Dictionary of NZ Biography — Surname Index L
Name | Biography | Reference |
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Charles L | Volume 1, page 261 🌳 Further sources | |
Henry Herman Lahmann | Henry Herman LahmannLAHMANN, HENRY HERMAN (1816-90) was a native of the Free City of Bremen, Germany, where he was educated. As a young man he went to London, where for 19 years he was engaged in business. In 1853 he emigrated to Melbourne, and carried on business for eight years as a merchant and shipping agent. Attracted to Otago by the discovery of gold, he started a tobacco business in Dunedin in partnership with A. Helm. Four years later he followed the gold diggers to Westland and settled in Greymouth as a timber and general merchant, interested also in shipping. Lahmann was a member of the first Greymouth town improvement committee, and represented his district on the Westland county council (1868), of which he was chairman until his defeat in 1872. He was also on the first Provincial Council (1874), of which he was speaker until the abolition. He then became a member of the county council under the new act. He was a member of the cattle and stock board and the Greymouth harbour board. In 1872 Lahmann was called to the Legislative Council (in view of the proposed immigration of German settlers). He died on 1 Jun 1890. N.Z.P.D., 1872-90; Harrop, Westland (p); Westland C.C. and P.C. Proc.; Grey River Argus, 2 Jun 1890. Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 256 | Volume 1, page 256 🌳 Further sources |
James Laird | James LairdLAIRD, JAMES (1831-1902) was born in Forfarshire, Scotland, and came to New Zealand in 1856, settling in Taranaki as a nurseryman. He served in the Maori war (1860-65), and two years later removed from New Plymouth to Wanganui, where he established himself in business. He was a borough councillor for 15 years and mayor (1886-88), chairman of the Waitotara county council and a member of the hospital committee and harbour board. He died on 3 Sep 1902. Cycl. N.Z., vi. Reference: Volume 1, page 256 | Volume 1, page 256 🌳 Further sources |
Richard Laishley | Richard LaishleyLAISHLEY, RICHARD (1844-1907) was a son of the Rev. Richard Laishley (1816-97), who was in charge of the Congregational Church at Peartree Green, Southampton, before being appointed by the Congregational Missionary Society in 1860 to come to Auckland. He came by the Caduceus and laboured at Auckland, Melbourne, Thames and Devonport. The son was educated in Southampton. He was articled in 1870 to Jackson and Russell, Auckland, and being admitted to the bar in 1873, began to practise. He was at times a member and chairman of the Auckland education board and a governor of the Auckland Grammar School. In 1883-84 he made an extensive tour abroad investigating educational methods, his report being published as a parliamentary paper. He received the honorary LL.D. of St Andrews University (1887), the Ph.D. and M.A. of Leipzig, and several foreign orders. In 1901 Laishley gave evidence before the federation commission. His published works are mainly on education, but in 1881 he issued a pamphlet on the causes and cure of the exodus of population from New Zealand. He died in Sydney on 30 Jan 1907. App. H.R., 1886 (ii), E 1, E 12; Butchers; Laishley, op. cit.; Auckland Star, 6 Jan 1897. Reference: Volume 1, page 256 | Volume 1, page 256 🌳 Further sources |
Edward Lake | Edward LakeLAKE, EDWARD (1838-1908) was born in Kent, graduated at Wadham College, Oxford, and then turned his attention to farming in his native county. In 1875 he came to New Zealand, and in 1877 took up land at Ohaupo, Waikato, where he farmed 1,170 acres. He served on several local bodies, and was chairman of the Waipa county council for many years. In 1884 he was elected to Parliament for Waipa in opposition to the Stout-Vogel Government; and in 1891-93 he represented Waikato (in opposition to the Ballance Government). His later years Lake spent in Auckland, where he was a member of the hospital and charitable aid board. He died on 25 Feb 1908. Cycl. NZ, ii (p); NZ Herald, 26 Feb 1908. Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 257 | Volume 1, page 257 🌳 Further sources |
Robert Lamb | Robert LambLAMB, ROBERT (1863-1907) was born at Matakana, Auckland, and received most of his education at the West Christchurch school and Canterbury University College, where he graduated M.A. Proceeding to Edinburgh, he graduated M.D. and was ordained a minister of the Presbyterian Church. He spent many years as a medical missionary in the New Hebrides. Lamb published two books: Saints and Savages and The Will of God. He died on 18 Jun 1907. The Press, 19 Jun 1907. Reference: Volume 1, page 257 | Volume 1, page 257 🌳 Further sources |
Charles Lambert | Charles LambertLAMBERT, CHARLES (1809-82) held a commission in the 62nd Regiment, from which he retired as a captain in 1851. He became adjutant of the Hampshire militia during the Crimean war and resigned again in 1857, when he came to New Zealand, and took up land on the Ruataniwha plains. He represented Waipukurau in the Hawkes Bay Provincial Council (1861-62, 1864-71), and Te Aute (1871-75). From 1865-67 he was speaker. Commissioned as major in the Napier Cavalry volunteers in 1865, Lambert was in command of two companies of militia at the attack on the Hauhau force at Omarunui (Oct 1866). In the advance on Puketapu (27 Oct) he assumed command of the pursuing force and, against the decision of a council of officers, he stopped the pursuit and withdrew to Wairoa (3 Nov). Te Kooti had evacuated Puketapu, and thus got off to commit the massacre at Poverty Bay. Again, when he brought a force to relieve Mohaka, Lambert refused to advance inland and declined to attack the position at Orakanihi, where the Hauhau were in a state of intoxication. He was a member of the Napier harbour board and the Hawkes Bay land board. He died on 12 Oct 1882. Hawkes Bay P.C. Proc.; Cowan; Gascoyne; Lambert. Reference: Volume 1, page 257 | Volume 1, page 257 🌳 Further sources |
William Lambert | William LambertLAMBERT, WILLIAM (1811-61) was born at Exeter, England, and educated there under the Rev John Mason. For some years he was connected with the Chronicle and Morning Post in London. There he was a member of the Rev D. Weir's church in River Terrace, and took a warm interest in the Sunday school. In 1852 he came to New South Wales and worked for the Sydney Morning Herald. He gave up that post because he objected to work on Sundays and crossed to Auckland (1856). There Captain Cargill engaged him to help establish the Otago Colonist, which he controlled till his death. Lambert represented Eastern District in the Otago Provincial Council (1857-59), and was a member of the executive in 1859. He lost his seat owing to his views on state aid to education. He died on 19 Dec 1861. Otago P.C. Proc.; Hocken, Otago; Paul; Scholefield, Union Catalogue; Otago Colonist, 27 Dec 1861. Reference: Volume 1, page 257 | Volume 1, page 257 🌳 Further sources |
Henry Porcher Lance | Henry Porcher LanceLANCE, HENRY PORCHER (1830-86) was a son of the Rev. E. J. Lance, of Buckland St Mary, Somersetshire. Coming to New Zealand with his brother, J. D. Lance (q.v.), he was interested with him and the Mallocks in several Canterbury properties, notably Four Peaks, Heathstock and Horsley Downs. He took little part in managing the stations, but was interested in stud breeding and produced many fine thoroughbred horses at Heathstock and Horsley Downs. He was a daring and clever gentleman rider and won many races both on the flat and across country with Strike a Light, Emmeline and Market Gardener. In England also he rode, as Mr Dart, with notable success. In Canterbury in partnership with Creyke he purchased Henry Redwood's stud, including Lady Bird and Miss Lee. In 1862 they won the Canterbury Cup with Revoke and the Derby with Azucena; in 1863 the Cup with Golden Cloud; and in 1864 and 1865 the Derby (with Egrement and Nebula). In 1868 Lance went to England. On his return 10 years later he was joined by Mallock and they owned some noted winners, including Foul Play and Nemo. Lance represented Sefton in the Canterbury Provincial Council (1862-65). He married first Miss Bradshaw, and second a daughter of the Hon William Robinson (q.v.). He died on 19 May 1886. Acland; Canterbury P.C. Proc.; Lyttelton Times, 20 May 1886; The Press, 21 May 1886, 28 Jun 1930. Reference: Volume 1, page 257 | Volume 1, page 257 🌳 Further sources |
