Tree ferns are a conspicuous feature of the New Zealand vegetation; there are two genera: Dicksonia and Cyathea. Of Dicksonia there are three endemic species: (1) the widespread D. squarrosa, the silvery tree fern, which can produce stolons and thus colonise vegetatively; (2) D. fibrosa, with a mass of fibrous roots which sometimes form a trunk 2 ft in diameter; and (3) the woolly tree fern, D. lanata, which creeps on the ground. The genus Cyathea contains the largest and most beautiful tree ferns; there are eight species found here, four of them being common: (1) Cyathea medullaris, the black tree fern, or mamaku, with hexagonally marked black trunk, and black stemmed fronds up to 20 ft long; (2) Cyathea smithii is recognised by the light-brown stalks of dead fronds which persist and stand out round the stem like a ballet skirt; (3) the silver king, C. dealbata, easily recognised by the white-backed fronds; (4) the mountain tree fern, C. colensoi, which is semi-prostrate and lacks an indusium. There are two fine species found in Kermadec Islands. The genus Cyathea is distinguished from the genus Dicksonia by the presence of scales on the fronds; the latter has bristly hairs, moreover, the sori of Cyathea are round and away from the margin of the leaf, but in Dicksonia the sori are marginal with a two-valved indusium. The young fronds of Cyathea medullaris are beautiful as they first appear, tightly coiled, covered with large, shiny brown scales, and then as they gradually uncoil, still with these brown scales.

There are 28 species of filmy ferns of the family Hymenophyllaceae found in New Zealand. The fronds are thin and delicate and the sporangia are conspicuous; they are borne on receptacles which sometimes project from the margins of the leaves. Filmy ferns are found throughout the country; the largest forms and most luxuriant grow in the damp forests. They vary from the large Hymenophyllum dilatatum, which may reach 2 ft in height, to the tiny H. minimum, less than 1 in. high. Under suitable conditions Mecodium dilatatum may also grow to a large size, and other minute forms are Sphaerociarium lyalli and Craspedophyllum armstrongii. The kidney fern, Cardiomanes reniforme, with undivided leaves fringed with prominent sori, is common throughout the country. Some members of this family are matforming; others are tufted, as the lovely Mecodium pulcherrimum, the stiff little Selencodesmium elongatum with protruding receptacles, and Macroglena stricta.

Among simple forms are two species of the adder's tongue, Ophioglossum, and the parsley fern, Botrychium australe, with finely divided leaves, and the allied mountain species, B. lunaria. In the north there is the magnificent king fern, Marratia salicinia, with fronds up to 12 ft long and queer, fused sporangia. Of the royal fern family, Osmundaceae, we have the fine Todea barbara of the far north, with its tall, stiff tufts of fronds, and its beautiful relative, the Prince of Wales feathers, Leptopteris superba, found in damp woods.

Vastly different are the small Schizaea spp., not at all fern-like in appearance, one of which, the fan fern, S. dichotoma, is found in kauri forests. Of the same family is that intriguing climber, the mange mange, Lygodium articulatum, which festoons forest trees, climbing by the midrib of the leaf. It is sometimes said to have the longest leaf in the world.

Five species of Gleicheniaceae are found here and they show more advanced forms. These are sun-loving ferns with an unusual method of growth. The frond divides into two branches; later each of these may divide again. The northern Gleichenia fiabellata and the widespread umbrella fern, G. cunninghamii, are both very handsome. G. dicarpa, common in swampy places, and G. microphylla are both heath-like plants. The tropical Dicranopteris linearis is found near hot springs of the thermal regions.

(The name Dicanopteris may now be used for Gleichenia, but the latter is the name by which the rather unusual genus is popularly known, and is used by Allan.)

A remarkable and very beautiful plant is Loxoma cunninghamii, with distinctive elegant triangular fronds up to 4 ft long. The little sori on the frond margin have their sporangia on tiny projecting columns. This is found only in the northern half of the North Island.

Ferns are abundant in all damp situations in New Zealand forests, forming the undergrowth beneath a dense canopy of evergreen trees. They are found growing also on trunks and branches of trees, on banks of streams, and in the open, even on dry hillsides. There are over 150 species found in this country, representatives of 12 families, and of these species 54 are not found elsewhere; they are endemic. It is not the number of species in New Zealand but their great variety which makes them so interesting, ranging from filmy ferns, only 1 in. high, to large tree-ferns, which often form part of the canopy of the forest.

