John Holland Baker (4 December 1841 – 5 February 1930) was a New Zealand surveyor and public servant. He was born in

Chilcomb Chilcomb is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire east of Winchester and includes the South Downs Way long-distance footpath. History The nearby bowl barrow on Telegraph Hill along the South Downs Way just east o ...

, Hampshire, England on 4 December 1841. A son of the Rev. Thomas Feilding Baker, Rector of Cressingham Parish, Norfolk, and Catherine Mathias, he was educated at Yarmouth Grammar School, and in Germany, where he lived with his parents in

Königswinter Königswinter ( ksh, Köningkswinte; Low Franconian: ) is a town and summer resort in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Königswinter is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Bad Godesberg, at th ...

. He left school at 15 after he punched a master. He was sent to New Zealand when his uncle,

Octavius Mathias Octavius Mathias (27 February 1805 – 18 June 1864) was a pioneering Anglican priest in New Zealand in the mid-nineteenth century. Mathias was born at Mundham in 1805. Mathias was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and ordained in ...

, offered to take one of the Baker sons. He arrived in Lyttelton on the ''Maori'' during 1857. In the following year, he started an apprenticeship as a surveyor, with another uncle, John Baker, paying the £200 for the three-year education. He bought land in December 1858, and a house during 1860. On one of his trips to the back-country, he found of unclaimed land suitable for sheep farming. He was granted a lease in 1860, which he could sell for £300. He became a land speculator but, unlike others, he never got rich from it. Baker explored the

Southern Alps The Southern Alps (; officially Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana) is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the range's western side. The name "Southern ...

with Samuel Butler for further sheep country; they found what was later known as Whitcombe Pass but no suitable land. In 1861, Baker was the first European to cross the

Haast Pass Haast Pass / Tioripatea is a mountain pass in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand. Māori used the pass in pre-European times. The pass takes its name from Julius von Haast, a 19th-century explorer who also served as provincial ...

. He was one of the inaugural vice-chairmen of the

New Zealand Alpine Club The New Zealand Alpine Club (NZAC) was founded in 1891 and is one of the oldest alpine clubs in the world. The NZAC is the national climbing organisation in New Zealand and is a member of the Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme. It ...

, which was founded in July 1891 in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

. The

Otago Gold Rush The Otago Gold Rush (often called the Central Otago Gold Rush) was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. This was the country's biggest gold strike, and led to a rapid influx of foreign miners to the area – ...

attracted Baker south, and he spent six months prospecting at the

Tuapeka River The Tuapeka River is located in Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. It is a tributary of the Clutha River, which it joins at Tuapeka Mouth between Roxburgh and Balclutha. The Tuapeka's main claim to fame is as the centre of the Central Ot ...

. This was unsuccessful, and he went to

Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of t ...

in May 1862. There,

Theophilus Heale Theophilus Heale (1816–1885) was a 19th-century British Pākehā settler, later a Member of Parliament from Auckland, New Zealand. Biography Heale was the captain part-owner of one of the first British migrant ships to arrive in Wellington ...

engaged him as a sub-assistant surveyor. In 1863 he was appointed assistant surveyor to carry out the

Southland Southland may refer to: Places Canada * Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia New Zealand * Southland Region, a region of New Zealand * Southland County, a former New Zealand county * Southland District, part of the wider Southland Reg ...

triangulation. In 1864 he was promoted to the post of Deputy Chief Surveyor, and later on in the same year when Heale resigned he became Chief Surveyor, and a member of the Southland Waste Lands Board. Baker then became Inspector of Surveys for Southland, and in the following year he assisted

James McKerrow James McKerrow FRAS (7 July 1834 – 29 June 1919) was an astronomer, Surveyor-General of New Zealand, and Chief Commissioner of Railways in New Zealand. McKerrow was the son of Andrew McKerrow and Margaret (''née'' Steven) his wife, and was b ...

in connecting

Stewart Island Stewart Island ( mi, Rakiura, ' glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a total land ar ...

with the geodesical survey of Otago. While in Southland, Baker arranged the exhibits for the

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

and Melbourne exhibitions. On 10 December 1875, he married Isabel Strachey (20 February 1845 – 1920), a daughter of Richard Strachey of Ashwick Grove, Somerset, the third son of

Sir Henry Strachey, 1st Baronet Sir Henry Strachey, 1st Baronet (23 May 1736 – 3 January 1810) was a British civil servant and politician who sat in the House of Commons for 39 years from 1768 to 1807. Life Strachey was the eldest son of Henry Strachey, of Sutton Court, So ...

. Her mother, Anne Marie (or Anna Maria), was a daughter of

Alexander Powell Alexander Powell (9 June 1782 – 25 December 1847) was a British Tories (British political party), Tory politician, who sat as Member of Parliament for Downton (UK Parliament constituency), Downton from 1826 to 1830. Powell was the son of Franc ...

MP, a

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

member of parliament for Downton, Wiltshire. Baker's daughter was Noeline Baker, suffrage campaigner. After his death, his daughter edited his autobiography, ''A surveyor in New Zealand, 1857–1896'', which was published in 1932.

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: {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, John Holland 1841 births 1930 deaths New Zealand public servants New Zealand surveyors British emigrants to New Zealand Strachey family People from the City of Winchester 19th-century New Zealand public servants