise to the coastal current pattern illustrated in the map below. It must be pointed out, however, that the circulation pattern is generalised and that at any one time a particular current may be either strongly or weakly developed. Much more investigational work will be necessary before a complete description of the currents can be given.

Three currents arise from the movement of subtropical water in the Trade Wind Drift. These are the East Auckland Current, the West Auckland Current, and the East Cape Current, all of which are southgoing. The East Cape Current lies offshore except where it meets the coast some distance south of East Cape.

The Tasman Current gives rise to two coastal currents, the Westland Current which flows northward along the west coast of New Zealand until it meets the West Auckland Current, and the Southland Current which flows east through Foveaux Strait and then north along the Otago coast. The water in these currents may be described as being modified subtropical water since it has been transported well south over a long distance and has different characteristics from the subtropical water found in, say, the East Cape Current. A branch of the Westland Current enters Cook Strait from the west and is called the D'Urville Current, so named because the famous navigator, Dumont d'Urville, on an occasion in 1827, was the first to note its existence when his ship was unexpectedly carried by the current well into Cook Strait from the west. The Canterbury Current is a cool, north-flowing current which contains water from the Southland Current, together with Sub-Antarctic Water of the West Wind Drift which has upwelled from below the surface. This current can extend as far north as Gisborne.

A shallow, well-mixed layer, approximately 50 to 200 metres thick, forms the surface layer of the oceans, the mixing resulting from the effect of wind and waves. The vertical differences of temperature and salinity within this layer are very small but the water properties can change fairly rapidly because the layer is subjected to solar radiation, evaporation, and precipitation. At the bottom of this layer there is a region where the vertical temperatures decrease rapidly over a small depth, with consequent sharp changes in the density of the water. This region is called the thermocline and mixing cannot proceed rapidly there because of the steep density gradient which exists. As a result, water properties such as temperature and salinity do not change quickly below the thermocline. These conservative properties are used to classify oceanic water into various “water masses”, and the movement of these water masses can be traced over long distances. This fact is used as a subsidiary method of determining currents. Different water masses exist at different depths and a vertical section may consist of an upper, intermediate, deep, and bottom water mass.

Two distinct upper water masses are present in the immediate vicinity of New Zealand, the Sub-Antarctic Water Mass lying to the south and the Subtropical Western South Pacific Water Mass lying to the north. These two water masses meet in a region called the Subtropical Convergence Region which is often (but not always) characterised by comparatively sharp changes in temperature and salinity between the warmer, more saline subtropical water and the cooler, less saline Sub-Antarctic Water.

The Sub-Antarctic Water Mass extends southwards to somewhere between about 54° s and 62 s where another major boundary, the Antarctic Convergence, separates the Sub-Antarctic Water from the colder Antarctic Water. The Sub-Antarctic Water Mass thus lies in the westerly wind belt of the so-called Roaring Forties and Fifties, and the main movement of this water is towards the north-east. This movement is called the West Wind Drift.

The subtropical waters move mainly westwards under the influence of the south-east trade winds and this movement is called the Trade Wind Drift. The Australian continent bars the westward movement of part of this Trade Wind Drift and the water is deflected to move southwards off the east coast, thus forming the East Australian Current. When the subtropical water transported by this current meets the north-east-moving Sub-Antarctic Water, it turns and moves eastwards across the Tasman Sea as the Tasman Current.

Various methods have been devised to enable currents to be measured directly. Much useful information has been gained by observing the effect of surface currents upon the navigation of ships. Drift bottles and drift cards have also been used, the cards being placed either in a ballasted bottle or in a plastic waterproof envelope and released at sea. The finder fills in details of the recovery position and forwards the card to the investigator. Much of the knowledge gained about the coastal currents of New Zealand was obtained by the use of drift cards.

Subsurface currents are generally measured with current meters. These instruments, which measure current velocity and direction, are used more particularly in coastal waters since they are operated either from a ship or a buoy. Their principal disadvantage is the fact that they measure the current velocity relative to the ship or buoy and even an anchored ship moves at the end of its anchor line, particularly in deep water. A promising method for measuring deep currents has recently been developed in England. A small float fitted with a device which produces an ultrasonic signal, is ballasted to float at the required depth. A ship fitted with a suitable sound receiver can then track the movements of the float and so obtain a direct measurement of the deep currents. This method demands precise position-finding by the ship because the movements of the float are measured relative to the ship's movements.

In view of the difficulties encountered in measuring currents directly, oceanographers often employ an indirect method in which hydrodynamical equations of motion are used. The dynamic computation of currents depends upon the accurate measurement of temperature, salinity, and depth, and techniques are used which enables these measurements to be made. A metal bottle fitted with a valve at each end is attached to a wire and lowered with the valves open to the approximate desired depth. A weight which slides down the wire is then released. This strikes a release mechanism on the bottle which turns over and the valves close to obtain a sample of water. Normally a number of bottles are attached to the wire at various depths. The samples obtained can then be analysed for any desired properties. Salinity can be determined by chemical analysis but physical methods are often used, and a standard of accuracy of ±0.02%0 can be readily obtained. The average value of salinity within the oceans is 35%0 (%0 means parts per thousand). Reversing thermometers are mounted on the sampling bottle and when the bottle turns upside down the mercury columns break and record the temperature at the depth of sampling. Corrections are applied to the thermometer readings to allow for the expansion of mercury after it is brought on deck. Two types of thermometer are used on each bottle. One type is protected from the water pressure by a strong exterior glass sheathing. The other type is not protected from the pressure and the bulb of mercury is therefore compressed by an amount which depends upon the depth. Thus the unprotected thermometer gives a higher reading than the protected thermometer and the difference amounts to about 0.01°C for each metre of depth. The standard of accuracy for each type is about ±0.01C.