New Zealand took to the two arts in a manner of fits and starts. In the earliest years of the colony the emphasis was on cartooning unadorned – the expression of ideas in conventional pictorial terms. The caricature of personality, generally speaking, was a later development. Black and white artists in New Zealand did not want for outlets for their energies when the country was still young. The provincial Punches, modelled on a Melbourne precedent that appeared in the 1850s with a very strong savour of the London variety, flourished in more or less degree for about three decades, from the sixties to the eighties. The newspapers at this stage were not very enthusiastic and the field was left largely to the local Punches, which, for all their common pattern and intention, were generally as different as chalk and cheese, by reason of the peculiarly “parish pump” nature of their approach to their subjects. Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago all had their Punches, and similar publications had a brief vogue both in Hawke's Bay and in Taranaki. Standards were very mixed and, with a few singular exceptions, the portraits in the cartoons were little more than symbols, not necessarily bearing any likeness to the persons they stood for. In fact, identity was largely a matter of caption. The art of personal caricature had yet to emerge, and to some extent this was due to the fact that neither the cartoonists nor the readers in those days had the necessary personal acquaintance with the persons who were the subject-matter of many of the cartoons. But it was an age when the printed page exerted more influence than would be generally conceded now.

In their day, the black and white artists who filled the Punches may have been well enough known to their public, but it is surprising how few of them thought enough of posterity to sign their work. Perhaps they shunned the public gaze or failed to capture the imagination for more than brief periods; but whatever the reason it is possible to browse through whole numbers of these periodicals without finding more than two or three signed pieces. In the Wellington Punch Arthur L. Palethorpe was a prolific contributor of the general “every picture tells a story” school, and the bulk of the political efforts seemed to have been left to J. H. Wallis, an excellent draughtsman, but hardly a master of graphic caricature. In Auckland Frank Varley, a co-proprietor of the local Punch, used the initials “F. V.” freely, but very few of his other contributors emerged from a consistent anonymity. In Otago, where Punch survived longer than in most centres, James Brown had a wide popularity which was based on a subtle caricatural draughtsmanship allied to a sense of cartooning symbolism, mildly satirical. From the viewpoint of time, Brown has probably the first claim to be called the father of cartooning in New Zealand, for his work dates from the early fifties. Throughout the provincial era the general impression is of crude or “mannered” expression of character on the one hand and intricate patterns, undulating lines, and occasional penmanship of delicate beauty on the other.

John Galsworthy once tried to shake David Low off with the sharp rebuke that he did not care for caricature. There was enough ugliness in the world and beauty should be encouraged. There may be abundant material for argument in such a remark, but the truth remains that caricature and cartoon have played, and will continue to play, a vigorous part in the affairs of men. In New Zealand they have achieved much in the discovery, analysis, selection, and preservation of the essentials of national growth: political, cultural, and ethical. Each in its way affords succeeding generations an opportunity to learn, as readily as anywhere else, what the greater part of fairly intelligent and instructed people were thinking and expecting from time to time; and, perhaps most interesting of all, this form of art enables the present to make out for itself, in the light of wider knowledge, how often the past thought and guessed wrong, and some of the reasons for it. If nothing else, it helps an appreciation of how hard it is to be right, which is not the least of the beginnings of wisdom in general and the understanding of history in particular.

The distinction between the cartoon and the caricature, though fairly understood by black and white artists, is at the best an uncertain quantity in the popular understanding. Loosely rendered, in the cartoon the idea comes first and the picture emerges from it; the caricature, on the other hand, is an exhibition of personality, perhaps a distorted or exaggerated portrait, without fixed rules and in no sense disciplined, except as regards the witty and the witless, the intelligent and the unintelligent. Caricature must be exaggerative and when applied to persons it must be personal and particular. But while caricature may be a portrait study and a cartoon merely a social or political opinion, in practice they can be made to blend admirably. An example is “A Health to Sir Winston”, drawn by Low on the occasion of Churchill's eightieth birthday.

Carterton is situated about 5 miles north of the junction of the Waiohine and Ruamahanga Rivers on alluvial flats in the central part of the Wairarapa Valley. The Wellington-Masterton highway and the Wairarapa Railway pass through the borough. By road Carterton is 9 miles southwest of Masterton and 5 miles north-east of Greytown.

The main rural activities of the surrounding district are extensive sheep farming on the outer hill country, and fat-lamb production and dairying on the flats. Carterton is primarily a servicing centre for the rural community. Secondary activities include flourmilling, light engineering, fieldpipe making, joinery, clothing manufacturing, and the processing of bacon and hams.

