(1837–1917).

Deserter and renegade.

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

Kimble Bent was born at Eastport, Maine, U.S.A., on 24 August 1837, the son of Waterman Bent, shipbuilder. His mother, Eliza Senter, was a half-caste Red Indian of the Musqua tribe. At the age of 17 he ran away to sea and served for some three years in the United States Navy. After a brief spell ashore, he went to England. Stranded and penniless at Liverpool, he enlisted in Her Majesty's 57th Foot Regiment in 1859. During recruit training at Cork he deserted but was recaptured, and received a court-martial sentence of 84 days in prison. After serving that term he was shipped with his regiment to India where he spent two years. The 57th was then ordered to New Zealand, arriving at Auckland after a voyage of 89 days. Presently the regiment was sent to barrack life at New Plymouth, and then to Manawapou, in south Taranaki, near the Tangahoe River. There the regiment went under canvas. For an offence against discipline, Bent received 25 lashes at the triangles, his company, No. 8, being paraded in review order to “witness punishment”. After serving a prison term in Wellington, he was sent back to the regiment. Then, on 12 June 1865, he deserted.

Kimble Bent crossed the Tangahoe, and presently fell into the hands of a Maori of importance in the Ngati Ruanui tribe, Tito Te Hanataua. Tito took the deserter to Hangai, Taiporohenui, and Keteonetea where, though at times in danger, he was accepted by the Maoris. His life was by no means an easy one, as he became Tito's slave. At Otapawa, a stronghold further up the Tangahoe, Kimble Bent was given a wife, Te Rawanga. She was about 25 years of age and no beauty, with one eye and thick lips. The hesitant husband, faced with matrimony or a sudden end by tomahawk, chose the former. He was fully received into the tribe and, as a mark of favour, was given a Maori name, Ringiringi, one of the names of his captor, Tito.

At Otapawa, Kimble Bent met the Hauhau prophet, Te Ua Horopapera Haumene, who treated him with much consideration. Shortly before the capture of Otapawa by British forces under General Trevor Chute on 14 January 1866, Te Ua's owl-god, Ruru, obligingly advised him to leave the pa. Kimble Bent's old regiment, the 57th, bore the brunt of the attack, and the voice of the deserter was recognised calling on the defenders to “Fire low”. He certainly played his part in preparation for the defence of the pa. The fugitives from Otapawa camped further up the Tangahoe, and established themselves at Rimatoto, the site of an old-time village.

As time went on, Kimble Bent became the property of Rupe, a chief of Taiporohenui, who rewarded him for services rendered during a son's serious illness with a new wife, Rihi or Te Hau-Rorori-Ua. She was quite young and had handsome features. She was fully tattooed.

In 1867, the “Year of the Lamb”, Kimble Bent met the great Taranaki war chief, Titokowaru a very able general, who was then engaged in travelling from village to village making preparation for his final campaign. Kimble Bent became Titoko's mokai or slave, was adopted by him, and was given a new name, Tu-nui-a-moa. As well as being a gifted military leader, Titokowaru was a tohunga or priest of considerable mana tapu or sacred prestige. He revived many of the ancient practices of Maoridom. While associated with Titokowaru, Bent was largely occupied in cartridge making.

Early in 1868 Kimble Bent was located at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu, “The Beak of the Bird”, some 10 miles from the modern Hawera. This Hauhau stronghold was the headquarters of the Ngati Ruanui and Nga Rauru belligerents. It was from Te Ngutu that Titokowaru sent forth the war party which attacked the pakeha redoubt at Turuturumokai in the wintry dawn hours of Sunday, 12 July 1868. Kimble Bent did not accompany this war party which included another renegade, Charles King, a deserter from the 18th Royal Irish Regiment. King was subsequently killed by the Maoris for treachery.

While Kimble Bent was absent from Te Ngutu seeking material for the manufacture of cartridges, the pakeha forces under Colonel McDonnell, Majors von Tempskyand Hunter, on 21 August 1868, captured and burned the pa. The Maoris promptly rebuilt and fortified the stronghold. The disastrous second attack on Te Ngutu-o-te-manu took place on 7 September 1868, when a strong force under Lieutenant-Colonel McDonnell was repulsed with severe loss. At the start of the engagement, Titokowaru entrusted a kit containing some of his treasures to Kimble Bent, and sent him away from the pa to join the priest Te Waka-takerenui at a camp in the forest. As a result of this unfortunate defeat, the pakeha were driven south of the Patea River. Major von Tempsky was shot at Te Ngutu-o-te-manu by Te Rangi-hina-kau. Kimble Bent, at the request of Titokowaru, viewed the pakeha dead, and identified the body of von Tempsky. He was present at Te Ngutu when the Nga Raura people from Waitotara cooked and ate one of the bodies, the remainder being cremated at the orders of Titokowaru.

Kimble Bent had plenty of adventure until Titokowaru finally lost his mana at Tauranga-ika, a strongly fortified post which was abandoned in February 1869. This marked the beginning of the end of the final campaign in Taranaki. When the pa was deserted, Kimble Bent quietly slipped away. He found a place of refuge up the Waitara River, though life there was far from easy. He acquired a third wife, a good-looking Ngati Ruanui girl of about 18. He finally came out of “exile” in 1878, and thereafter lived in various places. He died at Blenheim in the South Island in 1917.

Though possibly picturesque in some ways, Kimble Bent was a deserter and a renegade, a Maori slave, and cartridge maker.

by John Houston, O.B.E., LL.B. (1891–1962), Author, Hawera.

• The Adventures of Kimble Bent, Cowan, J. (1911)
• The New Zealand Wars, Cowan, J. (2 vols., 1955)
• Hawera Star, 14 Jan 1933.

(1885–1957).

Research geologist, professor of geology.

