Kingscliff

Kingscliff house and gardens are a standing monument to medical pioneer Sir Frederic Truby King. Kingscliff is the large seaside home he built for his family in 1901, and is synonymous with the area of Karitane, the nationwide Karitane movement and the nearby Seacliff Lunatic Asylum.

Kingscliff has remained the property of the Lawson family since Sir Truby King sold it to them in 1925, and is still in demand as garden to visit and a venue for weddings. The gardens here hold special meaning as King himself was an avid gardener and believer in the therapeutic effects of fresh air, sun, and vegetables. He also loved roses and rhododendrons.

Like many of New Zealand's pioneering heroes, Truby King was reported to have been a single minded and difficult in person, just the qualities for forging ahead in a settler's world. As a paediatric doctor in Dunedin, Truby King is reported to have been so concerned about infant mortality that on the way home one night in 1907, he picked up a sickly Maori boy from his family and took him to Kingscliff. Not long after that the Karitane movement came alive, with hospitals staffed with specially trained nurses springing up all over New Zealand, with the express purpose of improving infant health. He published several books on baby care and also worked in mental health, at Seacliff Lunatic Asylym.

The Karitane movement morphed into the present day Plunket Service which oversees the health and development of every baby born in New Zealand until they are four years old. Truby Kings works were so valued that he became the first civilian to receive a state funeral, and also to grace a postage stamp.

Not only did Truby King leave New Zealand a better place, he also left behind a massive library on all of his areas of interest, the Melrose Library, now housed in Dunedin.

‘Truby King was the greatest man in New Zealand, and should have the most imposing monument New Zealand can build to commemorate him.’ George Bernard Shaw, April 1934. A grand mausoleum was built, in Melrose, Wellington, where Truby King had his other home, a hospital, gardens, and milk powder factory.

NZONSCREEN hosts this 1958 documentary made for the golden jubilee of the Plunket Society, about Dr Truby King 'The man who saved the babies'