The site of Carterton was part of an area selected by Isaac Earl Featherston and John Roy as suitable for settlement under the Small Farms Association's settlement scheme. Previously a petition had been sent to the Provincial Government of Wellington asking for a small farm settlement to be established and named Carterville. The final plan followed the adoption of a report of a select committee of the Provincial Council in February 1857, the name Carterville being dropped in favour of Carterton. It honours Charles Rooking Carter, who was responsible for carrying the project through and who in 1858 was the liquidator of the Small Farms Association. A town board was established in 1875 and Carterton became a borough in 1887. In February 1921, on petition for the severance of farm lands, the boundaries were redefined, 639 acres being taken into the Wairarapa South County.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 2,197; 1956 census, 2,590; 1961 census, 3,077.

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

(1822–96).

Contractor, politician, and philanthropist.

A new biography of Carter, Charles Rooking appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Charles Rooking Carter was born in Kendal, Westmorland, on 10 March 1822, the son of John Carter, builder. When the family fortunes declined after the death of his father in 1837 Carter tried various occupations, but eventually apprenticed himself to a builder. From the age of 17 he was a strong sympathiser with the Chartist movement and his early life was marked by an urge for study and self improvement. Residence in London from the age of 21 gave him opportunity both to develop his skills and, through adult education classes at the Westminster Institution, to continue broadening his knowledge and outlook. He took a leading part in the successful movement to shorten the hours of Saturday labour and wrote extensively in periodicals on labour conditions and the economic conditions of the working class. He gave qualified support to the revolutionary events of 1848 and in that April visited Paris and attended meetings of working-class delegations in the Luxembourg Palace.

His studies led him to advocate emigration and, in particular, emigration to New Zealand, as one means of relieving distress. Following his marriage to Jane Robieson in 1850, he left for New Zealand with his wife later in the year. In Wellington he quickly made a position for himself as a resourceful and enterprising contractor, among the works which he completed being harbour reclamation, sea walls, and the Wellington Provincial Buildings (1857).

When in England Carter had studied New Zealand prospects sufficiently closely to have become aware of the attractions of the Wairarapa for settlement. In 1853 he was elected to the committee of the Wairarapa Small Farms Association, an organisation responsible for the settlement of Greytown and Masterton. By a complex series of events he later became the sole trustee of the association and reported on its affairs to the original settlers and members in 1860. In 1867 his suggestion that the unsold lands should be used for educational purposes within the district led directly to the establishment of the Greytown and Masterton land trusts. Carter represented the Wairarapa both in the Wellington Provincial Council (1857–64) and in the General Assembly (1859–65). It was his work for the district and the knowledge which the Three Mile Bush settlers had gained from him while he was building the first Waiohine bridge which led to their recommending that the settlement be named in his honour “Carterville” (Carterton).

Carter's business success and wanderlust permitted his early return to England in 1863 for a four-year interval and again for most of the latter part of his life. Between 1857 and 1863, by a series of purchases of small holdings, he had formed the East Taratahi or Parkvale estate which, however, was inadequately developed during his ownership. While overseas he kept in touch with Carterton, and his direct assistance to the borough library made it, by the middle 1880s, probably the best in the country outside the main centres. Carter died at Wellington on 22 July 1896. He made several bequests to the town during his life and left £2,500 for the establishment of the Carter Home for “aged poor men”. His bequests, including a significant book and pamphlet collection to the New Zealand Institute and the residue of his estate for the erection of an astronomical observatory for Wellington, were noteworthy.

Although prolix and even tedious in literary style and unpolished in address, Carter by energy and shrewdness gained a modest success which he was prepared to share in part with the general community – in all probability due to the promptings of his early Chartist theories.

by Austin Graham Bagnall, M.A., A.L.A., Librarian, National Library Centre, Wellington.

• Life and Recollections of a New Zealand Colonist, Carter, C. R., et al. (3 vols., 1866–75)
• A History of Carterton, Bagnall, A. G. (1957).

(1853–1926)

Minister of the Crown, Acting Prime Minister of New Zealand.

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

James Carroll was born on 20 August 1853 at Wairoa, Hawke's Bay, the sixth of the eight children of Joseph Carroll. His father, of Irish extraction, had been born in Sydney and was Wairoa's first European farmer. His mother, the chieftainess Tapuke, who belonged to a noted East Coast tribe, had been born at Makauri (near Gisborne), but had moved to Turanga (Gisborne) with her tribe at an early age. Young Carroll passed his early childhood with Ngati Kahungunu relatives in Hawke's Bay until his father reclaimed him and put him under the guardianship of George Richardson, an old friend of the family. He attended school until he was 10 and then worked on his father's station, where he learned to talk and debate with the other musterers. On a visit to Ireland, many years later, Carroll was asked by his hostess what university he had attended and he replied, with a twinkle in his eye, “the University of Nature”.