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

William Noel Benson was born on 26 December 1885 at Annerley, near London, the son of William Benson, descendant of a North of England landholding Quaker family and, later, a shipping manager in Australia. Through his grandmother, Caroline Arch, he was a descendant of Margaret Fell, who married, as her second husband, George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends. His mother, Emma Elizabeth Benson (née Mather), of Hobart, was descended from another branch of the Benson family. The bulk of Benson's primary and secondary education was in Friends High School at Hobart (1897–1902). He started his scientific training at the University of Tasmania, and between 1905 and 1907 he completed the B.Sc. course at the University of Sydney where he came under the influence of Professor Sir Edgeworth David, an inspiring teacher of geology. Benson's first researches in Australian geology were undertaken from 1907 to 1911, after which he spent till 1914 working at Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. He returned to Sydney as research fellow and lecturer at the University, and continued Australian field studies till his appointment in 1917 to the chair of geology and mineralogy at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. These early researches, about which he wrote a series of important papers on the geology and petrology of the great serpentine belt of New South Wales, culminated in two notable publications on the origin of ultrabasic rocks appearing in 1918.

In spite of having to teach single handed for the first nine years of his professorship at Otago, Benson quickly made himself familiar with the New Zealand geological scene, and papers soon appeared containing some important concepts on paleogeography and structure of the Pacific margin. He undertook researches in the Ordovician rocks of Fiordland and evolved new ideas on the geomorphology of southern New Zealand. His major work in this country was a long and detailed study of the Cainozoic petrographic province of east Otago; a comprehensive memoir about this awaited publication at the time of his death at Dunedin on 20 August 1957.

Benson's dedication to his science and his dogged pursuit of new knowledge resulted in a remarkable output of scientific work – he published more than 100 papers – but unfortunately his habit of working long hours to the limit of his physical strength taxed his health in later years. He was a humble man of simple tastes and a kindly, lovable character, recognised in his lifetime as a world figure in geology.

Mrs Benson, well known as Professor Helen Gertrude Rawson, was a graduate of Cambridge and London Universities. She came to New Zealand in 1912 to the staff of the Home Science Department of the University of Otago, and was a lecturer till 1923 when she became professor of Home Science and Dean of the Faculty. Four years later she married W. N. Benson. A charming and cultured woman, she had always had wide and varied interests and gave notable service on public and other bodies. After her marriage she lectured on international affairs for WEA (1929–43). Among other activities she was a member of the St. Margaret's College Council for 27 years and a member of the Senate of the University of New Zealand for nine years. She was one of the founders and the first national president of the New Zealand branch of the International Federation of University Women. For many years she was an active member of the National Council of Women holding office as local, then as Dominion president. She was also a representative on the National Council of Churches and secretary of the Councils' committee for assisting refugees. Gertrude Helen Benson died at Dunedin on 21 February 1964.

by lan Charles McKellar, M.SC., Geologist, New Zealand Geological Survey, Dunedin.

• Otago Daily Times, 22 Aug 1957 (Obit).

(1871–1950).

First Bishop of Aotearoa.

A new biography of Bennett, Frederick Augustus appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Bennett was born on 15 November 1871 at Ohinemutu, the son of Thomas Jackson Bennett, a merchant and insurance agent, and of Elize, née Rogers. His grandfather on his father's side was Dr John Boyle Bennett (1808–80), editor of the New Zealander and the first Registrar-General, and his grandmother was Horatia Marian Carlisle. Young Bennett was educated at the Native School, Ohinemutu, at St. Stephen's, Auckland, and at Wairoa, near Lake Tarawera. About two months before the Tarawera eruption (1886) Bishop Suter visited a temperance meeting at Wairoa and was impressed by Bennett's singing and by his skill as an interpreter. Two weeks later the Bishop offered to take him to Nelson and to educate him. Bennett obtained his parents' consent and accompanied Suter to Nelson, where he spent the next four years at the Bishop's school. He attended Nelson College for one year (1891) and, afterwards, went to Wanganui, where he assisted Rev. A. O. Williams as a lay worker. He was stationed at Putiki and, while there, organised a series of concerts to raise funds for a school building. In 1894 he returned to Nelson and entered Bishopdale Theological College. He was ordained a deacon on 24 August 1896 and a priest on 1 November 1897, completing his L.Th. in the latter year. From 1896 to 1899 he was curate of All Saints Church, Nelson, and took charge of Maori work in the diocese. During these years he organised the building of the Maori church at Motueka and the mission school at Croisilles. In 1899, when the Maori mission in the North Island needed Maori clergy, Archdeacon Samuel Williams asked Suter to release Bennett for this work. He was stationed at Wanganui, but later moved to Bell Block, near New Plymouth, where he helped to revive mission work which had been at a standstill since the Maori Wars. Bennett's parish was the thickly populated district bounded on the north by White Cliffs and on the south by the Waitotara River. During this period he induced the Government to establish a Maori hospital in New Plymouth. As he was convinced that the existing liquor laws were not in the best interests of the Maori people, Bennett took an active part in petitioning Parliament to insert a clause to make it an offence to supply Maoris with liquor for consumption off licensed premises. In this connection he was once returned at the top of the poll in the New Plymouth licensing elections.

From 1903 to 1905, Bennett served as chaplain to the Bishop of Auckland, but he relinquished this post to become superintendent of the Maori mission at Rotorua. There, because the district was a tourist centre, he found many unexpected complications to his work. He had much support, however, from members of both races. In the liquor problem he received considerable assistance from Ernest Davis who instructed local hotel proprietors to close their bars to all Maoris whenever Bennett requested them to do so. Another major problem Bennett tackled was that of raising the level of entertainment given to tourists. He encouraged the formation of the Rotorua Maori Choir, which afterwards became famous for the quality of its singing and for the educational value of its performances. In his mission work Bennett set his people the task of erecting small churches in Maori villages with the “mother” church at Ohinemutu as the acknowledged focal point of the Arawa people. During his 12 years at Rotorua he arranged the erection of 13 churches and mission halls. The last of these was the church at Ohinemutu which has a carved interior of interest to visitors. In 1918 Bennett accepted a position as assistant superintendent of the Maori mission in Hawke's Bay and he held this office until his appointment as a bishop. He also acted as a member of the Standing Committee of the Waiapu Synod and was a diocesan representative at the 1928 General Synod.

