Until 1950 New Zealand fencers had no experience of international competitions. In that year, when the Empire Games were held at Auckland, a fully representative New Zealand team was entered. Since then New Zealand teams have competed at the 1954 (Vancouver), 1958 (Cardiff), and 1962 (Perth) Empire Games.

In 1961 when an Australian national team toured Zealand, the associations of the respective countries agreed to make these tours biennial. A New Zealand team visited Australia in 1963. During these tours the Australasian Shield is competed for by Australian and New Zealand Test teams. In addition, Australian and New Zealand universities compete for the Whitmont Cup.

Although the art of fencing has a long and fascinating history, the rules of modern fencing were not drafted until 1896 when the sport appeared on the venue at the first Olympic Games. In 1913 the first world governing body, the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime, was set up in Paris where the first European championship was held.

Fencing was introduced into New Zealand in 1916 when Major T. Brown, of the Indian Army, gave tuition to a class of New Zealand Territorial officers in Auckland. The first clubs were formed at Otago and Canterbury Universities during the 1920s, and these were followed by the Christchurch Swords Club, one in Invercargill, and several in Wellington. In 1934 members of the Auckland Operatic Society formed the Auckland Swords Club, and soon afterwards, similar clubs took shape at Thames, Tauranga, Timaru, and Nelson. The New Zealand Amateur Fencing Association, which controls the sport in this country, was formed at Christchurch in 1937. It is affiliated with the Fédération Internationale and the Olympic and British Empire Games Association. In 1938 the first national championships were held. They continued in the following year, remained in abeyance during the war years, and were resumed in 1946. Since 1938 New Zealand championships have been contested in the following events: foil, pe, and sabre – for men; and foil for women. In 1960 a men's Master-at-Arms Trophy was instituted.

(1858–1946).

Merchant and collector.

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

Willi Fels was born at Halle on the Weser on 17 April 1858, the eldest of four children of Heinemann Wilhelm Fels and his wife Kätchen, an elder sister of Bendix Hallenstein. In 1870 he was sent to a Jewish school run by Dr Albert Fels, a cousin of his father, where he embraced Judaism with conviction, but later he attended a school in Hildesheim where, influenced by a gifted headmaster who taught physics, he gave up his religious convictions. Fels hoped to study history at a university, but obeyed his father's wishes and entered the family shoddy mill at Neuhaus near Paderborn. In 1881 his uncle, Bendix Hallenstein, arrived from New Zealand with his wife and four daughters to visit his sister's family, and in November of that year Fels married the eldest daughter Sara. For the next six years the Fels lived at Neuhaus. In 1888 they arrived in Dunedin where Fels joined his father-in-law in business, becoming a director and eventually managing director of the firms of Hallenstein Brothers and the D.I.C. Ltd. Methodical, industrious, and a shrewd business man, he was a valued member of the two firms, for which he travelled frequently throughout New Zealand. He also held other directorships.

At school Fels had shown ability and enjoyment in the study of languages, particularly the classics, and he retained this interest throughout his life. Cultivated and discriminating in his tastes, he had been a collector from boyhood, with an interest in stamps and coins. Soon after his arrival in New Zealand he was attracted to Maori culture and began collecting Maori and Pacific ethnographic material. With characteristic thoroughness he learnt the technique of surface collecting on the Otago beaches. He also amassed a splendid collection of European glass and ceramics, including a group of 300 pieces of early Wedgwood, and also items from Persia, India, Burma, Malaya, Japan, and Tibet. Later he disposed of his stamp collection and concentrated on his coin collection, widening the scope from Greek and Roman coins to include Papal and English coins and medals, as well as plaques and medals by contemporary European diemakers. On his visits to Europe he was a regular visitor to the European galleries, museums, and art dealers.

After his only son Harold was killed at the Battle of Broodseinde, while serving with the New Zealand Artillery in the First World War, Fels decided to present his collection to the community. He commenced his association with the Otago Museum and was responsible for the creation of a Department of Anthropology, paying half the salary of the keeper from 1919 to 1923. He began the systematic transfer of his own collections to the museum, beginning with his ethnographic material, and established a fund for a new wing of the museum to provide further display galleries. His initial contribution of £5,000 was made in 1922 and the Willi Fels Wing was officially opened on 15 October 1930. At his death his benefactions to the museum included over 80,000 pieces, including 5,400 coins and 1,800 ethnological pieces and gifts of money estimated at more than £25,000.

