Tribulations of forgotten hero Henry Suter

Wellington writer Pamela Hyde has spent years ransacking libraries, backrooms and basements of German, Swiss, American, Australian and New Zealand museums to tell her great grandfather, Henry Suter’s story.

In 1860, Suter inherited his businessman father’s big house in Zurich, Switzerland. The house had 40 rooms, several servants and a governess who attended to Henry’s children. Parties and balls were held.

But Suter was no businessman and, at age 45, was bankrupted. Bankruptcy was so shameful that Suter closed the door on his life in Switzerland and sailed for New Zealand with his seven children.

He brought seeds with him, intending to lease land and grow vegetables. In 1887, he leased five acres carved from the Forty Mile Bush in Wairarapa, but his farm was a distressing failure.

The following year, Suter was appointed temporary assistant manager at the Mount Cook Hermitage, then a small establishment catering to 11 guests. The Hermitage manager wanted the Suter boys to wear lederhosen to create a Swiss ambience but the boys refused.

Suter’s daughters and wife worked in the Hermitage laundry and kitchen, in stark contrast to their pampered lives in Zurich.

Unfortunately Suter’s 15-yearold unmarried daughter became pregnant to a local rabbiter. Perhaps as a result of the illegitimate child, the family moved to a house in Christchurch where they could barely afford to feed another mouth or keep the freezing house warm.

Suter tried to eke out a living by selling specimens of New Zealand plants, animals and Maori skeletal remains to overseas museums. He worked very briefly for museums in Auckland and Christchurch but continued in hardship and poverty until his death at age 77 in 1918.

Suter had another passion – collecting and studying shells. As an amateur conchologist Suter amassed a large collection of shells from all over Europe, wrote about them in scientific journals, and gave erudite lectures to scientists for 20 years.

In his new country, Suter was determined to make a life and a living from science and spent any spare time or money collecting and writing about New Zealand molluscs. He gave Latin names to more than 400 native species in 100 scientific publications.

Countless hours of his exacting work culminated in his 1916 masterpiece – the 1120-page Manual of the New Zealand Mollusca.

This wonderfully illustrated magnum opus remained unsurpassed for 40 years, and served as a model and inspiration for all New Zealand’s 20th century conchologists.

Suter’s work was an extraordinary achievement in the face of poverty, hardship, despair, and uncertainty. He prevailed when others would have abandoned their passion.

❚ A Colonial Naturalist: Henry Suter’s Life of Discovery and Hardship in New Zealand, by Pamela Hyde (Sphenodon Publishing, $35) was launched last week in Wellington.