Geological features of the reservoir basin, and of the dam site in particular, figure large in determining the feasibility of a project and the type of dam. In New Zealand the basic structure of the country has been greatly affected by orogenic forces not only in remote ages but also in renewed activity lasting into a much later period (Quaternary, Pleistocene) than was the case in most other land masses. This later uplifting is apparent both in the extensive faulting, folding, and fracturing so widely manifest in the geological structure, and in the present volcanic activity. Weathering agencies have been active in sculpturing the present deep relief, a legacy from which, of course, is the present dam sites.

Where old rock formations (severely worked by previous orogenesis) are within reach for dam foundations, they prove usually to be not only extensively affected by much cracking and shattering but often are also deeply deteriorated by penetration of weathering effects (e.g., the schist rock of Central Otago and the sandstones and mudstones of South Canterbury). Younger formations of marine origin, such as those of the Wanganui region, though more uniform through having escaped much of the former working, remain soft and weak. Volcanic and hydrothermal activity has added to the complexity of the problem by leaving large areas of the North Island covered successively with variable formations lacking density and strength and having high permeability. This applies in particular to the region traversed by the Waikato River, one of the country's more important sources of hydro-electric power.

A further effect of the aggressive weathering and late volcanic activity is that deposits of dam construction materials (gravels and sand for concrete and soils for embankments) tend to be lacking in both uniformity and extent where they are most wanted. Effects of earthquakes (an aftermath of the recent orogeny) present another factor to be taken into account. While dam sites traversed by active faults or situated close to them are avoided for obvious reasons, and those traversed by dormant or long inactive faults are treated circumspectly, it is not possible to proceed very far in the development of New Zealand's water resources without having to take into consideration faulting and other tectonic weaknesses. The provision of seismic resistance in dams is not novel, however, and has figured as normal practice in several countries. This factor, though, bears on the suitability of certain types of dam. Although the geological structure of New Zealand thus poses problems for dam building, none has proved unique; problems of a similar type have been encountered elsewhere, often in worse degree individually, and have been successfully surmounted. In matters pertaining to dams, New Zealand shares in the experience of other countries through membership of the International Commission on Large Dams, a section of the World Power Conference.

The major development of water resources by dams in New Zealand has been planned for electric power generation and controlled directly by the Government on a national basis. The assessment of power potential from hydrological and topographical investigations and the planning and construction of the required dams and other hydraulic works is a function of the Ministry of Works (formerly the Public Works Department), and is performed on behalf of the New Zealand Electricity Department, the latter having responsibility for the power plant and its operation and for the transmission of power to distribution centres.

There are some instances of a limited contribution by hydro-electric works to facilities for land irrigation; for instance, economical electric power from the Roxburgh station enables the pumping of water from local sources, and in the Hawea Lake control works provision has been made to supply water to a future irrigation project. The influence of hydro-electric dams on ameliorating major flood effects in low-lying areas, though not neglected, is unlikely to be conspicuous because it lies outside their primary function.

Since New Zealand's maritime climate ensures a generally abundant and reasonably uniform distribution of rainfall in most areas, dependence of the economy on land irrigation is not extensive; the use of dams of any but minor size is confined to Central Otago. The development of water resources for irrigation in Central Otago is a Government undertaking that was put into effect some years ago. None of the several dams in the system would be rated large, however, by standards elsewhere.

Technically the term “dam” relates to the barrier constructed across a stream, valley or similar natural depression for the purpose of impounding water, but popular usage includes the impounded water along with the barrier.

Apart from the obvious requirements of storage for community or stock water supply, the economic purposes served by impounding of water by dams are: land irrigation, generation of electricity by hydraulic power, amelioration of flooding by partial retention of flood waters, and improvement of natural waterway facilities for inland navigation. Of these, only the first two have been exploited to any extent in New Zealand. Some details of the more important dams are tabulated.

(1827–1906).

Educationalist and social worker.