James du Pre Lance | James du Pre LanceLANCE, JAMES DU PRE (1828-97) was born at Boulogne, France, the son of the Rev Edwin J. Lance, rector of Buckland St Mary, Somerset. Intending to serve the East India Company, he entered Addiscombe Military College, and in 1845 was commissioned as an ensign. On reaching India (1848) he was posted to the 8th Native Infantry, in which he shortly received his lieutenancy (1855). He is said to have penetrated into Tibet with an exploring party. In 1856 Lance took advantage of his health leave from India to visit the Mallock brothers of Horsley Down, and was much attracted by the country. He was recalled to India by the outbreak of the Mutiny. On arrival at Calcutta he found that his regiment had joined the rising, and, being a good linguist, he was attached as interpreter to the 42nd Highlanders. He was present at the relief of Lucknow and the capture of Cawnpore. After the Mutiny Lance visited England and came again to New Zealand with his brother, Henry Porcher Lance (q.v.) with the intention of settling in Canterbury. They purchased first, in 1858, the Four Peaks station, near Geraldine, but soon sold it and bought into Horsley Down in association with the Mallocks. Early in the sixties Lance went on a visit to England and France. He married (1862) a daughter of Captain T. Mallock, R.N. On returning to New Zealand Lance bought the Heathstock station, which was worked in conjunction with the others, and erected on it the fine homestead described in Lady Barker's Station Life in New Zealand (1871). There he lived the life of an English gentleman, entertaining lavishly. He paid great attention to the improvement of his estate and laying out plantations, erected 300 miles of fencing, and with his brother took a great interest in stock breeding. Lance was one of the best amateur whips in the province. The names of Traducer, Blood Royal, and Anteros are honorably associated with the Heathstock and Horsley Down stud. Lance entered the Canterbury Provincial Council for Sefton in succession to his brother, who retired in 1865. He had no sooner entered the Council than he was sought as a leader. A vacancy having occurred in the superintendency, the land-owning interest persuaded Lance to stand as their candidate. The result was: Moorhouse 1,479, Lance 742, Travers 176. Just after the election Lance had a buggy accident and had to go to England for treatment. He had accordingly to vacate his seat in the Provincial Council, and eventually his membership of the Legislative Council, to which he was called in 1865. He was away from the colony for 13 years. Most of the time he lived at Dinant, in Brittany, passing to and fro between France and England in his study of comparative methods of agriculture and land utilisation. He had great success in growing root crops and encouraging the French farmers to follow his example. Returning to New Zealand in 1879, he was the first chairman of the Waipara road board. In 1884 he was elected to Parliament for Cheviot, and he sat for that district until being defeated by Richard Meredith in 1890. Lance urged vigorous steps to combat the rabbit danger (which was threatening north Canterbury with ruin). He assisted in the passing of legislation with that object, and promoted the Hurunui rabbit board, which protected the province by erecting a wire-netting fence against invasion from the north. Lance lost his Heathstock homestead by fire in 1889. His heavy commitments in land about this time involved him in difficulties. In 1896 and the following year the greater part of the estate was acquired by the Government, and cut up into farms for disposal on lease-in-perpetuity. Lance died on 28 May 1897. His widow died on 2 Sep 1923. Cycl. N.Z., iii; Cox; Acland; The Press, 29 May 1897, 28 Jun 1990 (p). Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 257 | Volume 1, page 257 🌳 Further sources |
Adam Landels | Adam LandelsLANDELS, ADAM (1840-87) was a native of Berwickshire, where his father owned a farm at Bankend. He was educated at the High School in Edinburgh, and worked for some years in the Bank of Scotland before coming to Otago in 1858. Having purchased property at Stoney Creek, Landels revisited Scotland and after coming back farmed at Stoney Creek, Lakeside and Otaria. He was member of the Provincial Council for Tokomairiro (1866-67), and was for many years a member of the Crichton road board. He died on 8 Nov 1887. Clutha Leader, 9 Nov 1887. Reference: Volume 1, page 257 | Volume 1, page 257 🌳 Further sources |
William Lane | William LaneLANE, WILLIAM (1861-1917) was born in Bristol. His father was a native of county Cork, Ireland, who became a Protestant after their removal to Dublin. For some years he had a prosperous business as a nurseryman and gardener, employing as many as 20 hands. He was a popular speaker, a member of the poor law guardians and chairman of the Conservative workingman's club, but dissipated his prospects in public interests and insobriety. His wife, who came of a West-country yeoman family, experienced great difficulty in bringing up the family and paying for their education. William was small in build and slightly lame from birth. He attended the Bristol Grammar School, where he studied classics and passed the Oxford local examination before he was 14. As a boy Lane was led to attend political meetings and became a member of an Orange clique, disturbing hostile gatherings, but he early became his mother's confidant, noted the unfavourable tendency of his father's affairs, and determined to shift for himself. His first post was as office boy in an art shop, followed by a small clerkship in a glue factory. He made his first essay in journalism thus early, writing in the Bristol Times and Mirror a defence of Lady Butler's paintings. His mother died in 1875. Two years later William sailed for America and maintained himself for several years at various occupations in the United States and Canada. At the age of 20 he was promoted reporter for a Canadian paper, and shortly afterwards he married Annie Mary Macquire, a member of the staff (granddaughter of a Scots professor). Meanwhile Lane's brother John, who had won a scholarship at Colston's hospital, and had studied in London the business of a nurseryman, had decided to emigrate with his family to Australia. William's experience in America had completed the education of a radical and, thoroughly convinced of the hopeless future in England for people of his class, he agreed to go with John. The two families sailed in the Quetta. Soon after reaching Brisbane Lane got a start in journalism by reporting a dance for the Figaro. His breezy and sympathetic accounts of the temperance lectures of R. T. Booth commended him to the Courier, and before long he had a lucrative connection with these papers, the Leader and other Australian journals. As labour writer for the Evening Observer he spread his doctrines of communism and socialism to such effect that before long he was in the inner councils of the labour movement. He preached a vigorous nationalism for Australia, believing that living conditions could only be improved by confining their attention to Australian affairs. In 1885, mainly through his influence, the Brisbane trades and labour council was established, which soon embraced seven unions and 6,000 members, and in the following year the Maritime League was founded incorporating all branches of sea labour in the five colonies of Australia and New Zealand. At this stage Lane was rabidly anti-British and republican, but he resisted the inclusion of protection in the platform of the labour movement, until events converted him on this point. In 1887, with Alfred Walker, a compositor, he founded the Boomerang, which openly defended the association of labour and liberalism, advocated Australian nationalism, and gradually worked out Lane's theories of universal co-operation and land nationalisation. He turned from Fabianism to the cult of Henry George, firmly believing that liberty was dependent on the right to earn a livelihood from the soil. He wished Australia to be left alone, as an independent republic free of British imperialism. This gradually brought him round to protection as a measure of nationalism. He was also passionately opposed to the admission of Chinese to Australia and in 1889 published a serial story descriptive of a civil war in 1908 between the Australians and Chinese. A libel action brought successfully against the Boomerang in 1888 by a political candidate disclosed the great influence Lane now had in Queensland politics. His emotional prose was typical of the labour movement of the day. He still believed in the trades union movement as the means of gaining labour ends, and insisted that labour leaders must be sober men, abstainers for preference. His 9,000 subscribers were largely members of the shearers' union. In 1888 a trades unionist (T. Glassey) was elected to Parliament although the Boomerang was the only paper which supported him. The trades and labour council developed in 1889 into the Australian Labour Federation. In 1889 Lane disposed of the Boomerang to Gresley Lukin (q.v.), in order to accept the editorship of a new paper, the Worker, founded by the unions with a commencing circulation of 13,000. This involved a personal sacrifice for Lane, who gave up a connection worth £600 a year for a salary of £3 a week. In the new monthly, signing himself 'John Miller,' he worked frantically for his vision of the co-operative state, and moved perceptibly towards the political sphere for labour aims. The Workers' Political Organisation Conference in 1891 claimed 15,000 adherents, and Lane succeeded in bringing women into the movement. At this time he considered compulsory arbitration merely a device of the capitalists to make wage-slavery permanent; he advocated voluntary agreements with the employers. During the series of strikes inaugurated by that of the shearers in 1889 Lane was sent to South Australia as a delegate of the general executive of the Australian Labour Federation to compose the differences