Bringing biodynamic agriculture to New Zealand in the 1920s and 1930s

Figures & data

Table 1. Australian members of the Agricultural Experimental Circle Dornach.

No	Name	Date	Address	Experimental location
165	Ernesto Genoni	1928	Gippsland	–
E14	Crawford McDowell	1929	Sydney	Sydney
E17	Emilio Genoni	1930	Broome hill WA	Broome hill
E24	Charles Burford	1931	Sydney	Near Sydney
E32	Kenneth Milroy Temple	1931	Sydney	Sydney
E50	Ruby MacPherson	1935	Gulargambone NSW	Mt Tenandra Gulargambone
E55	Ruth Beale	1936	Sydney	Mt Colah NSW
E52	Ileen MacPherson	1936	Dandenong Vic	Dandenong
E66	Robert Williams	1937	Sydney	Willoughby Sydney
E3	Lucy Badham	1938	Sydney	–
E4	Eric Nicholls	1939	Sydney	Castlecrag Sydney
E25	Frank Kelly	1939	Sydney	–

Source: Simplified from Paull (2013).

Table 2. New Zealand members of the Agricultural Experimental Circle Dornach.

No	Name	Date	Address	Notes
12E	Bernard Crompton-Smith	1930	Havelock North	# Anthroposophist
15E	George Winkfield	1930	Remuera, Auckland	# Anthroposophist
16E	James Coe	1930 dup. 1931	Remuera, Auckland	# Anthroposophist
10E	Clarence H Jones	1930	St Martins, Christchurch
31E	Henry Golden	1931	Lower Hutt
29E	Ivon Fry^a	1931	Henderson
34E	Ada Williamson	1932	Remuera, Auckland	Same street as Coe
35E	Thomas Cecil Rhodes Jackson	1932	Woodville
9E	Alice Wilson	1932	Havelock North
33E	Mary Jean Bauchop	1932	Havelock North
562	George Bacchus	1933	Woodville c/o Jackson	# Anthroposophist
12E	S. Crompton-Smith	1935	Havelock North	# Anthroposophist
14E	D.W.S. MacKenzie	1937	Papatoetoe
30E	Esther Avery	1938	Havelock North	same address as N.A Avery
30E	N.A. Avery	1938	Havelock North

^aIvon Fry (1894–1942) merits further attention as a former clerk who served in WWI as a flight Sub Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and farmed as a fruit grower at Henderson in West Auckland from the late 1920s to his death in 1942. Potentially he is one of Merrill’s (1983) ‘realists’ dependent on biodynamic produce for his livelihood.

Source: Simplified from Paull (2018) and Turbott (2019).

Table 3. James Coe’s Auckland Theosophical Society Lectures 1916–1921.

Date	Title
15 January 1916	The human machine
26 February 1916	Modern religion
13 May 1916	The spirit of the hive
19 Aug 1916	The subliminal self
27 January 1917	What is Theosophy?
9 June 1917	War and the Periodic law
8 May 1920	Religion
22 May 1920	The Realm of doubt
26 June 1920	Our daily life and occultism
14 August 1920	The meaning of suffering
23 August 1920	Suffering and its benefits
11 September 1920	At the gate of theosophy
20 November 1920	The Rosicrucian Philosophy
11 December 1920	A logical view of Reincarnation
27 January 1921	What is Theosophy?
19 February 1921	The Gate of Wisdom

Source: Compiled from public notices in the Auckland Star.

Paull J. 2013. A history of the organic agriculture movement in Australia. In: Mascitelli B, Lobo A, editors. Organics in the global food chain. Ballarat: Connor Court Publishing; p. 37–61, 241–244.

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Merrill M. 1983. Eco-agriculture; a review of its history and philosophy. Biological Agriculture and Horticulture. 1:181–210. doi: 10.1080/01448765.1983.9754395

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Paull J. 2018. The pioneers of biodynamics in New Zealand. Harvests. 70:38–40.

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Turbott J. 2019. The emergence of the biodynamic movement in New Zealand: 1930–1960s. Journal of Organics. 6:23–30.

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