A new biography of Dalrymple, Learmonth White appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Louisa White Dalrymple was born in 1827 at Cupar, Angus, Scotland, the daughter of Janet (née Taylor), and William Dalrymple, a merchant. She emigrated to Otago in 1853, where she later took up work for her lifetime interest, the education of girls. In correspondence with English educationalists, including the Misses Buss and Beale, Louisa Dalrymple discussed methods of education, her own opinions generally being in advance of those of the English reformers. When a boys' secondary school for Otago was being discussed in 1864, Louisa Dalrymple began to campaign for a girls' school, and circulated a petition for this purpose. With the help of Sir John Richardson, in 1871 the Otago Girls' High School was founded. The curriculum and organisation were based largely on her own ideas, and the pattern was followed as girls' schools were opened in other provinces.

When a university was being planned for New Zealand, Louisa Dalrymple was quickly aware of the opportunity to gain admission for women. She again originated a petition, with the result that, when the University of New Zealand Charter was signed, no clause explicitly excluded women from taking degrees, and the first women who applied were received into classes with no difficulty. Her interest extended to primary and pre-school education, and on these questions she prepared papers for interested bodies. But her activities extended to many types of social reform. A member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union from its formation in 1885, she worked in Dunedin, Wellington, and Feilding for the temperance cause. She campaigned actively for the women's suffrage movement, serving on the committee of the Dunedin Franchise League, and in 1893 founded the Feilding Franchise League. She died at Ashburn Hall, Dunedin, on 26 August 1906.

As a pioneer of education in New Zealand, Louisa Dalrymple was largely responsible for the foundation of girls' schools on sound and relatively advanced lines. Just as significant was her action on behalf of her sex for the right to higher education, and had it not been for the pressure she brought to bear on the early university deliberations, the entry of women into the university, which proved so valuable both for the secondary education of girls and for the feminist movement, could well have been delayed a few decades with less happy consequences.

by Patricia Ann Grimshaw, M.A., Auckland.

• Otago Daily Times, 1 Sep 1906 (Obit).

(1816–1903).

Master mariner, merchant, and prominent Auckland citizen.

William Crush Daldy was born in Rainham, Sussex, in 1816, the son of Samuel Rootsey Daldy. At the age of 16 he went to sea and in 1840 sailed from Liverpool in his schooner Shamrock, arriving in Auckland in July 1841. For some years he traded between Auckland and Sydney, apparently with success, for when Brown and Campbell's vessel Bolina left for England on 20 December 1844 with Auckland's first cargo of exports Daldy sailed with her as captain. In 1847, back in New Zealand, Daldy established a timber mill in Auckland, which he carried on until 1849 when the wholesale and shipping firm of Combes and Daldy was founded. This firm flourished for nearly 50 years.

Although he was interested in political affairs, and particularly in those of the Provincial Government, Daldy did not hold office for long periods. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1855 to 1860, being Minister without portfolio during the short reign of the Fox Ministry in 1856. During 1857 and from 1861 to 1864 he was a member of the Auckland Provincial Council. In 1865 he was agent in England for the Provincial Government and was instrumental in sending out emigrants to New Zealand.

His activities as an Auckland citizen were many. He was one of the first volunteers; he was a Justice of the Peace; he was a member of the first council of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce founded in 1856; he was one of the first auditors of the Bank of New Zealand; and for a short time he was a member of the Auckland City Council. Deeply concerned by the heavy losses by fire which occurred in those early years, he was one of those responsible for the founding of the New Zealand Insurance Co. in 1859, being appointed one of its first directors and, as captain of the volunteer fire brigade, he did a great deal in a very positive way to reduce the number of serious fires in Auckland. Other important activities were concerned with harbour works. After the passing of the Auckland Harbour Act in 1854 a Board of Commissioners was appointed to deal with the question of dock and harbour accommodation, and Daldy was one of the first of these. When, in 1871, the Auckland Harbour Board was formed, he was elected its first chairman, holding that position until 1877. It was under his leadership that the harbour board commenced its progressive policy of harbour works.

In 1841 Daldy married Frances Pulham, who died in 1877. He later married Amey, née Hamerton, who died in 1920. Daldy died at Ponsonby, Auckland, on 5 October 1903.

The public speeches of Captain Daldy, both in Parliament and elsewhere, and the nature of his activities, reveal him as a man deeply and sincerely concerned with the welfare of the community in which he lived. He did not seek public recognition, but was prepared to give his wholehearted support to any movement which made for progress and for lasting benefit.

by Enid Annie Evans, B.A., A.L.A., Librarian, Auckland Institute and Museum.

