published a little book entitled ‘Residence in Various Parts of New Zealand,’ London, 1842, 12mo. Returning to the colony he was employed for some years in exploring and road-making in the mountain ranges, services described by Sir William Fox, at one time premier of New Zealand, as works of great labour, exposure, and hardship, involving risk of life, and performed in a spirit of enterprise and self-denial. In 1847 Heaphy was employed in watching the New Zealand Company's interests in the marking out of native reserves at Massacre Bay (now Golden Bay), and in August 1848 was appointed draughtsman to the general government. In November 1852 he was appointed commissioner of the Coromandel gold-field, with instructions to secure from the natives the right of extending the gold-field. In 1854 he became a surveyor in the service of the New Zealand government, and in 1858 provincial land surveyor for the province of Auckland. In January 1864 he was appointed chief surveyor to the New Zealand government. Heaphy was appointed lieutenant in the Auckland rifle volunteers on 29 June 1863, and became captain on 18 Aug. the same year. He acted as guide to the imperial troops in the Waikato during the third Maori war, and much distinguished himself on the occasion of an attack made by the natives on a bathing party of troops at the Mangapiko River on 11 Feb. 1864. Although severely wounded, he continued on active service throughout the day. Lieutenant-colonel Sir Henry Havelock (now Lieutenant-general Sir H. Havelock-Allan, V.C.), who was in command, highly commended him in a despatch (London Gazette, Suppl. 14 May 1864). For this service Heaphy was promoted to major in the New Zealand militia (11 Feb. 1864), and was recommended by Lieutenant-general Sir D. A. Cameron, commanding the troops, for the Victoria Cross, an honour conferred upon him in 1867 (ib. 8 Feb. 1867). In 1866 Heaphy was appointed provincial surveyor and deputy waste-lands commissioner. In June 1867 he was elected a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives, and retained his seat until May 1870. In 1869 he was appointed commissioner of native reserves, and in 1878 commissioner of government insurance, judge of the native land court, and commissioner of land claims. Failing health, caused by early hardships and privations and wounds received in the native war, led to his retirement on a pension in June 1881, but he died at Brisbane, before drawing any part of the pension, on 3 Aug. 1881. His wife survived him.
[For particulars of the New Zealand Company and the settlement of New Zealand see Heaton's Handbook of Australian Biog. and Heaphy's Residence … in New Zealand (London, 1842). There is a brief obituary notice in Ann. Reg. 1881, p. 139. The other details have been supplied by the courtesy of the Agent-General for New Zealand, after revision by Major Heaphy's relatives.]
HEAPHY, THOMAS, the elder (1775–1835), water-colour painter, was born in London on 29 Dec. 1775. His father, John Gerrard Heaphy, had a somewhat romantic history, having been born on a battle-field where his father was killed; the latter was the eldest son of a nobleman, and had contracted a runaway match with a daughter of an Irish clergyman named Heaphy, but the legality of the marriage being subsequently contested, the matter was compromised by a provision being made for the widow and for the education of the child, who was required to take his mother's name. John Gerrard Heaphy married a French lady, and engaged in mercantile pursuits. His son Thomas, evincing a great love for drawing, was articled at an early age to R. M. Meadows, the engraver, but his inclination was rather to painting than engraving; to this he devoted all his spare time, and attended a drawing-school conducted by John Boyne near Queen Square, Bloomsbury. He exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1797, and until 1804 his contributions were exclusively portraits, but in that year he sent a subject picture, ‘The Portland Fish Girl.’ Subsequently he turned his attention to water-colour painting, to which he from that time confined himself, and became a large contributor to the exhibitions of the newly formed Water-colour Society, then held in Spring Gardens, where his representations of fish markets and other scenes of working-class life were extremely popular. In 1807 he became an associate of the society, and in the same year a full member; his ‘Hastings Fish Market,’ exhibited in 1809, sold for five hundred guineas. He now returned to portraiture, which he practised with great success, and was for some years more largely employed than perhaps any other artist except Sir Thomas Lawrence; he was appointed portrait-painter to the Princess of Wales; Princess Charlotte, Prince Leopold, and other distinguished persons sat to him. In 1812, giving up his membership of the Water-colour Society, he betook himself, at the invitation of the Duke of Wellington, to the British camp in the Peninsula, where he remained until the end of the war, painting the portraits of the English officers,