In 1871, at the age of 17, Carroll joined the Waikaremoana expedition against Te Kooti and for his bravery was mentioned in despatches and awarded the New Zealand Medal, with a gratuity of £50. After this campaign he joined the Native Lands Department in Napier as a cadet. There his ability drew Sir Donald McLean's notice and led to his being transferred to Wellington, where he remained for a year. At the end of this time he returned to Wairoa, but later accepted a position as Native Interpreter to the House of Representatives. In July 1884 he resigned to contest Eastern Maori with Wi Pere, but was unsuccessful. He therefore joined Judge Logan as an interpreter for the Native Land Court. In September 1887 Carroll defeated Wi Pere for Eastern Maori and retained the seat in the 1890 election. In 1893 he contested the Waiapu (European) electorate when he defeated C. A. de Lautour – a veteran politician. Carroll retained this seat until he was defeated by W. D. Lysnar in December 1919. He was subsequently appointed to the Legislative Council, where he remained until his death.

In March 1892 Carroll joined the Ballance Ministry as member of the Executive representing the Native Race. During this period he helped Seddon to draw up the Native Land Purchase and Acquisition Bill, a measure by which the Government sought to obtain Maori Land by more equitable means than formerly. In February 1896 Seddon appointed Carroll Commissioner of Stamp Duties; he thus became the first Maori to hold a ministerial portfolio. He became Minister of Native Affairs in December 1899, retaining this portfolio in the Hall-Jones and Ward Ministries until the Liberals were defeated in 1912. For three months in 1909 and seven months in 1911 Carroll was Acting Prime Minister of New Zealand. In the Coronation Honours, 1911, Carroll was created K.C.M.G. On the inauguration of the Australian Commonwealth (1901) he accompanied Seddon to the celebrations. In 1918 he was selected to visit the battlefronts in France and Belgium. There he met and was greatly impressed by Bonar Law, the British statesman.

As Minister of Native Affairs, Carroll was, in effect, the arbitrator on many questions between the Maoris and the Government. When the tribes were not disposed to trust the Native Land Court, Carroll intervened and persuaded them to allow 650,000 acres of their lands to be opened for settlement. He persuaded Mahuta Te Wherowhero the Maori “King”, to accept seats in the Executive and Legislative Councils, and by so doing to submit to the sovereignty of Queen Victoria. Although his native policy was conservative (taihoa), Carroll did his best to promote local self-government among the Maoris. He greatly facilitated the passing of the Maori Councils Act of 1900 which conferred autonomy on the villages in matters of health and education, and instituted a stricter supervision over the sale of spirits to natives. The first general conference of the Maori Councils, held in Rotorua on 17 April 1903, sought additional powers for the village committees, and put forward proposals for better medical facilities in native areas and suggested model by-laws to limit tohungaism (witchcraft). In all such matters the Government sought Carroll's advice.

Carroll's name is also associated with the passing of the Maori Lands Administration Act of 1900. In 1898 he had accompanied Lord Ranfurly and Seddon to a great meeting of King Country chiefs, where the questions of the alienation of native lands and the declining population of the race were discussed. There, Seddon informed them that his Government intended to prohibit the further sale of Maori lands in an attempt to prevent the Maoris from becoming a landless class and in order that their numbers might have a chance to increase. These proposals were embodied in the Maori Lands Administration Act, which was placed in the administrative sphere of the Native Minister. Carroll was deeply interested in cooperative farming and encouraged its adoption. He also prepared the way for the consolidation of all legislation dealing with native lands. Under the Native Land Act of 1909 the distinction between European and Maori lands, first instituted by the Treaty of Waitangi, was abolished and, where native lands were vested in an individual owner or a small group, all prohibitions and restrictions on their sale were removed. In the case of lands owned in fee simple by 10 or more natives as communal property, alienation could not be made without the consent of the group. Special Maori Land Boards were empowered to deal with the disposition of native land, with the consent of the owners, by sale or lease. The principles consolidated in the 1909 Act remained in force for many years.

Carroll became known as Seddon's right-hand man and confidential adviser in all the Government dealings with the Maori people. On one occasion in the 1890s when Seddon contemplated sending 300 Maori warriors to settle troubles in Samoa, Carroll demanded to be allowed to lead them. At Seddon's funeral Carroll was the chief Maori spokesman. Possessing a rare dignity, he was an eloquent speaker in English and Maori and so could use his immense influence to further the understanding between Maori and Pakeha. His gift for picturesque speech was seen at its best when he unveiled the memorial to his old friend and opponent the Hon. Sir William Herries: “Standing by this memorial… My mind is a hive to which are homing a hundred honeyed memories.”