Fels had hoped to become a professional historian. He read widely and built up a good working library, predominantly historical, but including many works on art and literature, and translations of the classics. He also had a good small collection of early printed books, some in fine bindings. Shortly before his death he presented some 400 of his most valuable books to the library of the University of Otago.

Fels became a naturalised British subject in 1890. Although he took no part in public affairs, he was a liberal in politics and an enthusiastic member of the League of Nations Union. He was a member of the Classical Association, the Royal Society, and the Dunedin Naturalists' Field Club. Short and sturdy in build, Fels was fond of walking and spent many holidays in West Otago in the Manapouri, Te Anau, and Wakatipu districts. The Helena Falls in Doubtful Sound were named after one of his daughters, the first woman to see them, and the Emily Pass after another daughter, a member of the party which discovered and first crossed it. He was an enthusiastic and gifted gardener, bringing home plants from Europe to enrich his New Zealand collection.

In 1936 he was awarded the C.M.G. for his services to the community. He died on 29 June 1946.

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

• Willi Fels, C.M.G., Skinner, H. D. (1946)
• Otago Daily Times, 1 Jul 1946 (Obit).

Feilding is situated at the junction of the Oroua Valley and the Manawatu Plain. The Oroua River, a north-bank tributary of the Manawatu River, forms the eastern boundary of the borough. To the west and south of the town the land is open plain, but to the north and east it rises to the hills west of the Ruahine Range. The North Island Main Trunk railway passes through Feilding which by road is 41 miles south-east of Wanganui (51 miles by rail) and 12 miles north of Palmerston North by road or rail.

The rural activities of the district include dairying, sheep farming, mixed cropping, and market gardening. Feilding is a trade and distributing centre but supports a variety of secondary industries. These include the manufacture of bricks and tiles, concrete products, organic fertilisers, joinery and furniture, cardboard cartons and containers, clothing and knitwear, and flour-milling and bacon and ham curing. Motor bodies and trailers are manufactured, and wool and skins are processed. There is a seed-cleaning establishment, a meat and smallgoods packing works in the town, and general and precision engineering. A large meat-freezing works is established at Aorangi (1 mile south-east) and there is a wool-scouring works nearby. Butter is manufactured at Makino Road (2 miles north), and textiles (chenille) at Halcombe (8 miles north-west). Extensive stock saleyards are maintained at Feilding.

The town came into existence as the result of a special settlement scheme promoted by an English body called the Emigrants' and Colonists' Aid Corporation, which had been created in 1867 and over which the Duke of Manchester presided. The Hon. Lt.-Col. William Henry Adelbert Feilding, as chief representative of the corporation, visited New Zealand in 1871. He selected 100,000 acres of Manawatu land which was named the Manchester Block after the chairman, and which contained the future town site that would bear his own name. Arthur William Follett Halcombe, after whom the neighbouring township of Halcombe is named, became local agent of the corporation in 1872. When the first small party of settlers reached Feilding in 1874 the survey of the town site was still in progress. Much of the initial period of settlement was occupied with the clearance of the surrounding heavy bush and the improvement of communications towards Foxton (then the port and main point of entry for the district) and elsewhere throughout the block. On 20 October 1876 the railway from Foxton to Palmerston North was extended to Feilding. In April 1878 it was continued to Halcombe and on 20 May the gap between Marton Junction and Halcombe was closed. Thus rail communication with Wanganui was established and an additional outlet for the town was provided. With the arrival of the railway and the clearing of the bush for farming, town growth accelerated. The plan of Feilding was prepared in England and an attempt was made to copy the general layout of Manchester. Feilding was constituted a borough on 7 July 1881.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 5,812; 1956 census, 6,784; 1961 census, 8,160.

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

As originally constituted, the federation's objectives were as follows:

In 1951, following the breakaway of a section of militant unionists, the constitution was revised and the scope of the federation's objectives broadened so as to make them more consonant with the ideas and aspirations of the international trades union movement. In one respect, however, there would appear to have been a retreat, since it is now laid down that one of the federation's objectives is “to work for a more equitable share of the national income and ultimately production for social use and not for private profit”. A swing back towards its former militancy became evident at the 1964 annual conference, the first held since the death of F. P. Walsh. On that occasion the secretary urged that “ultimately production for social use and not for private profit” was a more worthy aim for the federation than the New Zealand Labour Party's objective “to promote and protect the freedom of the people and their political, social, and economic and cultural welfare”.