• New Zealand Banker's Hundred—a History of the Bank of New Zealand, 1861–1961, Chappell, N. M. (1961)
• Bold Century—the New Zealand Insurance Company Limited, 1859–1959, New Zealand Insurance Co. Ltd., (1959)
• A Century of Auckland Commerce, 1856–1956—a History of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, Franklin, E. C. (1956)
• New Zealand Herald, 5 Oct 1903 (Obit).

(1829–1920).

Suffragist and social worker.

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

Amey Daldy was born at Yarwell, England, in 1829, daughter of a farmer, John Hamerton. She emigrated to New Zealand in 1860 and, after an earlier marriage to William Smith, married William Crush Daldy in 1880. A convinced feminist, Amey Daldy campaigned for the women's suffrage with the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and in 1892 became president of the Auckland Women's Franchise League. Her work for women continued after the vote was won. As president of the Women's Political Association she helped in the formation of the National Council of Women in 1896, for which she held Dominion office. Her many social activities included the early kindergarten movement, support for women's trade unions, and the Y.W.C.A. She died at Auckland on 17 August 1920. Amey Daldy gave freely of her time and energy with untiring patience to social and humanitarian causes from which sprang many of the improved conditions for women and children in the early century.

by Patricia Ann Grimshaw, M.A., Auckland.

• New Zealand Herald, 19 Aug 1920 (Obit)
• Auckland Star, 19 Aug 1920 (Obit).

(Olearia and Senecio spp.).

In the family Compositae (which are mostly herbaceous), shrubs and trees are sometimes a feature of high altitudes in the tropics. In temperate New Zealand, however, the two composite genera, Olearia and Senecio, contain a large number of woody species, some of which are commonly called tree daisies. Olearia has only woody species, but in Senecio the plants range from herbs to small trees. They occur most commonly and extensively in alpine shrublands but species do occur in most types of vegetation. Life forms vary from dwarf shrubs to small trees, and more than one species is epiphytic and one is a liane. All the 40 or more species of Olearia found in New Zealand are endemic. About twice that number are found in Australia and Tasmania. Senecio is one of the largest plant genera, containing over 1,500 species, and is cosmopolitan. Over 20 woody species occur in this country and all are endemic.

S. kirkii is one of the most beautiful plants in the flora. It occurs as a ground plant or an epiphyte in forests of the North Island, particularly in North Auckland. The 2–in.-wide daisy flowers occur in large inflorescences which are sometimes so plentiful that the leaves are almost hidden. S. greyii is a small, hairy shrub with a natural distribution confined to the cliffs of the Wellington east coast, but is very common as a garden plant. S. sciadophilus is a slender shrub often reaching 15 ft in height. The most widely distributed woody Senecio is S. elaeagnifolius. It occurs in mountain shrubland, sometimes extensively, throughout the country.

Amongst the Olearias are several species occurring commonly in lowland shrubland. O. furfuracea, or akapiro, is one of the commonest of these in the North Island. It is found in shrubland along stream banks and forest margins. O. rani, or heketara, is a shrub or small tree reaching 25 ft found throughout lowland forest in the North Island and the northern tip of the South Island. The flowers, in very large panicles, make the tree conspicuous during the months of October and November. Several species have small linear or almost linear leaves. Some of these are not well known and need investigating, particularly those varieties related to O. virgata. This species itself occurs throughout New Zealand in lowland shrubland and boggy ground, from about latitude 37°. One or two of these small-leaved species have sweet-scented flowers.

O. angustifolia is a very attractive plant with purple flowers and comes from coastal areas along Foveaux Strait.

by Alec Lindsay Poole, M.SC., B.FOR.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Director-General of Forests, Wellington.

(Celmisia spp.).

Apart from grasses, the mountain daisies in their many forms are the commonest plants of New Zealand mountain vegetation. The genus has almost 60 species confined to New Zealand and a few others in Australia and Tasmania. Some of them hybridise freely which adds to the difficulty of identification. The name arises from the daisy-like appearance of the flowers, born singly on long stems, and found in mountain areas. The flowers are very much larger and more handsome than those of the common daisy, often being 2–3 in. across. Leaves are commonly lanceolate and either form rosettes arising from rootstocks at ground level or are disposed along rhizomes or stems on the ground surface. Flowers are mostly white and are showy when plants are in full bloom over a mountain meadow.

