(1811–99).

Missionary, printer, explorer, botanist, and politician.

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

William Colenso was born in Penzance, Cornwall, on 17 November 1811, the eldest child of Samuel May Colenso, a saddler and town councillor of Penzance. He was educated privately and at the age of 15 apprenticed to a local printer. When he had served his time he went to London where he obtained employment with Richard Watts and Son, printers to the Church Missionary Society. A printer and press were required for the society's mission at Paihia in New Zealand and Colenso was engaged as a missionary-printer.

Colenso arrived at Paihia, Bay of Islands, on 30 December 1834 and immediately set up his press. To his dismay he found that certain essentials were lacking. He improvised many of the missing articles and, obtaining some paper from the missionaries, produced on 17 February 1835 the first book printed in New Zealand, The Epistle to the Philippians and the Ephesians, in Maori. During the next eight years Colenso produced, with little efficient help, a great volume of work. His most important task, the New Testament in Maori, was completed on 30 December 1837 in an edition of 5,000 copies, half of which he bound himself. It has been estimated that between January 1835 and January 1840 the press produced 74,100 books of from four pages upwards, including the Book of Common Prayer in Maori, portions of the Old and New Testaments, and church papers of all kinds. In October 1835 he produced the first printing in English done in New Zealand, a notice exhorting the settlers to influence the Maoris against de Thierry's pretensions. He also printed the first book in English, the first report of the New Zealand Temperance Society. In addition to the church publications he printed Hobson's earliest proclamations and notices, and also, on 30 December 1840, his Gazette Extraordinary No. 1. Two years later his connection with the press was ended.

On 27 April 1843 Colenso married Elizabeth Fairburn, daughter of W. T. Fairburn, who was in charge of the mission station at Otahuhu. Shortly afterwards he went to Te Waimate to study for ordination as a deacon, preparatory to engaging in full-time missionary work.

From youth Colenso had been interested in all branches of natural history. To Allan Cunningham, the New South Wales Colonial Botanist, who visited Paihia in 1838, he owed much of his systematic training in botany. In 1841, during the visits of the ships of Sir James Clark Ross's Antarctic Expedition, he made the acquaintance of J. D. Hooker, to whose father, Sir William Hooker, then Professor of Botany at Glasgow, he had been sending botanical specimens. He accompanied Hooker on many botanical excursions and afterwards carried on a correspondence with him extending over 50 years. He also had the stimulus of meeting Charles Darwin and other visiting scientists.

During his first years at the Bay of Islands Colenso made several important missionary journeys. In 1838 he accompanied the Rev. W. Williams on a visit to the Bay of Plenty and East Coast districts. During this journey he first heard from the Maoris of the moa, bones of which he was later able to examine. He wrote a remarkably perceptive paper, dated 1 May 1842, for the Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, which was the first report of an observer on the spot pointing out the nature of the discovery.

In the following year Colenso travelled overland to Cape Reinga, previously visited by only one European, the Rev. W. G. Puckey. His longest and most important journey was made through the East Coast, Urewera, and Waikato districts in 1841–42. Travelling by the schooner Columbine to Hicks Bay, he landed there and walked down the coast to the Rev. W. Williams's station at Kaupapa, Poverty Bay, where he turned inland to Lake Waikaremoana. He then made a complete traverse of the mountainous Urewera Country and returned to Paihia via Rotorua, the Waikato, Manukau, and Kaipara. During this journey he collected nearly 1,000 natural history specimens of which a great proportion were new to science. He wrote a fascinating account of his journey and botanical discoveries, Excursion in the Northern Island of New Zealand in 1841–42. Two years later he again visited the East Coast and traversed the coastal districts from Hicks Bay to Turanga (Gisborne) where he took ship for Wellington. Forced to land at Castlepoint by bad weather he turned inland and again visited the Urewera district. Acting on Selwyn's instructions he made a census of the inhabitants there. He then followed the Whakatane River valley to the Bay of Plenty and returned home via Tauranga, the Waikato, and Otahuhu.

