VON HAAST, SIR JOHN FRANCIS JULIUS (1822-87) was born near Bonn, in Germany, where his father, a merchant, was for many years burgomaster. He was educated at the grammar schools of Bonn and Cologne and the University of Bonn, where he devoted much time to geology and mineralogy and made a scientific collection of considerable value. He carried on business as a merchant for eight years, travelling extensively in Russia, Austria and Italy, and finding time for scientific research and the study of art. He ascended Mt Etna just after the eruption of 1852.

For a London firm of shipowners Haast came to New Zealand to report on its suitability for German emigration. He reached Auckland by the Evening Star on 21 Dec 1858, the day before the arrival of the Austrian frigate Novara with a scientific expedition. Haast made the acquaintance of the Novara's geologist, Dr Hochstetter (q.v.), and when Hochstetter accepted an invitation to spend six months in scientific exploration in New Zealand he went as his companion and thus initiated a long career of discovery in science. After spending some months in the southern part of Auckland province and in Nelson (of which he wrote long reports for German periodicals), Haast was commissioned by the Nelson provincial government to explore the south and west of the province. Accompanied by Burnett and three others (of whom one was a Maori), he spent nine months in the field, suffering considerable privations. On this expedition he first made known the extent and value of the coalfields of the Grey river (which Brunner had discovered), and discovered and named the Coalbrookdale coal seam on the Buller river and several gold bearing districts. His reports added much to the topographical, zoological and botanical knowledge of the province of Canterbury. In Dec 1860 he rendered service to that province which led to his appointment as geologist in connection with the Lyttelton tunnel. The first contractors (Smith and Knight) abandoned their undertaking on encountering hard rock. Haast's report indicated that the tunnel was likely to meet with less hard rock as it progressed, and, thus assured, Moorhouse went to Melbourne and made a contract with Holmes and Richardson, who completed the work.

Early in 1861 Haast was appointed provincial geologist. Each year he spent six or eight months in the field systematically examining the resources of the province. In his first year, besides work on the upper Rangitata, he surveyed the mineral resources of the Malvern hills and the Mount Torlesse range. In 1862 he devoted himself to Mount Cook, discovering a number of glaciers and mapping many new features to which he gave names commemorating contemporary scientists. On an investigation of the Otago-Canterbury boundary line (1863) he endured considerable hardship and discovered the Haast pass.

In 1863 Haast married Mary (d. 1913), daughter of Edward Dobson (q.v.). In 1864 he surveyed the basins of the Rangitata and the Ashburton for coal; and in the following year, while working west of the Alps following the discovery of gold, he found and named the Franz Josef glacier. For some years he had been diligently collecting specimens with a view to the foundation of a museum. The discovery in 1866 at Glenmark station of important deposits of moa bones formed the basis of the unrivalled collection assembled in the Canterbury Museum, and enabled him to effect exchanges with museums abroad. Haast contributed to the New Zealand Institute and other learned societies many papers on the moa, and two of his papers were read before the Zoological Society (1885), the Royal Geographical and Geological Societies. These gave him a recognised standing in the scientific world. The University of Tübingen conferred on him its doctorate of philosophy (1862); he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society (1865); and many learned societies elected him fellow, honorary or corresponding member.

In 1863 Haast discovered the existence of copious artesian water beneath Christchurch. In 1868 he was appointed director of the Canterbury Museum, which was opened in 1870 and was one of the finest in the southern hemisphere. To this object he gave ungrudging care and thought and by the time of his death there were in the Museum 150,000 labelled specimens (many of great rarity) and exhibits representative of ethnology, technology and art. The Museum, of which he was director until his death, was his masterpiece. He was also deeply interested in another of his foundations, the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, which dated from 1862. Many of his papers were read before this body and afterwards printed in the transactions of the New Zealand Institute. He took also a keen interest in higher education. Following a course of lectures in geology which he gave in 1867, he and Bishop Harper in 1872 founded the Canterbury Collegiate association, out of which evolved Canterbury University College. He was the first professor of geology and paleontology, and was a member of the senate of the University of New Zealand (1880-87). Haast was a member of the general committee of the Art Exhibition in Christchurch in 1870, the year in which the first building was opened in the domain for museum purposes. In 1875 the Emperor of Austria conferred on him a patent of hereditary nobility, whereby he was created 'von Haast.' For the Paris Exhibition he collaborated with Edward Dobson in preparing a fine exhibit of rocks and minerals discovered in the boring of the tunnel. In 1881 he was appointed German consul for Canterbury and Westland. In 1883 he was created C.M.G. He went to London in 1886 to represent New Zealand at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition and there received the K.C.M.G.

The Imperial Institute, of which he was mentioned as the first head, came into existence as the outcome of a memorandum written by him on the suggestion of the Prince of Wales (1886). Von Haast was the first person in New Zealand to receive the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, which was awarded in 1884 'for encouraging scientific activity in a colony that had distinguished itself by its enlightened policy towards education and science.' He was regarded as an authority on glaciation. In 1886 the University of Cambridge conferred upon him the honorary degree of doctor of science, and shortly afterwards he was appointed an Officer de l'Institut Publique des Beaux Arts et des Cultes, Professor Quatrefages handing him the diploma. He returned to New Zealand early in 1887, and died on 16 Aug 1887. Von Haast was a lover of music and a cultivated singer and violinist. In a performance of 'St Paul' by a Christchurch musical society he sang the part of the Apostle at one stage and in another led the orchestra as first violin.

H. F. von Haast (information); Nelson and Canterbury P.C. Proc.; Canterbury Gaz, vols ix, x; Hochstetter; Cox; Mennell; Tr. N.Z. Inst. and other societies cited; Andersen; Elder, Gold Seekers, Pioneer Explorers; Wigram; von Haast, op. cit; N.Z. Jour. of Science, vol. ii (p); Lyttelton Times, 7 Sep 1887.

Reference: Volume 2, page 217

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