Arini Elizabeth Rhodes (1896 - 1989)

Born 8 Nov 1896 in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand

Ancestors

Wife of Philip Randall Woodhouse — married 22 Sep 1921 in Upper Otaio, Timaru, Canterbury, New Zealand

Died 13 Apr 1989 at age 92 in Timaru, Canterbury, New Zealand

Biography

Arini was born in 1896. She was the daughter of Robert Rhodes and Jessy Bidwill. She passed away in 1989.

Airini Elizabeth Rhodes was born in Dunedin, on 8 November 1896. Her mother, Jessy, was the youngest daughter of Charles Robert Bidwill of Pihautea in Wairarapa. Her father was Robert Heaton Rhodes of Blue Cliffs station, South Canterbury. Although Airini was an only child, her parents' wealth and social position meant that there were many visitors at Blue Cliffs; holidays away included trips to England (1905–6 and 1910–12). Educated at home by governesses, Airini showed an early aptitude for writing. In 1913 she attended Craighead Diocesan School in Timaru for one year as a weekly boarder. One of her childhood playmates was Ngita Woodhouse, Randal's younger sister, and Airini met Randal several times before his departure for England. During the First World War she was busy with various fund-raising activities and joined the Red Cross. Through helping her father with mustering and stock work she learned much about farm management.

Airini's father died unexpectedly from pneumonia on 11 August 1918. She and her mother then went to visit relatives in England on a trip that lasted for nearly two years, returning in January 1921. Though she had seen Randal Woodhouse only briefly in eight years, they had kept up a wartime correspondence, and in March he visited Blue Cliffs to propose marriage. They wed at Upper Otaio on 22 September 1921 and went to live in Wellington.

Her father's will had given Airini first option on Blue Cliffs, but the trustees insisted she employ a manager. Randal had apparently seen too much death and suffering in military hospitals to spend the rest of his life practising surgery, and suggested to the trustees that he might become Airini's station manager, after a year's trial. His resignation from Wellington Hospital was greeted with dismay. Randal's apprenticeship as a sheepfarmer began in January 1922 with the basics: sorting dags after crutching. He easily passed his trial year, and was appointed manager of Blue Cliffs in 1923 on a salary of £200. But Airini insisted on classing the wool clip, a skill learned from her father.

The Woodhouses had three children in the 1920s: Elizabeth, Carne and Heaton.

Airini was elected to the Blue Cliffs parish vestry in 1927 – the first year women were admitted – and remained a member until 1961.

Besides raising a family and helping her husband manage Blue Cliffs, Airini developed a strong interest in breeding cattle. She had been a member of the council of the New Zealand Red Poll Cattle Breeders' Association since its foundation in 1921, and in 1932 her name was added to its list of judges and inspectors. She was one of the first women in New Zealand to judge stock at an agricultural show, at Palmerston North that same year. In the evenings she was busy with historical research, producing a biography of her maternal grandfather (with W. E. Bidwill) in 1927 and a parish history of Otaio and Blue Cliffs in 1930. The biography of her other grandfather, George Rhodes of the Levels and his brothers (1937), was highly praised and led to an invitation to edit Tales of pioneer women for the women's institutes of New Zealand.

Airini managed Blue Cliffs during the Second World War, and again worked hard for the Red Cross. She was president of the Blue Cliffs sub-centre of the Red Cross during both world wars, and was awarded a Voluntary Aid Detachment medal for service 1939–45.

Airini was on the committee of the South Canterbury Historical Society from its inception, and chair of the South Canterbury Centennial History Committee (1954–60). She continued her literary work, compiling New Zealand farm and station verse 1850–1950 and publishing a biography, Guthrie-Smith of Tutira (1959). She also chaired the South Canterbury Regional Committee of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust from 1959 to 1975. Rather to her embarrassment, this committee named a peak in the Hunters Hills range after her in 1965 (Mt Airini). In 1969 she became the first woman in New Zealand to be granted registration as an owner-classer by the New Zealand Wool Handling Committee, with the right to put the Kiwi brand on her bales.

Randal Woodhouse died at Timaru on 1 October 1970, and Airini moved to the house in Timaru where her mother had lived until her death. There she completed her fifth book, a detailed history of Blue Cliffs station, published in 1982. She was awarded the Queen's Service Medal in 1981 and was working on a biography of her husband when she died on 13 April 1989.

Airini Woodhouse was undoubtedly South Canterbury's outstanding countrywoman in this century, combining an active farm life and service on numerous voluntary organisations with her chosen vocation as a local historian. Short, serious and exacting, she was a fearsomely efficient organiser, yet to her friends and family she was generous and loyal, with a good sense of humour

Sources

• The Moorhouse Family Tree currently lodged in the Library of the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand compiled by Wm. D Ferguson in 1932.
• Bidwill of Pihautea: The life of Charles Robert Bidwill, Author, William Edward Bidwill & Airini Elizabeth Wooodhouse , Publisher, Coulls, Somerville, Wilkie Ltd , Publisher Date , 1927.

Jessy Bidwill m. R.H. Rhodes- (1) Airini E.