John Holland Baker

John Holland Baker (4 December 1841 – 5 February 1930) was a New Zealand surveyor and public servant.

He was born in Chilcomb, Hampshire, England on 4 December 1841. He arrived in Lyttelton on the Maori during 1857. In the following year, he started an apprenticeship as a surveyor, with another uncle, John Baker, paying the £200 for the three-year education. He bought land in December 1858, and a house during 1860. On one of his trips to the back-country, he found of unclaimed land suitable for sheep farming. He was granted a lease in 1860, which he could sell for £300. He became a land speculator but, unlike others, he never got rich from it. Baker explored the Southern Alps with Samuel Butler for further sheep country; they found what was later known as Whitcombe Pass but no suitable land. In 1861, Baker was the first European to cross the Haast Pass.

The Otago gold rush attracted Baker south, and he spent six months prospecting at the Tuapeka River. This was unsuccessful, and he went to Invercargill in May 1862. There, Theophilus Heale engaged him as a sub-assistant surveyor. a Tory member of parliament for Downton, Wiltshire. Baker's daughter was Noeline Baker, suffrage campaigner. After his death, his daughter edited his autobiography, A surveyor in New Zealand, 1857–1896, which was published in 1932.