of the five great pastoral unions. Throughout these strikes he directed operations, organised relief and published his great propaganda novel The Workingman's Paradise (1892). It was in these days that he overcame his aversion to public speaking, and appeared on the soapbox so effectively that when the strikes failed the Daily Telegraph (Brisbane) demanded his arrest. His conviction of the inevitability of socialism-the workers owning and operating the means of production-was adopted by the A.L.F. in a manifesto which demanded the nationalisation (at a fair valuation) of all sources of wealth and means of producing and exchanging wealth; pensions for children, aged and invalid persons, and the eight-hour day. Lane had a part also in the formulation of the People's Parliamentary Platform adopted by the Labour Federation. Throughout these years he urged the passing of village settlement bills. He continued to insist on the sobriety of labour leaders and was able to point to the outstanding success of the Queensland labour movement, which was directed by total abstainers. Labour had considerable success at the elections, but Lane was soon disappointed with their political conduct. In his disappointment he talked of the establishment of a collectivist colony which should be a demonstration of his social views. In May 1890 application was made for suitable land at Wilcannia. Copeland, the Minister for Lands in New South Wales, was disposed to make provision for a co-operative colony, but he was over-ruled on a technical point. Meanwhile inquiries made by Alfred Walker in South America commenced to yield hopeful replies. The plan was looked upon favourably by Australian unionists before the strike of 1891, and later in the year it was developed in a pamphlet. Lane, who regarded socialism as practical Christianity, lost confidence in the political machine. He believed that in 'New Australia' they could achieve socialism at once and afford an object lesson to Australian reformers. A committee was set up with him as chairman, and an invitation was extended to thrifty and sober men and women, bushmen for preference, to realise their assets and join the movement. In a very short time £30,000 was paid in and a picked band of pioneers, including John Lane and his wife, and James Murdoch (of the Brisbane Grammar School, afterwards a professor in Japan) were ready to sail. Lane was unrestrained in his devotion to the cause of communism and his energy in organising the colony. Alfred Walker cabled in Jan 1892 that he had been offered a grant of 40 leagues of land in Paraguay, 130 miles from Asuncion; immunity from customs taxation for 40 years; and free rail transport, on condition that 800 families were settled within four years. The New Australia Settlement Association Company was registered at Lane's house in Brisbane (removing later to Wagga, and eventually to Sydney). The articles of association provided for communal and co-operative ownership and operation of all the means of production and exchange; community sanitation and education; community maintenance of children (under the guardianship of their parents); the division of the surplus production amongst the settlers without regard to age, sex or physical or mental capacity; complete sex equality and individual and religious freedom. The sole executive authority was vested in a director elected by a two-thirds vote in a general ballot; with an advisory board of superintendents similarly elected. Lane resigned the editorship of the Worker to carry on the organisation, and by May 1893, despite obstruction by governments and some selfish dilatoriness on the part of the workers, the first batch of pioneers was ready for embarkation. The barque Royal Tar, 598 tons, which had been in the South American trade, was purchased for £1,200, and she eventually sailed (Jul 1893) with more than 200 emigrants, the pick of Australian workers. Lane had been elected director. On 13 Sep the Royal Tar arrived at Monte Video and 220 passengers and 460 tons of their belongings were transferred to the river steamer for their destination 1,200 miles distant. In Dec Lane registered the Association's title to 225,000 acres of land, and received from the government of Paraguay the powers of a magistrate and governor of a separate district, so that the colonists should be free from interference by local administrators. The settlers started erecting their homes and clearing the land for cultivation, and the various organisations of government, which had been discussed on the voyage, were put into operation. The debates on the voyage had unfortunately created a partisanship which became accentuated in the colony. Complaint was made that Lane was too puritanical in his judgment of human frailties. In Dec 1893 three members were expelled by Lane for misconduct, and a few weeks later 85 seceded in a body. Meanwhile the Royal Tar made a second voyage with 200 settlers, under Gilbert Casey. Casey soon became leader of the opposition to the policy adopted by Lane, and eventually returned to Australia to take over the assets of the Association there. In May 1894, less than a year after leaving Australia, Lane himself, feeling that individualism was becoming too aggressive, seceded with 60 followers to found an independent communistic settlement. His own opinions were becoming strongly Christian and he took a more religious view of the Labour movement, and represented Communism as the law of God. The seceders purchased 15,000 acres of land 11 miles from the small town of Caazapa, where they established their new settlement of Cosme in Jul 1894. Though they suffered great privations at first, the settlers lived in unruffled amity and made a marked success of their settlement. Within a few years they had established such essential industries as dairying, tanning, sawmilling and brickmaking. In 1896 the government recognised their success by enlarging the boundaries and reimbursing the payments made for the land. In 1897 the population had increased to 131. Lane had a severe illness in 1895, and in the following year paid a visit to England to recruit new settlers, preferably skilled mechanics. He now began to fear that even the colonists of Cosme were not sufficiently religious in their outlook and tended to run the colony on purely material lines. Early in 1899 his wife was seriously ill. He had a growing conviction that he was not taking sufficient thought for the future of his family, and eventually he decided to withdraw from Cosme and leave Paraguay for good, to continue his work through the press and to earn money to repay liabilities he had incurred on behalf of the settlement. Accordingly he took his departure (on 2 Aug 1899) for England on his way to New Zealand. He had accepted employment on the New Zealand Herald when he received an invitation from the Australian Workers' Union to be the first full-time editor of the Worker (Sydney). His acceptance of this post was announced on 20 Jan 1900. It was a short-lived engagement. Disillusioned by what he had gone through, and impatient of the results of labour's political activities, he soon found himself out of tune with current philosophies. His intense nationalism, which formerly had expressed itself in an anti-British direction, now made him a fervent supporter of British policy in South Africa. This caused hostility to his management of the Worker, and in May 1900 he retired, came to Auckland, and joined the staff of the conservative New Zealand Herald as leader-writer. His 'Tohunga' articles, which began on 9 Jun 1900, were characterised by an old-fashioned conservatism, with a strong tinge of humanity and burning loyalty to the British connection. That he should have been the head and front of the National Defence League, which was formed in 1906 to promote universal military training in New Zealand, was no departure from his earlier nationalism, which exulted in the belief that the military training of her citizens made Australia at last free from any fear of invasion. Lane became editor of the Herald in 1913 and held that post until his death on 26 Aug 1917. Australian Rev. of Reviews, iii, p. 276; Fairfax, A Century of Journalism, p. 338; W. Lloyd Ross, William Lane and the Australian Labour Movement; T. A. Coghlan, Labour and Industry in Australia; A. St Ledger, Australian Socialism; Stewart Graham, Where Socialism Failed; W. K. Hancock, Australia; May Gilmore, Old Days and Old Ways and More Recollections; Otago Daily Times, 15 Sep 1916; N.Z. Herald, 26 Aug, 1 Sep 1917, et pass. Reference: Volume 1, page 258 | Volume 1, page 258 🌳 Further sources |
