HULBERT, CHARLES PARTRIDGE (1841-1926) was born at Bristol and arrived in New Zealand from Australia in 1860. He had some experience at Gabriel's Gully in 1863, and served in the Maori war. Later he settled in Christchurch, where he was for 30 years in business. He was elected to the City Council in 1879, 1881 and 1886, and was mayor in 1884-85, and a member of the domain and hospital boards. During his mayoralty he promoted the establishment of the Jubilee home for the indigent poor of Christchurch. Hulbert was an officer and life member of E battery of volunteers, and during the South African war (1899-1902) and the war of 1914-18 he did service as examiner of military clothing. He was a freemason, being master of lodge St Augustine and past provincial grand warden. He died on 22 Jun 1926.

Cycl. N.Z., iii; Evening Post, 23 Jun 1926.

HULKE, WILLIAM KING (1819-1908) was born at Deal, the son of a doctor. The family originated in Holland, whence they fled to England to escape the persecutions of the Spaniards. Apprenticed to the sea under the East India Company, Hulke disliked the life, and after one voyage retired to farming in Pembrokeshire.

In 1840 he sailed for New Zealand in the ship London. Landing at Port Nicholson he walked overland to Wanganui, where he started a store in partnership with Dorset, Keith and Barley brothers (Bristol). Returning to Wellington, he made a voyage to Sydney for dairy cattle and established a farm at Kilbirnie and Miramar, from which he supplied vegetables and milk to the town. At the end of 1842 he moved to Wanganui, where he erected a flourmill (driven by the wind) with machinery which he had imported from England. It was burned down in 1845 and he moved to New Plymouth, where he erected a new mill with the same machinery. This was afterwards the Union mill and was run by water power. In the early fifties Hulke purchased land at Bell Block, which he farmed until the war, when he retired to New Plymouth and established a nursery garden. In 1866 (with the Webster brothers) he established a steam flour mill. In proposing C. Brown for the Legislative Council of New Munster, Hulke advocated universal suffrage (1852). In 1886 he became a pioneer of the Taranaki dairy industry, when he started a model farm and dairy at Corbett road, Bell Block. Importing Jersey cattle, he established a famous herd and rendered valuable service to the industry and the province by promoting the dairy factory system. In 1882 he published Golden Rules for Buttermaking. Hulke was member of the Provincial Council for Grey and Bell (1857-58, 1861-65). He died on 23 Oct 1908.

Taranaki P.C. minutes and Gaz.; Philpott (p); Taranaki Herald, 23-28 Oct 1908.

Reference: Volume 1, page 226

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