In this episode Sue Berman talks with the Heritage Collections Principal Archives and Manuscripts Kirsty Webb about the Real Gold case for February 2020.
It features the amazing weather journals and story of early missionary the Rev. Richard Davis.
Richard Davis was a thirty-four year old Dorsetshire farmer, and in 1824 he arrived in New Zealand with his family and settled at the Church Missionary Society mission in Paihia. Nine years later, he was sent inland to Waimate North to establish a model farm for the CMS on land bought from Ngāpuhi, and to continue his work as a missionary and teacher.
Farming depends on understanding the climate, and this in turn relies on accurate weather observation over time. In these two diaries, Davis recorded rainfall, temperature and pressure, and noted wind and weather patterns.
In 2008, NIWA climate scientists Dr Drew Lorrey and Ms Petra Pearce identified these two volumes as the earliest continuous land-based records currently known in New Zealand. The precision, consistency and length of time over which these measurements were made by Davis gives them a baseline for contemporary climate research.
These journals have been successfully nominated for inclusion as a listing in the UNESCO Memory of World register.
Reference and Digital Resource available:
https://kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/manuscripts/id/13117/rec/1
https://kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/manuscripts/id/13413/rec/2
Here’s a link to the article about their discovery by NIWA https://niwa.co.nz/news/scientists-rediscover-new-zealand%E2%80%99s-first-weather-diaries
Image: Register of thermometer and barometric measurements 1839 [to 1849] Rev. Richard Davis, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections NZMS 378
