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Story: Inventions, patents and trademarks

Richard Pearse

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Richard Pearse

The eccentric Temuka farmer Richard Pearse was New Zealand’s most remarkable inventor. This 2009 cartoon by Murray Webb shows Pearse ploughing while reading a book on how birds fly. The aircraft he invented and may have flown in 1903 appears over his head.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: DCDL-0010064

by Murray Webb

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Mark Derby, Inventions, patents and trademarks – Transport inventions, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/cartoon/25402/richard-pearse (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Mark Derby, published 11 May 2010, updated 1 February 2015.