Ferns may well be regarded as fascinating amphibians of the plant world, for there are two distinct stages in the life cycle of each plant, one of which is dependent on water. The fern plant with which we are familiar usually grows on land; it represents the asexual generation – the sporophyte – and bears spores on mature fronds. These spores are borne in cases, the sporangia, which are usually collected in groups or sori, on the under surface of the leaf. Each sorus usually has a protective covering, the indusium. The sori differ considerably in form and position and are useful as a means of identification. They may be in a cluster, in marginal lines, or the whole of a fertile frond may be entirely covered with spore cases. There is often an intricate mechanism for the release of the spores, each of which is capable of producing a new plant, but of a different form. This is extremely small, a thread-like or heart-shaped structure growing close to the ground, but is green and self supporting. This is the prothallus, and because it bears the gametes, or sex organs, is called the gametophyte. On it are produced male organs, antheridia, from which tiny free-swimming sperms are set free and depend on films of water for finding their way to the egg cells, still within the archegonium, embedded in the prothallus. When a sperm has fused with an egg cell the fertilised egg produces a new plant, unlike itself, the large, conspicuous sporophyte. Thus we see an alternation of generations, two types of plants; the sporophyte bearing asexual spores which give rise directly to the gametophyte on which sex organs are produced. The latter is seldom noticed; it is the sporophyte generation which we regard as the fern plant. Some ferns have also efficient means of vegetative reproduction as the underground stems of bracken, Pteridium esculentum, and the “sporelings” or “bulbils” on the surface of fronds of the hen-and-chicken ferns, Asplenium bulbiferium.

(1832–1907).

Eighth Governor of New Zealand.

Sir James Fergusson was born at Edinburgh on 14 March 1832, the eldest of four sons of Sir Charles Dalrymple Fergusson (1800–49) and Helen, daughter of David, Lord Boyle. He was educated at Rugby and at University College, Oxford, but left to join the Grenadier Guards, with whom he served in the Crimea (1854–55). Fergusson was elected Conservative member for Ayrshire (1855–57) and again (1859–68). He became (1866) Parliamentary Under-Secretary to India Office, and (1867) Home Office, and a Privy Councillor (1868). He was Governor of South Australia from 1869 to 1873, where he gave his Ministers material assistance in organising the telephone system. He became Governor of New Zealand in 1873, but resigned shortly after Disraeli regained office in 1874. He returned to England, where he tried unsuccessfully to re-enter Parliament. On 10 March 1880 he was appointed Governor of Bombay, where he headed a most energetic administration, and his measures in agriculture, famine relief, and local government made the province the most progressive in India.

Fergusson relinquished his government on 27 March 1885, and returned to England, where he represented Manchester Northern Division in the House of Commons (1885–1906). He acted “with stolid discretion” as Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office (1886–91), and was Postmaster-General (1891–92). He represented the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., in which he was a director, at the British Cotton Growing Association at Kingston, Jamaica, in 1907, and while there was killed in the disastrous earthquake on 14 January 1907. He is buried near Kingston.

Fergusson married three times, and his first wife, Lady Edith Christian, daughter of the Marquess Dalhousie, was the mother of Sir Charles Fergusson. His second marriage, on 11 March 1873, to Olive, daughter of John Henry Richman, of Warnbunga, South Australia, was celebrated in New Zealand, the only “Royal” wedding to take place in the colony.

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

• Governors' Papers (MSS), National Archives.

(1865–1951).

Third Governor-General of New Zealand.

Sir Charles Fergusson was born on 17 January 1865, the eldest son of Sir James Fergusson and Lady Edith Christian, daughter of the Marquess Dalhousie. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst and joined the Grenadier Guards. He served with the Egyptian Army under Kitchener, taking part in the Sudan campaigns of 1896–98, and rising to the position of Adjutant-General (1900–03). He was Major-General commanding the 5th Division, Irish Command (1912–14), and was thus one of the senior officers present at the fateful conference at the Curragh in March 1914, and succeeded in circumstances requiring great diplomatic skill to hold his division to its duty.