Colenso was at Paihia when Captain Hobson arrived on 29 January 1840 and he accompanied James Busby to the Herald to welcome him. He was present at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and in his pamphlet The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (1880) he gave the best eye-witness account we possess of that historic event.

Ordained a deacon in 1844 Colenso was appointed to open a new mission station at Ahuriri on Hawke Bay. He arrived there with his wife on 30 December 1844 to take charge of a district extending from Taupo to Wellington and embracing the whole area eastward of the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges. His first journey was an unsuccessful, though botanically rewarding, attempt to cross the Ruahine Range to Inland Patea. He made his first complete crossing of the range in the course of a trip through Tarawera (Hawke's Bay) Taupo, and Inland Patea, and subsequently repeated the crossing on five occasions. He described some of his experiences in An Account of Visits to the Ruahine Mountain Range (1884). His connection with the Church Missionary Society was terminated in 1852 when he was dismissed for an irregular association with a Maori girl. He was, however, readmitted to the services of the Church in 1894.

After his dismissal Colenso lived in Napier and took a lively interest in local politics. He was elected to the first Hawke's Bay Provincial Council and held his seat from 1858 to 1865. He served as Acting Speaker, Provincial Auditor, and Treasurer for short periods. In 1861 he was elected to the House of Representatives, but was defeated in 1866 by Donald McLean. He later served for a further period on the Provincial Council. From 1872 to 1878 he was Inspector of Schools, introducing ideas well in advance of his time. Following his retirement from politics he again concentrated on his botanical studies, but his identifications of numerous new species were frequently challenged. Nevertheless, his impressive contributions to botanical knowledge extending over 60 years fully merited the preservation of his name in one genus (Colensoa) and many species. He died at Napier on 10 February 1899, survived by a son and a daughter.

During a lifetime spanning almost the whole of the nineteenth century Colenso followed his varied occupations with unflagging zeal, but his restless energy which drove him from one interest to another deprived him of the fame he could have earned had he confined himself to one sphere. Unfortunately, great mental capacity, dynamic energy, an absolute religious faith, and an insatiable scientific curiosity were fettered to a passionate and uncompromising nature and an intolerance of contrary opinion that brought him in turn into conflict with his fellow workers, his bishop, and his own townsmen. His energy and craftsmanship as a printer were typical of his performance in all other pursuits. As a missionary he laboured tirelessly, caring much for the welfare of his widely scattered flock and indifferent to his own comfort and health. His evangelising efforts were greatly assisted by his extensive knowledge of the Maori language, custom, and tradition, but again an overbearing and dictatorial manner deprived him of the real affection of his converts.

Up to the time of his death Colenso remained the foremost authority on the Maori, as well as on New Zealand botany. His New Zealand Exhibition Essays (1865) on The Botany of the North Island and The Maori Races of New Zealand are the work of one pre-eminent in those fields. But his attempt to write a Maori dictionary disclosed his deficiencies as a lexicographer and the project was never brought to completion. His services to science were recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1866, the first New Zealander to be so honoured.

Colenso contributed over 100 papers on various scientific subjects, many of great value, to scientific journals, principally to the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. Other publications of interest and value include Fifty Years Ago in New Zealand (1886), a record of his printing days at the Bay of Islands, Fiat Justitia (1871), a plea on behalf of Kereopa , the murderer of Rev. C. Volkner, Three Literary Papers (1883), and Ancient Tide Lore and Tales of the Sea (1889).

by George Conrad Petersen, Editor, Who's Who in New Zealand, Palmerston North.

• William Colenso – Journals and Correspondence, (MSS), Hocken Library
• William Colenso, Bagnall, A. G., and Petersen, G. C. (1948)
• A History of Printing in New Zealand, 1840–1940, McKay, R. A. (ed.) (1940).

(1836–85).

Feminist leader.

A new biography of Colclough, Mary Ann appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Mary Ann Colclough was born in London in 1836, daughter of Susan and John Thomas Barnes, builder. She was trained as a teacher and came to New Zealand in 1859, settling in Auckland. On 9 May 1861, at Onehunga, she married Thomas Caesar Colclough, (died July 1867) formerly of Galleenstown Castle, County Dublin. There were two children, a son and a daughter. She died at Picton on 7 March 1885 from injuries received from an accident and was buried in Picton cemetery.