Frederick William Lang | Frederick William LangLANG, SIR FREDERICK WILLIAM (1852-1937) was born and educated at Blackheath, London, and came to New Zealand at the age of 19. After a careful inspection of the province of Auckland he took up land at Tuhikaramea, on the Waipa river, where he farmed successfully for a long period. He was chairman of the Tuhikaramea road board, the Waipa county council and the hospital and charitable aid board. In 1893 he was elected M.H.R. for Waipa (defeating Gerald Peacocke) and at the following election he gained the new Waikato seat, which he held until 1905 (when he was unseated by H. J. Greenslade). The death of Kirkbride a few months later made a vacancy in Manukau, and he represented that district until 1922 (when he was defeated by W. J. Jordan). Lang was a hard-working member of parliamentary committees, notably those on lands, agriculture and stock. He was for some years senior Reform whip; and in 1912 chairman of committees. In the following year he succeeded Guinness as Speaker of the House and held that position until 1923. (K.B. 1916) In 1924 Lang was called to the Legislative Council, of which he was a member at his death (on 5 Mar 1937). N.Z.P.D., 10 Sep 1937; Who's Who N.Z., 1908, 1924, 1932; N.Z. Herald, 6 Mar 1937. Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 258 | Volume 1, page 258 🌳 Further sources |
Falconer Larkworthy | Falconer LarkworthyLARKWORTHY, FALCONER (1833-1928) was the son of a surgeon and was born at Weymouth, England, educated partly at the Liverpool Institute, and at the age of 16 entered the countinghouse of a firm of East India merchants in London. In 1852 he joined the Oriental Bank Corporation, and was sent out as sub-accountant to a new branch in Mauritius. Ill health led him to Australia in 1855, and from the management of the agency at Beechworth he was sent to New Zealand in 1861. There he received instructions to wind up the business of the Oriental Bank. Later in the year he opened a branch of the Bank of New Zealand. In his book Ninety-One Years (published in 1924), he describes the straits to which he was reduced to provide currency for the purchase of gold from miners on the new fields, then at the height of their prosperity. He opened an agency at Wetherstones, where he bought gold for notes. In his absence with the escort in Dunedin, a run occurred and he had to hasten back to arrest it. At the end of the year he returned to England, where he was for almost 30 years managing director of the Bank of New Zealand. Larkworthy was concerned in the flotation and management of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., of which he was managing director from 1866 to 1890; the Waikato Land Association and the Auckland Agricultural Co. From 1863 he was connected with the Commercial Assurance Co. In 1898 he became a director of the Ionian Bank, and in 1900 chairman. In 1903 the King of Greece made him a commander of the Order of the Saviour for his services. Larkworthy died on 22 May 1928. Larkworthy, op. cit. (p), and N.Z. Revisited (1881); Ross; J. G. Wilson; Preshaw; Beauchamp. Reference: Volume 1, page 258 | Volume 1, page 258 🌳 Further sources |
William James Mudie Larnach | William James Mudie LarnachLARNACH, WILLIAM JAMES MUDIE (1838-98) was born at Castle Forbes, on the Hunter river, New South Wales, his father (James Larnach) having arrived in the Colony in 1822 as a cadet to Major Innes. Young Larnach was educated at Hetherington's High School, Singleton, Patrick Plains and Sydney College. As a boy he visited the goldfield discovered by Hargreaves, near Bathurst, and worked for four months on the Turon field. He spent some years on the land, and about 1863 entered the service of the Bank of New South Wales, eventually becoming manager of the Geelong branch. In 1866-67 he paid an extended visit to Europe with his family, and shortly after returning was offered from London the chief colonial management of the Bank of Otago. Larnach arrived in Dunedin in Sep 1867, and was successful until the London board agreed on a merger of the bank with the National. He remained in the service of the National for a year, and then retired to join Walter Guthrie in Guthrie and Larnach, ironmongers, hardware merchants and sawmillers. The firm languished in the eighties, and in 1887 Larnach went to Melbourne to start in business with Montague Pym. He soon returned to Dunedin, and was a director of the Colonial Bank until it merged in the Bank of New Zealand. Larnach was first induced to offer himself for Parliament in 1875, when he contested the Peninsula seat against Stout, and was defeated by 11 votes. At the general election next year he came forward for the City of Dunedin as a strong anti-abolitionist and was returned, with Stout and Macandrew. During the session of 1877 he moved the vote of no-confidence which resulted in the defeat of the Whitaker-Atkinson Government and was sent for by the Governor (Normanby). When Grey formed his ministry Larnach was Colonial Treasurer and Minister of Public Works and Railways. His financial policy included the nationalising of the land funds of the provinces. At the request of his colleagues he resigned his two principal portfolios and went to England early in 1878 to float a three-million loan. This he succeeded in doing, and he also arranged that the Bank of England should act as agents for such transactions instead of the private banking houses as hitherto. As one of the two commissioners from New Zealand to the Paris Exhibition of 1878 he spent several months in France. In 1879 he received the C.M.G. Meanwhile his colleagues had put in his resignation without calling him to the Council, and when he returned to New Zealand he was out of Parliament for two years. In Nov 1882 a vacancy occurred for the Peninsula seat through the death of the sitting member, and Larnach was returned, his principal opponent being Bishop Moran (q.v.). He declined to join the first Stout-Vogel Government in 1884. In Jan 1885 he was invited to join the second and (on condition that he had a free hand in developing mining) he accepted the portfolios of Mines and Marine, which he administered capably for more than two years. A promise to call him to the Legislative Council was not honoured, and he represented the Peninsula continuously until 1890. In that year the rising power of Labour, to which (although a Liberal) he would make no concessions, led to his defeat by Earnshaw. In 1893 Larnach contested Wakatipu against Fraser (without success), but on the death of Pyke he won the Tuapeka seat against M. J. S. Mackenzie (Jul 1894). He was a helpful critic of financial legislation, and suggested to Ward a means of financing advances to settlers without charging more than 3 per cent. interest. In 1891 he was chairman of the royal commission on the public trust. He was re-elected for Tuapeka in 1896. Larnach's activities in the financial world were wide and varied. Besides his own business in Dunedin, he was one of the promoters of the National Insurance Co. and a director until his death. He was a promoter of the Colonial Bank, and a director until he left the Colony in 1887, and again from his return until its amalgamation with the Bank of New Zealand. He was a director of the Kaitangata Coal Co. (1881-92). Larnach married (1859) Eliza Jane (d. 1880), daughter of Richard Guise (New South Wales). In 1882 he married Mary Cockburn (d. 1887), daughter of R. J. Alleyne (Murrumbidgee, New South Wales). In 1891 he married Constance, daughter of A. de B. Brandon (q.v.). He died on 12 Oct 1898. N.Z.P.D., 13 Oct 1898; Parltry Record; Cycl. N.Z., i (p); Ross; Gisborne; Saunders; N.Z. Herald, 28 Oct 1898; Otago Daily Times and Evening Star, 13 Oct 1898. Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 260 | Volume 1, page 260 🌳 Further sources |
Edward Circuit Latter | Edward Circuit LatterLATTER, EDWARD CIRCUIT (1829-96) was born at Wicken, Cambridgeshire. He came to New Zealand in the Travancore (1851), worked for a while in Christchurch and on Innes's station in South Canterbury; then opened a quarry on the Port Hills and started a dairy farm at Governors Bay. He represented Heathcote in the Provincial Council (1860-61). In 1862 he settled at Akaroa as a merchant and shipping agent, and acquired the steamer Wainui to maintain a service between the bays and Lyttelton. In 1876 he extended his operations to Barry's Bay, where he took up 2,000 acres and opened a sawmill. In 1879 he was appointed land tax commissioner, and in 1884 official assignee, which positions he held to 1889. Latter was chairman of the Akaroa county council and road board and a member of the Ellesmere trust. He was a J.P., a synodsman and a freemason. He married (1854) Mary Elizabeth (1838-94), daughter of Samuel Gundry (who arrived in the Steadfast 1851). Latter died on 4 Sep 1896. Cycl. N.Z., iii; Stack, Early Maoriland Adventures, and More Adventures; Lyttelton Times, 27 Jun 1894, 5 Sep 1896. Reference: Volume 1, page 260 | Volume 1, page 260 🌳 Further sources |
Jakob Lauper(Louper) | Jakob Lauper(Louper)LAUPER, JAKOB, or LOUPER, belonged to Giffers, canton Freiburg, Switzerland, and came to New Zealand in 1863. He was engaged with J. H. Whitcombe (q.v.) in exploration of the routes to the West Coast when the latter was drowned. Lauper's report of the exploration appears in the Canterbury Provincial Gazette (1863, vol x, no. 10). He received a grant of £100 from the province for his services. Some years later he returned to his native land, which he again left in 1884 or 1885 for New Zealand. Canterbury P.C. Proc., ii, p 214; Canterbury Gaz., cit.; Lands and Survey dept. (information); Dobson; Harrop, Westland; Cycl. N.Z., i, 1023; Lyttelton Times, 11 Jul 1863. Reference: Volume 1, page 260 | Volume 1, page 260 🌳 Further sources |
