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equalled by his popularity as a merchant and a gentleman”. 17 He was, for example, chosen as
director and later chairman of the Board of Directors of the Wellington Gas Company, became a
City Councillor and a founding member of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, was elected to
the Wellington Harbour Board, and served as a Justice of the Peace. He eventually sold his
Wellington business in 1884 after losing a total of £70,000 with the failure of the City of Glasgow
Bank in 1878 and moved to Wanganui, where he took up a partnership with the stock and station
firm Freeman R. Jackson in 1886. As a consequence of the move, Krull resigned from his posts,
but “in consideration of his long service and great popularity in the office, the authorities declined
to accept his resignation and persuaded him to continue in office, even though it would be
necessary to appoint a successor for Wellington”. 18 Three months after the outbreak of the First
World War, and three and a half months after being informed that it was treasonous to further
communicate with Germany, 19 Krull died of a stroke on 28 November 1914. 20
What are less well-known, however, and have only recently been rediscovered, are the
selected written accounts of Friedrich Krull’s early impressions of New Zealand, in particular
three excursions with Hartmann into the Maori populated regions of Wellington province
immediately following their arrival in 1859, the first on 4 February through the Hutt Valley,
Rimutakas and Wairarapa, the second on 14 February, five days after returning from the first trip,
to visit the Maori ‘pa’ in Kaiwharawhara, and the third on 4 April through Porirua, Horokiwi
Valley, Paekakariki Hill, Waikanae and Otaki, in addition to a later visit to Ranzau in the Waimea
Valley on 26 January 1862. Upon hearing the news of his fellow countryman’s immigration to
New Zealand, Ernst Boll, the prominent historian, natural scientist and secretary of the Friends of
Mecklenburg Natural History, as well as the brother of Krull’s brother-in-law, requested that he
17 “Mr. Fr. Aug. Krull”, in: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand: industrial, descriptive, historical, biographical facts,
figures, illustrations [=CNZ]. Vol. 1: Wellington. Wellington: Cyclopedia Co., 1897, 1367. See, for example, the
collection of correspondence to Sir Julius von Haast between 1869 and 1881 (MS-Papers-0037-197, ATL) mostly
regarding consular matters, in which he even offers the latter advice on the proper etiquette for addressing nobility
and dignitaries. Haast was later German Consul in Christchurch.
18 “Mr. Fr. Aug. Krull”, 1367.
19 Val Burr, German-ating the Seeds of Anger: The Great War’s Impact on Germans in Manawatu and Rangitikei,
New Zealand. BA Hons Research Paper, Massey University, 1996 (revised 1999 and adapted to internet in 2003), ch.
2 .
20 The stretch of road from Krull’s house in Wanganui to the Great North Road became known as “Krull’s Lane”.
However, in a misguided show of patriotism during the First World War it was changed to Oakland Avenue in 1915,
ironically after the very same oak trees that Krull himself had planted. (See Ernst Boll, “Briefe aus Neuseeland von
F.A. Krull. (Im Auszuge mitgetheilt von Ernst Boll)”, in: Von Mecklenburg nach Neuseeland, 102; Peter Maubach,
“Friedrich August Krull und Familie”, in: ibid., 98-100; Kirk, “Frederick Augustus Krull”, in: ibid., 177-89; Gavin
Doyle, “Frederick Augustus Krull”, in: ibid., 191-205; “Friedrich August Krull. Dokumente”, in: ibid., 160-74; “Mr.
Fr. Aug. Krull”, 1367.)
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