The retail and commercial centre of Auckland is Queen Street. Here big department stores, small shops, theatres, and offices line both sides of the city's busiest thoroughfare, from the wharves to Karangahape Road. Increasing inner-city traffic congestion, however, is popularising the larger suburban shopping centres, such as Mount Roskill, Takapuna, Otahuhu, and Papatoetoe. Because of its leadership in the industrial field, the city contains the head offices of many New Zealand-wide firms, as well as provincial offices of most Government Departments. Industrial growth in Auckland began soon after the establishment of a settlement there in 1840, with industries essentially concerned with the everyday necessities of the community–saw-milling, brewing, flourmilling, clothing, and boat-building. Up till 1870 there was only an expansion in the number and size of these existing industries, but thereafter came the development of larger industries, such as machinery manufacture and tanneries, and brickworks at Onehunga and New Lynn. During the years 1900–30, there was little change in industry location, except for the development of freezing works at Southdown and Westfield, the opening up of Penrose for heavy industry after 1920, and the siting of engineering, boilermaking, shipbuilding, etc., on the reclaimed land behind the wharves. The 1936 Industrial Efficiency Act caused a large decentralisation of new and existing industries, so that most of the industries are located outside the central business area, the largest concentrations now being in Freemans Bay, Parnell, Rosebank Peninsula, Glen Innes, Onehunga, Ellerslie, Penrose, Panmure, and Otahuhu. Although the city has more heavy industry than any other centre in New Zealand, its major industrial activities are the manufacture of clothing, footwear, foodstuffs, domestic appliances and requisites, textiles, furnishings, building materials. It has also engineering and allied trades.

The University of Auckland is one of the six autonomous university institutions in New Zealand. There are nearly 5,000 enrolments in the faculties of arts, science, law, music, commerce, and education, as well as in the schools of architecture, fine arts, and engineering; the latter is situated at Ardmore, some 20 miles south of the city. Besides the old-established public and private secondary schools, there are many colleges newly built in the suburban areas to cope with the rapid post-war increase in school children. The Auckland Public Library is the largest of its type in New Zealand, with a Central Library, 10 branches and a mobile service. The rare books and manuscript collections of Sir George Grey, and the brothers Henry and Fred Shaw are without parallel in the Southern Hemisphere. The Reed Dumas Collection of books by and about Alexander Dumas is the largest outside Paris. Other libraries of note in Auckland include the Leys Institute Public Library, Auckland Institute and Museum, University of Auckland Library, and St. John's Theological College Library. The Auckland City Art Gallery has a comprehensive range of New Zealand art; its collection of European Old Masters is second only to Melbourne's, and its Frances Hodgkins Collection is especially fine.

During summer Auckland rainfall averages about 3½ in. a month. It becomes more frequent towards the end of autumn, reaching a maximum in June and July, each averaging 5½ in. of rain and 20 rain days, compared with only 10 rain days both in January and in February. The mean annual rainfall is 47–50 in., increasing to 55 in. near the Waitakeres. Rain days average 185 per annum and 100 of these have at least 0·1 in. of rain. Once in 20 years a fall of 5·5 in. may occur within 24 hours and 1·8 in. in one hour. In the last 90 years the longest period without rain was 39 days. Although the most frequent winds are from west and south-west, winds from other directions are common; a relatively large proportion of the strongest winds are from the north-east. Strong gales, with gusts over 60 mph, occur about twice a year. February, with a mean temperature of 67°F, is the warmest month and July (51°) is the coldest. In July the mean daily maximum and minimum temperatures are 57° and 46 respectively compared with a mean daily range from 74° to 61 in February. Temperatures normally reach 80° on only five days a year, but there are many days with maximum temperatures over 75° (45 per annum). These, too, are rather oppressive, due to the high humidity prevailing. Frosts generally occur only in sheltered low-lying parts of the city. There is no snow in winter. Sunshine averages 2,100 hours per annum; it is 50 per cent of the possible amount in summer, but only 42 per cent in June and July. Fog in the city occurs about eight times a year, mostly in autumn and winter, but almost invariably is confined to the night and early morning. Hail occurs about four days a year, mostly in winter, but causes negligible damage. Thunder is heard about nine days a year.

Auckland City is New Zealand's largest city, having a population approaching half a million. By virtue of its unique location astride a narrow neck of land between two harbours, the city is almost surrounded by water. On the north and Pacific side is the Waitemata Harbour, while the Manukau Harbour is on the south and Tasman side. A notable feature of Auckland's landscape is the numerous extinct volcanic cones which rise above the skyline–Mount Eden, Mount Hobson, Mount Albert, One Tree Hill, and Mount Wellington. Rangitoto Island, also an extinct volcano, stands as a sentinel at the entrance of the Waitemata Harbour. Through north and south the city extends for 20 miles–from the east coast bays on the North Shore, and over the Harbour Bridge to the dormitory suburbs of Papatoetoe, Papakura, and Manurewa, south of the city. The city has a far-ranging importance as the chief centre for the rich farming land of the Waikato to the south and of the lesser developed Northland to the north. Even greater is its importance as a manufacturing centre, port, and centre of overseas communications.

(1835–1926).

Founder of nursing order.

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

Mary Joseph Aubert was born near Lyons on 19 June 1835 and christened Marie Henriette Suzanne. Her father was a lawyer, and her ancestors were of the old nobility. Her formal education was with the Benedictine Nuns at La Rochette. Suzanne was a disappointment to her devout but conventional mother. She had no liking for society or for the young man who wished to marry her. From 16 she was quite set on becoming a nursing nun. She was short and sturdy and had a lively personality, was full of fun, and remained so all her life. On her eighteenth birthday her father refused to allow her to become a Daughter of Charity but permitted her to go to Paris to train as a nurse. Florence Nightingale was a fellow student for a few weeks and never forgot her. She nursed in French Army hospitals during the Crimean War; an uncle of hers was a surgeon-general. She made three trips to the Crimea on the transports.