Carroll was undoubtedly one of the finest speakers the New Zealand Parliament has known. As an orator he carried conviction through the simplicity and sincerity of his words. He was both prudent and just and displayed a wonderful sense of humour. One of the most dramatic scenes ever witnessed on the floor of the House of Representatives occurred after Carroll had defended his administration of native affairs against a most scathing and apparently unanswerable denunciation by Herries. While Herries was speaking Carroll sat slumped in his seat alongside the Premier apparently half asleep. As Herries sat down even Carroll's fellow Liberals felt daunted. But Carroll, speaking without notes, answered each charge to the satisfaction of his own party and the opposition alike. And, in the triumphant moment when he concluded, Herries was seen to walk across the floor of the House to congratulate him on his reply.

Early in life Carroll married Heni Mataroa, who survived him. There were no children but they brought up 30 foster children. His interests outside politics were many. He enjoyed boxing, wrestling, athletics, and bowls, both as a spectator and as a lively participant. He was also fond of horse racing and kept his own stables. When Carroll died in Auckland on 18 October 1926 a brief but impressive memorial service was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral, after which the embalmed body was sent by the Wainui to Gisborne for interment. At the time of his death Sir James was a member of the Legislative Council and a trustee of the East Coast Native Trust Lands.

by Robert Ritchie Alexander, M.A., DIP.ED.(N.Z.), B.T.(CALCUTTA), PH.D.(MINNESOTA), Teachers' Training College, Christchurch.

• N.Z.P.D., Vol. 212 (1927) (Obits)
• Life and Works of Richard John Seddon, Drummond, J. (1907)
• King Dick, Burdon, R. M. (1955)
• Bay of Plenty Times, 20 Oct 1926 (Obit).

(1807–1901).

Surveyor and Superintendent of Taranaki.

A new biography of Carrington, Frederic Alonzo appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Frederic Alonzo Carrington was born in October 1807 at Chelmsford, Essex, the son of Captain William Carrington and Elizabeth, née Peters. He trained as a civil engineer under Colonel Dawson, R.E., and in January 1826 joined the Ordnance Survey Department. For the next few years he did survey work in the counties along the Welsh border. The quality of his topographical delineations and accuracy of his surveys brought him to the notice of his superiors; and in 1832, after the Reform Bill was passed, Carrington was chosen to describe the boundaries of the boroughs between Bristol and Manchester. Early in 1839, as a result of discussions with Captain Mein Smith, the chief surveyor of the New Zealand Company, Carrington became interested in colonisation. In June 1840 the directors of the Plymouth Company appointed him chief surveyor and sent him to New Zealand with instructions to select a suitable site for their proposed settlement. He arrived at Wellington in the London on 12 December 1840 and, after consultations with Colonel Wakefield, visited possible sites at Queen Charlotte Sound, Taranaki, and Waitara. Carrington selected New Plymouth as the most suitable site available, although, later on, he had to defend his choice against that of the settlers who considered a natural harbour, which New Plymouth lacked, to be of paramount importance. In 1843, when he returned to England, Carrington found that the Company was in financial difficulties. His employment therefore terminated. He became associated with the railways boom and, on many occasions, presented technical evidence to various Railways Committees of the House of Commons. For the Great Exhibition of 1851 Carrington prepared exhibits of the Taranaki ironsands and endeavoured to interest the authorities in their exploitation. Between 1851 and 1856 he paid three visits to California to advise on mining problems, water races, and railways. He returned to Taranaki in 1857 where he hoped to promote an iron industry and to construct improved port facilities. In 1862 he became Government Engineering Surveyor for Taranaki and, in the years following, cooperated with the military authorities to establish an adequate system of roads in the province. After the Maori Wars he entered local politics, and in 1869 was elected Superintendent of Taranaki – a post which he retained until the abolition of the provincial system. Carrington's term was chiefly notable for his allocation of one-quarter of the province's revenue towards the improvement of the port facilities. In 1870 he was returned to the House of Representatives for Omata and, from 1871 to 1879, for Grey and Bell.

In 1833, at London, England, Carrington married Margaret Gaine, who died in 1888 leaving one son and four daughters. Carrington died at New Plymouth on 15 July 1901.

