They had originally worked as foresters and timbermillers in their homeland and, buttressed by their staunch Presbyterian faith and a regimented ethic for hardwork, they established what was to become one of New Zealand's largest industrial enterprises.
Sir David Henry KBE was responsible for negotiations and this saw the creation of New Zealand Forest Products (NZFP).
In 1986, the conglomerate Elders IXL, headed by Australian corporate raider John Elliot, made a successful hostile takeover bid for NZFP.
He has maintained a high public profile, undertaking major litigation including the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Taxation (commonly referred to as the "Winebox Inquiry"), being successful in the subsequent Judicial Review of the Winebox Inquiry, representing directors in litigation following the collapse of the Equiticorp conglomerate in 1987, and pro bono work such as representing victims of the RSA murders in their litigation against the New Zealand Parole Board and Polynesian immigrant families who were the victims of unscrupulous buyback financial schemes.
He believed passionately in education, endowing in 1956 a forestry scholarship bearing his name to provide overseas training for employees of NZFP.
The funding provided by this Trust with later contributions from the Henry family and other sources continues as Presbyterian Support, one of New Zealand's largest charitable organisations.
Originally a teacher, she graduated from Deaconess College in 1920 and devoted her life to the education and betterment of the Maori people as a missionary in the Urewera Ranges of New Zealand.
Several Maori became prominent ministers in the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand as a result of her work[2] and the family dedicated a wing of the Whakatane Museum in her memory.