The first officers of the federation were: A. Mc-Lagan (United Mine-workers' Federation), president; R. Eddy (New Zealand Workers' Union), vice-president; F. D. Cornwell (Wellington), secretary-treasurer; and F. P. Walsh (Wellington Seamen's Union) and E. Canham (Wellington Waterside Workers' Union), resident members of the national executive. The federation is financed by a “capitation” levied upon each affiliated union in proportion to its membership. Only unions which are currently financial affiliates may participate in the federation's annual or special conferences.

Although the total membership of the federation is not known, some indication of its strength was given at the 1962 annual conference when the credentials committee reported that the delegates present represented 126 financial affiliations and 231,899 trade unionists. This constitutes no mean force in the New Zealand economy.

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

• Constitution and Rules of the Federation of Labour (1951)
• The Rise of Labour, Brown, B. M. (1962)
• Standard, 22 Apr 1937
• Evening Post, 2 May 1964.

The national council consists of the national executive together with one representative of each of the 20 district councils from among its conference delegates. It meets at least every six months and must be consulted by the national executive in matters of national importance. The national executive carries out the functions of the federation and is responsible for implementing the policies laid down by the annual conferences. It consists of the president, vice-president, secretary-treasurer, and four members who must be Wellington residents. The national council may establish district councils in any area where there are five or more affiliated organisations representing a minimum combined local membership of 5,000, or it may establish trades union committees where the combined membership of the affiliated unions is not less than 1,000. These district councils organise the workers within their respective territories and act as local agents in giving effect to decisions reached by the annual conference.

The Federation of Labour affords a means of consultation and collaboration among the various trade unions of New Zealand. It is the lineal descendant of the Trades Union Councils, the Alliance of Labour, and other workers' organisations which flourished in the earlier years of the century. In 1936, following the accession to power of the Labour Party, it was felt that the different sections of the trades union movement should be united to pursue Labour's common aims. Accordingly, from 14 to 19 April 1937, the delegates from 212 industrial organisations, representing 170,800 trades unionists, assembled in Wellington for the Industrial Unity Conference. Although the conference was called at the request of the Labour Government, it was convened by a small committee of union officials: F. D. Cornwell (Trades and Labour Councils' Federation); Arthur Cook (New Zealand Workers' Union); and F. P. Walsh (Wellington Seamen's Union). In spite of the apparently broad basis of representation, the largest delegations came from two national trades unions organisations – the Trades and Labour Councils' Federation and the Alliance of Labour – while three important unions, the New Zealand Workers' Union, the New Zealand Waterside Workers' Union, and the Union of Railwaymen, were also well represented. After being formally opened by the Acting Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, the conference drafted the constitution of the New Zealand Federation of Labour. In its general outline this followed the form of organisation favoured by New Zealand political groups since Seddon'sLiberal Party. Plenary power is vested in the annual conference to which all affiliated organisations have the right to send delegates. This body, besides deciding important policy matters, elects the national council of the federation and its national executive.

(1813–76).

Physician, politician, first Superintendent of Wellington Province, first Agent-General for New Zealand in London.

A new biography of Featherston, Isaac Earl appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Isaac Featherston was born at Durham on 21 March 1813, the fourth son of Thomas Featherston, of Blackdian, and Cotfield House in County Durham, England. Educated at a private school in Tamworth, he took his M.D. degree at Edinburgh in 1836, later touring extensively on the continent and in Italy. On 10 December 1839 he married Bethia Campbell, daughter of Andrew Scott, a Baillie of Edinburgh, and by her had four sons and eight daughters. Mrs Featherston died at Wellington, New Zealand, on 16 March 1863.

In December 1840 Featherston sailed for New Zealand in the Olympus, one of the New Zealand Company ships, and was surgeon-superintendent in her on her first voyage. On arrival at Wellington Featherston settled down to practise medicine, a calling he followed until his political career necessitated full-time devotion to politics. From the outset Featherston took a leading part in the cultural and political life of the infant settlement. In 1842 he was both a committeeman of the Mechanics Institute and secretary of the Wellington Horticultural and Botanical Society. In 1845 Featherston became the first editor of the Wellington Independent, in which capacity he was responsible for its strong antipathy to the policies of the Governor, Sir George Grey. In 1846 Featherston was one of the prime movers in the setting up of the Wellington Savings Bank, being elected to the board of managers and responsible for drafting the institution's first temporary rules of association.