Although her work has been overlooked and forgotten, Mary Ann Colclough was one of the earliest, and certainly among the most talented, of feminist leaders in this country. During the late sixties and early seventies and under the pseudonym of “Polly Plum”, she came to the fore as a contributor to various colonial newspapers. Her articles, which were most competently written, ranged over a variety of topics from matters of domestic interest, good housekeeping, and the like, to a forthright advocacy of “women's rights”. Her early journalistic sallies were sententious in tone, very much in accord with the literary conventions of the day, but her mature writing was concerned mainly with those issues which affected women's status in the home and community. In this phase of her career Mary Colclough showed herself to be a woman with a practical cast of mind and of high ideals and principles, who was deeply conscious of the many social problems that called for urgent redress. She kept the campaign alive by occasional letters to the press, sometimes published as far afield as the Melbourne Argus and London Times. These were invariably well expressed and to the point.

It was as a lecturer, however, that “Polly Plum”, reformer and feminist, became widely known. Almost before political meetings had become the vogue, she was able to attract large audiences and, on one occasion, spoke before Governor Sir G. F. Bowen. As the outstanding champion of women's rights, she hotly attacked the “legal subjection” of her sex. She ridiculed the idea that women should be educated only for the home; all employment, including such professions as that of medicine, should be open to them. She challenged the right of the father to have sole control over his children and pointed out the injustice of the law as regards the property rights of married women. At the same time she pressed for an improvement in the working conditions of seamstresses, shop assistants, and domestics, with adequate safeguards against poverty and the problems of old age. She must have been a compelling advocate; according to contemporary evidence, “… one of the most fluent and accurate speakers we have listened to in the colonies”.

In 1875 Mary Colclough began a campaign in Melbourne. She seems to have met with little success, for, like many feminist reformers of the time, she was well in advance of public opinion. The Argus commented acidly on her efforts to ameliorate the condition of her sex throughout the world and saw no ground “for weeping over the melodramatic misery” of her protéges. It is possible – though unlikely – that such rebuffs cooled her reforming ardour; nevertheless, by the late seventies she seems to have withdrawn from the public scene. She was certainly engaged in teaching at this time, first at Auckland and, later, in Canterbury. From about 1876 to 1878 she was mistress in charge of the girls' school at Rangiora, and in 1881 was infant mistress at Papanui. It is evident that her associations with the north must have weakened, for when news of her unexpected death reached Auckland in March 1885, it aroused little comment beyond the bald statement that her passing would be regretted by many who knew her in the olden times. It is not surprising that her name and work soon faded from the New Zealand scene.

by Alexander Hare McLintock, C.B.E., M.A., DIP.ED. (N.Z.), PH.D.(LOND.), Parliamentary Historian, Wellington.

• New Zealand Herald, 18 Apr 1873
• Waikato Times, 12, 17, and 22 Apr 1873
• New Zealand Herald, 14 Jul 1873

Reserve Bank notes are printed in London by Thomas de la Rue and Co. Ltd. In order to maintain the quality of the notes in use by the public and also to ensure that adequate stocks are available to meet day to day requirements, it is necessary for the Reserve Bank to order well ahead and to forecast likely needs. The average life of all notes except the two highest denominations is estimated at less than one year; for a £10 note it is estimated at 15 months, and for the £50 note, which has a restricted use, at about three years. As notes circulate and become dirty or worn, they are withdrawn from circulation, cancelled and destroyed, new ones being issued. In 1963 a total of over 60 million note forms were destroyed in keeping with the policy of maintaining a good quality issue.

Notes that are damaged – for example, by inadvertently including them in the laundry – are sent to the Reserve Bank which gives effect to the “promise to pay” as soon as the value of individual notes is established by painstaking examination. The Reserve Bank makes no charge for this service.