George Laurenson | George LaurensonLAURENSON, GEORGE (1857-1913) was born in Edinburgh, and educated at a private school in the Shetland Islands. He served for a short time in the office of a ship chandler in Glasgow before coming to New Zealand with his parents in 1876. Here he studied for the civil service, but took employment with R. Forbes and Co., ships' store merchants at Lyttelton, and eventually became a partner. He retired in 1906. Laurenson was a member of the Lyttelton borough council, and chairman of the school committee and the harbour board. In 1899 he won the Lyttelton parliamentary seat as an independent Liberal. For some years he gave a general support to the Seddon Government, but about 1905, with T. E. Taylor, H. D. Bedford and F. M. B. Fisher, he withdrew to form an independent wing known as the New Liberals. He was Minister of Marine, Labour and Customs in the Mackenzie Government of 1912, but thereafter was a private member till his death (on 19 Nov 1913). Laurenson was deeply interested in social movements, and devoted much time to temperance reform, the sailors' home in Lyttelton, and the Boys Gordon club (from which the Gordon Hall in Christchurch sprang). He was an elder of St Paul's Presbyterian Church in Christchurch, and of St John's in Lyttelton, and was associated with Sunday school work for a long period. He was also chief of the Scottish society, took much interest in the development and beautifying of Lyttelton and was a keen yachtsman, owning the Fleetwing. N.Z.P.D., 19 Nov 1913; Lyttelton Times and The Press, 20 Nov 1913. Reference: Volume 1, page 260 | Volume 1, page 260 🌳 Further sources |
Charles Francois Lavaud | Charles Francois LavaudLAVAUD, CHARLES FRANCOIS (1798-1878) was born at Lorient, France, and entered the French Navy as an apprentice in the frigate "Nymphe" in 1810. He served in India (1811), in the frigate Junon in the Greek war of independence (1826-28) and later commanded the Philomene (1829-31), the Endymion, Cuirassier, Aube and Bonite. (Ensign 1819; lieutenant 1825; captain 1832; post-captain 1840.) Before sailing for the Pacific in command of the Aube in 1839, Lavaud was called into conference by the Minister of Marine to discuss the protection proposed to be extended to the Nanto-Bordelaise Company in New Zealand and the whale fisheries. His orders were to hoist the French flag only at Akaroa. Lavaud arrived at Bay of Islands on 10 Jul 1840, and met Captain Hobson (with whom he discussed his intentions), Bishop Pompallier, de Thierry and others. In view of his statements Hobson despatched the brig Britomart on 22 Jul to take a magistrate to Akaroa, so that a British court of justice might be in existence when the French arrived. The Britomart reached her destination on 10 Aug, and five days later the Aube appeared off the harbour and was towed in by the British ship's boats. On the 17th the Comte de Paris arrived with the French immigrants, who landed two days later. When the Britomart left, on the 27th, Lavaud co-operated cordially with the magistrate (C. B. Robinson) in maintaining order in the settlement, even to the extent of landing a police guard to enforce the regulations they had agreed upon. Hobson, arriving on a visit on 12 Sep 1841, appreciated the tactful manner in which Lavaud had conducted himself, and, since the question was still being discussed between the two governments, he agreed not to weaken Lavaud's authority with the French people by hoisting the British flag on shore. Lavaud terminated his commission in New Zealand in 1843 and returned to France. His conduct was warmly approved by the Minister of Marine and he was advanced to the rank of an officer of the Legion of Honour (1842). In 1846 he was appointed governor of the French establishments in Oceania, commander of the frigate Sirene and the naval squadron on the station. In 1849 he returned to France, and in 1856 was appointed second in command of the squadron of evolutions and later to command the first division of the squadron. In 1860 he was appointed to the general staff. Lavaud died on 11 Mar 1878. A street in Wellington is named after him. G.B.O.P., 1841/311; 1842/569; Ministere de la Marine (Service Historique); Buick, French at Akaroa and Waitangi; Scholefield, Hobson. Reference: Volume 1, page 261 | Volume 1, page 261 🌳 Further sources |
Burton Charles Lawrence | Burton Charles LawrenceLAWRENCE, BURTON CHARLES, was born in London and came to New Zealand in the Joseph Fletcher (1853). He was engaged in his trade in New Plymouth, and represented the town in the Provincial Council (1866-73). Parltry Record. Reference: Volume 1, page 261 | Volume 1, page 261 🌳 Further sources |
James Lawrence | James LawrenceLAWRENCE, JAMES, was born at Hythe, Kent, in 1826, educated there and joined the customs at Folkestone. He came to New Zealand with H. S. Tiffen in the Westminster in 1856, and became his manager at Homewood, Kaikoura. He afterwards purchased a portion of this estate and carried it on as a sheep run till 1886. Lawrence was in the Hawke's Bay Provincial Council for Te Aute in 1875. He was chairman of the Kaikoura road board, school committee and licensing committee, a justice of the peace and president of the Waipawa Racing club. He married (1866) a daughter of Captain Brown, R.N., of Sligo, Ireland. Parltry Record; Cycl. N.Z., vi (p). Reference: Volume 1, page 261 | Volume 1, page 261 🌳 Further sources |
Frank Lawry | Frank LawryLAWRY, FRANK (1844-1921) was born at Bleadon, Somerset, the son of a farmer and Methodist minister. Educated at Weston-super-Mare, he arrived in New Zealand by the Ulcoates (1863) and engaged in farming. He was chairman of the Epsom road board and the Epsom school committee, was on the Auckland education board (1885-87), and some time president of the Agricultural and Pastoral society. After contesting the South Franklin and Manukau seats in 1881 and 1884 (against Hamlin and O'Rorke), Lawry in 1887 was elected for the Franklin South seat in Parliament. At the election of 1890 he won Parnell, which he held until his retirement in 1911. Lawry was senior whip (1891-94) and chairman of the agricultural and stock committee. He died on 19 Jan 1921. N.Z.P.D., pass, 11 Mar 1921; Who's Who N.Z., 1908; N.Z. Herald, 20 Jan 1921. Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 261 | Volume 1, page 261 🌳 Further sources |
Henry Hassall Lawry | Henry Hassall LawryLAWRY, HENRY HASSALL (1821-1906), a son of Walter Lawry (q.v.), was born at Parramatta in 1821, and spent six years at the Kingswood School near Bristol (for the children of Wesleyan ministers). In 1836 he was apprenticed to a printer, and he was a journeyman when the family returned to New Zealand (1843). Lawry joined the mission forthwith, and was received into the ministry in 1845. During the next four years he was engaged with Buddle in organising and teaching at the native institutions at Grafton Road and Three Kings. He then took charge of the mission station at Waima, where he remained until it was broken up by the war (1864). The native institutions were suspended for the same reason, and during 1864-79 Lawry did supernumerary work in and about Auckland. Then at the suggestion of Sir George Grey he was appointed an interpreter in the native land court. From the time he returned to Auckland his home at Carlton Gore was a centre of the evangelical alliance. He was from 1866 secretary of the Auckland auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and in 1892 was elected a life governor of the parent body. For 30 years he was secretary of the Educational Institution, afterwards known as Prince Albert College, of which he was also a trustee. He edited and put through the press a Maori service book and assisted Maunsell (q.v.) in revising and printing the Maori Bible. He died on 8 May 1906. His son, the Rev Arner Cycl. NZ, ii (p); NZ Herald, 9 May 1906. Reference: Volume 1, page 261 | Volume 1, page 261 🌳 Further sources |
Samuel Lawry | Samuel LawryLAWRY, SAMUEL (1854-1933) was born at Bodmin, Cornwall, and came to New Zealand with his parents in 1862. From the yeoman stock of Cornish Methodism he inherited a stalwart frame and a virile intellect. He joined the Methodist Church when 10 years old and became a local preacher in 1872. He pursued his studies first under the Rev J. B. Richardson and later at Three Kings College. In 1877 he began his ministry at Rangitikei, and for 34 years served in various circuits. For seven years he rode over 4,000 miles a year on horseback. In 1881 he married Janet McHardie, of the Hutt (who died 1920). On seven occasions Lawry was secretary of conference, and he became president of the New Zealand conference in 1904. He also served as chairman of synods and was assistant secretary to the general conference of Australasia. He excelled in ecclesiastical statesmanship, and was well versed in the principles and policy of his Church. In 1911 he was appointed connexional secretary. He led the movement for an independent self-governing conference for New Zealand, and had a large share in promoting the Methodist Union within New Zealand, in recognition of which he was elected president of the United conference in 1913. He became secretary and managing treasurer of the supernumerary fund and business manager of the Methodist Times. For some years he was on the board of governors of Canterbury College, and he was a member of the Boys Gordon Hall trust established by Sir John Hall. Lawry was superannuated in 1927, and was succeeded by the Rev M. A. Rugby Pratt. He died on 26 Jul 1933. M.A.R.P. Reference: Volume 1, page 261 | Volume 1, page 261 🌳 Further sources |