When the Maori diocese of Aotearoa was erected Bennett became its first bishop. He was consecrated at St. John's Cathedral, Napier, on 2 December 1928 and became Suffragan Bishop to the Bishop of Waiapu. From this time onwards diocesan affairs consumed much of his time. In 1938 he was elected president of the New Zealand Alliance; and, during the war, while the Bishop of Waiapu was serving with the forces, Bennett looked after the affairs of both dioceses. He was awarded the C.M.G. in the New Year Honours in 1948 and, in the same year, attended the Lambeth Conference (London) and the World Conference of Churches (Amsterdam). After his return to New Zealand Bennett's health began to fail and he died at Kohupatiki pa, near Clive, on 16 September 1950.

Bishop Bennett was twice married: first, on 11 May 1899, at Motueka, to Hannah Te Unuhi Mary (who died on 10 August 1909), daughter of Huta Pomariki Paaka; and, secondly, on 14 December 1911, at Te Rau College Chapel, Gisborne, to Rangioue Ariki, daughter of Hemana Pohiha. He was survived by his second wife and by 14 sons and four daughters. Seven of his sons served in the forces during the Second World War and six of these served overseas. One son, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Moihi Bennett, D.S.O. (q.v.), commanded the Maori Battalion for a time and later became New Zealand's first High Commissioner to the Federation of Malaya. Another son, Para, was the first Maori to obtain a commission in the Royal Navy.

From his earliest days Bishop Bennett displayed great ability as an organiser. In his youth he was associated with Sir A. T. Ngata and Sir Maui Pomare in the Young Maori Party, and from this association he gained many of the ideas he later put into practice in his mission work. Bishop Suter had been attracted by Bennett's qualities as a singer and interpreter; in later years this gift developed into a flair for oratory which placed him high among the public speakers of his day.

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

• Yearbook 1929, Diocese of Waiapu (1929, Diocese of Waiapu (1929)
• Dominion, 16 Aug 1928
• Church and People, 2 Oct 1950 (Obit).

(1913– ).

Administrator.

A new biography of Bennett, Charles Moihi Te Arawaka appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

p>Charles Moihi Bennett was born in Rotorua on 27 July 1913, son of the Right Rev. Bishop F. A. Bennett, and was educated at Canterbury Univ. College, Otago University and Exeter College, Oxford. His career in the Second World War was distinguished, for he rose from the ranks to be Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the Maori Battalion, winning the D.S.O. and suffering severe wounds. He has held responsible positions in the Department of Education, Broadcasting, Internal Affairs, and Maori Affairs, and from 1959 to 1962 was High Commissioner for New Zealand in Malaya. On his return he became Assistant Secretary of Maori Affairs.

(1872–1960).

Medical practitioner and feminist.

A new biography of Bennett, Agnes Elizabeth Lloyd appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Agnes Bennett was born at Neutral Bay, New South Wales in 1872, the sixth child of William Christopher Bennett, an Irish engineer who became the Commissioner of Roads and Bridges in New South Wales, and of Agnes Amelia Hays, whom he married in Sydney in 1860. Early in 1878 when Agnes was five and a half, Mrs Bennett took the family to England to be educated. Agnes went to Cheltenham Ladies' College, then to Dulwich Girls' High School. In 1880 her mother died and the family returned to Sydney, where her education was continued at Abbotsleigh and Sydney Girls' High School. In 1889, the year of her father's death, Agnes won a bursary to Sydney University. In 1894 she became the first Sydney University woman to gain a B.Sc. with honours. Finding that women scientists were not wanted, she decided to study medicine at Edinburgh, where she graduated M.B., C.M., in 1899. In 1911 Dr Bennett returned to Edinburgh to pass her M.D.

Such was the prejudice against women doctors that Dr Bennett could not find suitable employment in Scotland and Sydney, but in 1905 she was invited by Dr Ella Watson to take over her practice in Wellington. The practice prospered and in 1908 Dr Bennett was appointed medical officer to St. Helen's Hospital, a position which she considered the most important in her life. She continually strove to reduce the infant, neo-natal, and maternal mortality rates, and at her retirement in 1936 New Zealand's were amongst the lowest in the world. In 1910 Dr Bennett was appointed honorary physician to the children's ward of the Wellington Public Hospital, the first New Zealand appointment of a woman doctor to the staff of a public hospital. To further her medical knowledge Dr Bennett went to the Mayo Clinic, United States, and to English hospitals during 1925, and to the British Medical Association Conference at Eastbourne in 1931 as a New Zealand representative.

Her early struggles to make a place for herself inclined Dr Bennett to champion the cause of education for the vocational qualification of women. She had clashes in 1909 and again at the 1914 Conference of the Australasian branch of the BMA with Doctors Batchelor and Truby King, who argued that women's natural functions as mothers would be impaired by the rigours of study and commercial and academic life. Dr Bennett's reasoned arguments were confirmed by the indispensable part that women played in the First World War.

Soon after the outbreak of war in 1914, Dr Bennett offered her services to the Army in New Zealand, but it was not until she was in Cairo on her way to serve with the French Red Cross that she was gladly accepted and commissioned captain in the New Zealand Medical Corps. Early in 1916, with her work completed at Shoubra Hospital, she went on to London where, after meeting Dr Elsie Inglis, founder of the Scottish Women's Hospitals, she left with a unit for Serbia, landing at Salonika on 13 August 1916. Dr Bennett served with the unit, which was attached to the Third Royal Serbian Army, until mid-1917 when, stricken with malaria, she returned to New Zealand. For her services she was awarded the Third Order of St. Sava and the Royal Red Cross of Serbia.

When the International Federation of University Women was founded after the war, Dr Bennett became Wellington Branch president. In 1936 she represented the New Zealand Branch at a world conference at Cracow.

Dr Bennett relinquished her private practice in 1930 and built her house, Honda, at Lowry Bay in 1932. When it became too large for her in 1947, she gave it to the Women's Division of the Farmers' Union as a rest centre. After retiring from St. Helen's in 1936, she was drawn by her vitality and enthusiasm into yet further spheres of service. At the request of an Australian colleague, Dr Bennett spent 1938 and 1939 in Northern Queensland assisting in the “flying doctor” service.

