March – Jack Best, rugby union player 24 March Nancy Borlase, painter and art critic Enid McElwee, fencer 27 March – Ces Burke, cricketer 31 March – David Seath, politician April–June 2 April – Walter Whittlestone, dairy scientist, peace activist 30 April – Zena Daysh, human ecologist 5 May – Lloyd Trigg, World War II pilot, Victoria Cross recipient 8 May – Gaven Donne, jurist Dean Eyre, politician, diplomat 27 May – Graham Turbott, ornithologist, zoologist, museum director 30 May – Frank Sharpley, athlete 2 June – Joe Genet, wrestler 3 June – Tommy Farnan, association football player Reg Grant, World War II pilot 13 June – Gordon Patrick, cyclist 16 June – Theo de Lange, air force officer 20 June – Pearl Savin, cricketer 23 June – Clifford Richmond, jurist July–September 4 July – Ray Speed, association football player 5 July – Jim Watt, rugby union player and paediatrician 9 July – M. K. Joseph, poet and novelist 28 July – Wiremu Te Āwhitu, first Māori Roman Catholic priest Joey Sadler, rugby union player 7 August – Alice Bush, doctor, family planning activist 11 August – Donald Cobden, rugby union player, Battle of Britain pilot 21 August – Billie Fulford, cricketer 23 August – Jack Hemi, rugby union and rugby league player 27 August – Gordon Christie, politician Vernon Thomas, wrestler 2 September – Ron Barclay, politician October–December 13 October – Cecil Matthews, athlete 17 October – Leo Schultz, politician 22 October – Pat Boot, athlete 23 October – Donald Stott, soldier, military intelligence agent 30 October – Pat Mackie, miner and trade unionist 7 November – Doug Freeman, cricketer 8 November – Guthrie Wilson, novelist and teacher 9 November – Colin Gray, World War II fighter ace 15 November – Jack Holloway, alpine explorer, forest ecologist 18 November – Bill Phillips, economist 1 December – Peter Mathieson, swimmer 4 December – Arthur Prior, logician and philosopher 10 December – Reginald Delargey, Roman Catholic bishop 21 December – Lankford Smith, association football player and cricketer 22 December – Adrian Hayter, soldier, sailor, Antarctic leader, author 25 December – James Fletcher, industrialist Don McRae, cricketer and association football player Bob White, politician 27 December – Hilda Buck, cricketer 28 December – Norman King, politician 30 December – Ian Lythgoe, public servant Deaths January–June 10 January – Samuel Hodgkinson, politician (born 1817) 2 February – Alfred Burton, photographer (born 1834) 8