Edward Tregear
Edward Tregear ISO | |
---|---|
Wellington City Councillor | |
In office 1912–1915 | |
Preceded by | David McLaren |
1st President of the Social Democratic Party | |
In office 1913–1914 | |
Vice President | Frederick Cooke |
Succeeded by | Hiram Hunter |
Personal details | |
Born | Southampton, England | 1 May 1846
Died | 28 October 1931 Picton, New Zealand | (aged 85)
Political party | Captain |
Battles/wars | New Zealand Wars |
Edward Robert Tregear
Biography
He was born in Southampton, England, on 1 May 1846, the son of Captain William Henry Tregear,[1] a descendant of an old Cornish family. Tregear was educated in private schools and trained as a civil engineer. He arrived in Auckland in June 1863 and took a position as a surveyor. This work brought him into close contact with the Māori, and he began to study their language and culture. Poverty forced Tregear to enlist in the Auckland Engineer Volunteers. He saw action against the Māori in the Tauranga area and was awarded the New Zealand War Medal. Between 1869 and 1873 he worked as a surveyor on the goldfields at Thames and Coromandel and on Māori lands near Tokoroa. His investments in gold mining and saw milling ventures proved disastrous, and he lost what little money he had, setting a pattern for the rest of his life in financial matters. In 1877 he moved to Patea, working privately until 1881 as a surveyor for roads boards. He also captained the Patea Rifle Volunteers.[2]
His research on comparative mythology and linguistics was expressed in a controversial book The Aryan Maori (1885), in which he placed the
A freethinking socialist, Tregear was a personal friend of the politicians
In 1891 Tregear published the Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary which is regarded as his most important contribution to scholarship. In 1892 he co-founded the
Tregear never stood for Parliament, despite Ballance's urgings. In a 1912 by-election, he was elected to the Wellington City Council (re-elected 1913) and became president of the militant Social Democratic Party. However, in 1914, afflicted with failing eyesight and gravely troubled and disheartened by the failure of the waterfront strike, Tregear suddenly resigned all his offices. He retired to Picton in the South Island where he died on 28 October 1931. He was survived by his wife Bessie and their only daughter Vera.
Contribution
Tregear is regarded as an architect of the advanced social reforms which drew the world's attention to New Zealand. He was a prolific writer in a range of creative writing genres including poetry,[5] satire and children's fairy stories, besides scholarly papers of anthropology and sociology. While his theory on the origins of the Māori people has been proved incorrect, his linguistic work has proven to be more durable. He was an engaged thinker. "Tregear was among the country's most prominent, prolific and controversial intellectuals. Besides Polynesian studies, he produced journal and newspaper articles and public lectures on religion, philology, mythology, literature, science, economics, women, philosophy, ancient history, politics – indeed almost the entire spectrum of human history and experience" (Howe 2006).
Tregear's documentation of Moriori Census on the Chatham Islands as of 1889 is essential even today for the preservation of this unique culture: [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 4 December 1889.] on the Moriori of the Chatham Islands: By Edward Tregear, F.R.G.S.
"Thinking that, as the Moriori are rapidly dying out, scientists at the end of the next half-century might be interested in knowing what was the exact state of the native population in 1889, I made a census-inquiry, with the following result:—
Chatham Islands, 23 September 1889. At Manukau. Men: Hiriona Tapu, Tiritiu Hokokaranga, Heta Namu (half-caste, Maori and Moriori), Horomona te Rangitapua, Apieta Tume, Te Karaka Kahukura, Te Ohepa nga Mapu (half-caste, Maori and Moriori). Women: Rohana Tapu, Paranihi Heta, Pakura te Retiu, Himaira Horomana, Harireta te Hohepa, Ruiha te Hira (half-caste, Maori and Moriori). Children: Tame Horomana (boy), Mika Heta (boy), Ngana Riwai (girl). At Kaingaroa. Men: Hoani Whaiti Ruea, Te Ropiha Rangikeno (an old man), Riwai te Ropiha, Tamihana Heta. Women: Eripeta Hoani Whaiti,
List of honours
- Imperial Service Order (United Kingdom)
- Officier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques(France)
Notes
- ^ Williams, R. W. (1981) Tregears Around The World
- ^ Howe, K.R. "Tregear, Edward". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
- ^ Evening Post, New Zealand, Volume XLV, Issue 132, 7 June 1893, p.2: A bogus literary society Retrieved 6 February 2014
- ^ Cowan, James (1934): "Famous New Zealanders, No. 13, Edward Tregear – Pioneer, Scholar, Humanitarian": The New Zealand Railways Magazine; Volume 9, Issue 1 (2 April 1934).
- ^ cf. pp95-96 The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse, ed. Allen Curnow, 1960
- ^ TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW ZEALAND, VOLUME 22, 1889, 1889, PAGE 75, The Moriori https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TPRSNZ1889-22.2.4.1.7
References
- Roth, H. O. (1966): Tregear, Edward, I.S.O. (1846–1931). In: McLintock, A. H. (ed.): Encyclopaedia of New ZealandIII: 446–447. Government Printer, Wellington.
- Howe, K. R. (1991): Singer in a Songless Land: a life of Edward Tregear, 1846–1931, Auckland University Press
- Cowan, James (1934): "Famous New Zealanders, No. 13, Edward Tregear – Pioneer, Scholar, Humanitarian": The New Zealand Railways Magazine; Volume 9, Issue 1 (2 April 1934).
Further reading
- Tregear, Edward Robert (1891): Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary. Lyon and Blair, Wellington. Online version 2005-FEB-16.
- ISSN 0161-7370 – via Wikisource. .