At the outbreak of the Second World War Dr Bennett formed the Women's War Service Auxiliary of New Zealand. Soon the Government took it over and Dr Bennett went to England on the Port Alma as medical officer. There she worked from December 1940 to 1942, first in the Women's Voluntary Service, then as resident medical officer to Banbury Hospital, and, finally, as resident obstetrician at Woolwich Hospital. Returning to New Zealand, she lectured young women in the Army on sexual hygiene and helped with the work of the Navy League Sewing Circle. In the 1948 Birthday Honours she became an officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Dr Bennett died in Wellington on 27 November 1960.

Dr Bennett possessed qualities of singleness of purpose, wide sympathy and generosity, which, with a keen scientific mind, enabled her to see an avenue of service and devote herself wholeheartedly to it. Her service to humanity contributed greatly to the advancement of women's status, particularly in her own profession.

by John Sidney Gully, M.A., DIP.N.Z.L.S., Assistant Chief Librarian, General Assembly Library, Wellington.

• Doctor Agnes Bennett, Manson, Cecil and Celia (1960)
• Evening Post, 29 Nov 1960 (Obit)
• Press (Christchurch), 10 Dec 1960.

(1860–1950).

Zoologist.

Born at Isleworth, Middlesex, on 29 March 1860, Benham was the third son and sixth child of Edward Benham, a solicitor of London, and of Mary Anne, née Shoppee. He was educated at Marlborough College, and at University College London. According to his own recollections, Benham's youthful ambition had been to enter the Indian Civil Service as an engineer, and his subsequent pursuit of a scientific career in the field of zoology was due, not to family influences, but to his contact at University College with Sir Ray Lankester. After graduating, Benham assisted Lankester in the Department of Zoology from 1886–90; concurrently (1886–98) he was also lecturer in biology at Bedford College, and (1891–98) Aldrichian demonstrator in morphology at the University of Oxford. His research activity developed early, and over this period he published some 30 papers, mainly on Annelida; the most important contribution was a section on Archiannelida, Polychaeta and Myzostomaria in the Cambridge Natural History, Vol. 2 (1896, reprinted 1960).

Following the death of Parker, Benham was appointed in 1898 to the vacant chair of biology at the University of Otago; this involved curatorial responsibility at the Otago Museum, as well as formal teaching, and to this he added an active programme of research. He embarked almost immediately upon an investigation of the earthworm fauna of New Zealand; two papers in 1899 dealt with Hutton's original type-material, and the forerunners of a long series of important systematic contributions, which concluded only in 1950, the year of his death. In 1899–1900, Benham's interests were temporarily diverted by the discovery of the first New Zealand enteropneust, which he recorded under the name Balanoglossus otagoensis, and by the discovery of a fourth specimen of Notornis. Resuming his work on earthworms, Benham also found occasion to deal with other invertebrates as occasion arose; his first paper on molluscs appeared in 1905, though nearly 40 years elapsed before he returned to this group with a series of important contributions (The Octopodous Mollusca of New Zealand) published in the Trans. Roy. Soc. N.Z., 1942–44. Benham was also interested in the exploration of the fauna of the continental shelf, his first paper (1900) dealing briefly with the results of trawling off the coast of Otago. Over the next 20 years several other papers were devoted to marine invertebrates. Meantime, his important volume on Platyhelmia, Mesozoa and Nemertini was published (1901) in Lankester's Treatise of Zoology. Other work in 1901 included two papers on the New Zealand amphioxid Heteropleuron hectori, a record of the first shallow-water crinoid from New Zealand, and two papers on the anatomy of whales. The latter proved to be forerunners of a series of contributions on Cetacea, ending in 1942, and including descriptions of important fossil material. In 1902 yet another field of interest opened, with the discovery of an intact moa egg; over the next 32 years he published occasional records of other moa material, including footprints, and bones indicating the former existence of moas in Stewart Island. Throughout the first decade of the century Benham was very active in the affairs of the (then) Otago Institute, now a branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand; He served as governor of the institute, 1905–11.

The years 1906–34 were devoted mainly to a long series of studies on the Annelida, not only of New Zealand but also from the southern islets of the New Zealand submarine plateau, from Antarctic expeditions, from the Kermadec Islands and elsewhere. He was, by this time, regarded as a leading authority on earthworms though, as it will be seen, his strong views on the origin and distribution of southern earthworm faunas were now meeting opposition from overseas students, and have since been discounted for the most part. His latter years were mainly devoted to the work on whales and octopuses, concluding in 1950 with a final paper on annelids from the New Zealand “Cape” Expedition to Auckland and Campbell Islands.

Benham was elected F.R.S. in 1907. Four years later he received the Hutton Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, being the first recipient of the award. He was also one of the original fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In 1935 he was awarded the society's Hector Medal and Prize. After his retirement, in 1936, the University of New Zealand awarded him an honorary D.Sc. (1937), and he also received the Coronation Medal in the same year. In 1939 the K.B.E. was conferred upon him in recognition of outstanding service to science and to education.

During his retirement, Benham remained active, as his research record shows. He was always willing to assist others, especially younger workers who sought his advice. On his ninetieth birthday he could still acknowledge individually the numerous congratulatory messages that came from scientists in many quarters. Benham died in Dunedin on 21 August 1950, in his ninety-first year. In 1899 Benham married Beatrice Eadie, of London, who died in 1909: there were two children, a son and a daughter.