During these years Featherston played a leading role, along with Clifford and Fitzherbert, in the many public meetings held in the Britannia or Aurora Tavern, at which local affairs were discussed. In 1844 he served on the abortive second deputation of Wellington landowners which asked FitzRoy either to complete the settlers' land titles or to award them compensation. At a public meeting of landowners in August 1845, Featherston took a leading part in putting forward a proposal to petition Parliament for the recall of Governor FitzRoy. The original proposal was made by Domett in Nelson, and Featherston was elected to the committee of 18 charged with preparing a petition to be forwarded from Wellington. When the new Governor, Sir George Grey, visited Wellington in February 1846, Featherston led the deputation which presented an address to His Excellency, and also placed a statement of the settlers' views before him. From 1847 Featherston strongly espoused the Wellington Land Purchasers' cause against the New Zealand Company, and personal differences on this issue led to his celebrated pistol duel with Col. W. Wakefield. This question amicably settled, Featherston sustained a decisive role in having the company's land claims recognised by the Governor. Between 1851 and the granting of responsible Government, Dr Featherston was prominent in the Wellington Settlers' Constitution Association, and refused a seat in Grey's nominated Council when this was offered.

When the Wellington provincial offices were to be filled, Featherston stood out as the sole contender for the Superintendency – “a proved man” – and one whom “the colonists know they can trust”. He was elected unopposed, and thereafter ruled, with but one brief intermission, until his retirement from politics in 1870. Featherston brought to his new post a long experience of local public service, together with an unbounded admiration of British governmental institutions. He opened the first session of the Provincial Council with all the ceremony of an Imperial Parliament. His first action was to pass an Executive Act which gave the province a fully responsible Cabinet Government. This worked admirably until 1858, when, after his second election as Superintendent, he discovered a hostile majority facing him in the Council. The Executive resigned and Featherston sent for E. J. Wakefield to form a new Government. Wakefield complied, but his choice proved legally unacceptable. Featherston thereupon resigned, hoping the Council would do likewise. He was again elected and, the Council continuing intractable, he carried on virtually without an Executive until 1861 when the question became shelved by the war. Thereafter he remained more quietly, but none the less completely, master of Wellington Province.

Dr Featherston represented Wanganui in the first New Zealand Parliament in 1853, and the city of Wellington from 1855 till 1870. He held office for a month in Fox's ministry in 1861 as Colonial Secretary, retiring at the end of session to continue the Superintendency. He again took office, without portfolio, under Fox, from 1869 to 1871. In 1856, when Dr Logan Campbell carried a provincialist motion in the House which unseated the Sewell Government, he was unable to form a ministry. Sewell thereupon advised the Governor to send for Featherston, as the leader of the next strongest provincial group. A very subdued Featherston met the House next day to admit similar failure. “It will make me,” he said, “more cautious in voting for a majority not prepared to give that only legitimate effect to their votes.”

Native affairs provided the great question which exercised the ingenuity of colonial politicians in the 1860s. As early as 1856 Featherston had shown in Parliament that he held the view (in common with many colonists) that the Maoris, as a race, were doomed to extinction and that the most Europeans could hope to do would be to “smooth down their dying pillow”. By 1860 Featherston supported Fox's “peace at any price” policy as against Stafford's endorsement of the Government's war policy. His able expression of these sentiments earned him great influence among the Maoris. In Wellington Province Featherston travelled widely, often at extreme personal risk, conciliating doubtful tribes and raising native auxiliaries to serve alongside European troops. Such was his mana that these auxiliaries made it the condition for their aid that he alone should lead them. Thus it was that Dr Featherston led the native allies throughout the West Coast campaigns of 1865–66, accompanying General Chute on the march round Egmont. In recognition of his “noble example, stimulating the courage of the Native Allies” at the siege of “formidable Otapawa Pa”, Featherston was awarded the New Zealand Cross.

Thrice during his political career Featherston undertook diplomatic missions overseas. As Superintendent of Wellington he negotiated, in Australia, the Panama Mail Steamer Agreement. Again, in 1869, he led a deputation to Australia to persuade General Chute to accept responsibility for retaining Imperial troops in New Zealand pending further reference to the British Government, and he later accompanied Bell to England on a similar mission. They failed in this, but induced the British Government to guarantee a £1,000,000 loan for roading native districts as a measure of security against further wars.

