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30 January 1913, 15 May 1913, 10 July 1913, 11 September 1913, 14 May 1914, 2 June 1916, 12 September 1924, 5 July 1929 & 2 August 1929;
Sydney Morning Herald, 3 August 1929; Northern Territory Archives Service, E96/108, E106/326 & E103/9/30; H J Wilson, ‘The Quality of
Life’, MA(Qualifying) Thesis, University of Queensland, 1986.
HELEN J WILSON, Vol 2.
HOLMES, MERVYN JOHN (1886–1965), was born in Melbourne on 22 February 1884, son of John
Paterson Holmes. He was educated at Toorak and Melbourne Grammar schools and graduated Bachelor of
Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1909 from the University of Melbourne. He married Jessie MacKinnon on
10 October 1919.
Holmes was appointed to the Northern Territory Department of Health in July 1911 as one of two medical
officers who were to investigate and promote the health of Aborigines. He undertook several extensive health
surveys and wrote detailed reports on the prevalence of diseases, both common and exotic. He did much to control
malaria and to reduce the spread of tuberculosis in Darwin.
Late in 1912 Holmes was promoted to Chief Medical Officer. He undertook an extensive survey of Darwin
itself and did much to replace slums with healthful housing. Dr Holmes laid the foundations of health legislation
for the Territory; this included the Building Regulations, 1916, providing the first health standards for both private
homes and industrial sites. He drafted the Health Ordinance, Infectious Diseases Ordinance, Mosquito Prevention
and several other ordinances to improve the health of the community.
Following extensive surveys in the outback, he compiled a comprehensive guide, The Bushman’s First Aid for
settlers and miners. He introduced medical kits for the outback and his book, advising on preventive as well as
curative measures, was in every kit.
The 1914–18 war brought financial restrictions which limited fieldwork but there was no epidemic of malaria
in his time. In February 1916 he joined the Australian Army Medical Corps and was lost to the Territory except in
an advisory role. He subsequently held senior Commonwealth positions and served in both world wars. He died in
Melbourne on 30 January 1965.
A Breinl & M J Holmes, Medical report on the data collected during journey through some districts of the Northern Territory, Bulletin of the
Northern Territory, no 15, December 1915; M J Holmes, The Bushman’s First Aid, 1913; M J Holmes, Medical Directory of Australia, 1948;
M J Holmes, Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year ending 31st December 1912; Report of the Chief Health Officer for the year
ending 31st December 1913, in Report of the Administrator; Report of the Chief Health Officer from 1 January 1912–30 June 1915, In Report
of the Administrator; Obituary, The Medical Journal of Australia, 18 May 1965; AA, Canberra.
ELLEN KETTLE, Vol 2.
HOLTZE, MAURICE WILLIAM (1840–1923), botanist, was born on 8 July 1840 in the kingdom of Hanover,
now part of West Germany. His father, Karl Holtze, was Inspector of Orphanages in Hanover. As a young man
Maurice Holtze studied and graduated in botany and horticulture at the Royal Gardens in St Petersburg, later
known as the Komorov Institute in Leningrad and a leading botanical centre in the Soviet Union. He then served
four years as an assistant in the Gardens at Hildesheim, followed by three years in a nursery in the city of Hanover.
In later years Holtze spoke of a picture, seen in the cottage of a farmer when he was a boy, which motivated his
interest in botany. The picture showed nine figures including a king, a parson, a lawyer and other representatives
of notable professions and, at the foot, a farmer. A written scroll beneath each figure outlined each notable’s
self-perception of his own role in society and the importance of his allotted task. When it came to the humble
farmer the scroll simply read, ‘And I feed you all!’ This early interest in the practical aspect of the science of
botany, the development and use of plant species for the benefit of mankind, rather than in purely decorative or
interesting botanical specimens, dominated Holtze’s work as a botanist throughout his long career.
In 1872 Holtze migrated to Australia with his Russian wife Evlampia, daughter of Captain S Mesinzoff. While
Holtze was brought up as a Roman Catholic, he does not appear to have practised the religion. His wife was a
member of the Russian Orthodox Church. They brought with them to Australia their four young children, Nicholas,
Ludmilla and Constantine. The Holtze family settled near Palmerston in the Northern Territory. Two further
children were born in the Territory, Leopold, who died aged nine months, and Alexis.
Holtze initially found employment as a guard in the Palmerston gaol, where he worked until 1878. In that year
the Government Resident, E W Price, as a result of several years of agitation by Palmerston residents who felt
that the Government Gardens should both increase its capacity to supply vegetables to the township, and fulfil
its intended role as an experimental garden and recreation area, wrote to the Minister for the Northern Territory
requesting the appointment of ‘a fair botanist and florist’ to administer the gardens. Holtze applied for the position
and, on 16 July 1878, was appointed Government Gardener. He quickly decided that the existing experimental
garden, which had been established in 1871, was unsuited to crop experimentation. In 1879 a new site of 12 hectares
was chosen at Fannie Bay and by September of that year the new garden had been trenched and cleared. With only
Chinese labour to help him during daylight hours, Holtze, in the face of the ‘most rigid economy’ being enforced
in establishing the garden, had to physically transfer the plants on his own from the old to the new garden early
in the morning and late into each night. Within weeks of planting, it was realised that Holtze would have to live
nearby as ‘otherwise Chinese will steal the plants’. Accordingly, permission was given for a gardener’s house to
be erected in the gardens.
By March 1880 the Gardens were flourishing with cotton, arrowroot, sesamoil and a variety of tropical fruit
trees doing well. In May of that year Holtze won a Gold Medal at the Sydney Exhibition with his cotton. He was
also experimenting with both sesame and peanut oils. In 1970 his daughter Ludmilla, then almost 100 years old,