Distinguished N.Z. historian dies

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32734, 11 October 1971, Page 14

Distinguished N.Z. historian dies

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 10. Professor John Cawte Beaglehole, the authority on the voyages of James Cook, died suddenly at his home in Wellington today. He was aged 70.

The noted historian, last year was honoured by the Queen as New Zealand’s second holder of the Order of Merit. He retired in 1969 as professor of British Commonwealth history at Victoria University of Wellington. His oldest academic colleague, Professor F. L. W. Wood, said in Wellington tonight that Professor Beaglehole was a “most remarkably eminent scholar, in every sense of the term.” “His research was of the most meticulous and intimate kind, infinitely scrupulous, and his attention to detail was without parallel. It is remarkable that he combined this search for detail, which he pursued relentlessly throughout the world, with the ability to see man and issues and to express his thoughts with remarkable style.”

The Chancellor of Victoria University (Mr R. S. V. Simpson) said tonight the university community would be saddened by Professor Beaglehole’s death: “He was one of Victoria University’s most distinguished students, teachers and scholars.

“His service to the university has been recognised by the conferring of an honorary doctorate of literature in 1968, by appointing him emeritus professor of the university, and only last year by the decision to establish within the university library a New Zealand and Pacific section, to be known as the J. C. Beaglehole Room. “He was a warm-hearted man who had great respect for the truth and who would not tolerate humbug.”

A poet in his younger years, Professor Beaglehole had broad cultural interests and encouraged the development of music and the arts within the university. He was bom in Wellington, and educated at Wellington College, Victoria University, and the University of London. He took his M.A. in 1924 and a Doctorate in Philosophy in 1929. Before he was thrown out of work by the depression, he was a W.E.A. tutor-organiser in

Otago and Waikato, and he lectured at Auckland University in 1932. In 1936 he began a staff association with Victoria University which was to last for the remainder of his teaching career. His publications began in 1928 with "Captain Hobson and the N.Z. Company,” followed in 1934 by “Exploration of the Pacific.”

The first volume of the “Journals of James Cook” was published in 1955, the second in 1961 and the third in 1967. He was working on two more Cook volumes, one a single-book biography, at the time of his death. Professor Beaglehole was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1953. He was historical advisei to the Department of Internal Affairs from 1938 to 1952, chairman of the N.Z. University Press from 1947 to 1961, and president of the N.Z. Council for Civil Liberties from 1952. His academic honours included an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Oxford University in 1966. He took the Hubert Church Award in 1949, the University of Canterbury Condliffe Memorial Award in 1952, the R.G.S. Gill Memorial Award in 1957 and the University of Melbourne’s Ernest Scott Memorial Prize in 1963. He is survived by his wile and three sons.