Francis Dart Fenton
b. 1820–5? d. 1898
English-born New Zealand public administrator and musician. Solicitor in Huddersfield; emigrated to New Zealand for reasons of health, 1850. Taught music at a mission school in Auckland; became clerk in the Registry of Deeds in 1851. Held a succession of judicial and administrative positions in the public service; chief judge of the Native Land Court, 1865–82. Published Observations on the state of the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand (1859), the result of the first census of the Maori people.
Source
DNZB.
Bibliography
DNZB: A dictionary of New Zealand biography. Edited by G. H. Scholefield. 2 vols. Wellington, New Zealand: Department of Internal Affairs. 1940. The dictionary of New Zealand biography. Edited by W. H. Oliver et al. 5 vols. Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand: Department of Internal Affairs [and others]. 1990–2000.
