Peter Tait (mayor)
Sir Peter Tait Ron Spriggs | |
---|---|
Succeeded by | Clyde Jeffery |
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Napier | |
In office 1 September 1951 – 13 November 1954 | |
Preceded by | Tommy Armstrong |
Succeeded by | Jim Edwards |
Personal details | |
Born | 5 September 1915 Wellington, New Zealand |
Died | 31 January 1996 Napier, New Zealand |
Political party | National |
Spouse |
Lilian Dunn (m. 1946) |
Children | 2 |
Profession | Retalier |
Sir Peter Tait
Early life
Tait was born on 5 September 1915, in
He recovered from tuberculosis at the Pukeora sanitorium at Waipukurau, a rural community, to the East Coast of the North Island. From there he moved to, and ultimately settled in Napier. Once established there, he opened a shoe store, which came to have branches in Waipukurau, Napier, Hastings and Dannevirke.[2]
He married Lilian Jean Dunn in 1946 with whom he had one son and one daughter.[2]
Political career
Member of Parliament
Years | Term | Electorate | Party | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1951–1954 | 30th | Napier | National |
In August 1951 he was selected over six other nominees to be the National Party candidate for the Napier electorate.[3] National won a landslide victory at the election and Tait won the Napier seat, somewhat surprisingly as Napier had been a relatively safe Labour seat for decades. Tait served as a Member of Parliament for one term until he was defeated by Labour's Jim Edwards.[4] In 1953, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal.[5]
Mayor of Napier
Two years after leaving Parliament, he was elected
Tait was appointed an
Later life and death
After leaving office Tait worked as a financial consultant and was appointed as a financial adviser and professional fundraiser for the
Tait was a
He sold his company Tait Associates Limited to AdvisorCorp, contributory mortgage company he chaired. The company failed in 1988, causing Tait (and his investors) much emotional and financial grief. Tait himself was suspected of corporate fraud in relation to AdvisorCorp however he escaped any prosecution, though two of the principals in the company were successfully prosecuted after AdvisorCorp collapsed. He fought for years afterwards attempting to clear his name.[8] AdvisorCorp, found itself the target of attacks from National Party leader Jim Bolger in the 'Gang of Twenty' affair in 1989. Bolger would later publicly apologise to Tait.
He funded the Tait Fountain in Napier, which commemorates Victory in Europe Day and was dedicated on 9 May 1995 on the 50th anniversary of the end of that war.[7]
He died in 1996, aged 80.[2] His widow, Lilian, died in 2011.[15]
References
- ^ "The Shetland Islanders". Wellington Southern Bays Historical Society Inc. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
- ^ a b c d "Sir Peter Tait oversaw Napier's growth". The Evening Post. 22 February 1996. p. 7.
- ^ "National Party Candidates". The Press. Vol. LXXXVII, no. 26491. 4 August 1951. p. 6.
- OCLC 154283103.
- ^ "Coronation Medal" (PDF). Supplement to the New Zealand Gazette. No. 37. 3 July 1953. pp. 1021–1035. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- ^ "Mayoral Polls". The Press. Vol. XCIV, no. 28129. 19 November 1956. p. 13.
- ^ a b "Tait Fountain". Napier City Council. Archived from the original on 23 February 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
- ^ Hawkes Bay Today. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
- ^ London Gazette (supplement), No. 44212, 30 December 1966. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
- ^ "No. 46446". The London Gazette (3rd supplement). 1 January 1975. p. 38.
- ^ "Financial adviser". The Press. 4 May 1977. p. 23.
- ^ "Business personals". The Press. 8 September 1977. p. 24.
- ^ Coates, Ken (10 September 1985). "Fundamentalists and their political clout". The Press. p. 13.
- ISBN 978-1-86971-094-1.
- ^ "Lady Lilian Jean Tait". The New Zealand Herald. 1 February 2011. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
Further reading
- Laurie Guy: Worlds in Collision: The Gay Law Reform Debate in New Zealand: 1960-1985 Wellington: Victoria University Press: (2002) ISBN 0-86473-438-7