For men and mice

John Rodulphus Kent was first in quite a few things, including sailing the first European ship through the Rangitoto channel and entering Waitemata Harbour.
His was the first survey plan made, allowing other ships to brave the harbour.
But he’s also considered the man who brought mice to New Zealand, even if it was by accident.
Mice were, of course, all over the world - but for isolated countries that had never encountered Europeans.
New Zealand had a strange assortment of animals, but only a couple of mammals before human settlement, a bat and marine mammals like Hector's dolphin.
Kent was born about 1790 in England, although there don’t appear to be any records confirming that.
The first real mention of him is as an officer in the Royal Navy serving the government of New South Wales as captain of the schooner Prince Regent.
They surveyed timber resources in New Zealand and Kent was able to explore the Hokianga and Northland harbours.
A year later, as captain of the cutter Mermaid he sailed to Hawaii before returning to Port Jackson in 1823.
In May of that year he took the Mermaid to Foveaux Strait to look at whether a flax trade was viable. He went on to visit many South Island harbours, sketching coastal profiles to aid navigation.
It was in 1823 that Kent took the Elizabeth Henrietta, a brig, back to Foveaux Strait for another load of flax.
But this time the brig broke her mooring and drifted ashore on Ruapuke Island, one of New Zealand’s southernmost islands. It would later become known for a particular species of spider that was everywhere on the island.
But the Elizabeth Henrietta was carrying something else - mice that escaped on to the island, and over time came to New Zealand.
The Elizabeth Henrietta was refloated and went on its way, but by then the damage was done.
Kent went on to captain sealing ships before setting up a trading post in Hokianga in 1826 under the patronage and protection of the Ngāti Korokoro tribal leader Moetara, and formed a liaison with his daughter Wharo.
In 1828 he moved to Kawhia to trade with the Waikato Maori. There he met Te Wherowhero, paramount chief of the Waikato tribes and later the first Maori King, and married Tiria, his daughter.
His trading went well for years and Kent often crossed the ocean in various ships.
He retired to Kaitotehe, near Taupiri, his flax trading activity became based at Ngaruawahia, centre of the trade routes for the Waikato River and the Manukau Harbour.
He became ill and died at Kahawai on the Manukau Harbour on 1 January 1837 and on 3 January he was buried by his Maori friends in a cemetery on the Te Toro promontory. A collection of Kent's northern profiles is preserved in the Hydrographic Department at Taunton, Somerset, England.​