In her early twenties she accumulated many accomplishments from languages to cookery, and even had a course of lessons from Franz Liszt. She was able to follow some university courses at Lyons with the medical students though women were then debarred from obtaining a degree. At 20 she had told her father she would definitely become a nun at 25. She realised it would mean becoming a missionary in a foreign land if he still opposed her. For eight years she went at times to confession at Ars where St. John Vianney encouraged her in her aims and actually foretold to her later happenings. When an old acquaintance of her family, Bishop Pompallier of Auckland, visited France, she had her opportunity. Unknown to her parents, she joined his 26 missionary-recruits who left Havre for the Antipodes on 4 September 1860.

At Ponsonby Mary Aubert was one of the three French women who with two Maoris began the Congregation of the Holy Family to care for the Maori Girls' School. Suzanne now became Sister Mary Joseph though she was known among the Maoris simply as “Meri”. She learnt thoroughly the Maori tongue and much tribal lore, and made some journeys to the north and to the Waikato. After 10 years, Bishop Pompallier having resigned and the Holy Family Order being reduced to “Meri” and one Maori sister, Bishop Croke urged her to return home. “I came here for the Maoris,” she replied, “and I will die in the midst of them.”

In February 1871 she sailed for Napier to become a lay helper to Father E. Reignier, S.M., and the two brothers of the Hawke's Bay Mission. Their territory stretched from Waikaremoana to Woodville. For 12 years she was a “jill-of-all-trades”–catechist, seamstress, organist, and especially district nurse to Pakeha as well as to Maori. In 1873 she dealt with 1,353 sick persons. Among the remedies she prepared at her Meeanee dispensary were some of her own concoction in which she used herbs culled from the bush. She worked closely with the local doctors. For some years the Central Government, through her friend the Native Minister, Donald McLean, made her an annual grant of £40 for medicines “for poor, sick natives”. Another charity was devoted to the immigrants in the Napier Barracks for whom she begged literally “dray-loads” of bedding, clothing, and groceries. Her chief concern was the spiritual welfare of the Maoris. She taught them their religion and she baptised those “in extremis”. In 1879 she edited a Maori Prayer Book of 476 pages. In the following year she had a Maori church built at Pakipaki.

In 1883 the then Bishop Redwood asked her to help re-establish the Wanganui River Mission. At Jerusalem (Hiruharama) her order began when she gathered around her some young helpers. In poverty and backblocks hardship, they ran two schools and a dispensary, and took in the chronic sick and foundlings. To support the work, they tilled the land and made medicines to be sold in Wanganui and beyond. In these crowded years “Meri” published A Manual of Maori Conversation (1885). In 1892 Archbishop Redwood formally set up the community as an order under the title, “Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion”. In 1899, in response to requests from medical men, Mother Aubert brought three sisters to Wellington to undertake sick visiting in the slums. By support from many quarters they were able to feed the needy by gifts, mostly in kind, for Wellington took them immediately to its heart. In 1900 they began to take in the most neglected, bedridden cases. Like all her works, this was gratuitous and undenominational. From this time, however, she relied only on benefactions inspired by Providence. “It is my bank and it has never failed me yet.” she said later. (Previously she and her helpers had had some Government aid or had sold produce or medicines.) A soup kitchen for unemployed men was opened, and in 1902 a day nursery, the first in Wellington. In 1907, with about 14 children from Jerusalem, she began at Island Bay a children's home and a residential nursery. In 1910 she opened a foundling home in Auckland.

In August 1913 Mother Aubert left for Rome to obtain Papal approval for her order, its spirit, and its methods. The decree was granted in 1917 but because of the war she was unable to return until January 1920. She had spent much time nursing the war wounded and composing the spiritual works afterwards collected in The Directory (1922). Back at Island Bay she laid the foundations of a system of professional nursing training for her sisters and of a general hospital for those in straitened circumstances. She died on 1 October 1926.

As her life unfolds it becomes clear that her mission was to offer a haven to sufferers of every age, race, and creed, and especially to society's unwanted. Christ's words were her inspiration: “As often as you did it to one of these my least brethren you did it to me.” Gifted with a distinctive personality, a sound constitution, a strong will, and refusing to be fettered by convention, by family pride, or by a love of comfort, she used her talents to serve Our Saviour in all she met.

She was not a good business woman; at times persons she trusted failed her; sometimes she enthused about schemes for well-doing that turned out to be ill advised or before their time; but the afflicted who blessed her are countless, and her order endures and now extends her works of mercy to Australia and to Fiji.

by Maurice Warwick Mulcahy, S.M., D.D., Archivist to the Marist Order in New Zealand, Wellington.

• Ko te Ako te Karakia o te Hahi Katorika Romana, Aubert, M. J., 1879
• Ko etahi Ako me etahi Karakia o te Hahi Katorika Romana, Aubert M. J. (1880)
• Directory of the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion, Aubert, M. J. (1922)
• New Zealand's Greatest Woman, Kavanagh, P. (1927)
• Unto These Least, Harper, Barbara (1962).

(1866–1921).

Feminist and social worker.

A new biography of Atkinson, Lily May appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Lily May Atkinson was born in Auckland on 29 March 1866. Her father, Thomas Kirk, was a distinguished botanist and her mother was a prominent social worker. She was educated in Wellington at the Greenwood School and became a teacher. At an early age she joined in social work with her mother and sisters, Amy and Cybele, who were among the first women Justices of the Peace and hospital board visitors in the country. She taught English to Chinese emigrants, and reading and domestic science to factory girls, and, as a member of the Ladies' Christian Association, cared for the welfare of emigrant girls. A staunch temperance supporter, she held local and Dominion office for the Women's Christian Temperance Union and served the cause as a travelling public speaker. She led the women's suffrage campaign in Wellington, chairing and addressing meetings throughout the province. A foundation member of the National Council of Women, Lily Atkinson was president of the Wellington branch till 1904, and was instrumental in the Council's revival in 1917. Among her many social activities were those connected with the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, of which she was co-founder, the Plunket Society, and the Kindergarten movement. On 11 May 1900 she married Arthur Richmond Atkinson, nephew of Sir Harry Atkinson. She died at Wellington on 19 July 1921 and was survived by her husband and one daughter.

Lily Atkinson is an outstanding example of the group of New Zealand women who emerged into public life at the end of the nineteenth century and involved themselves wholeheartedly in every kind of social reform movement. Much humanitarian legislation and many social and educational reforms can be traced to their activities.