Fergusson commanded the 2nd and, later, the 17th Army Corps in France, before becoming (1918–20) Military Governor of Cologne. He contested, unsuccessfully, South Ayrshire as a Unionist in 1923, and on 13 December 1924 assumed office as Governor-General of New Zealand, which he retained until 8 February 1930. The Fergussons were extremely popular in New Zealand, identifying themselves in the happiest way with the people's welfare, and doing all in their power to assist in the social and industrial development of the Dominion. Sir Charles was chairman of the West Indies Closer Union Commission in 1933, and Lord Lieutenant of Ayrshire from 1937–51, where he died on 20 February 1951.

Fergusson married, on 18 July 1901, Lady Alice Mary Boyle, second daughter of Lord Glasgow, by whom he had four sons and one daughter.

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

• The Times (London), 21 Feb 1951 (Obit).

(1911– ).

Tenth Governor-General of New Zealand.

Bernard Edward Fergusson was born on 6 May 1911, the younger son of Sir Charles Fergusson and of Lady Alice, née Boyle. Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, he joined the Black Watch in 1931. From 1935 to 1937 he acted as aide-decamp to General Wavell at Aldershot, and then served for a year in Palestine before becoming an instructor at the Royal Military College. During the Second World War he served in the Middle East and India, joined Wingate's expeditions into Burma in 1943–44, and commanded the 16th Infantry Brigade in the 1944 expedition. He was Director of Combined Operations (Military) in 1945–46 and Assistant Inspector-General of the Palestine Police, 1946–47. From 1948 to 1951 he commanded the 1st Battalion, Black Watch, which position he relinquished to become Colonel in the Intelligence Section at Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers, Europe. In 1955–56 he commanded the 153rd Highland Brigade, Territorial Army, serving with the Allied Force Headquarters during the Port Said operations in the latter year. From 1957 until his retirement in 1958 he commanded the 29th Infantry Brigade. On 9 November 1962 he succeeded Lord Cobham as Governor-General of New Zealand. He was created G.C.M.G. in 1962 and G.C.V.O. during the royal visit to New Zealand in 1963.

Sir Bernard is the author of a number of books in the field of military history. These include Beyond the Chindwin (1945); The Wild Green Earth (1946); The Black Watch and the King's Enemies (1950); Rupert of the Rhine (1952); The Watery Maze – the Story of Combined Operations (1961); Wavell – Portrait of a Soldier (1961); and Return to Burma (1962).

On 22 November 1950 Sir Bernard married Laura Margaret, younger daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Morton Grenfell, D.S.O.; they have one son.

(1858–1948).

Professor of ophthalmology in the University of Otago, dean of the medical faculty.

A new biography of Ferguson, Henry Lindo appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Ferguson's father was a chemist and a founder of the Chemical Society, who was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Dublin Society for his researches upon silver nitrate, the foundation of modern photography. Henry Lindo Ferguson was born in London on 7 April 1858, going with his family to Dublin in 1866. He was educated in private schools in Ireland and entered the Royal College of Science for Ireland in 1873 at the early age of 15 years. At the age of 16, he was awarded one of two Royal Scholarships in Industrial Chemistry. Ferguson decided, however, to enter medicine. He enrolled at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was a gold medallist for his preliminary work in arts. He qualified in medicine in 1880 and decided to train for ophthalmology, entering into residence at St. Mark's Ophthalmic Hospital, Dublin. His subsequent post-graduate studies included experience in Germany, and an assistantship to the late Charles Fitzgerald, then Oculist (in Ireland) to the Queen. In 1883 he took the F.R.C.S. (Ireland). His health being unsatisfactory, he decided to come to Dunedin where there was a medical school. He was at once appointed honorary ophthalmologist to the Dunedin Hospital staff and in 1886 lecturer in ophthalmology in the medical school. During the next 65 years he established not only the speciality of ophthalmology in New Zealand, but in addition built a modern medical school on the firm foundations already laid by Dr John Halliday Scott. His family background and early training in science and the arts as well as in his own speciality provided him with a wide view of life which enabled him to guide the rapidly growing medical school on sound lines of development. In May 1914 he was elected dean of the faculty of medicine. He immediately commenced to plan a modern medical school housed in new buildings adjacent to the Dunedin Hospital, with adequate finance, staff, and equipment. For the next 22 years – in season and out of season – he devoted all his energies and abilities to this end. He retired from the staff of the Dunedin Hospital in 1934 after 52 years' distinguished service in the department of ophthalmology.