In ordering new notes to ensure that an adequate supply is always available to meet the public's needs, the Reserve Bank has several factors to consider, some of a short term, some of a long term nature. First, there are seasonal factors such as the Easter and Christmas holiday periods. In December 1962, for example, notes in circulation increased by £2 million following on an increase of almost £7 million in November, but fell by about £14 million in January 1963. Secondly, there are changes in basic economic conditions which, among other things, effect the note circulation. Changes in the total national income and in the levels of salaries and wages, and movements in prices greatly influence the value of notes in circulation. Finally, there are the longer term factors such as the growth of population, the number of cash transactions, and the holding of larger amounts as till money. In New Zealand it is doubtful whether hoarding, burying notes in the garden or under the floorboards is at all widespread although isolated instances crop up from time to time.

Most Reserve Bank notes are bought by the trading banks from the Reserve Bank for issue to their customers. Some notes are also issued by the encashment of Government cheques at the Reserve Bank. The process of issuing new notes and withdrawing older and dirty ones is virtually continuous. To cope with the large volume, the Reserve Bank uses special equipment such as note-counting machines.

Over the years the note circulation has increased substantially, especially during the First and Second World Wars. Since 1935 the weekly average of Reserve Bank notes in circulation (including notes in the hands of the trading banks) has increased as follows:

As a proportion of the total money supply, which comprises coin, notes in the hands of the public, and demand deposits at the Reserve Bank and the trading banks, the note circulation has remained remarkably constant over the last 30 years. In June 1930 it was equivalent to about 17 per cent of the total, and in June 1963 the corresponding figure was just over 17 per cent.

Absolutely, demand deposits at the trading banks are more important as money than the note circulation. In March 1963, for example, these deposits totalled nearly £272 million while the total value of notes issued was £84 million. Of this latter sum, the trading banks held about £17 million as till money.

Reserve Bank notes are legal tender in New Zealand up to any amount. Since 1938, however, notes have not been convertible into sterling. The reproduction of bank notes is, of course, a punishable offence in New Zealand but counterfeiting is, fortunately, conspicuous by its absence.

Prior to the introduction of the Finance Emergency Regulations in 1940, there had been no control over the export of New Zealand bank notes. These regulations enabled the Reserve Bank to restrict the outflow of notes, and in April 1940 the maximum amount in notes and coin that could be taken by overseas travellers without special authority was fixed at £10 (now 15) if proceeding direct to the United Kingdom, and £5 (now 7) if for other destinations. Since January 1949 only 10s. and £1 notes may be exported.

The importation of money into New Zealand is not limited, but the notes of other countries do not circulate.

It is planned that new notes, with different designs, will be introduced in 1967, at the same time as decimal coinage.

by Robert John Familton, M.COM., Economist, Reserve Bank, Wellington.

• Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives, B.3, 1959, “Report of the Decimal Coinage Committee, 1959”
• Bulletin (monthly), Reserve Bank of New Zealand
• Money and Banking in New Zealand, Reserve Bank of New Zealand (1963)
• Overseas Trade and Finance, Reserve Bank of New Zealand (1960)
• British Commonwealth Coinage, Linear, H.W.B. (1959)
• Numismatic History of New Zealand, Sutherland, A. (1941).

Paper currency in use in New Zealand comprises bank notes issued by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand which, as the central bank, has the sole right of note issue. For nearly 80 years prior to 1 August 1934, when the Reserve Bank commenced business, the trading banks had the right to issue notes. On the establishment of the Reserve Bank, this right was withdrawn. Two years later, on 1 August 1936, the Reserve Bank assumed liability for all trading bank notes outstanding, then some £549,000; in 1976 all such notes will be deemed to be no longer in circulation and will be treated as unclaimed moneys. At the end of 1963 the value of outstanding trading bank notes was £346,000. It is probable that a substantial proportion are either in collections or have been lost or destroyed.