Walter Lawry | Walter LawryLAWRY, WALTER (1793-1859). Born at Ruthern Bridge, near Bodmin, Cornwall, on 3 Aug 1793, Lawry was the son of a devout yeoman farmer. Received into the Methodist ministry at the conference of 1817, he was appointed as the second Wesleyan missionary in Australia to be colleague to Samuel Leigh (q.v.). He sailed in the convict ship Lady Castlereagh, and arrived at Port Jackson on 1 May 1818. He laboured at Parramatta with Leigh until 1820, when the mission was divided into three circuits, and he was appointed to Parramatta. In 1819 he married Miss Hassall, daughter of a pioneer missionary to Tahiti, and sister of Marsden's son-in-law, the Rev Thomas Hassall. Owing to a difference amongst the subscribers as to opening the chapel to all Nonconformists, Lawry built it mainly at his own expense on a site given by Governor Macquarie. Meeting at Parramatta the widow of Shelley, one of the survivors of the pioneer mission to Tonga (1797), Lawry became interested in this far field. As a result he succeeded in moving the British conference in 1820 to appoint him, with another to labour in Tonga. Without waiting for his colleague to be appointed, he sailed in the hired ship St Michael, with his wife and two artisans and a few cattle presented by Governor Brisbane. He reached the Bay of Islands on 12 Jul 1822 and remained till the 28th. On 16 Aug he landed at Nukualofa. Land for the mission was given by a son of the first Tugi, who, however, declined to protect the mission. After undergoing many annoyances, and the climate from which the health of his wife suffered, Lawry was obliged to leave the group. He reached Sydney on 23 Oct 1823. The mission was reopened in 1826 by two Tahitian converts, and Lawry's successors arrived shortly afterwards. In 1824 Lawry proceeded to England, where he spent the years 1825-44 in circuit work. In 1843 he was appointed general superintendent of the Wesleyan missions in New Zealand and visitor to those of Polynesia, a position he held for 11 years. He reached New Zealand on 17 Mar 1844, at a critical time in the relations with the Maori. The great tribal meeting was held at Remuera shortly afterwards, and a few months later war broke out in the north, causing the temporary closing of many mission stations. Meanwhile Lawry was closely engaged in the organisation of the church in Auckland for both races. Sectional meetings were held all over the district. Lawry, always mindful of the Maori, proposed to Sir George Grey the establishment of an institution for the training of native boys and girls, teachers and ministers, the outcome of which was the model school at Three Kings and Wesley College in Auckland. There a large number of youths were trained in the rudiments of English education and Christian knowledge and in industrial pursuits. During these years Lawry paid two visits to Tonga and Fiji (1847 and 1850) in the new mission ship John Wesley (which had replaced the Triton in 1846). In her also he went to England in 1849, with the Rev William Williams and Tamihana te Rauparaha as fellow passengers. After his return to New Zealand he assisted in the formation of the Australasian Wesleyan Methodist conference. In 1854 he was superannuated and moved to New South Wales. Lawry died at Parramatta on 30 Mar 1859, leaving a mark on the history of his church. He was a man of robust constitution and manner, a powerful preacher and able administrator. His widow died at Auckland 9 Dec 1877, aged 89. Amongst his publications were narratives of his two visits to the Friendly Islands and Fiji. Morley; Marsden, Lieutenants; Ramsden; M. A. R. Pratt (information); Lawry, op. cit.; Mennell; Buller. Reference: Volume 1, page 262 | Volume 1, page 262 🌳 Further sources |
John Lazar | John LazarLAZAR, JOHN (1801-79) was born at Edinburgh, and arrived in New South Wales by the Lady McNaughten (1836). There he engaged in the theatrical profession till 1851, leasing and managing theatres in Australia and playing in his own productions. He then went into business as a jeweller in Adelaide, was an alderman of the City Council (1853-55 and 1857-59) and mayor (1855-57). In 1863 Lazar left for New Zealand, having lived for 24 years in South Australia. He was clerk of the Dunedin town board (1863-65) and town clerk (1865-66), and on resigning to live in Hokitika received a gratuity of £200. He was town clerk of Hokitika (1866), county treasurer (1873), and eventually provincial treasurer. Lazar was very prominent in freemasonry, into which he was initiated in Sydney in 1838. In South Australia he was deputy provincial grandmaster; and he was provincial district grand-master for Westland (1871-79). He was a member of the Jewish community. His death occurred on 8 Jun 1879. City of Adelaide Municipal Yearbook (1920); Barclay; Grey River Argus, 9 Jun 1879. Reference: Volume 1, page 262 | Volume 1, page 262 🌳 Further sources |
George William Leadley | George William LeadleyLEADLEY, GEORGE WILLIAM (1856-1933), who was born in Yorkshire, came to New Zealand in 1863 by the Lancashire Witch. His father, C. R. Leadley, was one of the early settlers of Courtenay, Canterbury. In 1877 he bought land at Ashburton, which he sold to the Government as the Valverde estate in 1911 and moved to Eglin. In public life Leadley served as chairman of the Wakanui road board and school committee and of the Ashburton Agricultural and Pastoral association, and as a member of the Ashburton county council, and of the licensing committee. He took a prominent part in establishing the Fairfield freezing works and the Ashburton Cooperative Dairy Co. In 1901 he formed at Ashburton the first South Island branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, of which he became local and Dominion president. Leadley was for many years a prominent local preacher in the Methodist Church, and was elected president of the New Zealand local preachers' association. He married in 1881, Elizabeth, daughter of William Paterson, of Prebbleton, and in 1901, Elizabeth, daughter of William Fleming, of Ashburton. Leadley died on 15 Nov 1933. Who's Who N.Z., 1924, 1932; Ashburton Guardian, 16 Nov 1933. Reference: Volume 1, page 262 | Volume 1, page 262 🌳 Further sources |
Richard Henry Leary | Richard Henry LearyLEARY, RICHARD HENRY (1840-95) was born at Southall, Middlesex, and educated at an elementary private school in London. In 1854 he emigrated to Victoria, where he spent some years on the gold diggings, in the bush and in merchants' offices in Ballarat and Melbourne. For a while he represented his firm in Geelong. In Sep 1861 he came to Otago, spent a few months on the goldfields and then became manager for R. Wilson and Co. in Dunedin. In 1865 he moved to Hokitika, but a few years later was back in Dunedin as accountant to Driver, McLean and Co. On the dissolution of that firm (1871) he started in business as a public accountant and estate agent, and for some years was also provincial trustee in bankruptcy. In 1878 he entered into partnership with Horace Bastings, as Bastings, Leary and Co., auctioneers and agents, afterwards continuing on his own account. He formed the accountants' institute. Leary was a member of the Dunedin City Council (1875). In 1877 he was elected mayor, but resigned a few months later when the Council refused to support him in a contest with the town clerk on the method of keeping the city accounts. He was re-elected on that occasion and again in 1886. In the latter term of office the foundation stone of the town hall was laid and the Silverstream water supply was adopted. In 1890 Leary contested the Dunedin City seat in Parliament (without success). He was a member of the first parliamentary union in Dunedin, and speaker when it was revived in 1893. For some time he was secretary of the Otago Central Railway league. He was manager of the Otago Guardian and from the formation of the Otago Daily Times Co. in 1878 he was a director. His death occurred on 16 May 1895 while he was in London as agent for the raising of a Dunedin city loan. Otago Daily Times, 11 Jun 1895. Reference: Volume 1, page 262 | Volume 1, page 262 🌳 Further sources |
Edward James Lee | Edward James LeeLEE, EDWARD JAMES (1822-83) was born in London, where he was engaged in a bank before coming to Nelson (1848). In 1849, with Edward Jollie, he took up Mt Parnassus station, near which in 1859 William Jones discovered the Hanmer springs. Lee and Jollie drove 4,800 sheep through from Nelson to the Waiau-ua, taking two months and losing only 3 per cent. Lee moved to Southbridge in 1862, and was a member of the road board for a long period, and chairman of the Selwyn county council. He was elected to represent Selwyn in Parliament in 1883, and died on 17 Dec of that year. He married (1851) a daughter of Archdeacon Paul. Lee drove the first flock of sheep overland from Nelson to Canterbury. Parlty Record; Cycl. NZ, iii; Acland; Lyttelton Times, 21 Dec 1883. Reference: Volume 1, page 262 | Volume 1, page 262 🌳 Further sources |