Because of his long connection with the province and, particularly, because he selected and laid out New Plymouth, Frederic Alonzo Carrington may justly be called “the Father of Taranaki”. Two of his brothers were associated with him in his New Zealand work. They were Augustus Octavius Croker Carrington (1816–1901), who was his principal assistant during the Taranaki surveys; and Wellington Carrington (1814–90), who visited the Bay of Islands in 1835, was appointed assistant surveyor to the New Zealand Company in 1839, and was interpreter at the arrest of Te Whiti in 1881.

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

• From Plymouth to New Plymouth, Wood, R. G. (1959)
• Taranaki Herald, 15 Jul 1901 (Obit).

(Xenophora neozelanica).

A rare deep-water species of the northern part of the North Island, it is a wonderful example of the art of camouflage for, in order to escape detection, the shellfish cements to the back of its shell bits and pieces of shell and rock from the surrounding debris of the sea bottom. It is even careful to cement odd valves of bivalves with the concave side uppermost, thus emphasising their emptiness to prowling carnivorous fish. The carrier is about 3 in. across and lives in from 20–50 fm.

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

(1874–1957).

Professor of systematic medicine.

Carmalt-Jones was born in London on 30 August 1874, the son of Dr T. W. Carmalt-Jones. He was educated at the public school of Uppingham and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1896. Electing to study medicine he went to St. Mary's Hospital, London, graduating in medicine in 1903. He held junior medical appointments at St. Mary's, at Queen's Square, at the Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, and at the Westminster Hospital. He was later an assistant in Sir Almot Wright's Department of Therapeutic Inoculation In 1911 he published his first book, An Introduction to Therapeutic Inoculations, and secured his D.M. from Oxford. In 1912 he was appointed dean of the Westminster Hospital Medical School, and in 1914 was elected F.R.C.P., London. He served in the First World War from 1914 to 1918, in the latter phases as a consulting physican to the Expeditionary Force to Egypt.

In 1919 he was appointed professor of systematic medicine (part time) at the University of Otago. Though permitted private practice, Carmalt-Jones was essentially an academic man and he soon concentrated on his great work of turning the thoughts of his students towards a career in medicine rather than surgery, which was the prevailing tendency. He brought to Dunedin the traditions of Oxford, and with his intimate knowledge of the classics and of literature he created an atmosphere of humane medicine, which has persisted in the Medical School. He took an active interest in the whole life of the University and was a member of many of the sporting and cultural clubs and societies. He wrote sonnets and was an artist of some ability.

He retired from his chair in 1939 and continued to work for the University and Medical School, publishing the Annals of the Medical School in 1945. He retired to England in 1946.

In 1907 Carmalt-Jones married Mabel Gertrude, daughter of Captain F. L. Tottenham, and by her he had one son and one daughter. He died at Edgware, Middlesex, on 5 March 1957.

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.

• Annals of the University of Otago Medical School, Carmalt-Jones, D. W. (1945)
• The Times (London), 6 Mar 1957 (Obit)
• Otago Daily Times, 7 Mar 1957 (Obit)
• The Otago Medical School Under the First Three Deans, Hercus, C. E. and Bell, G. (1964).

(1810–90).

Politician and journalist.

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

Hugh Francis Carleton was the eldest son of Francis Carleton, Clare, County Tipperary, and Greenfield, County Cork, Ireland, and was born on 3 July 1810. He was a descendant of Baldwin de Carleton, who came to England with William the Conqueror in 1066 and settled at Carleton Hall, Penrith, Cumberland. The Irish branch of the family was founded in the reign of Charles II. Hugh, Viscount Carleton of Clare, a Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, was Francis Carleton's uncle.

Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, Carleton interrupted his classical studies without completing a degree. He studied law in the Middle Temple, but was never called to the Bar; he went to Italy to study classical art, then spent some three years in travelling, coming to Auckland in 1845. He was employed for a while by Messrs, Brown and Campbell, a firm of agents and general merchants, but left them to engage in commercial speculations. He chartered the Orwell, a barque of 305 tons, for the purpose of importing stock from Australia. She made three unprofitable voyages before being wrecked on the Orwell Bank, in the Manukau Harbour, on 2 March 1848, with the loss of 164 head of cattle and 200 sheep. This brought Carleton's business enterprises to a disastrous end.

Carleton then turned his attention to travelling in the Pacific and, from time to time, to editorial work on the Auckland newspaper, The New Zealander. In 1848 he established his own newspaper, the Anglo-Maori Warder, which ran from 25 April to 19 October. Its policy included the promotion of Maori interests, the defence of the Church Mission, opposition to the policy of Governor Grey, and an effort to develop the literary taste of the community. Its leaders, like much of Carleton's writing, are fine compositions, though condescending in tone.

