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for the voyage, where he met such distinguished scholars and researchers as Justus von Liebig,
August Petermann, Wilhelm von Gümbel, Karl Ritter, Alexander von Humboldt, Sir Roderick
Murchison, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Richard Owen and David Livingstone. He then left Trieste on
the Novara on 30 April 1857. On reaching Cape Town, Sir George Grey, the Governor of Cape
Colony and former Governor of New Zealand (1847–53), 2 persuaded the Commodore to stop at
Auckland and examine the North Island volcanic area. After a stay of four weeks in Sydney, the
Novara arrived in Auckland on 22 December 1858.
The previous day Haast arrived in Auckland on the Evening Star. Born in Bonn on 1 May
1822, Johann Franz Julius Haast is said to have developed a keen interest in geology and
mineralogy while studying at the University of Bonn, although he did not graduate. After
presumably travelling throughout Europe in the 1840s and collecting mineralogical samples, he
moved to Frankfurt and became involved in the book trade. 3 On 12 September 1858 4 under the
employ of the London-based shipping company Willis, Gann & Co, Haast was sent to New
Zealand in order to report on the prospects of German immigration to the colony. 5 Haast met
Hochstetter at the home of Dr Carl Fischer, 6 a homeopathic doctor from Berlin who had invited
all the members of the Novara, and soon became Hochstetter’s assistant throughout his stay in
New Zealand. As it happened, the Governor General of Australia, Sir William Denison, had
recently received a request from New Zealand for a geologist to examine the newly discovered
coal mines when the Novara had arrived in the Australian port. This resulted in Hochstetter and
Haast examining the Drury and Hunua Coalfields on behalf of the Auckland Provincial
Government. Due to the excellence of his report, 7 it was requested that Hochstetter remain in
New Zealand after the Novara’s departure on 8 February in order to undertake a five-month
2 See Edmund Bohan, To Be A Hero: Sir George Grey: 1812-1898. Auckland: HarperCollins, 1998; Keith Sinclair,
“Grey, George 1812 – 1898: Soldier, explorer, colonial governor, premier, scholar”, in: DNZB 1, 160-64.
3 According to one source, Haast also reportedly made extensive explorations, mostly mountain expeditions, in the
eight years prior to his departure for New Zealand in Russia, Austria and Italy, and even ascended Mt Etna during the
1852 eruption purely for scientific reasons (A. W. Bickerton, “Biographical Notices: Julius von Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S.,
C.M.G. &c.”, in: The New Zealand Journal of Science [=NZJS] 2:2 May (1884): 112).
4 The Southern Cross 24 Dec (1858): 2f.
5 See “Treatise on the emigration from Germany and the best means to conduct it to New Zealand”, in: Haast Family
Papers, MS-Papers-0037-240, ATL. Haast later resigned his commission in early 1860 due to, among other things,
war breaking out in Taranaki, which, for the time being at least, made it impossible for him to recommend the
country as an ideal destination for German immigrants (H. F. von Haast, The Life and Times of Sir Julius von Haast:
Explorer, Geologist, Museum Builder. Wellington: Haast, 1948, 112).
6 See Michael Belgrave, “Fischer, Carl Frank ? – 1893: Doctor, homoeopath, viticulturalist”, in: DNZB 1, 125f.
7 Ferdinand von Hochstetter, “Report of a Geological Exploration of the Coalfield in the Drury and Hunua District, in
the Province of Auckland (N.Z.)”, in: The New Zealand Gazette 2 13 Jan (1859): 9-12; cf. Ferdinand von
Hochstetter, “Bericht über geologische Untersuchungen in der Provinz Auckland (Neu-Seeland)”, in:
Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 37:4 (1859): 123-27.
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