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

• Evening Post, 20 Jul 1921 (Obit).

(1831–92).

Premier of New Zealand.

A new biography of Atkinson, Harry Albert appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Harry Albert Atkinson was born in Broxton, Cheshire, on 1 November 1831. His father, John, was an architect and engineer, whose work took him first to Hurworth, Durham, and then Friendsbury, Kent. It was in the latter county that Harry received his education at Rochester School and Blackheath. At the age of 19 he spent some time studying history, public administration, theology, and colonial affairs. This, combined with the acquisition of a number of trade skills, provided him with a wide background of knowledge for colonial life. In company with the Richmond family, Harry and his brother, Arthur, followed their elder brother, William, to New Zealand and arrived at Auckland on the Sir Edward Paget in May 1853. From there they sailed down the coast to New Plymouth in the cutter Three Brothers during August of the same year in order to join their relatives on a thousand acres of farm land. Here, a few miles outside New Plymouth, Atkinson built his homestead–named “Hurworth”–on the Carrington Road. The next few years he spent in clearing the bush from his property, fencing it, and farming the land.

Atkinson maintained his interest in politics while he broke in his land; those years in Taranaki were suited to anyone with such interests. Disputes with the Maori tribes over land titles in the province had been increasing, and the settlers began training in preparation for war. In May 1857 Atkinson was elected to the Taranaki Provincial Council for the Grey and Bell district. Toward the end of the following year his military career began when he was elected to a commission in the Taranaki Rifle Volunteer Company. His appointment to the command of No. 2 Company soon after the outbreak of the Taranaki War in 1860 was justified in the series of engagements during that year. The volunteers fought at the Battle of Waireka, a few miles south of New Plymouth, on 23 March 1860 and withdrew in good order after a hard struggle. They fought in August of the same year, and again in November when Atkinson's company joined the regulars of the 65th Regiment. All these battles confirmed Atkinson's qualities as an excellent guerilla leader. In 1863 he took command of the newly formed Forest Rangers, a corps of 150 men skilled in the techniques of bush fighting. Under him the rangers served with distinction at Potokou in October 1863, Kaitake in March 1864, Ahuahu and Sentry Hill in April 1864, and Manutahi and Matai-tawa in September of the same year.

In November 1864 Atkinson turned his attention wholly to national politics. He had been elected unopposed in June 1861 to represent Grey and Bell in the House of Representatives, and arrived in Auckland to take his seat on the day that the Stafford Government was defeated. He withdrew from provincial politics in 1864 after serving three terms as Deputy Superintendent of Taranaki. In the same year he joined the Weld Ministry as Minister of Defence, advocating a policy of self-reliance in the conduct of the war. It was this spirit of self-reliance, applied in other spheres, that was to be so characteristic of his political career in latter years.

After the defeat of the Weld Ministry Atkinson resigned from Parliament in January 1866, but returned to the Assembly in 1867 when elected unopposed for the town of New Plymouth seat. His close interest in military and native affairs led to his being considered, with Whitmore, as possible commander-in-chief of the forces against Titokowaru and Te Kooti, but Atkinson left the colony for a three-year visit to Great Britain at this time. When he returned in 1871 the Maori wars were virtually over, and Atkinson now concentrated wholly on politics, both national and provincial–although, coming from a poor and isolated province, he was in favour either of amalgamation or, preferably, of abolition of the provincial political structure. In 1871 he defeated Moorhouse to represent the Egmont constituency in Parliament. Within the province he contested the Superintendency against Carrington and Brown in November 1873, and came second to Carrington. Later in the same month he was elected to the Provincial Council for Grey and Bell and became Provincial Secretary in May 1874. Four months later he withdrew for the last time from active participation in provincial politics to join Vogel's Ministry. Although Vogel remained nominally in charge of the Government until September 1876–with Pollen taking over for a few months in 1875–76–it was Atkinson who gradually assumed real leadership. It was he who pushed through the Bill abolishing the provinces in 1875–76, and who took the enormous borrowing scheme of 1870, rid it of its worst extravagances, and converted it into a prudent policy for economic expansion. Atkinson was defeated in October 1877 by a coalition of “Provincialists” under Grey and Macandrew, who, despite their name, showed themselves to be more interested in reintroducing Vogel's bold scheme to gain capital for their own localities.

Depression struck the colony in 1879, however, and Atkinson returned to the Treasury benches as Colonial Treasurer, first under Hall from 1879 to 1882, and then under Whitaker, 1882–83, before resuming the Premiership for a year in 1883–84. His sound and cautious financial policies, however, were no match for Vogel's promises in the 1884 election, and for three years he sat in opposition to the Stout-Vogel Ministry. In those three years the Government's policy of expansion based on borrowed money foundered under the impact of a growing depression. In October 1887 Atkinson was recalled to head a ministry whose task was to restore the colony to a state of sound finance and, as far as possible, self-dependence. It took him three years, in his capacity as Colonial Treasurer, to cut Government loan expenditures from the 1887 total of £2,064,000 to 273,000 in 1890. At the same time exports per head each year increased from £11 in 1887 to 15 4s. in 1890, while imports fell from £10 9s. to 10.

Towards the end of the three-year term of Parliament Atkinson's health began to fail. He travelled to Tasmania to rest and recuperate, but this had little effect. In the 1890 session he had become so ill that he took little or no part in the day-to-day work of the Assembly. Although he had prepared it himself, his last budget was presented in the House by Mitchelson, his Minister of Public Works. The election of 1890 brought narrow defeat for Atkinson and his Government in the adverse vote of January 1891. Shortly after, he resigned from the House of Representatives to become Speaker of the Legislative Council. Later in the year he visited Australia as a New Zealand delegate to the Federal Conference and, with Grey, supported the principle of one man one vote.

He is, perhaps, the least known and most underestimated of New Zealand's leading Premiers. This is partly because of his personality and partly the result of his policies. He had neither the eloquence of Grey–although his mastery of the facts as well as his doggedness made him a powerful opponent in debate–nor the popular appeal of Seddon, and for many years was the exponent of many economically wise but politically unpopular policies.