Carleton returned from a visit to San Francisco in time for the first elections for the General Assembly of 1854, and was the only candidate for the Bay of Islands electorate. As the declaration of his election on 14 July 1853 was the first in New Zealand, he liked to be known as “the father of the House”. As a parliamentarian, he was “famous for holding singular opinions” and, while he soon acquired a reputation as a polished and highly cultured though boring speaker, his style was too dogmatic and ponderous to inspire a following. He confessed himself unsuited to leadership, adopting more usually the role of critic, free from party affiliation. He took an active part in the controversy over responsible government, seconding E. G. Wakefield's motion on the importance of ministerial responsibility and devoting himself to an attack on the policies of Governor Grey, a theme he had consistently followed. Though nominated for the position of Chairman of Committees in 1854 he withdrew in favour of F. W. Merriman because of a misunderstanding. He was appointed to the position in 1856, and held it until he ceased to be a member in 1870.

Carleton was never a party man, though at times he gave his voice, and his vote, in support of each succeeding ministry. His support of Fox in 1856 has been attributed to his agreement with Fox's waste land policy, but Carleton set out the reasons for his various changes of allegiance in his speech on a matter of privilege on 1 August 1856. He had regarded Sewell as “in need of a check” and, in order to oust him from office, had agreed to support Fox. This he did with loyalty until the end of the first brief Ministry of Fox, when he stated he “had done with party – that he would take an independent position for the rest of the session”. Nevertheless, his support for Stafford on the Waitara war question in 1860 was against his personal inclination and he upheld it only because of a “hasty promise of support which he had given at the beginning of the session”. He satisfied his conscience by voting Stafford out of office the following year.

Carleton's curious and idiosyncratic nature led him to take a particular interest in questions of privilege. He raised the first question to be brought before the House, submitting that the action of Dr Bacot, an Army officer, in applying to his commanding officer for leave to attend the House, had “gravely compromised the privileges of the House”. This quibbling little action led to the setting up of a Committee on Privileges and, ultimately, to the passing of the Privileges Act of 1856 and 1865.

Through the Ministries of Whitaker and Weld, Carleton maintained his position of independence, voting in accord with his conscience. He supported Stafford, with whom he had most frequently aligned himself, from Stafford's return to power in 1865 until the end of his parliamentary career. Carleton was unsuccessful at the 1870 election, blaming his defeat on the inclusion of the former Mangonui electorate and the additional votes of a large number of Maori grant holders. He stoutly maintained the loyalty of the voters in his former pocket-borough electorate. He was offered the opportunity to stand as a candidate for the Eden seat if he would support Grey, but he refused to be bound and transferred his energies to the establishment of a University of New Zealand, an ideal he had long cherished.

Carleton's support for a university dates from a speech in the House of Representatives in 1854, to which he referred in the debate on the 1870 University Bill. His influence in the early development of the University was considerable. He was elected Vice-Chancellor in 1871, retaining that position until his departure from the colony in 1878. He shared with Tancred, the Chancellor, a great part of the responsibility for the early development of the University of New Zealand, but he failed to gain the confidence of the Otago people over the amalgamation with the University of Otago. The Otago Daily Times of 4 April 1878 remarked that the members of the council, “from the Chancellor downwards … with few exceptions, are not men who have any right to be where they are.” Carleton was not one of the exceptions. He had “by some strange oversight omitted to take with him his degree from any University”. This lapse had been remedied by his admission to the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the University of New Zealand on 11 April 1872. But it was purely honorary.

Carleton also devoted his energies to the Auckland Provincial Council, and represented, at various times from 1856 to 1876, the electorates of Bay of Islands, City of Auckland, and Newton. He was for a time a member of the Auckland Executive Council, and was Provincial Secretary in 1855.

Throughout his political career Carleton took a special delight in his claim to be a one-party man – a true Tory. With his pose of learning and his fondness for interlarding his speeches with snippets from the classics and tags of law latin, he was a pedantic bore, more a curiosity than a force in early New Zealand politics.

After his retirement from New Zealand politics Carleton returned to England, where he spent the remaining 10 years of his life. As befitted one who was passionately fond of music and who had helped to found the Auckland Choral Society, he devoted his declining years to the study and enjoyment of this art. His London residence was situated close to the Crystal Palace and he regularly attended the concerts there. Carleton died on 14 August 1890 at Palace Square, Upper Norwood, London.

On 30 November 1859 Carleton married Lydia Jane (1831–92), daughter of Archdeacon Henry Williams. There were no children.

by Charles Philip Littlejohn, LL.B., Clerk of the Journals and Records, House of Representatives, Wellington.

• New Zealand Herald, 20 Sep 1890 (Obit).