In 1909 the University of Otago made him professor of ophthalmology in recognition of his 25 years of service as lecturer. In 1924 he received the honorary fellowship of the American College of Surgeons; in 1927 he became a foundation fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, and in 1935 the University of Melbourne conferred on him an honorary M.D. He was created C.M.G. in 1918 and was knighted in 1924.

Throughout his long life in Dunedin his gracious hospitality was extended to students and staff alike. His generosity was proverbial. He endowed the Ferguson Fund to assist medical research in the medical school and contributed substantially to setting up a dean's fund to assist students in financial difficulties. He donated many books and journals to the medical library. He was a member of the University Council and of the New Zealand University Senate, was president of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Association, and a foundation member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

In 1884 at Dunedin Ferguson married Mary Emmeline Butterworth of Dunedin, by whom he had one son, Gerald.

He died on 22 January 1948, in his ninetieth year.

by Charles Ernest Hercus, KT., D.S.O., O.B.E., U.D., M.B. CH.B.(N.Z.), M.D., D.P.H., B.D.S., F.R.C.P., F.R.A.C.P., F.R.A.C.S., Emeritus Professor, University of Otago.

• Medical Practice in Otago and Southland in the Early Days, Fulton, R. V. (1922)
• Annals of the University of Otago Medical School, 1875–1939, Carmalt Jones, D. W. (1945).

(1847–1929).

Newspaper manager and editor.

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

George Fenwick was born on 2 February 1847, in Sunderland, Durham, where his father Robert was an ardent supporter of the Chartist movement. In 1853 the family emigrated to Victoria and, after an unprofitable stay, were persuaded by W. H. Reynolds, then Otago's Immigration Agent, to move to Otago where they arrived on the ship Challenger on 23 January 1856. Fenwick was educated in Dunedin at the Lower High Street School and J. G. S. Grant's Academy, and at the age of 12 years, in 1859, was apprenticed as a printer to the Otago Witness. Two years later he entered the service of Julius Vogel'sOtago Daily Times. He decided to try his luck in Australia and spent some time in Sydney in 1866, before accepting a position on the Townsville Cleveland Bay Express, but returned to Dunedin on the death of his mother during the same year and rejoined the Otago Daily Times. In 1868 he accepted an offer of partnership in the Tuapeka Press at Lawrence with James Matthews, a former Times colleague, but the district could not support two papers and the Tuapeka Times bought out the Press in September 1869. Throughout his business career, Fenwick never forgot the importance of this lesson in the economics of newspaper publishing.

Fenwick and Matthews then founded the Cromwell Argus. To complete the Press contracts while forestalling a threatened rival paper to the Argus, Fenwick struck off the first issue at the Press office in Lawrence and carried the copies on horseback, riding nearly 90 miles to deliver them in Cromwell by the following morning. Before long he found country journalism too limited and sold his interest in the Argus to his brother William, and joined John Mackay in his Dunedin printing business. In 1875 he accepted the position of manager of the Otago Guardian. The proprietors were losing money and sold the property to George M. Reed, the editor, who retained Fenwick as manager and soon afterwards took him into partnership. Fenwick realised that Dunedin could not support two morning dailies and persuaded Reed to join him in an extremely ambitious scheme. With the assistance of W. H. Reynolds as negotiator, Reed and Fenwick became the proprietors of the rival Otago Daily Times, which now incorporated the Guardian, and the weekly Otago Witness, incorporating the Southern Mercury. The amalgamation necessitated a reduction in staff and the former Times employees founded the rival Morning Herald published at one penny in competition with the Times at threepence. Fenwick's answer was to float the Otago Daily Times and Witness Co. Ltd. in April 1878, with himself as managing-director and Reed as editor of the Times. The success of the enterprise was assured when, after 28 months of argument, he persuaded the directors to reduce the price of the Times to a penny in February 1881. Fenwick immediately undertook a canvass in the city and the province, with the result that the circulation doubled in a fortnight and trebled in three weeks. Reed returned to England in 1879 and thereafter Fenwick controlled the development of the paper, first as managing-director and from 1890 as editor and manager.

As manager Fenwick showed immense ability and by energetic administration and shrewd business acumen developed the company into a sound commercial concern. He was a founder of the Newspaper Proprietors' Association. Far sighted and progressive, he saw the need for a reputable paper to keep abreast of changing conditions and in 1897 visited England and America to purchase linotype machinery to supersede the handset machines. The result was a larger paper with an increased revenue from advertisements, though he saw to it that advertising remained subordinate to the dissemination of news.