Ernest Page Lee | Ernest Page LeeLEE, ERNEST PAGE (1862-1932) was born at Teignmouth, England, and educated at Cheltenham and London. In 1880 he was articled to a firm of solicitors in the west of England, and in 1885 he was admitted a solicitor. He came to New Zealand in 1886 and qualified as a barrister and solicitor. He was for some years managing clerk to Hislop and Creagh, Oamaru, and then practised with A. J. Grave (as Lee, Grave and Grave). Lee was a member of the Oamaru borough council and of the school committee; a founder of the North Otago Jockey club, a member of the Waitaki High School board of governors and a strenuous advocate of junior high schools. In 1911 he defeated T. Y. Duncan for the Oamaru seat in Parliament, which he held until 1922 when he was defeated by J. A. Macpherson. He regained the seat three years later, but was again defeated by Macpherson in 1928. Lee married Jane Winifred de Lambert (Oamaru). He died on 18 Feb 1932. Who's Who N.Z., 1924; Otago Daily Times, 19 Feb 1932. Reference: Volume 1, page 262 | Volume 1, page 262 🌳 Further sources |
George Lesl Lee | George Lesl LeeLEE, GEORGE LESLIE (1814-97) was one of the earliest settlers in Canterbury, taking up, first Highfield, and afterwards Stoke Grange, Moeraki. He represented Amuri in the Nelson Provincial Council (1855-57) and Oxford in the Canterbury Council (1867-70), being a member of Jollie's executive (1868-69). In 1862 he was called to the Legislative Council, of which he was a member till 1870. On giving up farming, Lee became clerk of the Provincial Council and later returning officer for Christchurch. He once owned racehorses, including Nourmahal. He married (1857) a daughter of Colonel Fuller. He died on 15 Sep 1897. Parlty Record; Nelson and Canterbury P.C. Proc.; Roberts; Lyttelton Times and The Press, 16 Sep 1897. Reference: Volume 1, page 262 | Volume 1, page 262 🌳 Further sources |
Robert Lee | Robert LeeLEE, ROBERT (1837-1922) was born at Grantham, Lincolnshire, and educated there. After three years as a pupil teacher he won a scholarship at St Mark's College, Chelsea, and after completing that was for two years master in charge of the College upper division practising school. In 1856 he was appointed headmaster of All Saints Boys' school at Preston, Lancashire, and in 1863 was offered the headmastership of the Bishop's school at Nelson. There he remained till the end of 1873, when he became inspector of schools for Wellington provincial district, a post he held for 28 years. He introduced and developed the system of standards. In 1906 Lee was commissioner on the Te Aute and Wanganui College endowments. He was the editor of Longman's Geographical Reader for New Zealand and leaflets in arithmetic. He married (1870) Fanny, daughter of John Gully (q.v.). Who's Who N.Z., 1908; Cycl. N.Z., i (p); Evening Post, 19 Jun 1922. Reference: Volume 1, page 262 | Volume 1, page 262 🌳 Further sources |
Samuel Lee | Samuel LeeLEE, SAMUEL (1783-1852) was born of poor parents at Longnor, Shropshire, given an elementary education in the parish and apprenticed at 12 to a carpenter. Fond of reading and languages, he mastered Greek and Hebrew by private study before he was 25 and made progress in Chaldee, Syriac, Persian and Hindustani. Marriage compelled him to work harder at his trade, but he became a teacher in Bowdler's foundation school in Shrewsbury. Under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society he entered Queen's College, Cambridge (1813), where he graduated (B.A. 1818; M.A. 1819; B.D. 1827; D.D. 1833). In 1819 he became professor of Arabic, and in 1831 regius professor of Hebrew. A profound linguist, he made a study of the Maori language with Hongi, Waikato and Kendall, and successfully produced the first Grammar and Vocabulary of the New Zealand Language (1820). Lee died on 16 Dec 1852. D.N.B.; Hocken in Trans. N.Z. Inst.; Marsden, L. and J., Lieutenants. Reference: Volume 1, page 263 | Volume 1, page 263 🌳 Further sources |
Walter Lee | Walter LeeLEE, WALTER (1811-87) arrived in Auckland in 1842 and engaged in sawmilling and other ventures. Elected to the first Parliament for Northern Division (1853), he sat to 1860. When it was proposed to open the proceedings of Parliament with prayers Lee, who was a Roman Catholic, moved a resolution (which, on the suggestion of E. G. Wakefield, he withdrew) disapproving of 'converting the House into a conventicle.' He was chairman of the first Auckland City Council (1855), and was M.P.C. for Northern Division (1857-60). Lee died on 29 Jan 1887. Parltry Record; Auckland P.C. Proc.; N.Z. Herald, 30 Jan 1887. Reference: Volume 1, page 263 | Volume 1, page 263 🌳 Further sources |
William Lee | William LeeLEE, WILLIAM (1840-1925), who was a native of Yorkshire, was ordained by the Methodist Church in 1864. Coming to New Zealand some years later, he was superintendent of 14 different circuits, including New Plymouth, Christchurch and Auckland (where he retired in 1907). Lee served as president of the Methodist Church conference for several terms and also held a number of connectional offices. He twice visited England as a representative of the New Zealand Church at British conferences. He died on 12 Nov 1925. Cycl. NZ, iii; Evening Post, 14 Nov 1925. Reference: Volume 1, page 263 | Volume 1, page 263 🌳 Further sources |
Samuel Leigh | Samuel LeighLEIGH, SAMUEL (1785-1852). The pioneer of Methodism in Australia and in New Zealand was born at Milton, near Hanley, in Staffordshire, on 1 Sep 1785 and came early under strong religious influence. He joined the Congregational Church and prepared for the ministry, becoming a student under Dr Bogue at the academy at Gosport; but, finding this rather Calvinistic for his maturing judgment, he offered himself to the Wesleyan Methodist society at Portsmouth and was approved by conference as a probationer. He was two years on circuit duty at Shaftesbury before being ordained in 1814 and appointed by the conference to North America. The political disturbances in Canada caused the cancellation of this appointment. Meanwhile he was inspired by Dr Coke to enter the mission field. The missionary committee in London, having received complaints as to the low moral state of the colony of New South Wales, decided to send him there as a missionary to the savages and settlers. Leigh sailed from Portsmouth in the Hebe on 28 Feb 1815, and landed in Sydney on 15 Aug 1815, the pioneer Wesleyan missionary in the southern world. He opened the first Wesleyan chapel in the southern world at Castlereagh. In New South Wales he won the confidence and good will of Governor Macquarie. He founded in Sydney the first Benevolent Society in Australia, as well as a Bible Society, a tract society and the Australian Methodist Missionary society. The work in the colony entailed severe hardship, from which his health suffered, and it was on the suggestion of the Rev Samuel Marsden, who had given him his cordial support in establishing Methodism in New South Wales, that for health reasons he paid a visit to New Zealand. Landing from the Active on 5 May 1819, he stayed there nine months. At Marsden's request he mediated in differences that had arisen amongst the workers in the Anglican lay mission. He restored harmony amongst them, and organised their work on a circuit basis. His report to Marsden led to the appointment of the first Anglican clergyman (the Rev J. G. Butler, q.v.) to New Zealand. When Leigh visited England in 1820 to advocate the establishment of a Wesleyan mission in New Zealand, the Church Missionary Society thanked him for his services to the Anglican mission there and made him a presentation of books. When he laid before Mission House the necessity of opening the field in New Zealand and Tonga, the conference, though badly in need of funds, accepted his proposals (1820). He then made an energetic canvass for goods, the yield of which materially assisted the support of both missions. Leigh was appointed to New Zealand, and Lawry (who had arrived in New South Wales in 1818) to Tonga. Having married Miss Clewes, Leigh sailed in the Brixton on 28 Apr 1821, and reached Port Jackson on 16 Sep. They crossed to New Zealand by the Active, arrived on 22 Jan 1822, and were heartily welcomed at Paihia by the C.M.S. missionaries, with whom they lived for 16 months acquiring the Maori language. Leigh preached his first sermon in Maori on 25 Aug. As Hongi's hostility forbade the establishment of a mission at Mercury Bay, Leigh prospected both Whangarei and Whangaroa. He chose the latter, and landed on 6 Jun 1823 from the St Michael. His first mission at Whangaroa he opened under the protection of the native chief George, who had been mainly responsible for the burning of the Boyd. Leigh encountered many difficulties and dangers in establishing himself at Wesleydale, near Kaeo, seven miles up the river. The tribal wars following the return of Hongi often threatened the mission. Leigh suffered a severe attack of fever, and when the Turners and Hobbs visited the station with Marsden in Aug 1823 his health was so feeble that Marsden insisted on taking him back to Australia. Mr and Mrs Leigh and Marsden left by the Brampton on 7 Sep 1823, but the vessel was wrecked. The passengers and crew spent three days on an island, and subsequently sailed from Bay of Islands in the Dragon on 14 Nov 1823, and reached Sydney on the 30th. Here Leigh continued to work until the death of his wife (15 May 1831). He then returned to England, where he became a supernumerary in 1845, but continued to work on the platform on behalf of the mission. He married a second time (1842), and died at Reading on 2 May 1852. Austral. Encycl.; Buller; A. Strachan, Life of Samuel Leigh; Marsden, L. and J., and Lieuts.; G. Smales in N.Z. Herald, 9 Dec 1893. Reference: Volume 1, page 263 | Volume 1, page 263 🌳 Further sources |