The most handsome species is probably C. coriacea which has rosettes of large, stiff, broad, silvery leaves up to 20 in. long. The flowers can be as large as 4 in. across on stems 2 to 3 ft long. This species is found throughout the mountains of the South Island and has probably increased under the influence of fire and grazing. C. traversii has dark, brownish-green leaves up to 16 in. long and flowers about 2 in. in diameter. It occurs in the mountains at either end of the South Island. C. spectabilis is found both in the North and in the South Islands. It is the commonest species on the mountains of the North Island and has many forms, some of which are named varieties. C. sessiliflora forms dense, silvery cushions of small rosettes of leaves. Flowers are less than an inch across and sit close to the cushions. It occurs throughout the mountains of the South Island. C. argentea is another silvery, cushion-like plant from the mountains of the southern end of the South Islands. Throughout the North and South Island lowland and the lower montane grassland and related habitats, C. gracilenta is found. This is a slender, tufted plant with narrow, silvery leaves up to 1 ft long and flowers one half to an inch across.

by Alec Lindsay Poole, M.SC., B.FOR.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Director-General of Forests, Wellington.

One of the outstanding features of the New Zealand dairy industry has been its organisation for recording and improving dairy cattle by breeding. Recording of milk and butterfat yields began in 1909 in a small way; a cooperative recording scheme began in 1922, and in 1926 the cooperative scheme, which developed into the present herd-recording system, began operations. This was taken over in 1926 by the Herd Improvement Council, a subsidiary of the industry's own governing body, the Dairy Board. The herd recording in local areas is run by committees of dairy farmers who employ office staff and herd testers. The central organisation, under the Herd Recording Council, provides a most useful service by collecting information from dairy herds about yields and about other matters (such as disease incidence) and passes the information and useful conclusions obtained from its examination back to the dairy farmers. This type of service has acted as a model for at least one much older dairying country.

By 1940 it seemed that the grade cattle in ordinary commercial herds were genetically of much the same standard as the cattle in the purebred (pedigree) herds because bulls from the latter were, on the average, no longer causing increased production in grade herds. For this reason an artificial breeding scheme, using superior breeding sires selected on the basis of the butterfat production of their daughters in herds throughout the industry, was started in 1950 with a group of 2,400 cows. The scheme grew rapidly until, in the spring of 1960, 466,000 cows were mated by artificial means. A high standard of bulls has been maintained, despite the difficulties of providing a service for the very restricted mating season for most New Zealand cows and the increasing numbers of cows in the scheme each year. The “proven” bulls used leave daughters yielding per lactation, on the average, almost 30 lb of butterfat more than the daughters of average bulls used in the industry. Because some of the bulls used have to be young “unproven” bulls, the best of which will replace the older proven bulls, the daughters left by all the bulls in the scheme do not do as well as this, but they average per lactation over 20 lb of butterfat more than the daughters of average bulls. The artificial breeding scheme is administered locally by farmer committees who deal with herd recording, and nationally by the Artificial Breeding Department of the Dairy Board.

Before 1961 the Dairy Board, whose members were elected by farmers, controlled herd recording and artificial breeding schemes, collected, analysed, and disseminated information, provided an extension service for dairy farmers, acted as the consulting and bargaining authority for the industry, and directed and guided development and changes in the pattern of industrial production. In 1961 it became responsible for marketing as well, and had added to its membership a small minority of Government nominees.

The New Zealand Dairy Industry is distinguished by the important role which farmer cooperative organisations have assumed. Not only do farmers elect most of the members of the Dairy Board and run local herd recording and artificial breeding; they also own and administer almost all the dairy factories in the country. As well as processing dairy produce, factory organisations often act as merchants, supplying farmer-members of the cooperative with farming and household goods at a discount.

by Donald Souter Flux, M.AGR.SC.(N.Z.), PH.D. (READING), Senior Lecturer in Dairy Husbandry, Massey University of Manawatu.

• Annual Reports and Statement of Accounts, New Zealand Dairy Board (1924–61). Bulletin 89, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (1944). “The Dairy Industry in New Zealand”, Hamilton, W. M.