Atkinson has been described in the past as a Conservative and one of the last of the landed oligarchy to hold political power in New Zealand. Apart from the fact that Atkinson himself had only a relatively small holding in a province where farming up to the nineties was essentially on a subsistence level, recent research has shown that the real division in New Zealand politics in the seventies and eighties was not between “Liberals” and “Conservatives”. The important split was brought about by the attitudes of politicians towards Sir Julius Vogel's 1870 borrowing scheme. Almost immediately after its enunciation, the House of Representatives–and the colony as a whole–divided into those who supported it unconditionally and those who wanted a more prudent application of it to the country's needs. The former supported wholeheartedly–usually for parochial reasons–the expenditure of loan money with little thought for other financial considerations. The cautious group, however, while approving the principle of borrowing, insisted that the scheme should be carefully administered, that it must not cause inflation or speculation, and that it must not affect the country's trading position.

Atkinson was only one of the leaders of the group–among others were Stafford, Hall, and Rolleston–but he was the most determined and capable of them. He had advocated military self-reliance during the Maori wars of the sixties, and this policy he adapted to finance and economics in the seventies and eighties. Unfortunately, his ideas were heeded only in times of depression. Often he and his followers found themselves forced to enact stringent and unpopular financial measures to restore the stability which had been upset by preceding “bold” borrowing ministries. Atkinson was not “cautious” in a solely negative way. He agreed with moderate borrowing combined with careful administration of the loan capital. But when, in 1887, it became obvious that the colony could not afford to borrow further, it was Atkinson and his Ministry who reorientated New Zealand's economy along the lines of self-sufficiency. While enforcing retrenchment, he also endeavoured with increasing success to build up colonial industry (which he protected by the tariff of 1888), and to settle more small farmers on the new dairy lands of the North Island.

The years from 1887 to 1890 did not represent a sudden change in his beliefs. He had been moving steadily towards the position of economic self-reliance as far back as 1883. In his financial statement of that year he laid down the alternatives for the colony: the country must choose between more borrowing merely to continue paying for imports at the past rate, and a concentration on increasing local production to supply internal demands. Atkinson had taken the first significant step away from the prevailing belief that borrowing was the only means for economic growth, and thereby had moved towards his own principle of self-sufficient development through expanded land settlement and encouragement of local industry. It was on the basis of Atkinson's work in the years 1887–90 that the Liberal Government carried out its policies of the nineties. In the period after 1891 the policy of self-reliance may have been carried out with greater speed, but there was little change in its scope. The significant year of change was 1887 when Atkinson finally discarded the outworn theories of 1870 and replaced them with his own.

Atkinson has also been described as a Conservative because of an alleged resistance to social change. Yet he solidly supported Bowen's Education Bill in 1877, and it was only the defeat of the Government that allowed Grey to enact the legislation in the name of the “Liberals”. It was with Atkinson's continued support that land legislation was enacted to protect the small farmer. Although he had believed in freehold tenure in his early life, his ideas had changed and it was while he was either Premier or Colonial Treasurer that Donald Reid and Rolleston had developed the system of deferred payments and perpetual lease to encourage small-scale land tenure.

Atkinson had himself proposed a scheme of national insurance which was nearly 20 years earlier and more comprehensive than Seddon's Act. It was the bitter opposition of Grey and others on both sides of the House which led to the defeat of the Bill. Hall always had Atkinson's support in his campaign to give women the vote, and Atkinson was a firm believer in the principle of one man one vote. The labour legislation of the nineties had its roots in the 1888 tariff which created employment possibilities by assuring a large portion of the colony's market to the new and struggling small industries. The Minister had brought forward proposals for labour laws in the 1890 session, but these were defeated again by a coalition of Conservatives on both sides of the House.

In three amazingly productive but exhausting years, Atkinson had managed to force legislation through Parliament to settle small farmers on the land, to encourage local industries behind a protective tariff, and to restore strength and stability to the colony's finances. By 1890, however, when conditions had begun to improve a little, time had run out for Atkinson and his Ministry. Although defeated in the elections of that year, he lived long enough to see the essence of his economic policies continued by Ballance and the Liberal Government of 1891.

In appearance Atkinson was very much the “colonial” of his day, bearded and powerful, with the look of a man on the land or–as he himself preferred to put it–a yeoman. Although not a great orator in the House, he was a pugnacious debater and constantly disconcerted his opponents by his irritating laugh or sneer. As Premier he ruled his supporters with a heavy hand and would, as George Fisher picturesquely put it, “do a regular war dance before the caucus” if ministerial policies were questioned. During his final period as Premier, Atkinson's Government was twice defeated in the House and, on another occasion, faced a revolt among its supporters. On that occasion he had to rely upon the Opposition's support to force his Tariff Bill through the House, and he gained a reputation for political intrigue. Nevertheless, in spite of his shortcomings Atkinson is one of the few political leaders in New Zealand history who, after having led a ministry, could serve later in a subordinate ministerial position.

On 25 March 1856 Atkinson married Amelia Jane Skinner, who died in 1865. He married, secondly, on 13 June 1866, Annie Smith; he had five sons and two daughters. Atkinson died in Parliament Buildings, Wellington, on 28 June 1892, at the start of the new parliamentary session.

by Warwick Robert Armstrong, M.A., M.SC.ECON.(LOND.), Lecturer, Geography Department, Victoria University of Wellington.

• The Richmond-Atkinson Papers (2 vols), Scholefield, G. H. (ed.) (1960)
• Notable New Zealand Statesmen, Scholefield, G. H. (1946).

Shortly after the Olympic Games at Tokyo, P. G. Snell broke the world record for 1,000 metres and lowered his own record in the mile. These made a total of 22 world records achieved by New Zealanders in events currently recognised by the International Amateur Athletic Federation. Four of these records have never appeared in I.A.A.F. lists, but all are regarded internationally as falling within the category of “world record”.

by Peter Norman Heidenström, Journalist, Wellington.