Benham, through his immense industry and self-discipline, has left a wealth of data in the archives of science, both in New Zealand and abroad. His writing is terse, lucid, and logical. Honesty always compelled him to draw attention to his occasional mistakes, and though he was usually the first to discover them, he did not spare himself. His training, like that of most British scientists in the late nineteenth century, had been that offered by the traditional English public school – a liberal grounding in Latin and Greek, and a disdain for experimental methods. That he escaped from the disadvantage of the latter, whilst retaining the blessings of the former, must be attributed to the influence of Lankester. Benham's literary style was more that of Aristotle rather than of Tacitus, absolutely direct, without pretension to elaborate syntax or involved period. The fact was stated clearly, the deduction driven home. He did not hesitate to use homely simile if it could clarify a description. A characteristic passage appears in the description of a fossil whale (1942), where he wrote (of the structure of a bone): “The relation of the various layers is analogous to the parts of a peach; the light buff superficial coating is the ‘skin’; the solid dark brown part is the ‘flesh’; the cancellous layer is the ‘stone’; and the matrix recalls the ‘kernel or seed’”. This illustrates his resolute refusal to garb facts in technical jargon, when vernacular English would suffice. He also contrived to inject a vein of sly humour into the titles of his papers wherein some of his colleagues might read a rebuke to excessive technicality. Among the more amusing of these are: “A yard-long earthworm” (1949), and “… A nomenclatural muddle solved” (1950). Traces of these late mannerisms can be found in his youthful papers also: thus, in 1891, he reports with (apparently) grave solemnity upon “An earthworm collected for the British Museum by Emin Pasha in Equatorial Africa” – and again, in 1903, he drew attention to “A neglected Tasmanian earthworm”. Touches such as these enliven the solemn bibliography of science, though only Benham seems to have overcome the reluctance of editors to permit such levity.

If his systematic zoology was of the first order, the same cannot now be admitted for his zoogeographic studies, for it is plain that he never grasped the complexity of the distribution-patterns of southern organisms, or the need to correlate zoological data with that yielded by other disciplines. For Benham, like others before him, land bridges rose and fell at the dictate of earthworms, which he believed to be infallible evidence of terrestrial migration routes. He inadequately appreciated the adaptability of organisms, permitting occasional transoceanic distribution by natural means, and preferred to postulate land links with oceanic islands which geologists, on the other hand, considered never to have been linked to other land masses. Thus the theories of Antarctic and South American land links with New Zealand and other southern lands, which Benham so stoutly defended, find little support today. These, however, are matters of interpretation, not of fundamental fact. Benham's real contribution to knowledge lies in the enormous wealth of morphological data recorded in his papers, and its permanent validity. In a world context they are outstanding; for New Zealand they are superb. Always just in his criticisms, avoiding the extravagant controversy which spoils so many writings of his period, Benham's own have the flavour of the eighteenth, rather than the nineteenth century – and as such, may well endure as models for a generation yet unborn.

by Howard Barraclough Fell, M.SC.(N.Z.), PH.D., D.SC.(EDIN.), F.R.S.N.Z., Associate Professor of Zoology, Victoria University of Wellington.

• Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Vol. 80 (1952), (Obit and bibliography).

This, the best known of the New Zealand song birds, is a member of the honeyeater family and has been famous since the days of Captain Cook's first visit to this country for its chiming notes, uttered – especially in chorus – just after dawn.

Abundant in the early days of settlement, bell-birds became unaccountably scarce during the latter part of the nineteenth century and for a time seemed, with a number of other species, to be in danger of extinction. A recovery, however, was made and bellbirds are now common again over a large part of the country, except in Northland. On some of the off-shore islands, such as Little Barrier, Hen Island, and the Three Kings, they are probably as numerous as in former times. Though predominantly birds of native forest and scrub, bell-birds are by no means unknown to parks and gardens or where nectar-bearing exotic vegetation is found.

Their plumage is predominantly olive green. Males are brighter than females and have a deep purple sheen about the head and neck. Females have a white streak curving from the base of the bill to below the eye. There are three subspecies separable on grounds of minor differences in size and plumage: the Chatham Islands race, presumed extinct since about 1906; the Three Kings race; and, finally, that occupying the three main islands of New Zealand and their off-shore islets.

Food and nesting habits are fairly similar to those of the tui and this similarity even extends to the colour of eggs, clutch size, and incubation period. Breeding occurs from September to January and two broods may be reared during this time. The phenomenon of local “dialect” in song is clearly exhibited by bellbirds and there are seasonal and sexual differences in song as well. The alarm note of “tink, tink, tink” bears some resemblance to that of the introduced European blackbird.

Common Maori names for the species are korimako or makomako. The scientific name is Anthornis melanura.

by Gordon Roy Williams, B.SC.(HONS.)(SYDNEY), Lecturer in Agricultural Zoology, Lincoln Agricultural College.

(1898– ).

Nutritionist.

A new biography of Bell, Muriel Emma appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

p>Muriel Emma Bell was born at Murchison, Nelson, on 4 January 1898. She was educated at Nelson Girls' College, Otago University, and University College, London. From 1922 to 1927 she lectured in physiology at Otago University. In 1933 she was assistant pathologist at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, London, and held a similar position at the Royal Infirmary, Sunderland, in the following year. From 1935 to 1940 she returned to her position at Otago University and in the latter year joined the Department of Health as a nutritionist. In addition to this position she was Director of the Nutrition Research Unit and a member of a number of statutory boards and professional associations. Dr Bell is a fellow of several professional societies, including the New Zealand Royal Society and the Royal Society of Medicine. In 1959 she was awarded the C.B.E. She retired from the Department of Health in 1963, and from the Nutrition Research Unit in 1964.

(1851–1936).

Statesman, Prime Minister, and eminent lawyer.

A new biography of Bell, Francis Henry Dillon appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

F. H. D. Bell was born at Nelson on 31 March 1851, the eldest son of Sir Francis Dillon Bell. Bell was educated at Auckland Grammar School and Otago Boys' High School. He graduated B.A. from St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1872, and was called to the English Bar in 1874. In the British general election of 1874 Bell had his introduction to politics, campaigning for the Conservative Party. He returned to practise law in Wellington, eventually becoming senior partner in the firm of Bell, Gully, Mackenzie, and Evans. Bell rose quickly in his profession. He was Crown Solicitor in Wellington (1878–1911), president of the New Zealand Law Society (1908–18), and (according to Scholefield) the acknowledged leader of the Bar after Sir Robert Stout became Chief Justice in 1898. His leading cases included appearances at the Bar of the House, a large number of appeals to the Privy Council, and many suits in Maori land law. He refused a judgeship from Atkinson. Bell was one of the trustees of the Cheviot Hills estate, and claimed that he had forced the purchase of 1892 on the Liberal Government.

