KETTLE, CHARLES HENRY (1820-62) was born at Sandwich, Kent, received a good education, and was mathematics master at Faversham school in his native county when he decided to emigrate to New Zealand. He was a passenger by the Oriental, which reached Port Nicholson on 31 Jan 1840. Among his fellow-passengers were E. Betts Hopper, F. A. Molesworth and H. W. Petre, who had a quantity of machinery and merchandise and went into business together as millwrights and engineers on the banks of the Hutt river. Kettle was employed by them as a clerk until Sep 1840, when Betts Hopper lost his life in a boating accident. Thrown on his own resources, Kettle joined Mein Smith's survey staff, where his mathematical knowledge was soon of marked assistance. He was appointed an assistant surveyor, and was in charge of the party which opened up the Ohariu valley in 1841. For two years he was engaged in explorations and surveys in Porirua, Port Nicholson, and Upper Hutt. In May 1842, with Alfred Wills, Kettle made an adventurous journey round the Tararua mountains, exploring at the same time a good deal of the Rimutakas. They left Karekare, near Foxton, the headquarters of the survey staff on 5 May, proceeded up the river and reached the gorge on the 11th. Passing through to the eastern side of the ranges, they turned south through thick bush into the Wairarapa valley. After two attempts to find a passage from Wairarapa lake to the Hutt valley, they eventually succeeded and reached Wellington on 8 Jun, having traversed a considerable tract of country not previously crossed by white men.

The surveys were suspended owing to the financial difficulties of the Company, and Kettle in 1843 returned to England by the Brougham. He arrived to find the New Edinburgh scheme still being talked about, and threw himself into it with enthusiasm. With George Rennie he paid a visit to Edinburgh to study the lay-out of the old town, with a view to the new Edinburgh having the advantage of the good points of the old. When eventually the operations of the Company were resumed, Kettle was appointed surveyor and civil engineer for a period of three years at £400 a year, specially to carry out the surveys for New Edinburgh. Before leaving he married Amelia Omer (Dover). They took their passage in the Mary Catherine, and reached Wellington on 2 Feb 1846.

Kettle collected a staff in Wellington, and three weeks after his arrival there he landed at Koputai, near Otago heads. His first work was to survey the town of Port Chalmers and to sound the harbour for the benefit of the expected shipping. Then he undertook a journey on foot in south Otago through the Taieri and Tokomairiro plains as far as the Nuggets, with the object of dividing into suitable survey contracts the whole of the Otago block. This work having been let out to various parties, he returned to Dunedin and started to lay out the future city. At the end of 1846 he brought his house up to the site of the new town.

When the first ships arrived, Kettle was present to welcome them and to show the leaders the layout of their town. As chief surveyor for the Company, he came into collision with Cargill over the custody of the land office and documents. Kettle decided to settle in Otago. He took part in the meeting in 1851 which called upon Valpy to decline nomination to the Legislative Council. He was one of the first four magistrates of the province, and as such attended all of the meetings which had to decide on public works and similar undertakings. During 1851 Kettle made two long explorations in the interior to inspect lands for settlement west of the Otago block. He had now been appointed a government surveyor, a position which he held until 1854. During the last three years he was also deputy registrar of deeds for the province. Kettle then selected land in the south Otago district, from the top of the Kaihuku ranges to the Clutha, and established his homestead in 1854 at Kaihiku bush, with a woolshed of rough timber thatched by the natives. He was an exemplary employer, and many farmers well-known in later years commenced in his service. He went in for merino sheep, and in 1855 had a flock of 2,000. He is sometimes credited with having been the first to sow gorse and broom for live hedges.

Kettle gave up farming in 1860 and returned to live in Dunedin. He stood for a Dunedin seat in the Provincial Council, but received only 18 votes. In the following year he was elected to represent Bruce in the House of Representatives. In 1862 Kettle was appointed provincial auditor. He died on 5 Jun 1862, a young man who would undoubtedly have taken a high position in the province. Hocken says that he and Strode were generally to be found on public questions in opposition to the general body of the settlers. They were not Scots; they were not of the body of emigrants; they were both nominated officials of the general Government. Kettle was a man of high principle and a steady, earnest, and practical Christian. He took a keen interest in social movements, and especially in the Young Men's Christian Association, of which he was a founder and some time president. In 1855 he led the young temperance movement of Otago, being elected honorary secretary of the Otago Maine Law League. He was a good cricketer. (See J. L. MACASSEY and SIR JOHN ROBERTS.)

N.Z. reports; G.B.O.P., 1844/556; Otago P.C. Proc.; Cycl. N.Z., iv (p); Otago Journal; Hocken; Ward; J. A. Thomson; E. J. Wakefield; Otago Daily Times, 6 Jun 1862, 4 Apr 1930 (p).

Reference: Volume 1, page 249

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