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appointed Provincial Geologist in February 1861 by the Canterbury Provincial Government in
order to explore and survey the Canterbury and Westland districts. 12 He then founded the
Philosophical Institute of Canterbury in Christchurch in 1862, followed by his greatest
achievement in 1868, namely the founding of the Canterbury Museum. Through his tireless
efforts as the first director it became one of the leading museums in the Southern Hemisphere, in
which he grew his collections through a system of exchange with other European institutions,
including Hochstetter’s Natural History Museum. 13 He received an honorary doctorate from
Württemburg, and became an honorary member of the New Zealand Society in 1862, as well as a
fellow of the Royal Society in 1867. He also became one of the first professors at the Canterbury
University College, which he helped found in 1873. Notably, he was knighted by the Austrian
Emperor in 1875, received a K. C. M. G. (Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St.
George) in June 1886 and an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Cambridge University
the following month, whilst he visited Europe as New Zealand commissioner for the Colonial and
Indian Exhibition in London. He died, however, the following year on 16 August 1887 in
Christchurch. 14
The strength of their long-distance friendship is clear when one reads the heart-warming
dedications from one friend to the other. Hochstetter, for instance, was always quick to pay
tribute to others, such as the companionship of Haast:
Ein besonders glücklicher Zufall […] war es, daß ich auch einen wackeren Deutschen hier finden
sollte, der mein unzertrennlicher Reisebegleiter wurde, alle Mühen meiner Streifzüge auf Neu-
Seeland und ebenso alle Freuden mit mir theilte; ich meine meinen Freund Julius Haast. […] Wir
hatten uns bald gefunden und eng einander angeschlossen. Mit jugendlicher Begeisterung erfaßte
er meine Pläne und meine Aufgabe, mit treuer Anhänglichkeit und allzeit heiterer Laune stand er
12
Another German surveyor worth noting is Gerhard Mueller (c.1835-1918), who became chief surveyor of
Westland in 1871 (Rona Adshead, “Mueller, Gerhard 1834/1835? – 1918: Surveyor, engineer, land commissioner”,
in: DNZB 1, 302). His West Coast letters to his wife between September 1865 and August 1866 were eventually
published in English (Gerhard Mueller, My Dear Bannie: Gerhard Mueller’s Letters from the West Coast, 1865-6.
Ed. M.V. Mueller; with a foreword by John Pascoe. Christchurch: Pegasus Press, 1958). The original letters are held
in MS-Papers-0448, ATL.
13
See Ruth Barton, “Haast and the Moa: Reversing the Tyranny of Distance”, in: Pacific Science 54:3 July (2000):
251-63.
14
See, for example, H. von Haast, Life and Times; Wolfhart Langer, “Der Bonner Neuseelandforscher Sir Johann
Franz Julius von Haast (1822-1887)”, in: Bonner Geschichtsblätter 39 (1992): 273-93; R. M. Burdon, “Sir Julius von
Haast”, in: New Zealand Notables: Series Three. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1950, 133-204; Nolden, German and
Austrian Naturalists, 31-44; Bickerton, “Biographical Notices”; H. Lange, “Berühmte Geographen, Naturforscher
und Reisende: Dr Julius v. Haast”, in: Deutsche Rundschau für Geographie und Statistik [=DRfGS] 3:6 (1880-81):
300-2; Peter B. Maling, “Haast, Johann Franz Julius von 1822 – 1887: Explorer, geologist, writer, museum founder”,
in: DNZB 1, 167-69; Rodney Fisher, “Sir Julius von Haast”, in: Welt für sich, 195-202; Dietmar Henze, “Haast,
Julius von”, in: EEEE 2, 421-27.
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