(1784–1860).

Otago coloniser.

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

William Cargill was born at Edinburgh on 27 August 1784, the eldest son of William Cargill, Writer to the Signet. He was a direct lineal descendant of the Covenanter leader, Donald Cargill, who suffered martyrdom at the Grassmarket, Edinburgh, in 1680. Cargill's early life was one of hardship. His father, a young man of some promise, died of intemperance and left his widow and children in difficulties. His mother was a woman of fine character and, by dint of careful management, was able to send William to the Edinburgh High School. On 21 May 1802, through the generosity of his maternal great uncle, Sir William Nicholson, he purchased an ensigncy in the 84th Regiment, then in Bengal. In the following year, after the battle of Assaye (23 September), he secured through his patron a lieutenancy in the 74th Highlanders and served with them during the remainder of the Mahratta War. In September 1805 the regiment was withdrawn and reached Portsmouth on 16 February 1806. After a period of home service in Scotland and Ireland, Cargill sailed with his regiment for the Peninsula and arrived at the Tagus in February 1810. At the battle of Busaco on 27 September 1810 Cargill was severely wounded in the leg and was invalided home for two years. He rejoined his regiment at Madrid and, on 31 December 1812, was promoted to a company. He served through all the subsequent operations of the Peninsular campaign and displayed outstanding gallantry at the hard-fought battle of Toulouse (April 1814). On 4 July 1814 the regiment embarked at Bordeaux for Ireland and was stationed at Galway. It was ordered to Flanders for the Waterloo campaign, but, before it could embark at Cork, news arrived of the victory. With the peace, Cargill served for several years in Ireland and Scotland, but the claims of a large family with attendant financial difficulties compelled him, on 1 June 1820, to sell his commission for £1,500.

Cargill now set himself up in business in Edinburgh as a wine merchant, an unsuccessful venture which ended in 1834. Emigration to Canada, with hopes of a land grant, was the next attraction, but nothing came of it. He thereupon turned his attention to banking and, in 1836, was appointed general manager of the East of England Bank at Norwich. Perhaps with the idea of bettering his prospects he went to London in 1841, where he secured a seat on the Board of the Oriental Bank Corporation, of which his son was general manager. By this time Cargill was in his late fifties, but, apart from his fine army record and the fact that he had brought into the world a family of 17 children, he had done little to distinguish himself in any way. At this juncture Cargill met George Rennie, the father of the New Edinburgh (Otago) colonisation scheme which had first been mooted in the Colonial Gazette of August 1842. Cargill was willing to emigrate, provided he could secure “some occupation suited to his condition”. During 1843 Rennie and Cargill worked hard to win the support of the directors of the New Zealand Company for the proposed New Edinburgh settlement, which was to be open to all classes of Scottish society. The Disruption of 1843, followed by the establishment of the Free Church of Scotland, brought them an ally in the person of the Rev. Thomas Burns, late of Monkton, who was prepared to act as spiritual leader of the project. Burns, however, wanted an “exclusive” Free Church colony, the upshot being that in October 1845 Rennie withdrew from what then appeared to be an unpromising venture.

Cargill was now the main agency in keeping the scheme alive, for Burns had little time to spare from his Free Church duties in Scotland, though his letters to his colleague were full of advice and encouragement. E. G. Wakefield, too, was a source of strength. Things took a turn for the better in May 1847 when Cargill published a pamphlet on what was then the Otago scheme. Like many other colonising theorists of the day, Cargill drew inspiration from the New England Pilgrim Fathers, whose “wise and holy example” would guide the Otago pioneers. Gradually a handful of supporters came forward; the New Zealand Company bestirred itself and, on 22 November 1847, Cargill was appointed their agent at Otago at a salary of £500 per annum. Two days later he sailed from Gravesend in the John Wickliffe which reached Otago Harbour on 23 March 1848, some three weeks ahead of the Philip Laing, which, with Burns on board, had sailed from the Clyde.