Many fine athletes from overseas have competed in New Zealand. Among them have been the following Olympic champions or world record holders: W. T. Macpherson, J. P. Metcalfe, J. A. Winter, H. D. Hogan, A. G. Thomas, R. W. Clarke, Misses D. Norman, M. Jackson, S. B. Strickland, B. Cuthbert, and M. J. Mathews (Australia); A. A. Shrubb, R. G. Bannister, E. McD. Bailey, and Mrs. D. B. J. Tyler (Great Britain); A. F. Duffey, G. L. Parker, J. V. Scholz, G. S. Simpson, M. G. Whitfield, W. P. O'Brien, L. V. Spurrier, and B. J. Morrow (United States); H. H. McKenley and A. S. Wint (Jamaica); Dr O. Peltzer (Germany); L. B. LaBeach (Panama); R. Moens (Belgium); and C. K. Yang (Formosa).

Fourth Olympiad, London, 1908: For the first time New Zealanders competed in the Olympic Games, two athletes being members of the Australasian team–H. E. Kerr, who had won the Australasian 1 mile and 3 mile walking titles and was to win them again in 1909 and 1911; and H. St. A. Murray, who had won three successive New Zealand titles (which he later extended to five) in the 440 yd hurdles, and the Australasian championship in which he had broken Smith's record with 58·4 sec. Kerr finished third in the final of the 3,500 metres walk, and qualified also for the final of the 10 miles, but could not start owing to injured feet. Neither event suited him, his specialty being 3 miles in which he set a New Zealand record of 21 min 36·6 sec that stood for 34 years. Murray, who had earlier run third in the A.A.A. 120 yd hurdles championship, competed in the 110 metres hurdles, but was eliminated in the early rounds as, too, was A. Halligan, another New Zealander representing Britain.

Festival of Empire Meeting, 1911: Regarded now as the forerunner of the Empire Games, a Festival of Empire meeting was held in London in 1911. Three New Zealanders competed: the 1909 New Zealand 880 yd champion, G. Haskins; and W. A. Woodger (100 and 220 yd, 1909) and R. Opie (100, 220, and 440 yd, 1911), the only New Zealanders who ever won an Australasian sprint title. That year Opie had run within 0·2 sec of the world record to set a New Zealand 220 yd record of 22 sec that stood for nearly a quarter of a century. In London he was third in the 100 yd and second in the 220 yd. Haskins was third in the mile; Woodger was ill and did not compete.

The modern straight-leg style of hurdling was now introduced into New Zealand by G. P. Keddell, who taught himself from photographs of the American originator of the style. Keddell, having set a long jump record of 23 ft 3 in. in 1906 (which lasted 42 years), now lowered Smith's record, made with the old bent-leg style, to 15·3 sec. The world record being 15 sec, New Zealand had narrowly missed again. Keddell won five New Zealand titles both in the 120 yd hurdles and in the long jump and one in the 440 yd hurdles, as well as both hurdling titles in the Australasian championships of 1909 and 1911.

Fifth Olympiad, Stockholm, 1912: G. N. Hill, three times New Zealand champion in the mile, twice in the 3 miles, and once in the cross-country, and 1911 Australasian champion in the mile and 3 miles, was sole athlete in a team of three. He ran in the 5,000 metres but was eliminated in the heats, the final being won in time almost a minute faster than his capabilities.

Seventh Olympiad, Antwerp, 1920: New Zealand representatives were the sprinter G. Davidson and the hurdler H. E. Wilson. Davidson had won the New Zealand 100 yd (9·8 sec, sloping track) and 220 yd championships, which he retained the following year, and Wilson was successful both with the A.A.A. and Australasian titles in the 120 yd hurdles an event he won in the New Zealand championships three times. They proved the most successful athletes to date, Davidson being eliminated in the 100 metres but running fifth in the 200 metres final, and Wilson taking fourth in the 110 metres hurdles behind three Americans. In the 14 Olympic races over this distance to date, only four hurdlers outside those of the United States have ever achieved a higher place than Wilson.

Eighth Olympiad, Paris, 1924: This produced New Zealand's first Olympic medal for athletics, when A. E. Porritt “finished with an astounding burst” to take third place in the 100 metres won by Abrahams (Britain). Porritt beat two world record holders, including the previous champion. The following year, as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, he beat Abrahams' Oxford-Cambridge 100 yd record with 9·9 sec, which was to remain the record for a quarter of a century, and he also set a 220 yd (straight track) record of 21·6 sec for the British universities against Harvard and Yale. In later years Porritt became the Royal Surgeon and was knighted K.C.M.G. He has served athletics for many years as London representative of the N.Z.A.A.A. and as chairman of the British Empire Games Federation . Another New Zealander, E. G. Sutherland, represented South Africa in the decathlon at Paris and was fifth. A magnificent all-rounder, he won 13 New Zealand titles in six different events from 1915 to 1929.

Perhaps the most famous race ever run in New Zealand took place in 1926 between R. A. Rose, then Australasian mile and 3 mile champion, and the visiting American miler, L. Hahn. Though beaten in their first meeting, Rose defeated Hahn in their other four races, and at Masterton set a New Zealand mile record of 4 min 13·6 sec which was to stand for 25 years. Rose dominated New Zealand longdistance running for many years, winning the mile title twice, the 3 miles five times, and the crosscountry once.

Ninth Olympiad, Amsterdam, 1928: Great hopes were held of a New Zealand victory, for in the previous year the javelin thrower S. A. Lay had won his second Australasian title with a throw of 218 ft 2¾ in. Three months before the world record had been 218 ft 7 in. Less than a month before the games Lay won the A.A.A. title with a British record of 222 ft 9 in., but in the games he failed to find form and the title was won at 218 ft 6 in. Lay threw 206 ft 4 in. in seventh place. (Our greatest field event athlete, Lay represented New Zealand at the Empire Games of 1930 (first), 1938 (second), and 1950 (sixth)–an international career spanning 24 years. His 222 ft 9 in. stood as a British Empire record for 26 years.) Our other athletes were W. J. Kalaugher (Rhodes Scholar), who represented Britain in the 110 metres hurdles and the triple jump, and Miss Norma Wilson. After being placed second in her heat of the 100 metres she just failed to reach the final. It was evident that she suffered from the lack of opportunity to train before the games, for her subsequent running in England was of world class.