On his return to New Zealand in 1870, Featherston was offered by Fox the newly created Agent-Generalcy in London. He assumed this office in March 1871, and his first task was the organisation of the immigration machinery created by the Public Works and Immigration Act 1870. Between 1871 and his death, Featherston arranged for the selection and dispatch of over 71,000 immigrants to the colony, thus swelling the European population by nearly a quarter. In December 1872, Featherston and Clifford were appointed Commissioners to represent New Zealand at the International Exhibition held in Vienna, and for this the Austrian Emperor created him a Knight Commander in the Imperial Francis Joseph Order. Dr Featherston died at Brighton on 19 June 1876.

As one of the earliest immigrants, Featherston quickly threw himself into Wellington political and cultural life. As physician and runholder (he owned land blocks in the Wanganui and Hawke's Bay districts), he moved among the exclusive inner circle of colonial society, being closely associated with Bell, Fitzherbert, and Clifford. On the introduction of the 1852 Constitution he ardently espoused the cause of provincialism. For many years the “three F's” dominated Wellington politics, Fox in the national sphere, Featherston in the provincial, and Fitzherbert from time to time understudying both.

Successive Governors found Featherston highly insubordinate. He saw New Zealand as a confederation with the parts (provinces) being more important than the whole. To this concept he stuck. As Superintendent he casually assumed the prerogatives and practices of a monarch, elective but absolute, and the repercussions reached even to the Colonial Office. As he was the chief New Zealand politician to put all his faith in the provincial institutions, his appointment as Agent-General removed the provinces' strongest champion and thus paved the way for their eventual abolition. Although he inherited a weak constitution, and perennially suffered ill health, Featherston's integrity, immense personal popularity, administrative ability, and courage were never questioned. By his personal ascendency alone he held all the native tribes of the Province of Wellington loyal to the British Crown during the critical years of the Maori Wars. No matter what we may think of the narrowness of his provincialism, or the rigidity of his constitutional assumptions, there can be no doubt that for 30 years the slight figure of Isaac Earl Featherston, smoking his eternal black cigar, is the history of the city, district, and province of Wellington.

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

• Featherston Papers (MSS) (General Assembly Library)
• Maori War File/982 (MSS) (National Archives). The Spectator, 24 Jun 1876 (Obit)
• NZ Times, 14 Jul 1876 (Obit).

Featherston is situated on flat land in the Wairarapa Valley near the junction of the Tararua and Rimutaka Ranges. The town is 2 miles west of the Tauherenikau River which flows into Lake Wairarapa, 2 miles south-west of Featherston. By rail Featherston is 45 miles north-east of Wellington and 41 miles by road. Masterton is 21 miles north-west by rail and 23 miles by road. The main rural activities are sheep and dairy farming. At South Featherston, 2 miles to the south, there is a dairy factory which produces butter and cheese; it also operates a large piggery. Featherston is a servicing and business centre for the district. Industries include sawmilling; the manufacture of knitwear, and other clothing; and the making of concrete products, joinery, and woodwork. There are large stock saleyards in the town. During the First World War, Featherston was an important military camp.

In late November 1841, Robt. Stokes, a New Zealand Company surveyor, with a small party, crossed the Rimutaka Range into the Wairarapa Valley from near the head of the Hutt Valley. They were the first Europeans to make this journey. Soon afterwards a track was formed along Stokes's route and later it became a road. The site of Featherston, on this road, was originally known as Burlings. It was named after Henry Burling, a pioneer settler, who took up land there in the 1840s. Burlings became a recognised stopping place for travellers, and an accommodation house was established there in 1849. On 16 September 1856 a town site of 385 acres, subdivided into sections of a quarter to 1 acre, was surveyed by Captain William Mein Smith. Suburban land, comprising some 10,000 acres and subdivided into sections of 5 to 100 acres, was also laid out. Settlement of the site began on 31 January 1857, by which time the town had been named Featherston in honour of Dr Isaac Earl Featherston, then Superintendent of the Province of Wellington. Although railway communication with Wellington was mooted as early as 1853, construction did not begin until 1872. The line was opened in October 1878. On 3 November 1955 the opening of the Rimutaka Tunnel provided a shorter route.

Featherston Highway Board took over the administration of town affairs on 14 September 1872 and in 1917 borough status was attained.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 1,069; 1956 census, 1,197; 1961 census, 1,476.

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