Bell's family background and legal reputation made it almost inevitable that he would be drawn into politics. His first successful venture was for the Wellington mayoralty in November 1891. Bell's opponents objected to his being described as “an advanced sort of Radical”, and claimed that the newly enfranchised women had put him in. The following year Bell won a hard fight with the popular George Fisher. He did not come forward again until November 1896, when Fisher was once more his unsuccessful opponent. His great work as Mayor was the establishment of Wellington's first modern drainage system. Though approached to contest a parliamentary election, in 1881, Bell did not come forward till 1890 – not an auspicious year for one who gave support (however qualified) to Atkinson. Like most city opponents of the Liberals, Bell styled himself an “Independent”. He offered an individual mixture of free trade, perpetual lease, and cessation of Crown land sales, but failed to win a seat in the three-member Wellington constituency. In 1892 he contested a by-election without success. The following year, Wellington ran counter to the general Liberal swing, and Bell was returned for Wellington city, second to Sir Robert Stout. Bell was not a success as an elected politician on the platform or in the House. As legal expert and critic of badly drafted Bills, he was without superior in Parliament, but he was not a “good” party man, nor did he score in exchanges across the floor. Seddon objected to his “lecturing and hectoring”; McKenzie to his “high-toned falutin' way”. Bell became exasperated with the intrigues and low debating standards in the House, and did not stand again in 1896. For part of the 1894–96 Parliament, his bench mate was W. F. Massey, and the two men formed a strong mutual regard, in spite of their differing backgrounds. Thereafter, Bell returned to his fine legal practice, and apparantly took no significant part in the Opposition campaign which finally brought Massey to power in 1912. Though there must have been several active politicians with claims on him, the new Prime Minister called Bell to lead the Legislative Council, one of the wisest political appointments in our history. Bell took his seat as the only non Liberal nominee in 21 years, but soon gained a unique ascendancy by force of personality and incisive intellect. He had long advocated an elective Council, and claimed that this was the first plank of Reform as an anti-socialist party. Though a Reform Bill had been passed by 1914, largely due to his efforts, it became, in the event, a dead letter. Bell was by rank a junior Minister, but he became in effect Massey's alter ego in administration and legislation. When Massey negotiated with Ward for a National Government in 1915, Bell offered to stand down, but was retained in the Ministry of 1915–19. Many historians have emphasised the faults of war administration, but have overlooked the great measure of success achieved in adjusting a civilian democracy to a world war. Much of this success must be credited to Bell, who, with Sir John Salmond, took the chief part in drafting Bills and regulations to meet the unprecedented crisis. Bell took a high view of New Zealand's responsibilities as a partner in the Empire. At a critical juncture, in July 1917, he made a powerful and effective speech against those who claimed that the country could spare no more men for the trenches. On the other hand, it was actually Bell who took the initiative in the celebrated ultimatum to Britain for an adequate naval convoy in October 1914. When Western Samoa came under New Zealand's mandate, in 1919, he drafted the legislation setting up the new government there.

In the post-war period, Bell achieved even greater influence in the Cabinet. When Allen took the High Commissionership (1920), Bell became virtually Massey's deputy, and was three times (1921, 1923, and 1925) Acting Prime Minister. The climax of his career came on the death of Massey on 10 May 1925, when Parliament was not in session, and the Reform Party was without a clearly designated successor to its late chief. Bell had worked with Massey as head of government, not as party leader; indeed, it was probably the wish of both men that Bell should stand apart from party organisation and manoeuvre. In 1925, therefore, he was ideally placed to hold temporary leadership as the “Nestor of the party”. He had for some months been de facto Prime Minister, and it was almost certainly Massey's wish that moved Lord Jellicoe to send for Bell to form a Ministry on 14 May. The most recent precedent for a Prime Minister in the Legislative Council had been Whitaker in 1882–83, hence it could only be a question of Bell's holding office till the Reform Party chose a leader from the House. Bell thus became the first New Zealand born Prime Minister. He did not grasp at the great political opportunities placed in his hands, regarding his Ministry as purely a stopgap one. He held the ring scrupulously for the two principal claimants, Downie Stewart and Coates, and refused the suggestion, put forward publicly by G. W. Russell, that he should take Massey's seat and lead the party in the House and the country. He would not even accept the invitation to remain in office till the general election, and abstained from making any new Cabinet or Legislative Council appointments. On Coates' election, Bell at once resigned (30 May), making it clear that he would relinquish all his old influence in government. He took leave of the Council in 1926 as if his political career was ended. At the request of Coates, he joined him at the Imperial Conference of 1926, the younger man being glad to have the benefit of his advice and experience. Bell opposed the Balfour Declaration, which was later embodied in the Statute of Westminster (1931). Bell, like Massey, came to fear every loosening of the Imperial ties. He expressed the hope that New Zealand would never adopt the Statute in full.