Reserve Bank notes are issued in denominations of 10s., £1, 5, 10, and 50. So far two issues of notes have been made, the second one being on 6 February 1940, partly to commemorate New Zealand's centenary and partly to replace gradually the first temporary issue. A £10 note was introduced with this issue. Unlike those on notes of some countries, denominations in New Zealand are readily distinguished by differences in size, colour, and design. In design the notes incorporate historical features. All, for example, have an engraved portrait of Captain Cook on the face. On the back the design for the £5 note, for example, includes a fantail (bird) and a scenic engraving of Lake Pukaki and Mt. Cook while for the £10 note the design on the back is an engraving of a New Zealand sheep-farming scene.

Over the years there has been a distinct trend towards a relatively greater use of £5 and 10 notes. The table below, which expresses each denomination as a percentage of the total net note circulation (i.e., excluding notes held by the banks as till money), clearly illustrates this trend.

In New Zealand efforts have periodically been made to introduce the decimal system. In 1957 a representative committee was appointed by the then Minister of Finance “to examine matters connected with the possible introduction of decimal coinage in New Zealand”. In its report, dated 1 October 1959, the committee stated that it “is agreed in principle that a change to decimal coinage is desirable” and recommended a system that would involve a 10s. unit, with 10 lower units, “cents”, to the shilling.

In April 1963 the Minister of Finance announced the Government's decision to adopt decimal coinage in 1967, and by July 1964 the following decision had been made:

1. That the date of the changeover be Tuesday, 11 July 1967;

2. That the major unit adopted be based on 10s., and divided into 100 minor units valued at 1.2d.;

3. That the names of the major and minor units be “dollar” and “cent”; and

4. That the denominations of coinage be ½, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents. Thus there will be no 2½ cent piece equivalent to the present 3d., nor a 25 cent piece equivalent to the present half-crown, which is to be withdrawn from circulation by 1967.

A Decimal Currency Board with members representing Treasury, the Reserve Bank, the Post Office, the trading banks, and commerce has been appointed to organise and administer the changeover. A Coinage Design Advisory Committee has also been set up to advise the Government on various aspects of design for the new coins. It has been announced that a new effigy, or “head”, approved by the Queen, will be used, the work of Arnold Machin, R.A.

The Decimal Currency Act of 1964 covered many of the above points, as well as those dealing with the composition of the new coins, new legal tender amounts, and the counterfeiting of coin. This Act replaced the Coinage Act of 1933.

One provision in the Coinage Act 1933 in empowering the Minister of Finance to authorise the issue of tokens, “purporting to entitle the holder thereof to demand goods and services”, harks back to an earlier period. In parts of the country, tokens are used to pay for milk delivered at the gate, but this restricted use scarcely compares with the period from 1857 to 1881 when bronze and copper penny and halfpenny currency tokens were issued by New Zealand traders.

The tokens were issued because of a marked shortage of small coins and, according to one authority, 147 varieties were issued. They included some attractive designs.

Some 20 years after their introduction, tokens represented about half of the copper coinage in New Zealand. None, however, were issued by traders after the British Government had advised in 1881 that it could supply all coin requirements and, in 1897, the tokens were demonetised. They retain considerable interest for coin collectors and some command good prices.

The rarest New Zealand coin is the 1879 penny bearing the head of Queen Victoria on the obverse and New Zealand above Britannia on the reverse. This coin, of which only about 20 examples were minted, has never been in circulation.

In New Zealand severe penalties are provided for counterfeiting, melting down, or marking coins of New Zealand or of any other country. Although, in the past, some counterfeiting has occurred, this has never been a serious problem in New Zealand.

Although gold coin does not circulate, sovereigns, previously kept as souvenirs, are occasionally sold to the Reserve Bank for £2 18s. Some British and Australian coins, mainly florins, circulate after being brought in by travellers. Because of the exchange-rate differential between New Zealand and Australia, the Australian florin is worth only 1s. 7d. in New Zealand. It is therefore not generally acceptable.

New Zealand, like the United Kingdom and Australia, has a fractional coinage system. In April 1963, however, it was announced that the Government had decided to change to a decimal currency in 1967. Distinctive New Zealand coins, issued since 1933 when the Coinage Act was passed, are the crown, half-crown, florin, shilling, sixpence, threepence, penny, and halfpenny. No farthings have been issued.