Fenwick believed that a daily paper should be dignified and free from sensationalism and should supply the public with accurate up-to-date news. To this end he was one of the inaugurators of the New Zealand Press Association. Though his policy was conservative, he was never afraid to champion a controversial cause if he believed it to be just. In 1888 Rutherford Waddell preached a sermon in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Dunedin, attacking the sweating industry, and the Times, after investigating his charges, supported the attack with a series of special articles. The outcome was the formation of the Dunedin Tailoresses' Union, and Fenwick was asked to arbitrate in the ensuing dispute between the tailoresses and their employers. In 1881 he had arbitrated in a dispute between seamen and shipowners, and his genius for inspiring confidence in both parties and for honest and fair treatment caused him to be appealed to in a number of subsequent disputes.

For nearly 20 years he was editor as well as manager and proved himself a truly great editor. He considered that the paper was a national rather than a provincial organ and his journalistic sense was acute and perceptive. Under his direction the Otago Daily Times became one of the most influential and respected newspapers in the country. He used the paper's and his personal influence to support a number of causes, including the establishment of satisfactory public abattoirs, the financial support of the University of Otago, and the inauguration of the Hocken Wing of the Otago Museum. He declined political and municipal offices as incompatible with his editorial duties. Fenwick relinquished the editorship to James Hutchinson in 1909. In the same year he visited Great Britain as one of the New Zealand delegation to the first Imperial Press Conference and was appointed chairman of the New Zealand delegation. He also served as chairman of the 1918 delegation. In 1919 he was knighted both for his services to journalism and to the community.

A man of wide sympathies, Fenwick was a member of many organisations. He founded the Otago Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1885 to counter the prevailing cruelty to horses. He was Government member of the Prisons Board from its foundation in 1927 and a vice-president of the Patients' and Prisoners' Aid Society. He served on the governing bodies of the Hocken Library, the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Rotary Club, and the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce. He possessed great strength of character and a strong personal magnetism combined with considerable powers of persuasion which he employed to gain support or raise funds for various worthy causes. Energetic and vigorous, he delighted in tramping and was a keen gardener and amateur botanist. He published a number of pamphlets on his tramps and his botanical collections.

Fenwick married Jane, daughter of David Proudfoot, in 1874. He died in Dunedin on 23 September 1929.

by Gloria Margaret Strathern, B.A., DIP.N.Z.L.S. formerly Librarian, Hocken Library, Dunedin.

• Otago Daily Times, 24 Sep 1929 (Obit)
• Dominion, 24 Sep 1929 (Obit).

(1821–98).

Chief Judge of the Native Land Court.

A new biography of Fenton, Francis Dart appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Francis Dart Fenton was born in 1821 at Huddersfield, Yorkshire, and was the son of Francis Tarrant Fenton, a London solicitor, and Frances, née Ashby. He was educated at Sheffield Collegiate School and afterwards studied law in his uncle's office at Huddersfield. Fenton practised in England for a few years, but, because his health was failing, he decided to emigrate to New Zealand. In 1850 he sailed for the Canterbury settlement in the Barbara Gordon; however, he broke his voyage at Auckland, where his cousin, James Armitage, was living. At first Fenton rented land on the south bank of the Waikato River. In 1852 he became music teacher at Maunsell's mission at Maraetai. While at the mission he attracted Sir George Grey's attention and, shortly afterwards, received a position in the Deeds Office in Auckland. In February 1854 Fenton was appointed Resident Magistrate for Kaipara district. He remained there until March 1856, when Governor Gore Brown promoted him temporarily to the Native Secretaryship. At this time the Native Department was about to be integrated with the Land Purchase Department. Fenton disagreed with the proposed merger because, as he saw it, it could mean that every political question referred to the Native Department would tend to be evaluated according to its possible impact upon the sale of land. Such views naturally involved him in a bitter clash with McLean, the Government Land Purchase Commissioner, and, as a result, Fenton's appointment as Native Secretary terminated abruptly. Early in 1857 the Ministry appointed him Resident Magistrate at Whaingaroa, but he was transferred to the Waikato-Waipa district in a similar capacity a few months later. Fenton's appointment to the latter district was made pending the passing of the Native Districts Regulation Act of 1858, and his duties were to prepare the way for the institutions envisaged by the Act. In 1857 he toured the Waikato, holding Courts and meetings at which he explained the proposed system of magistrates, native assessors, and runangas (councils), and arranging for the erection of permanent courthouses in various tribal centres.

