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Historic soil maps

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Towards a first soil map of New Zealand

These two soil maps represent an important milestone in New Zealand soil survey history. For the first time, a national soil map was pulled together from regional and local soil surveys conducted by the Soil Survey Division of the New Zealand Geological Survey, some from as early as the 1900s.

1947 preparation map

1947 preparation map – click to enlarge

1947 preparation map

This map is a preparation map, probably dated 1947, with multiple markups by leading soil scientists: H.S. Gibbs, L.I. Grange, C.S. Harris, I.J. Pohlen, J.D. Raeside, C.F. Sutherland, N.H. Taylor, and A.C.S. Wright.

1948 completed soil map

1948 finalised map – click to enlarge

1948 finalised map

The actual map was published in 1948 by the recently established Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Soil Bureau at a scale of 1:2,027,520. Only a few original copies of this map remain, as many were lost in the fire that raged through the Hope Gibbons office building in Wellington on 29 July 1952.

The map introduced to New Zealand a soil classification  system, with the main ‘soil groups’ comprising the map legend. This system, called the Genetic Soil Classification, was devised by N.H. Taylor and used until 1992, when it was replaced by the New Zealand Soil Classification, which is still in use today.

The New Zealand Soil Bureau bulletin that should have accompanied the 1948 map was never completed, so this map represents the earliest record of a New Zealand soil classification scheme.