Bell returned to lead the Council in 1927–28, and continued a member until his death in 1936. He lived to see the disintegration of the Reform Party, and Labour's coming into power, an event which Bell both feared and resisted with half his mind, yet regarded as inevitable with the other. During the depression years, he took an independent, non-party line on many issues, such as the suspension of compulsory arbitration and mortgage relief, demonstrating to the last his incisive grasp, and the mixture of radical and conservative in him. Bell's statesmanship is so much woven into New Zealand history of the Reform Party period, that it is difficult to remember that his very holding of high power depended on the political judgment of Massey. Yet given the appointment of 1912, the two men developed into a unique political combination, producing far more than they could have done separately. Massey's shrewd judgment of men was complemented by Bell's judgment of measures. In all constitutional essentials, Bell was strictly correct in his relations with Massey, though this did not preclude spectacular private clashes between two strong-willed men. No more talented and many-sided man than Bell has figured in the first rank of New Zealand politics. Besides his political and professional activities, the catholicity of his tastes and interests in social, academic, and sporting life was remarkable. He held a great variety of high offices in all spheres, but it was the man, not the office-holder, who impressed his contemporaries. Classical scholar, witty raconteur, and genial host, he attracted men of other opinions and a younger generation. H. E. Holland, D. G. Sullivan, and many other Labour members valued his hospitality, advice, and intelligent consideration of their views, which he strongly and cogently opposed. Bell was often found on the “Left” in questions of individual liberty, notably in his defence of religious objection to war service. He placed the State above sectional interest, and was willing to see it step in if private enterprise proved selfish or inefficient, but he believed that such State activity should be free of political control. In other matters, including the right of associations (particularly those advocating force) to challenge the supremacy of the State, he sternly set his face against what he regarded as subversion. Perhaps his greatest work in government was done on the Statutes Revision Committee, where his lucid mind successfully wrestled with problems of growing complexity in legislation. His work here set a standard in New Zealand, and was copied overseas. Other activities of Bell that should be mentioned include his work on New Zealand citizenship, his establishment of our first adequate forest service, and his advocacy of the League of Nations. On the latter point, he was at odds with the sceptical Massey. As Stewart points out, there was a less attractive side to Bell. He could not suffer fools gladly, and possessed quite devastating powers of personal abuse. Some sensitive men, after a torrid interview, regarded him as a blustering bully. Bell's anger quickly subsided, especially when the victim stood up to him. He was essentially a just man; indeed, there was in him a streak of scepticism expressed frequently in deprecatory references to himself, and finally in his determination to burn all his political papers, a tragic loss to New Zealand history.

by William James Gardner, M.A., Senior Lecturer, History Department, University of Canterbury.

• N.Z.P.D., Vol. 244 (1936), (Obit)
• Sir Francis Bell, His Life and Times, Stewart, W. D. (1937)
• Rise of the Reform Party, Webb, L. C. (1928)
• Newsletter, (Reform Party), 27 Feb 1926.

(1822–98).

Runholder, statesman and public servant.

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

Francis Dillon Bell was born in France on 8 October 1822. His father, Edward Bell, of Hornsey, London, a member of a North Country Quaker family (originally from Cockermouth, Cumberland), had made a runaway marriage with Fanny, daughter of the Rev. J. Matthews of Cirencester, and carried on business, as a merchant at Bordeaux, where he was British Consul. Bell was educated in France by tutors and learned to speak the language like a Frenchman. At the age of 17, through the influence of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a first cousin of his father, he entered the service of the New Zealand Company and was for a time assistant Secretary. He arrived in Wellington in September 1843 and was soon sent to Auckland to select lands for the Company; but Governor Robert FitzRoy objected to certain selections and the mission was eventually fruitless. While he was in the north war broke out and he served in the Auckland Militia as a Lieutenant until it was disbanded. He made an ascent of Mount Egmont in 1846 and discovered the Bell Falls. His aptitude for languages had soon given him command of Maori and, early in 1847, he was sent to the Wairarapa to buy a large tract from the Maoris, but was foiled by the influence of the squatters who were illegally leasing it. In June 1847 he was appointed resident agent for the company at New Plymouth. After Donald McLean had made some purchases, Governor G. Grey came up to press on the negotiations, but all Bell was able to purchase was the “Bell block” of about 1,500 acres. He was soon afterwards appointed to relieve Fox in Nelson. Later in the year Fox, who had been appointed principal agent of the Company in Wellington on the death of Colonel W. Wakefield, prevailed on him to make one more attempt on a purchase in the Wairarapa, which home instructions had suggested as first choice for the Canterbury settlement. Bell's persuasiveness had an effect both on the squatters and on the Maoris, but the news of Captain Thomas's proceedings on the plains behind Port Cooper (Lyttelton) spoiled his chances of success. Fox, however, was inclined to blame Bell. He was also annoyed at Bell's acceptance, during his absence in the South Island, of a seat on the newly formed Provincial Council of New Munster, which he considered prejudicial to the interests of the Company. In April 1849 Bell married Margaret Hort. Her father was a leading member of the Jewish community in Wellington, but she became an ardent Christian. Thomas Arnold, who met her later in the year, found her “not less intelligent than she was amiable”. Bell now returned to his post in Nelson, completed the Waitohi (Picton) purchase, and employed himself in straightening out the tangle of Nelson land claims. In August 1850 he, with two others, resigned his seat in the New Munster Provincial Council, having mistakenly interpreted a dispatch of Earl Grey (Secretary of State) to mean that as a nominee he was bound to support the Government. In April 1851 he was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands in Wellington and as such, he took part in the sessions of the Legislative Council of New Zealand in June 1851 and December 1852.

When the new constitution was brought into operation Bell was elected, in Novermber 1853, to the Wellington Provincial council as member for Wairarapa and hawke's Bay. He was not elected to the House of Representatives, but was nominated to the Legislative Council and, on 30 June 1854, to the Executive Council, though on 11 July he retired from the latter in favour of T. H. Bartley, of Auckland. He sat in the Legislative Council in the short session of 1855, but at the general election at the end of the year was returned to the House of Representatives for the Hutt. He was a member of the short-lived Ministry of Sewell, the first under responsible government and, for part of the time, Colonial Treasurer. But he resigned from the House after the session and accepted an appointment as Commissioner under the recently passed Land Claims Settlement Act. Towards the end of 1859 he was elected unopposed for the newly created constituency of Wallace. He had not yet visited the district (though he had taken up with Stafford, C. W. Richmond, and F. G. Steward the Ida Valley run) but he favoured separation from Otago which was the great object of Murihiku (Southland) settlers and was achieved on 1 April 1861. He was the Southland representative on the commission appointed to adjust the debt between Southland and Otago.

