|
Richard Davis (missionary)
Reverend Richard Davis (1790–1863) was a New Zealand meteorologist, missionary and farmer. He made weather recordings in the northern North Island from 1839 to 1844, and 1849 to 1851, making them the oldest continuous land-based recordings in New Zealand. In 2019 they were inscribed into UNESCO's Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao documentary heritage register. Davis was born in Dorset, England. CareerDavis was a missionary. The Church Mission Society sent Davis and his wife and six children to Northland in 1824, from Dorset. He then started a farm at Waimate North[1] in 1830[2][3] and grew seeds from England, including both fruits and vegetables. Understanding the climate was required to grow these plants.[1] He was ordained on Trinity Sunday 1843.[3][4][5] He was appointed to Kaikohe from 1845 to 1854, then he returned to Te Waimate Mission from 1854 to 1863.[6] Davis made weather records in two journals, one from 1839 to 1844 at Te Waimate Mission and Kaikohe, and the other from 1849 to 1851.[7][8] The gap occurred when Davis was ordained a deacon and established Kaikohe Mission Station.[1] The recordings were of temperature and barometric pressure, with qualitative comments on wind speed and direction, extreme weather and cloud cover.[8][9] The temperature was recorded twice a day, at 9 am and noon, and the air pressure was also measured at noon.[1] There are two records of snowfall which is a rare event in Auckland and Northland, having only occurred since European settlement six times as of 2016. An entry from 30 July 1849 reads: "Hail storms. This morning the southern hills and Poutahi covered with snow".[1] The recordings are believed to be the oldest continuous land-based recordings in New Zealand,[7] possibly making Davis the country's first meteorologist. The Royal Engineers had begun making regular land-based observations in Auckland in the 1850s.[1] The observations have been used by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) to study the weather in that region of the country as well as climate change.[7] In 2019 Davis's weather records were inscribed into UNESCO's Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao documentary heritage register.[7][8] They are kept at the Auckland Council Libraries.[7] Davis had also sent several hundred letters to England, which included observations of geography, social interactions between European settlers and Māori, and astronomy, including comets and the southern lights.[10] Personal lifeDavis was born on 18 January 1790 in Dorset, England. He died on 28 May 1863. His friend Reverend John Coleman wrote a memoir about him.[10] Notes
References
Further reading
External links
|
||||||||||