Norma Wilson was the first of three great women sprinters produced by New Zealand at about this time. In 1927 she had twice run the 100 yd in 11·2 sec, equalling the world record, but on each occasion the tracks had been about 7 in. short. The world record was, however, equalled in 1929 by the New Zealand champion, Miss E. Martyn. In 1930 Miss T. Kench, too, ran the distance in 11·2 sec (a feat she repeated two years later, though by that time a Polish woman had recorded 10·8 sec). World records at this period were recognised by the now-defunct F.S.F.I. It was unfortunate that the N.Z.A.A.A. was not affiliated to this body but to the I.A.A.F., which had not yet taken over this function. Thus the records of Miss Martyn and Miss Kench have never been accorded the world recognition they undoubtedly earned. Miss N. Wilson returned to competition in 1933 and beat Miss Kench, the champion for the previous three years, to win the New Zealand 100 yd title. Shortly before, she had returned times of 11·2 sec and 11 sec on a sloping track.

First Empire Games, Hamilton, Ontario, 1930: New Zealand scored two successes, Lay's javelin victory and a winning 6 miles by J. W. Savidan in Canadian record time.

Tenth Olympiad, Los Angeles, 1932: Savidan proved our most successful athlete, running fourth both in the 5,000 and in the 10,000 metres. This warning to the world of New Zealand's coming pre-eminence in the field of distance running was the summit of Savidan's long career, during which he won 15 New Zealand titles–three in the mile and six both in the 3 miles and in the cross-country. Great things were expected also of J. E. Lovelock, who had just set a British mile record of 4 min 12 sec, but after winning his 1,500 metres heat he was relegated to seventh in the final. Miss Kench (100 metres), A. J. Elliot (100 and 200 metres), S. A. Black (200 and 400 metres), and C. V. Evans (800 metres) also represented New Zealand.

Lovelock's failure only set his mind more determinedly on winning the 1,500 metres in the next games, and he dedicated the next four years to studying every runner who might be a threat in that race, and to developing the ability to produce peak form for a particular occasion. In 1933 he beat the best Americans in the then world record time of 4 min 7·6 sec for the mile.

Second Empire Games, London, 1934: Lovelock completed another step in his plans by beating the English champion, Wooderson, to win the mile in 4 min 12·8 sec. (True to his belief that he was capable of only one supreme effort in a season, Lovelock lost to Wooderson in 1935 and again early in 1936, just as in 1933 he had lost to Beccali of Italy after his world record mile.) H. K. Brainsby was third in the triple jump to Metcalfe, of Australia, who was later to become the world record holder. Earlier in the year he had beaten Metcalfe to set a New Zealand record of 49 ft 8¾ in.–an achievement that was not beaten for 24 years.

Eleventh Olympiad, Berlin, 1936: On Thursday, 6 August, Lovelock was supremely fit and confident. Knowing exactly the capabilities of his opponents in the 1,500 metres, he ran with such judgment that, as the British Olympic Report put it, “No matter where he was placed in the race he seemed to be controlling it”. Flashing past his opponents from the unheard-of distance of 300 metres out, he won easily in the world record time of 3 min 47·8 sec. V. P. Boot (800 and 1,500 metres) and C. H. Matthews (5,000 and 10,000 metres) were New Zealand's other representatives in athletics.

Third Empire Games, Sydney, 1938: The value of Olympic experience was proved when Boot won the 880 yd in 1 min 51·2 sec (and also ran third in the mile, beating Rose's time with 4 min 12·8 sec), and Matthews the 3 and 6 miles in 13 min 59·6 sec and 30 min 146 sec, both Empire records. New Zealand fielded its largest international team thus far and gained also one silver medal (Lay, javelin throw) and four bronze medals (J. G. Leckie, hammer throw; the men's team in the mile relay; and Misses R. I. Tong, hurdles; and E. M. Forbes, high jump).

An unsuccessful member of that team, Miss D. Lumley, became the first New Zealand woman to be officially recognised as a world record holder when in 1939 she beat the Empire champion, Miss Norman, of Australia, over 100 yd in 11 sec. Shortly afterwards Miss Lumley lost her life in a motor accident.

Fourteenth Olympiad, London, 1948: With the resumption of the Olympic Games after the Second World War, New Zealand again had a potential gold medallist in the 800 metres runner, D. M. Harris. With the speed of a sprinter, the stamina of a cross-country runner, and a highly economical running style, Harris had beaten the American champion the previous year over 880 yd in 1 min 49·4 sec–then 02 sec outside the world record. In his Olympic heat, despite being spiked in the leg, Harris qualified easily; but in his semi-final, when he was running confidently, his leg gave way and he had to be carried from the track. The final was won in the time about half a second slower than Harris's best. His team mates had little success, W. H. Nelson failing to see out the 10,000 metres and J. M. Holland being eliminated after winning his heat of the 400 metres hurdles. But two years later they were among the leaders in our Empire Games team.

Fourth Empire Games, Auckland, 1950: Nelson won the 6 miles and was second in the 3 miles; Holland, who had set records in the 120 yd, 220 yd, and 440 yd hurdles at the New Zealand championships, was second in the last event. Other silver medals were won by W. B. Hough, long jump; Miss J. B. Schoch, hurdles; Miss Y. W. Williams, javelin; and the women's team in the 440 yd relay. Bronze medals were won by D. W. Jowett, 220 yd; D. R. Batten, 440 yd; M. L. Marshall, 1 mile; N. Taylor, 6 miles; J. R. Clarke, marathon; D. Dephoff, long jump; the men's teams in the 440 yd and mile relays; Miss J. P. Shackleton, hurdles; Miss N. R. Swinton, high jump; Miss R. N. Dowman, long jump; and Miss C. P. Rivett-Carnac, javelin. The outstanding performance by a New Zealander was, however, Miss Williams's winning long jump of 19 ft 4? in., a New Zealand, Games, and Empire record.