As a result of his tour, Fenton submitted several unusually preceptive reports on the situation he found there. In these he made three suggestions covering important facets of the problems posed by the “King” movement. Working from the assumption that the Maoris' discontent derived from economic causes, Fenton noted that much of the land, which was formerly under cultivation, had become a wilderness of noxious weeds. He suggested, therefore, that the Government should encourage the Maoris to sow grass on their former cultivations in order that good pasture lands, with their associated industries, might be established. In connection with the Government's attempt to introduce new institutions and a written legal code into Maori districts, Fenton showed that means were needed to enforce the judicial decisions passed down by the Courts. As European methods of law enforcement appeared unsuitable to the situation, he suggested that the native assessors and influential chiefs should be given this duty. Fenton's third suggestion concerned the administrative practices of the Native Department. He deprecated the Department's habit of corresponding on important matters directly with the Maori chiefs without any reference to their local officers. This practice led to much unnecessary confusion and, when the Maoris discovered that their local officer possessed little or no influence with the Governor, their respect for his authority declined rapidly. The Government, however, did nothing about Fenton's reports because McLean believed that the “King” movement was unstable and would collapse if it were left to its own devices. In other respects Fenton's work in the Waikato was not so successful. He neglected to visit Potatau Te Wherowhero, and took no steps to reconcile him to the Government's policies. Instead, Fenton organised a “Queen's” party in opposition to the “King” and, although the Colonial Office was inclined to applaud this, it was a politically unsafe move which tended to strengthen the “Kingite” extremists. Early in 1858 Fenton made a second tour of his district and took the first (very incomplete) Maori census.

Shortly afterwards Fenton was withdrawn from the Waikato. He was given the post of Assistant Law Officer in Auckland and, in 1862, became a parliamentary agent. He drafted much of the native legislation during this period and was often consulted by the Governor. In 1864, when Ministers assumed responsibility for Native Affairs, Fenton was recalled for consultations. He found defects in the Native Lands Act of 1862 and drafted the amending Act of 1865. In the latter year he became Chief Judge of the Native Land Court, which post he retained until his retirement in 1881. As Chief Judge he had to administer the New Zealand Settlements Act of 1869 and distributed the £200,000 which Parliament voted to compensate the Taranaki settlers for losses sustained during the Maori Wars. In 1869 Fenton was summoned to the Legislative Council, but his appointment was invalidated by the Disqualification Act passed the following year. He was later appointed Circuit Judge for Auckland district, and for two years held this concurrently with his Chief Judgeship.

Fenton drafted the Domain Act of 1861 and served as chairman of the Auckland Domain Board for many years. He was also a member of the Board of (Auckland) City Improvement Commissioners and, from 1868 to 1886, a member of the Auckland Grammar School Board. He founded the Auckland Choral Society and bame its life president. In 1885 Fenton took up land near Helensville and planted one of the first vineyards in the district. He was an enthusiastic viticulturist and believed that wine-making would become a major industry. He retired to Auckland in 1895 and died at his home in Jermyn Street on 23 April 1898.

On 9 December 1858, at St. Matthew's Church, Auckland, Fenton married Martha, daughter of William Connell, an Auckland auctioneer. By her he had two sons and four daughters.

Fenton was considered by some to have been one of the finest New Zealand social anthropologists of his day. He wrote little in this field, however, and most of his work remains among the unpublished records of the Native Department. His first publication – Observations on the State of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of New Zealand (1859) – is a study of the first Maori census and contains many pertinent comments about the reasons for the then declining Maori population. In 1884 he delivered a series of lectures, which were afterwards printed as Suggestions for a History of the Origins and Migrations of the Maori People. This is, as Fenton said, a collation of contemporary opinions on the subject, but he favoured the theory of a migration from the Malayan Archipelago. These, together with a volume of Native Land Court judgments, constitute his published work. Because of his feud with McLean, much of Fenton's work as a civil servant has been forgotten. K. Sinclair, who compares the relative merits of the two men, says that Fenton was the ideal man to frame a native policy, while McLean was well fitted to carry it out.

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

• The Maori King, Gorst, J. E. (1959)
• The Origins of the Maori Wars, Sinclair, K. (1957)
• New Zealand Herald, 25 Apr 1898 (Obit).