William Mein Smith

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Portrait of William Mein Smith
Original Wellington Plan created by William Mein Smith 1840
Residence of William Mein Smith while he lived in Wellington at 125 Grant Road

William Mein Smith (also known as Kapene Mete;

the town belt and other features and making provision for the much debated "tenth" share of the land for local Māori
.

Early life

Born in 1798 in

Te Whanganui-a-Tara).[2]
His wife and older children arrived two months later.

Town Acre 646, between Tinakori & Grant Roads, later 125 Grant Road, was the residence of William Mein Smith while he lived in Wellington.[3]

Professional life

He was instrumental in the Wellington colony's early administration, the setting out of the town (including reservation of one tenth for Māori owners), and country acres, and later oversaw work in the

Kāpiti Coast
, and founding the Horticultural Society.

Though getting on the wrong side of Colonel Wakefield, the Company's Principal Agent, and being dismissed as Surveyor General from early 1842, when he was replaced without warning by

Quail Island in Lyttelton Harbour, after crossing the peninsula
on foot, visiting whalers and Māori alike.

Later he surveyed a number of other parts of the lower North Island, including some townships in Wairarapa (Featherston and Masterton in particular), the coastline as far north as Castlepoint, and the Taratahi plain. He also spent time in the 1850s seeking a better route through the mountains to Wellington.

He left his first home under what is now Tinakori Hill, Wellington, driving some of the first cattle round the rocky coastline. He was involved in operating a farming venture near Wellington at Terawhiti until 1846. They were among the first half dozen settlers in the valley. There he and Louisa raised their five children. He also carried on surveying and was a local magistrate and politician. He also had close dealings with local Māori, and his image is preserved in one of 13 pou whakairo (carved perimeter posts) that guard the Papawai marae, near Greytown, due to his close association with chief Hamuera Tamahau Mahupuku - so close that the chief adopted the child of one of Captain Mein Smith's descendants.[4]

Political career

Smith was a member of the

Wellington Provincial Council from 1858 (when he defeated Charles Borlase[6]) to 1865.[2][7]

Art

Smith produced water colours and sketches of early Wellington and Wairarapa, many of which are held by Wellington's Alexander Turnbull Library.

Sketch from the South Bank of the Rangitiki, 1841 by William Mein Smith

Death

He died in Greytown in the Wairarapa in 1869 after a lengthy illness, at his and Revan's home "Brierly" at Woodside. Louisa had died there two years earlier.

Notes

  1. ^ "William Mein Smith". NZETC. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b McLintock, Alexander Hare, ed. (23 April 2009) [originally published in 1966]. "Smith, William Mein". An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Ministry for Culture and Heritage / Te Manatū Taonga. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
  3. ^ "House on Town Acre 646, Tinakori Road, Wellington, New Zealand". ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  4. ^ "Wellington's founding fathers". Stuff. 10 February 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  5. ^ Scholefield 1950, p. 18.
  6. ^ "The Wairarapa Election". Wellington Independent. Vol. X, no. 1313. 25 September 1858. p. 2. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  7. ^ Scholefield 1950, p. 239.

References

  • Scholefield, Guy (1950) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (3rd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer.
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