Crown pieces have been struck on three occasions. The first issue in 1935 was struck to commemorate the Jubilee of King George V. It was limited to 764 pieces and the Treasury decided to charge 7s. 6d. for each specimen. The second issue was in 1949 when 200,020 pieces were minted to commemorate the intended royal visit of King George VI. The third crown, of which 250,200 were minted in 1953, commemorates the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In all, crown pieces to a value of £112,696 had been minted up to the end of 1959, of which £110,959 were in circulation. The crown is not, however, in general use but has disappeared into collections.

New Zealand coins are purchased from the Royal Mint, London, and from 1933 until the end of 1962 the value of coins purchased (excluding crown pieces) totalled £9,656,860. This sum was made up as follows:

At the end of 1962 the value of coin in circulation was about £6,304,000. The amount of coin issued at any time varies with public demand, and various factors influence the relative usage of the different denominations. For example, a change in the prices of newspapers or milk would have an appreciable effect on the use both of threepences and of pennies.

Coin is issued by the trading banks and the Reserve Bank to their customers in exchange for bank notes or cheques. From time to time the Reserve Bank, which holds the main stocks, advises the Treasury of estimated requirements and the Treasury, acting on behalf of the New Zealand Government, orders from the Royal Mint.

From 1933 to 1946 all silver coin, and the 1949 crown, were composed of 50 per cent silver and 50 per cent alloy. From 1947 they have been of cupronickel; that is, 75 per cent copper and 25 per cent nickel. Copper coin (penny and halfpenny) which was first authorised in 1939 to replace the Imperial bronze coinage hitherto in use, and first issued in 1940, consists of 97 per cent copper, ½ per cent tin, and 2½ per cent zinc. The issue of cupro-nickel coins, which were given equal status with silver coin as legal tender under section 31 of the Finance Act 1947, followed similar action taken in the United Kingdom as a result of high prices for silver and increased minting charges.

The standard size and weight of New Zealand coins issued prior to the introduction of decimal coinage and the remedy allowance, that is, the allowed margin of error in weight, were as follows:

The decision in 1933 to issue a New Zealand coinage to replace British Imperial coinage which, since 1840, had been the legal metallic currency, largely arose from coin smuggling in the early thirties when the Australian and the New Zealand exchange rates were devalued in terms of sterling. In May 1933 a Coinage Committee was appointed and asked to report inter alia on the designs to be adopted. It recommended that a special Coinage Designs Committee be set up. As a result of the work of this committee and its advisers, the design of the New Zealand coins broke new ground by making use of distinctive New Zealand symbols as the reverse types. The half-crown, for example, shows the New Zealand shield of arms surrounded by ornamentation based on Maori carvings, and the sixpence depicts the female huia, now extinct, which was one of New Zealand's most beautiful birds.

In 1940, when the first New Zealand copper coins were issued, there was also an issue of approximately 100,000 centennial half-crowns. This was the first truly commemorative coin issued in New Zealand and, like the crowns, is not in general circulation.

British silver coin ceased to be legal tender in New Zealand on 1 February 1935, and under the Coinage Act 1933 a tender or payment of money, if made in New Zealand coins of current weight, shall be legal tender to the following extent: (i) Gold, to any amount; (ii) silver and cupro-nickel, for amounts not exceeding £2; (iii) bronze, for amounts not exceeding 1s. Gold coin does not circulate in New Zealand.

The exportation of all coin is prohibited under the Finance Emergency Regulations 1940 (No. 2), except with authority from the Reserve Bank or the Customs Department. Travellers from New Zealand are, however, permitted to take silver coin not exceeding £2 or, if their journey is direct to the United Kingdom, not exceeding £5.

(1849–1928).

Newspaper editor.

