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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

The Rev. John Kinder

The Rev. John Kinder, M.A., and D.D., was born in London in 1819, and educated at Cheam in Surrey and at Trinity College, Cambridge. There he gained a scholarship (besides other prizes) and graduated as wrangler in 1842. After taking his degree of page 219 B.A., he continued to reside in the College, taking private pupils till his M.A. in 1845. While at Cambridge, as he took much interest in ecclesiastical architecture, he joined the
Rev. J. Kinder.

Rev. J. Kinder.

Camden Society, which was at that time set on foot for the restoration of churches and for the improvement of church architecture—one of the first steps taken in that revival, which has made such progress during the last half-century, and he was not only one of its earliest members but also an active member of the committee. In 1847 he was ordained by Bishop Blomfield of London to a curacy in the East End of London. He held this curacy for only six months, being appointed the same year by the master and fellows of his college head-master of Alleyne's grammar school, Uttoxetor, Staffordshire, where he remained nearly eight years, and was ordained priest in 1849 by the Bishop of Lichfield. In 1855 Bishop Selwyn was in England, and had been commissioned by a number of gentlemen in Auckland, members of the Church of England, to find a clergyman willing to undertake the mastership of a school which it was intended to establish in or near the city for giving a classical and English education on the model of an English grammar school, and in accordance with the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England. Dr. Kinder received the appointment and came to the Colony towards the close of 1855. The school was eventually erected in Parnell on land given by Bishop Selwyn. The site was inconveniently far from town in those days when there were no omnibuses, but it was largely attended by boys from the eastern and southern suburbs, and during the seventeen years that Dr. Kinder held the mastership a large number of pupils passed under his hands who are now scattered all over New Zealand as clergymen, lawyers, doctors, bankers, Government officials, clerks, farmers, etc., besides some who entered with success military and political life in the Colony. While master of the school Dr. Kinder was appointed acting chaplain to the troops in garrison in Auckland, and held the office throughout the war until the removal of the troops. He was also successively assistant minister of St. Barnabas, Parnell, under Archdeacon Kissling, for five years; minister of St. Mark's, Remuera, three years, and at St. Andrew's, Epsom, seven years. While in charge of the last-named district, Dr. Kinder raised the necessary funds for erecting from designs of his own a pretty little church, the first in the place, and further beautified it at his own expense with a fine Gothic chancel screen and by presents (a stone font and oak lectern) received from friends in England. On Bishop Cowie's arrival in New Zealand it was felt that the diocese needed an institution for the preparation of candidates for holy orders. St. John's College at the Tamaki had been founded by Bishop Selwyn expressly for this purpose, but had been closed for three years. It was re-opened in 1871, when Dr. Kinder was appointed master, and in 1873 the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Kinder retained the mastership of the College until 1880, when he resigned and was appointed examining chaplain by the Bishop. This office he held for a few years and then retired from active duty, retaining only the post of Assessor of the Bishop's Court. Many of the clergy now officiating in the diocese of Auckland and elsewhere were his pupils. While master of the college he did much to redeem the site from the neglect and squalor into which it had fallen for many years, by planting, draining and laying out the ground at his own expense, and he further beautified the College Chapel by the addition of a little spire with gilt cross, and by getting inserted windows in memory of Bishop Patteson and those killed along with him, and of Bishop Selwyn and Sir William Martin, the two latter being contributed by his old pupils. In this way he filled the whole of the vacant windows with stained glass, and completed the decoration of Bishop Selwyn's beautiful little chapel, one of the most interesting memorials in the Colony. Dr. Kinder married in 1859 the daughter of Archdeacon Brown, of Tauranga.