Miss Yvette Williams now became the dominant figure in New Zealand athletics. A year later she jumped 20 ft 1? in., the third best jump on record by a woman. Already the New Zealand record holder for the shot put, she raised her figures three times and gained the discus record. As a sprinter she ran 75 yd in 8·5 sec, 100 yd in 11 sec, and 220 yd in 25·1 sec–all close to New Zealand record times. A world record narrowly evaded her in 1952 when slight wind assistance invalidated her championship jump of 20 ft 7¾ in., but she soon afterwards jumped 20 ft 2 in. to become the first woman to exceed 20 ft more than once. In the pentathlon she underlined her all-round ability by scoring 4,219 points, which remained the best by a New Zealander for 10 years.

Fifteenth Olympiad, Helsinki, 1952: The outstanding success for New Zealand was the long jump of Yvette Williams, though it came very close to failure. After qualifying in the morning with an Olympic record of 20 ft 2½ in., Miss Williams began the final with a leap of more than 21 ft–but it was a foul! Then followed another foul. Failure and disgrace were only a jump away (two days before, in fact, the favourite for the men's title had suffered just this fate when he made three foul jumps and was eliminated from this event). Under this severe pressure Miss Williams calmly jumped 19 ft 4¼ in. to qualify for a further three jumps. On her next she sailed 20 ft 5? in. to win a gold medal and an Olympic record that was a bare centimetre short of the world record. Two days earlier J. M. Holland had run third in the 400 metres hurdles, despite a waterlogged track, and so New Zealand had for the first time won two medals at one Olympic celebration. Miss Williams added further success when she was sixth in the shot put and tenth in the discus throw. Our other representatives were M. L. Marshall (800 and 1,500 metres) and G. W. Hoskins (1,500 metres).

Fifth Empire Games, Vancouver, 1954: Six months after long jumping 20 ft 7½ in. and so adding 1½ in. to the world record that had defied everyone for 10 years, Miss Williams closed her career by winning three Empire titles. She was first, with record performances, in the shot, discus, and long jump, and was also sixth in the hurdles. D. W. Jowett, who had been a star of the 1950 games as an 18–year-old, was our only other medallist with a first in the 220 yd and second in the 440 yd. Miss Williams retired with her name written four times in the roll of the greatest women athletes of all time–first in the long jump, fifth in the pentathlon, twelfth in the discus, and nineteenth in the shot put.

With the end of the Williams era came the beginning of that of Lydiard. Having the background of a New Zealand marathon champion behind him, A. L. Lydiard believed that the existing methods of training runners could be improved on. One of his theories was that speed is unimportant, and stamina all-important, in every race beyond the sprints. Hundreds of athletes can run 440 yd in 60 sec, and so every one of them could run the mile in 4 min if only he had stamina enough. Lydiard's pupils soon began to prove his theories by breaking record after record: L. A. King (formerly a mediocre runner), 6 miles; M. G. Halberg, 1 mile (4 min 4·4 sec, a world best for a 20-year-old runner) and four other distances; E. W. Haskell, 2 and 3 miles; W. D. Baillie, 3 miles; and H. Rodger and A. B. Magee, 6 miles.

Sixteenth Olympiad, Melbourne, 1956: M. G. Halberg, who had been severely injured only six years before, still lacked strength, and finished eleventh in the 1,500 metres, his rival, N. I. Scott, running seventh in time equivalent to a 4 min 1·2 sec mile. The games were most successful for New Zealand. N. R. Read, a former Englishman, surprised the critics, his opponents and, above all, the British officials who did not require him for their team, by winning the road walk of 50,000 metres (31 miles). He had prepared himself wisely by preceding the New Zealand team to Australia, where he had won the Australian title over the Olympic course. Miss V. I. Sloper exceeded 50 ft for the first time to gain fifth place in the shot put; Miss B. D. E. Weigel, only just 16, was sixth in the long jump, although officially given seventh; and Miss J. M. Donaghy, also 16, jumped the second-best height in the high jump, but was relegated to seventh on the countback of failures. Miss Weigel soon afterwards jumped 20 ft 5¼ in., a world best for a 16–year-old, and Miss Donaghy proved herself the only woman ever to have jumped more than her own height–which she eventually exceeded by 4½ in. Our other competitors were Miss M. F. Stuart (100 metres and hurdles); M. L. Rae, who had lowered Hempton's 100 yd record to 9·7 sec and then 96 sec (100 and 200 metres); and A. W. Richards (marathon). P. Wells, for some years a New Zealand resident, competed for Britain in the high jump.

Sixth Empire Games, Cardiff, 1958: Having turned to the 3 miles, Halberg won this event and defeated the world record holder. Scott was an excellent third. Miss Sloper won our second gold medal in the shot put, but was surprisingly beaten by Miss J. Thompson in the discus, the New Zealanders taking second and third. Other silver medallists were Miss Donaghy (who recorded the same height as the winner) and L. R. Mills, discus throw. M. D. Richards (pole vault) and D. S. Norris (triple jump) gained bronze medals. (Both had won the A.A.A. titles, Norris with a championship record of 51 ft 4 in., though he was still a junior. After the games Halberg ran the mile in 3 min 57·5 sec, the first under 4 min by a New Zealander; 1,500 metres in 3 min 38·8 sec (a slightly better performance); and 4 miles in 18 min 22·6 sec, a world best performance.

Seventeenth Olympiad, Rome, 1960: Friday, 2 September 1960, was the greatest day in the history of New Zealand athletics for, within a wonderful space of two hours, Halberg won the Olympic 5,000 metres and P. G. Snell the 800 metres. Halberg burst away from his opponents as Lovelock had done in 1936–but with three laps to go!–and won a victory that has gone down with Lovelock's among the classics of the Olympic Games. Six days later he ran a token race in the 10,000 metres and finished fifth. Snell, who had proved himself an iron man at home, though without recording any times that excited hopes of a place in an Olympic final, had the stamina (through Lydiard training) to see out four hard rounds of the 800 metres and still produce an unanswerable final sprint to lower the Olympic record by 1·4 sec. Later, in England, he ran 880 yd in a relay race in the fantastic time of 1 min 44·8 sec, 2 seconds under the world record. Another Lydiard pupil, Magee, secured third place in the marathon. Miss Sloper lost a medal in the last round only of the shot put, being placed fourth, and Read was fifth in the 20,000 metres walk, though later failing to finish in his specialty, the 50,000 metres. Our other competitors were J. L. Julian and R. L. Puckett (marathon), Mills (shot and discus), Norris (long jump and triple jump), B. C. Robinson (200 and 400 metres), D. I. B. Smith (800 metres), and Misses V. A. Morgan (100 and 200 metres), Thompson (discus), and Weigel (who long jumped over 20 ft but gained only tenth place).