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

Mark Cohen was born on 26 November 1849 in London, the son of Hyam Cohen and Caroline, née Benjamin. He came to Australia with his parents in 1856 and was educated in Ballarat and at the Hebrew School, Melbourne. In 1863, when his family moved to Dunedin, Cohen was apprenticed to a signwriter, but soon left to study law. He joined the Otago Daily Times in 1865 as a student reporter and, while there, induced the office boys to strike for higher wages. As a result of this, in the following year he transferred to the Evening Star. Except for a few months in 1869, when he worked with Vogel on the Sun, Cohen remained with the Star until his retirement in 1920. For several years he acted as parliamentary reporter and then became, successively, chief reporter and sub-editor. In 1893 he succeeded George Bell as editor. Cohen became known as one of New Zealand's outstanding journalists and developed a flair for attracting men of the calibre of Professor Bedford and Rutherford Waddell to write for his paper. During his years as editor he was ever willing to launch appeals for money to finance important public services and the Star's columns were always accessible to all classes with grievances to air. He was New Zealand president of the Society of Journalists, whom he represented at the World Press Congress in London in 1907, and, with Sir George Fenwick, attended the first Imperial Press Conference in London in 1909.

Besides his normal duties, Cohen played an active part in local affairs, being especially interested in education. He was, successively, a member of the Union Street School Committee, and executive member of the Dunedin and Suburban Schools' Conference, chairman of the Otago Education Board, and a founder of the Free Kindergarten Association. He also assisted in establishing the Dunedin Technical Classes Association. A leading advocate of a free public library for Dunedin, he became secretary of this institution and, later, was a founder of the New Zealand Library Association. Cohen also helped to establish the Prince Edward Convalescent Home at Forbury Corner, Dunedin. From 1888 until 1893 he was a member of Dunedin City Council, where he became the acknowledged leader of the progressive group. He contested the mayoralty unsuccessfully in 1891. Cohen retired from the Evening Star on 10 December 1920. A few months previously he had been summoned to the Legislative Council, where he remained until his death.

In 1879, at Dunedin, Cohen married Sara (1861–1923), daughter of Woolf Isaacs. He died at Devonport, Auckland, on 3 March 1928 leaving one son and two daughters.

Cohen's brother, Albert Elias Cohen (1857–1922) also became well-known as a journalist and was a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. A cousin, Maurice Cohen (1862–1934), was a company manager, served on local bodies, and was conductor of the Orchestral Society for many years.

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

• The History of the Jews in New Zealand, Goldman, L. M. (1958)
• Otago Daily Times, 5 Mar 1928 (Obit)
• Evening Star (Dunedin), 5 Mar 1928 (Obit)
• Newspapers in New Zealand, Scholefield, G. H. (1958).

(Physiculus bachus).

Hoka of the Maori. Red cod are found all around New Zealand in moderately deep water on a sandy bottom, but are more common in the south, where they sometimes occur in great numbers. They occur also in Australia. Red cod are a coral pink in colour, tinged with grey, but when struggling on a hook they darken to a deep red. A dark grey blotch is present at the base of the pectoral fin, and beneath the lower jaw is the barbel or feeler characteristic of the true cods. (The blue cod is not a true cod, but belongs to a different family.) Other species of the cod family are sometimes confused with the red cod. The bastard red cod (Pseudophycis breviusculus) is stouter, a deeper red in colour, and has a rounded tail fin. The Cloudy Bay cod (Lotella rhacinus), also known as rock cod and southern hake, is rather more brown and lacks the dark blotch by the pectoral fin. The ahuru (Auchenoceros punctatus), a small fish 4–5 in. long superficially similar to the red cod, is frequently found in the stomach contents of southern fish.

by Lawrence James Paul, B.SC., Fisheries Division, Marine Department, Wellington.

Blue cod (Parapercis colias), known to the Maoris as rawaru, is our most esteemed food fish, but unfortunately supplies are seldom equal to the demand, since, owing to its rocky bottom habitat, it has to be line fished. The blue cod occurs throughout New Zealand, but is most abundant in the south and especially at the Chatham Islands. The colour is greenish-blue marbled with brown and the average weight ¾ lb, but odd ones reach 7 or 8 lb. This fish is in no way related to the English cod but is somewhat allied to the flatheads and catfishes.

The smoked flesh of the blue cod is regarded as a delicacy.

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