Alfred Carroll was born in Wairoa and attended Wanganui Collegiate School, Te Aute College and Canterbury Agricultural College where he graduated with a diploma. He was a member of the Māori Battalion during the First World War. He worked as a farmer on the family property at Hiramana, Wairoa all his life, and in 1940 received the Bledisloe Medal for his farming work in the Wairoa district. For 32 years he was a member of the Wairoa County Council which he chaired for 20 years. He chaired the Ngāti Kahungunu Tribal Executive, and was a president of the New Zealand Māori Council from He received the OBE and in 1962 he became the sixth Māori to receive the K.B.E.
Biographical sources
- "Sir Turi Carroll Sixth Māori Knight." Te Ao Hou 40 (1962): 3, 46.
- "Turi Carroll." URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/people/turi-carroll, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 12-Feb-2008.
Non-fiction
- "Editorial... A Word from our President." Te Kaunihera Māori: New Zealand Māori Council Journal 1.1 (1966): 1.
- Carroll announces the first edition of the quarterly Māori Council publication Te Kaunihera Māori: New Zealand Māori Council Journal, which he notes will supplement the smaller Council newsletter. Carroll draws attention to the conference on the Prichard-Waetford Report on Māori Land, briefly discusses the Council’s role regarding Māori Wardens and writes of the Council’s financial support.
- "Annual Report: Kahungunu Executive." Te Kaunihera Māori: New Zealand Māori Council Journal 1.3 (1967): 37, 39.
- The text of Carroll’s 1966 annual report of the Kahungunu Māori Executive in which he farewells retiring District Welfare Officer, Peter Kaua, and welcomes incoming Welfare Officer Sonny Baker. He notes the diminishing numbers of the original Kahungunu Executive, briefly discusses the education, employment, housing and health within the Kahungunu area, and presents ten area reports. He discusses the formation of a local Warden’s Association, the Kahungunu Growers’ Association and land development in the region.
- "Te Rangatahi." Te Kaunihera Māori: New Zealand Māori Council Newsletter 5.5 (1968): 3.
- Carroll pays tribute in this short article to Māori youth and announces the New Zealand Māori Council initiative to hold a "Focus On Youth" weekend in Wellington in August 1968.
- "Christmas 1968: A Message from our President." Te Kaunihera Māori: New Zealand Māori Council Newsletter 5.8 (1968): 1.
- In this Christmas message Carroll notes that 1968 saw the first printing of the complete Māori Bible; he discusses the impact of the Bible and Christianity on the Māori of the past and the present. Carroll asserts that in the "Human Rights Year" it is the duty of the Māori Council to serve individual Māori everywhere. He also commends the work of the Māori Wardens in this regard.
- "Making the Treaty Live." Te Māori: The Official Journal of the New Zealand Māori Council 2.2 (1971): 5.
- In this message to New Zealand school children concerning the Treaty of Waitangi, Carroll notes that although clear promises were made to the Māori at the signing of the Treaty, "from the beginning there were those who regarded the Treaty of Waitangi as meaningless." Carroll asks the children of New Zealand "to honour the Treaty of Waitangi in [their] hearts.... [and] to honour it too on its anniversary."