Robert Dickinson DUXFIELD 1862-1938

The following article about Robert was published in the NZ Truth on 23 June 1927.

THE "DUX" OF THE FIELDS.

WHEN the good ship "lonic" brushed against the Wellington wharf one day in the year 1885, she had aboard, a young Northumberlander, who hailed from that city of ship-docks and collieries - Newcastle-on-Tyne. But coal and seacraft had not occupied the boyhood of Robert Dickenson Duxfield, and when he landed in New Zealand his mental baggage was labelled M.A. Duxfield's erudite genius, while at Trinity College, Dublin, had won for him this dictinction.

The Tyne-side scholar was not sea-Sick on his trip to New Zealand, a lengthy cadetship on a Bombay sailing trader having established his sea-legs as a youngster.

For some years after his arrival in New Zealand, Duxfield brought his batteries of intelligence to bear with perspicuous aim upon the craniums of Wanganui and Christ Colleges and Whangarei High School students; he was headmaster of the latter for five years.

When his ancestral instincts made the call to the soil greater than the appeal of the birch and blackboard, Duxfield said "cows" - and wheresoever could one choose better country to spank the kine than Waikato; so at Horotiu with his Shorthorns he has been for 28 years.

As in his school days, he did things thoroughly and well, and there being no Order of the Shorthorn Academy for his own attainments, he sees to it that, his cattle get their share of whatever honors lay in the filling of the milk-bucket.

At the Royal Show at Palmerston North in 1925, the champion Shorthorn milch cow and champion Shorthorn bull belonged to the Duxfield meadows.

The honor of being a Justice of the Peace longer than anyone in his district is the one odd feather in the cap of this agriculturist. All the others are the prominent plumage of office plucked from the Auckland Provincial Farmers' Union; the Auckland Farmers' Trading Co.; the N.Z. Farmers' Fertiliser Co., Ltd.; and the N.Z. Farmers' Union, of which he is a life member.

As a little respite from milking cows, Duxfield launched out into politics at the last general election, when in the interests of the Country Party he contested the Raglan seat against R. F. Bollard, the present member and Minister of Internal Affairs
.
The following obituary was published in the Evening Post on 26 April 1938 following the death of Robert Duxfield.

MR. R. D. DUXFIELD.
(By Teiegraph - Press Association.
HAMILTON, This Day.

Mr. R. D. Duxfield, M.A., J.P., a prominent breeder of Shorthorn cattle and an exhibitor, died at his home at Horotiu this morning.

The late Mr. Duxfield was. born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, in 1862, and was educated at the Yarmouth Grammar School.; He passed his preliminary law examination, and was articled for one year to a legal firm at Stockton-on-Tees. He later entered Dublin University, and filled .various teaching positions. Coming to New Zealand in 1885, he taught at Wanganui College, later going to the Whangarei High School, where he was principal for five years. Also, as a master, he was associated with Christ's College, Christchurch. In1898 he took up farming in. the Waikato, and took a prominent part in farming matters, being connected in an official capacity with the Farmers' Union for many years.

• Married: 01 APR 1899 in Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand

1. Dorothy Kathleen DUXFIELD b: 01 AUG 1901 in Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
2. Robert Cubitt DUXFIELD b: 21 MAY 1903 in Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand
3. Horatio Nelson DUXFIELD b: 08 DEC 1905 in Horotiu, Waikato, New Zealand
4. Edward Kitchener DUXFIELD b: 28 FEB 1910 in New Zealand