Bell enjoyed Governor Gore Browne's confidence and (according to Domett) wrote some of his dispatches. Sir George Grey also had confidence in him and, on his return to New Zealand, appointed him Native Secretary, at the same time placing the Department under ministerial management. When the Domett Ministry was formed in August 1862 Grey persuaded Bell, against his inclination, to become Native Minister. He thus became Grey's chief instrument in the renunciation of the Waitara purchase. We may accept the statement (made by Domett in a letter to Stafford) that the facts given by Teira to Bell were new to him; but Grey had condemned the purchase when he heard of it in South Africa. Bell failed to appease the Maoris north of the Waikato River who were removed from their lands just before the outbreak of war in July 1863. He was more successful in a mission to Australia, in August, to raise a force of military settlers to fight the Maoris and settle on lands to be confiscated from them in the Waikato. But the Ministry fell in October and Bell, whose eyesight was failing, came south to settle in Dunedin. He added to his pastoral holdings as opportunity offered and, by 1874, had over 226,000 acres and nearly 80,000 sheep: he was not really interested in sheep, however, though he was a keen gardener, and left the management to others, eventually to his second son, Alfred. He remained a member of the House and, in 1865, he entered Otago provincial politics. He was defeated for the gold-fields constituency of Manuherikia, where run-holders were unpopular; but in April he was returned to the Provincial Council for Matau. He was defeated for Dunedin early in 1867, when the tide was running strongly in favour of Macandrew, who had just been re-elected Superintendent, but succeeded Vogel who had resigned from the Provincial Council, in May 1869.

On 2 July 1869, at the request of the Otago members, Bell joined the Fox Ministry. He held no portfolio, but at the end of the session he and Featherston were sent to England to secure, if possible, continued Imperial military assistance and a guaranteed loan. They failed in the first, but succeeded in the second and more important task. They were a good team: Featherston was the stronger character, but Bell was the better diplomat. This mission was perhaps the most important of Bell's many services to New Zealand: it checked the marked deterioration in relations between Great Britain and the colony, which seemed to be drifting towards separation.

Bell returned to New Zealand in 1870. He had resigned from the Otago Provincial Council (though he re-entered it as member for Oteramika in March 1871) but not from the House of Representatives, and was returned for Mataura in the general election early the following year. When the new House met on 14 August 1871 he was elected Speaker. He filled the post with distinction throughout that Parliament, but then retired. He had been knighted in 1873. Just before the session of 1877 he was nominated to the Legislative Council. Early in 1880 he was appointed, with Fox, a member of a Royal Commission to investigate the question of the confiscated lands on the west coast, to which attention had been drawn by the passive resistance of Te Whiti to the advance of settlement. The Commission held that the Maoris had not been ungenerously treated, but insisted that the reserves promised them must be marked out. The working out of the recommendations in detail had to be left to Fox, for on 7 December 1880 Bell was appointed to succeed Vogel as Agent General in London.

Only two men (W. P. Reeves and Sir William Jordan) have served longer terms than Bell as New Zealand representative in London. The post was admirably suited to his talents. Though the decline of the pastoral industry, owing to rabbits and low wool prices, made the mortgages on his properties an embarrassment and prevented him from entertaining on a lavish scale, he could fully hold his own in London society. The confidence he enjoyed in the financial world was an asset at a time when New Zealand's finances were severely strained and loans had to be raised on the London market. Instead of leaving matters to be arranged by the Crown Agents for the Colonies, he took charge of the management of the loans and made large savings in interest charges. Above all, the imperial ambitions of France and Germany in the Pacific called for all his diplomatic skill when New Zealand (and the Australian colonies) believed that their aspirations in Samoa, the New Hebrides, and New Guinea were being sacrificed to British interests in other parts of the world (Egypt in particular). Bell's services were of special value in connection with the French proposal to send relapsed criminals to New Caledonia and, perhaps, to settle liberated convicts in the New Hebrides. He went to Paris in 1883 to watch proceedings on the Relapsed Criminals Bill on behalf of all the Australasian governments. The Bill eventually passed the Chambers, though not until 1885; but later in that year the French Government offered to send no more convicts to the Pacific if Great Britain would leave France “full liberty of action in the New Hebrides”. Bell was in favour of this solution, especially if the island of Rapa (thought to be valuable as a coaling station if the Panama Canal should be completed) was ceded to Great Britain as part of the bargain. Stout, then Premier, also seemed favourable at first, but pressure from the Presbyterian Church, which had a mission in the New Hebrides, and lack of support from the Australian colonies, caused the project to fall through. Bell had been made K.C.M.G. in 1881. In 1886 he was an Executive Commissioner of the very successful Indian and Colonial Exhibition in London and received the further honour of C.B. Next year, with Fitzherbert, he represented New Zealand at the first Colonial Conference. When he retired in 1891 his services were acknowledged by votes of thanks in both Houses of Parliament.

Bell visited New Zealand at the end of 1891, but after a few months returned to London, where Lady Bell, whose health had been failing for some years, died on 12 June 1892. In 1896 he was persuaded by his family to come back to New Zealand. He died at Shag Valley homestead, Otago, on 15 July 1898.

Bell was a man of slightly over middle height and wore the sidewhiskers fashionable in his generation. Many of his contemporaries speak of his charming, courtly manners and Sir George Grey (no easy man to work with) in the House after his death praised his “imperturbable good temper”. He was never a strong party man: he had no fixed political opinions and was accused of speaking on both sides and voting in the middle. He did his best work as an adviser of others and as a public servant. Gisborne called him “one of the best public officers … New Zealand has ever known”. His indefatigable industry, patience, and skill in marshalling facts and arguments gave him a great reputation as a writer of offical reports. These qualities were particularly valuable in dealing with the mass of land claims which encumbered early New Zealand politics. He was also a ready, persuasive, and occasionally eloquent, if sometimes diffuse, speaker. Though hardly an artist of the calibre of J. C. Richmond or Fox, he had some talent as a water colourist.

by William Parker Morrell, M.A.(N.Z.), D.PHIL.(OXON.), Professorial Fellow, History and Political Science Department, University of Otago.

• New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen, Gisborne, W. (1886)
• The Provincial System in New Zealand, Morrell, W. P. (1932)
• Sir Francis H. D. Bell – his Life and Times, Downie Stewart, W. (1937)
• Northern Approaches, Moore, C. W. S. (1958)
• Sir George Grey, Rutherford, J. (1961).