Harry Borrer Kirk

Harry Borrer Kirk (9 March 1859 – 1948) was a New Zealand school inspector, biologist and university professor.

He was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England on 9 March 1859 to Thomas Kirk and Sarah Jane Mattocks, the family emigrated to New Zealand arriving in Auckland on 9 February 1863 and Wellington in 1874 when Thomas Kirk was appointed to Wellington College. Harry studied for University of New Zealand exams at home, gaining a BA in 1882 and a MA 1883, after which he joined the Department of Education first as a clerk and then as an inspector of native schools. As an inspector, he spend almost two decades travelling the country, collecting botanical specimens as he went.

As was typical at the time, Kirk saw Pākehā education as a force for 'elevating' Māori. The 1880 Native Schools Code held that te reo Māori was only to be used to 'learn English more effectively' and Kirk stated in a report:

I think the teacher should cease to use Maori in school when the necessary explanation can be made in English. It is quite likely that the children will readily understand instruction given in Maori and that they will make the greater progress in certain subjects, such as Writing and Arithmetic, but they will not trouble themselves to understand English if the teacher will speak Maori. It is to be borne in mind that English is not only an important subject in itself but that it is a 'key' subject to others.

In 1903 Kirk was appointed inaugural chair of biology to Victoria College (now Victoria University of Wellington) and he largely devoted the rest of his life to building up the biology capabilities of the university.

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