The safe arrival at Port Chalmers of the Free Church settlers gave Cargill the opportunity to magnify the occasion – “the eyes of the British Empire, and I may say of Europe and America are upon us”. If the hyperbole was meant to be a stimulus to action it was timely, for the infant settlement soon had more than enough of teething troubles. Although Cargill purged the body politic of some of its more undesirable elements by shipping them to Wellington, the tiny community was soon at loggerheads on two counts – Free Church dominance, and land-sales policy. Cargill's office of Resident Agent, with its high salary and light duties, was ridiculed by the malcontents and, when he unwisely suppressed their organ, the Otago News, the settlement faced much ill-deserved criticism both throughout the colony and abroad. Nor was the situation any happier when, in May 1850, the New Zealand Company surrendered its charter as a colonising body. Cargill, through the good offices of the Otago Association, was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands. But a bitter quarrel with the Governor, Sir George Grey, over the elections of an Otago nominee for the Legislative Council led to his restricting Cargill's authority to the narrow limits of the Otago Block and appointing another Commissioner of Crown Lands for the province. This was the least impressive period in Cargill's Otago career. In some respects too readily influenced by the inflexible Burns, he quarrelled with the Anglican minority (the “Little Enemy”), the Methodist missionary at Waikouaiti, various Government officials, and even some of his strongest supporters, such as W. H. Valpy. While Cargill had some justification for his actions, he was more prone to browbeat than conciliate. Moreover, he was so obsessed with the idea of maintaining the “exclusive” character of the settlement that he was content to see the stream of immigration dry up.

Fortunately the coming of the Constitution Act of 1852 gave Cargill the opportunity to play a more fitting part in provincial and colonial politics. He was unanimously elected Superintendent for the province on 6 September 1853. But for all the lip service he paid to democratic principles, the old soldier was of too autocratic a temper to make concessions with a good grace. “Gentlemen”, he told his Provincial Council, “you may be liberal … but as for me I cannot afford to be liberal at the expense of a people's rights”. With equal bluntness he advised those who were not prepared to conform to the original plan to go elsewhere; the settlement would be the better without them. Before long Cargill's disregard for political conventions, together with the fact that his administration as Superintendent was not free from nepotism, led to open discontent, even among his band of sycophants. Certainly he was again elected unopposed for the superintendency in November 1855. But it was purely an expression of loyalty based on sentiment, a regard for old age and grey hairs. Thus there were few regrets when, in October 1859, Cargill announced his retirement from public affairs. He died at his home, “Hillside”, on 6 August 1860.

In the wider sphere of colonial politics Cargill was essentially a provincial representative concerned with safeguarding Otago's interests. In December 1855 he was elected a member of the General Assembly and served through the sessions of 1856 and 1858. He strongly opposed the disruptive New Provinces Bill; but made little impact in debate, for to the handicap of deafness was added a dull and obscure style of speaking. Consequently his influence was felt more out of the House than in, though here again, as a lone Otago representative, he had little in common with his fellow parliamentarians from the south, to whom he seemed an anachronism.

In appearance Cargill was somewhat under middle size, sturdily built. According to James Barr, Cargill trudged about the settlement in an undress of Ayrshire grey, a broad blue bonnet on his head, with a flaming red toorie in the centre, a stunted black pipe in his mouth, a stout walking stick in his right hand, and a shepherd's tartan plaid thrown over his left shoulder. Charlotte Godley thought him “a funny looking old man with a very large head covered with thick upright white hair, that has been red, which also forms a white frill under his chin”. Cargill was undoubtedly an oddity, in thinking, as in appearance.

From time to time Cargill's qualities of leadership had been assessed in terms of Sir George Grey's tribute of 1875, delivered during the course of his Dunedin electioneering campaign. “He possessed”, said Grey, “not only great sagacity but extraordinary wisdom…. He did not believe that a more wise or sagacious man than Captain Cargill had almost ever existed”. As an example of Grey's blatant art of flattery the statement is revealing; as an expression of truth it is arrant nonsense. Cargill lacked almost every quality essential to successful leadership, if we except the dour pugnacity of a Peninsular War veteran. His mind was too inflexible, his judgment too rigid to meet the challenge of changing conditions. He took himself and his office too seriously and his alliance with Burns led him into errors of intolerance a wise man could have avoided. To those who opposed him he was a relentless enemy and he aggravated unhappy situations by his flair for tactless comment. Nevertheless, in his early years at Otago and in his role as patriarch, he unquestionably won the respect and affection of the community. Had he died at that period it would have seemed a public calamity; as it was, he lived long enough to make his death a matter of little consequence.

Cargill was survived by his wife, Mary Ann (born London, 13 August 1790; died Dunedin 25 October 1871). She was the daughter of Lieutenant Yates, R.N. They were married at Oporto in the spring of 1813 and had 17 children, 12 sons and five daughters. Two of the sons were prominent in Otago affairs. John Cargill (1821–98) was a minor politician and an enthusiastic volunteer, being Colonel in Command of the Otago Volunteers and Militia. He became a leading runholder. Edward Bowes Cargill (1823–1903) was also a runholder. He had wide mercantile interests and played a part in civic and general affairs.

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

• History of Otago, McLintock, A. H. (1949)
• Otago Witness, 11 Aug 1860 (Obit).