A. L. Lydiard was fittingly appointed manager of a New Zealand team comprising Halberg, Snell, Magee, and G. F. Philpott that toured Europe the following year. The first three returned with “World Games” titles, Halberg with world records for 2 miles (8 min 30 sec) and 3 miles (13 min 10 sec), Magee with the third-best time (13 min 11·2 sec) on record for 3 miles, and the quartet with a world record of 16 min 23·8 sec for the 4 mile relay. Three more world records fell early in 1962 when Snell, in the course of 28 days, ran 880 yd in 1 min 48·2 sec (New Zealand record), 1 min 47·1 sec (Empire record), and 1 min 45·1 sec (world record), with corresponding 800 metres records of 1 min 47·7 sec, 1 min 46·3 sec; and 1 min 44·3 sec; and the mile in 3 min 54·4 sec (world record) and 3 min 56·8 sec. In the latter race five New Zealanders finished under 4 min 3 sec; only the United States and Britain could claim five milers as fast in 1962. Snell visited the United States later that year and again in 1963 to beat the best Americans in three great races (all below 3 min 57 sec).

Seventh Empire Games, Perth, 1962: Snell not only won both the 880 yd and mile, but also shepherded J. L. Davies (who later became the third New Zealander to better four minutes) into second place in the mile. Halberg toyed with a first-class field before sprinting away to win the 3 miles, and Mrs V. I. Young (née Sloper), who had earlier set an Empire record of 176 ft 5in for the discus and equalled her shot put figures, won both events. Miss M. A. M. Chamberlain, who earlier in the year had broken the world 880 yd record but finished behind Miss Willis of Australia, was second to her again. (One of the first world record holders for the 440 yd when the I.A.A.F. recognised the distance in 1947, Miss Chamberlain remained in Perth after the games and recorded a world best of 4 min 41·4 sec for the mile.) Norris and Miss D. H. Porter also gained silver medals in the long jump and 100 yd, and Mrs A. M. McIntosh and the women's team, bronze medals in the hurdles and 440 yd relay.

Eighteenth Olympiad, Tokyo, 1964: P. G. Snell proved himself an outstanding middle distance runner when he achieved the rare feats of winning both the 800 and 1,500 metres, and of retaining his title in the former event. Four other runners have performed the first feat–none since 1920–and two others the second, but none apart from Snell has ever achieved both. Snell's two gold medals were supplemented by two bronze medals which, together with one fourth, one sixth, and two seventh placings, made this New Zealand's most successful Olympiad.

The first Olympic Games were held in 1896, but New Zealand did not take part until 1908. Our first arena for international competition was therefore the Australasian championships, the first of which were held in 1893 and the last in 1927. There were, however, a few individual exploits in the British A.A.A. (then virtually the world) championships. In 1886 Godfrey B. Shaw was third in the A.A.A. 120 yd hurdles. He later returned to England and won the title four successive times, from 1893 to 1896. Shaw failed by 0·2 sec (then the smallest margin recognised) to equal the world record, but in 1891 he ran the 440 yd hurdles in 57·2 sec, a world best. H. W. Batger was third in the A.A.A. 120 yd hurdles in 1892; he, too, had failed by 0·2 sec to equal the world record, with 16·2 sec in 1890 and again with 16 sec in 1892. Batger was more successful in England than his team mate, J. H. Hempton, who in 1892 had equalled the world 100 yd record of 9·8 sec–his time stood as a New Zealand record for a “record” period of 63 years–and had in fact run the distance in 9·6 sec with wind assistance two seasons earlier. Hempton, however, had had the misfortune to pull a muscle in his first race in England.

The early Australasian championships confirmed New Zealand's hurdling prowess. Our first great champion was A. H. Holder, a reinstated professional, who at the New Zealand championships of 1897 had become the first of four men to win four titles–the 250 yd, 440 yd, and both 120 yd and 440 yd hurdles. His time in the latter event was 58·8 sec, a remarkable one since the hurdles were not the lightweight 3 ft ones of today but stood 3 ft 6 in. and resembled heavy farm gates. Even that record was beaten seven years later when G. W. Smith, also a famous rugby player, won the Australasian title in 58·5 sec. Smith, too, won four titles at one meeting (in 1900), as well as a triple at each of three others, and five Australasian titles. His 15·4 sec for the 120 yd hurdles in 1902, the same year in which he won the A.A.A. title, made him the third New Zealander to fall short of the world record of his day by a mere one-fifth of a second.

Our pole vaulters, too, were in world class. H. L. Kingsley cleared 10 ft 5 in. in 1895; R. Hunter, 10 ft 6? in. in 1896; H. Eruera, 11 ft 0¼ in. in 1897 (a New Zealand record for 19 years); and J. Te Paa, 10 ft 11¾ in. in 1899. By comparison, the Olympic title in 1896 was won at 10 ft 9¾ in., and 9 ft 4 in. gained third place. (Eruera and Te Paa, both Australasian champions, were first to show that Maoris were natural athletes. P. H. Buck, later Sir Peter Buck, held the New Zealand championship record for the long jump in 1903, but it is only now after 60 years that Maoris are again showing out on the athletic field.) There were also many battles between two fine walkers, F. H. Creamer (whose mile record of 4 min 27·4 sec stood for 40 years) and D. Wilson, who won eight New Zealand titles over a period of 24 years. Long-distance runners began to set records, W. F. Bennett winning the Australasian mile title in 1896 with 4 min 28·4 sec, and W. F. Simpson the mile and 3 miles in 1901, the latter in 14 min 49 sec, a New Zealand record for 23 years. In 1905 H. G. Burk, who had set a New Zealand 880 yd record of 1 min 58·2 sec that lasted 26 years, won the mile championship and beat A. A. Shrubb of England, world record holder at every distance from 2 miles to nearly 12.