STOKES, ROBERT (1810-80) was born in England and trained as a surveyor. He practised as an architect in Cheltenham and London. He appeared before the directors of the New Zealand Company on 10 Apr 1839, asking for employment on the survey staff. A month or two later he sailed in the Cuba as one of the survey assistants. They reached Wellington on 3 Jan 1840. Stokes was engaged about Port Nicholson for some time and left his name on Stokes valley. In Aug he was sent by Wakefield to make a survey towards Wanganui to ascertain its capabilities for settlement. He was accompanied by Park, Heaphy, and Jerningham Wakefield, and after an adventurous journey submitted a report, which fully satisfied the Company as to the projected settlement of Petre. Early in 1842 he left the employ of the Company and went into business in Wellington. On his town section in Woolcombe street he built his residence, St Ruadhan, and he soon had a good clearing and vegetable garden. He had living with him his brother (Dr John Milbourne Stokes), who came to New Zealand as surgeon of the Aurora and gave gratuitous advice to the sick. About 1843 Stokes paid a visit to South America. He gave much encouragement to agriculture and horticulture, and was treasurer of the Horticultural and Botanical society.

In Aug 1844 Revans ended his connection with the New Zealand Gazette, which ceased publication at the end of Sep. On 12 Oct a new paper, the New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, appeared. Clifford was chairman of the committee of management and Stokes a member. On 16 Aug 1845 his name appears on the imprint as printer, Lyon being the publisher. Stokes also appears in the roll of 1847 as a printer in Manners street. Some time later he became proprietor. In 1850 the Spectator was the only paper which supported Sir George Grey. At the end of Mar 1858, Stokes's name disappears from the imprint, but according to one authority he owned the paper until it ceased publication in 1865, and he sold the type.

In 1848 Stokes was a speaker at a public meeting called after the earthquake. In 1851 he reported the proceedings of the Legislative Council. He entered the Provincial Council in 1857 as one of the representatives of the City, which elected him until 1865. Though a critic of Featherston, Stokes took a cautious part in the imbroglio. In 1858 he carried in the Council a bill to establish a municipal corporation for Wellington, and in the same year he advocated a railway across the Rimutaka to Wairarapa. This was considered Utopian, but Stokes persevered and in 1863 secured the passage through the Council of a series of resolutions in favour of the line and recommending the acceptance of the offer of Robert M. Marchant to construct the first 18 miles for £150,000, on a guarantee of 7 per cent on the outlay or a land grant of 100,000 acres. This fell through, but Stokes was undaunted. In 1867 a public meeting co-operated with the Provincial Council and made headway. In 1870 Vogel took the line up as a government undertaking. Stokes was badly defeated at the general election for the Council in 1865, but a few months later he was elected one of the members for the Wairarapa, which he represented to 1867.

Stokes's brother, after a few years, gave up the practice of medicine and took up a freehold run in the Ruataniwha district before the separation of Hawkes Bay. Robert first appeared as a landowner in the same district in 1861, having bought out Robert Pharazyn. Later they held properties together at Clive and at Te Aute, their main homestead, at Manganuka, being called Milbourne. Both were justices of the peace. For some years Dr Stokes was a warden of the North Ruataniwha highway district, and in 1877 chairman. Robert Stokes was in 1862 one of the commissioners for the city reserves in Wellington. In the same year he was called to the Legislative Council, and in the ensuing session he moved the address-in-reply. He continued a member of the Council until 1878, when he forfeited his seat by absence. He was a member of the University senate (1871-78). Stokes died on 20 Jan 1880.

Wellington P.C. Proc.; Cycl. N.Z., i; Wakelin; E. J. Wakefield; Ward; Daily Telegraph, Napier, 16 Oct 1925; Evening Post, 4 Nov 1929 (p). Portrait: Parliament House.

Reference: Volume 2, page 172

🌳 Further sources