John Joseph Woods

[2] Woods was born in the then colony of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in 1849 to Irish parents with fourteen other children, seven boys and seven girls.

[1] After teaching in Tasmania for nine years,[3] he migrated to New Zealand as a young man and worked for a time in Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.

Eight years teaching in New Zealand led to a position as the head teacher of St Patrick's School in Lawrence, Otago, and he moved there from Invercargill in 1874.

While in Lawrence, Woods taught alongside an Irish widow called Harriet Conway (née Plunket) who already had two sons.

It is now under the care of the Historic Places Trust, which mounted a plaque on the street-facing back wall commemorating his composition of the national anthem.

This proved to aid its success when the Premier George Grey visited Lawrence on 11 March 1878 and was welcomed by six hundred local schoolchildren singing what was by then beginning to be labelled as the "national anthem".

[3] Grey was very taken by the music and immediately sent a telegram to Bracken congratulating him: I have just heard for the first time, by 600 children at Lawrence, your 'New Zealand anthem'.

[3] Serving in this role, he also gained a reputation as an authority on county law, sought out by the council and clerks of other regions.