KOCH, AUGUSTUS KARL FREDERICK (1835-1901) was born in Berlin, Germany, and studied at the Royal Academy. In his teens he was engaged at the barricades in Berlin in the rising of 1848. He graduated B.A. at Berlin University. He studied art under Mandel, the portrait painter and engraver, and made caricatures for Kladderadatsch.

In the interest of his health Koch went to sea and became second officer in an East India trader. Being in Auckland when the Austrian frigate Novara arrived (1858), he was attached to Hochstetter's staff as artist during his explorations in Auckland and Nelson, and he projected the first large map of Auckland. Most of his drawings are in the Colonial Museum at Vienna. He afterwards remained in the employ of the Government, surveying, mapping and subdividing in the neighbourhood of Auckland. He introduced the process in photography of printing from negatives. He was the first chief draughtsman in the province of Hawkes Bay, and prepared the first map of the province, and the first original plan of Napier. After spending some time on the Thames goldfield as a mining surveyor, Koch joined the public works department as chief draughtsman. He made the parliamentary map of the Auckland-Waikato railway. He was 30 years a member and 20 years chairman of the Thorndon school committee. Koch died on 31 Dec 1901.

N.Z. Times, 1 Jan 1902

Reference: Volume 1, page 253

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