# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heaphy, Charles

​HEAPHY, CHARLES (1821?–1881), colonial official, was son of Thomas Heaphy, founder of the old Water-colour Society [see Heaphy, Thomas, 1775–1835, and Heaphy, Thomas, 1813–1873]. He appears to have exhibited a picture on an historical subject at the British Institution in 1835 (Graves, Dict. Brit. Artists). In May 1839 he was appointed draughtsman by the New Zealand Company in London, and sent to New Zealand in the ship Tory. He was employed on arrival in preliminary explorations for the company's settlements. In 1840–1 he assisted in the purchase of the Chatham Islands, where he was wounded with a spear by a native, and in 1842 explored the Nelson country for the company's settlement. The same year he was sent to England in a small schooner with despatches, and while at home ​published a little book entitled ‘Residence in Various Parts of New Zealand,’ London, 1842, 12mo. Returning to the colony he was employed for some years in exploring and road-making in the mountain ranges, services described by Sir William Fox, at one time premier of New Zealand, as works of great labour, exposure, and hardship, involving risk of life, and performed in a spirit of enterprise and self-denial. In 1847 Heaphy was employed in watching the New Zealand Company's interests in the marking out of native reserves at Massacre Bay (now Golden Bay), and in August 1848 was appointed draughtsman to the general government. In November 1852 he was appointed commissioner of the Coromandel gold-field, with instructions to secure from the natives the right of extending the gold-field. In 1854 he became a surveyor in the service of the New Zealand government, and in 1858 provincial land surveyor for the province of Auckland. In January 1864 he was appointed chief surveyor to the New Zealand government. Heaphy was appointed lieutenant in the Auckland rifle volunteers on 29 June 1863, and became captain on 18 Aug. the same year. He acted as guide to the imperial troops in the Waikato during the third Maori war, and much distinguished himself on the occasion of an attack made by the natives on a bathing party of troops at the Mangapiko River on 11 Feb. 1864. Although severely wounded, he continued on active service throughout the day. Lieutenant-colonel Sir Henry Havelock (now Lieutenant-general Sir H. Havelock-Allan, V.C.), who was in command, highly commended him in a despatch (London Gazette, Suppl. 14 May 1864). For this service Heaphy was promoted to major in the New Zealand militia (11 Feb. 1864), and was recommended by Lieutenant-general Sir D. A. Cameron, commanding the troops, for the Victoria Cross, an honour conferred upon him in 1867 (ib. 8 Feb. 1867). In 1866 Heaphy was appointed provincial surveyor and deputy waste-lands commissioner. In June 1867 he was elected a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives, and retained his seat until May 1870. In 1869 he was appointed commissioner of native reserves, and in 1878 commissioner of government insurance, judge of the native land court, and commissioner of land claims. Failing health, caused by early hardships and privations and wounds received in the native war, led to his retirement on a pension in June 1881, but he died at Brisbane, before drawing any part of the pension, on 3 Aug. 1881. His wife survived him.
[For particulars of the New Zealand Company and the settlement of New Zealand see Heaton's Handbook of Australian Biog. and Heaphy's Residence … in New Zealand (London, 1842). There is a brief obituary notice in Ann. Reg. 1881, p. 139. The other details have been supplied by the courtesy of the Agent-General for New Zealand, after revision by Major Heaphy's relatives.]
H. M. C.