Francois Lelievre | Francois LelievreLELIEVRE, FRANCOIS (1803-1902) was born in France. He went to sea and first came to New Zealand in the whaler Nile in 1837. He was present when Captain Langlois purchased part of Banks Peninsula, and again in the Cachelot (1838). In 1840 he came to Akaroa as one of the emigrants in the Comte de Paris. He entered into business as a blacksmith, but was also a sheep farmer. Lelievre died on 12 Jul 1902, the last of the French settlers. Jacobson; J. Hay; Buick, French at Akaroa; The Press, 14 Jul 1902. Reference: Volume 1, page 263 | Volume 1, page 263 🌳 Further sources |
Charles Lemon | Charles LemonLEMON, CHARLES (1834-1901) was born in London, educated there, and at the age of 13 entered the technical school at South Kensington, where he applied himself particularly to the study of surveying and electricity. His brother John having settled in Oamaru and prospered, Lemon came out to join him, worked for a short time at his own trade as a builder, and was then appointed postmaster at Oamaru (1863). When the telegraph line was opened (1865) he was appointed telegraphist, being instructed by John Bull in the Morse code. In 1867 he was General Manager of Telegraphs, which at that time was confined to 757 miles of line. Lemon showed unusual business capacity and energy in developing the service by erecting new lines all over the Colony. In 1881 he was superintendent of the telegraph branch of the Post and Telegraph department, and when he retired (in 1894) there were in New Zealand 5,513 miles of line. He installed a duplex system in 1874. When the Western Electric Co. of Chicago wished to introduce its telephones he persuaded the Government to exercise the sole right to operate the new instruments. In recognition of his assistance to the American expedition which came to New Zealand to observe the transit of Venus (1874-75), Lemon had conferred on him by Hamilton University, U.S.A., the degree of doctor of philosophy. After his retirement he farmed a property at Fitzherbert, Palmerston North, where he died on 6 May 1901. Though the postal and telegraph branches were amalgamated in 1881 Lemon, as superintendent of telegraphs, continued to be responsible to the minister. Post and Telegraph dept. records; J. E. Green in P. and T. Guild Jour., Dec 1934; Evening Post and N.Z. Times, 7 May 1901; N.Z. Graphic, 25 Feb 1893 (p). Reference: Volume 1, page 263 | Volume 1, page 263 🌳 Further sources |
George Michael Lenihan | George Michael LenihanLENIHAN, GEORGE MICHAEL (1858-1910) was born in London of Irish parents, who died while he was a child. At 14 he entered the Benedictine College at Ramsgate, which was then under the Lord Abbot Alcock (who had associated with him Father Edmund Luck, q.v.). After four years there, he went to St Edmund's College, Oldham Green, to study for the Westminster diocese priesthood, and then for philosophy and theology to the English College at Valladolid, Spain. In 1882, when he was a subdeacon, he was invited to accompany Bishop Luck to New Zealand, and he was the first student of Ramsgate College to be ordained to the secular priesthood (on 27 Aug 1882). Arriving in Auckland late in the year, Lenihan was appointed curate to Monsignor Walter Macdonald at St Patrick's Cathedral, where he worked for more than three years. In 1886 he was appointed pastor of Ponsonby, which he found without either church or presbytery. The church was blessed six months later, and opened within the year. Lenihan had also entrusted to him the charge of the Star of the Sea orphanage at St Mary's. In 1891 he was appointed irremovable rector of Parnell, and four years later coadjutor to Bishop Luck, on whose death (early in 1896) he was selected as bishop. He was consecrated on 15 Nov 1896. In 1899 Lenihan visited Rome and Ireland and secured more priests for his diocese. He opened the Sacred Heart College in 1900, and in 1905 undertook the completion of St Patrick's Cathedral. This was accomplished in 1907, the complete building being dedicated in 1908. Lenihan again visited Europe and North America in 1908, when he attended the celebration of the golden jubilee of Pope Pius X and the Eucharistic congress in London. He died on 23 Feb 1910. Who's Who N.Z., 1908; N.Z. Herald, 23 Feb 1910 (p). Reference: Volume 1, page 264 | Volume 1, page 264 🌳 Further sources |
Maxwell Lepper | Maxwell LepperLEPPER, MAXWELL (1828-69) got his ensigncy in the 86th Regiment in 1847, purchased his lieutenancy in 1849 and his captaincy in 1855. In 1858 he went to India with the Regiment, and was present at the sieges of Chandaree and Jhansi, the battles of Betwa, Golowli and Kunch, and the capture of Kalpi (after which he commanded the European infantry in the pursuit); then at the battle of Morar and the capture of Gwalior. He was thrice mentioned in despatches, was promoted brevet-major, and received the medal and clasps. Lepper then exchanged (1860) into the 14th Regiment, with which he came to New Zealand. Here he retired from the army and was appointed lieut-colonel commanding the Taranaki Military Settlers (Sep 1864). He farmed the Brooklands estate and died at Manutahi on 24 Nov 1869. War Office records; Wells; Taranaki Herald, 27 Nov 1869. Reference: Volume 1, page 264 | Volume 1, page 264 🌳 Further sources |
Frank Yates Lethbridge | Frank Yates LethbridgeLETHBRIDGE, FRANK YATES (1852-1915) was born at New Plymouth, the son of G. M. Lethbridge (q.v.) and educated at a private school there, at Nelson public school and at Wellington College (1868-71). After finishing at a private school in Wellington, he started work on his father's property, and in 1876 took charge of the run at Feilding. He married his cousin (nee Lethbridge). He was 15 years a member (and six chairman) of the Manchester road board; was one of the first borough councillors of Feilding (of which he was mayor in 1882 and 1889); an original member of the Manawatu county council, and a member of the Wanganui education board and the Palmerston North hospital board (first chairman); and president of the Feilding Jockey club. In 1893, as a Conservative, he contested the Rangitikei seat against J. Stevens (q.v.). He was M.H.R. for Rangitikei (1896-1902), and for Oroua (1903-06). Lethbridge was a lieutenant of militia and captain of the Manchester rifles. He died in 1915. N.Z.P.D., 1896-1906 and 25 Jun 1915; Leckie; Cycl. N.Z., i (p); Who's Who N.Z., 1908. Reference: Volume 1, page 264 | Volume 1, page 264 🌳 Further sources |
George Yates Lethbridge | George Yates LethbridgeLETHBRIDGE, GEORGE YATES (1821-1902) was born at Ivybridge, Devon, and came to Taranaki with his parents in the Oriental (1841). During the Maori war he carried out contracts for the troops in the Taranaki and Wanganui districts. He was a member of the Taranaki Provincial Council (for Grey and Bell 1857-61, and for New Plymouth 1861-64). About 1867 he settled at Turakina, where he played his part on all local bodies, being chairman of the town board almost continuously from its inception, and first chairman of the Rangitikei county council. He died on 3 May 1902. (See his son, F. Y. LETHBRIDGE) Cycl. NZ., i (p); Taranaki P.C. minutes. Reference: Volume 1, page 264 | Volume 1, page 264 🌳 Further sources |
Henry Augustus Levestam | Henry Augustus LevestamLEVESTAM, HENRY AUGUSTUS (1833-89) was a native of Flensburg, in the Duchy of Schleswig, his father being a Danish doctor practising in Copenhagen. He was educated in Denmark, and after training as a marine engineer went to London for experience and was employed in English steamers. In 1855 he came to New Zealand as second engineer of the Lord Ashley, and he served also in the Airedale for some years before settling down in Nelson. There he married (1861) Miss Hargreaves. He established the Soho foundry and afterwards engineering works. Though hampered in speaking by his foreign accent, Levestam was keenly interested in Liberal politics, and in 1881 was elected M.H.R. for Nelson City (defeating J. C. Richmond). He was elected again in 1884 (defeating Piper), and in 1887 (defeating Piper and Gibbs). He died on 11 Feb 1889. Parltry Record; N.Z.P.D., 1881-89; Nelson Evening Mail, 12 Feb 1889. Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 264 | Volume 1, page 264 🌳 Further sources |
Nathaniel William Levin | Nathaniel William LevinLEVIN, NATHANIEL WILLIAM (1819-1903) was born in London, and brought up to business life there. He came to New Zealand in 1841, and carried on business for some years. In 1852 (with C. J. Pharazyn) he established the firm of Levin and Co. The partnership was dissolved in 1869, when Levin retired and the firm was re-established by W. H. Levin and Walter Johnston (q.v.). Levin was on the roll of burgesses in 1843, and a lieutenant in the militia in 1845. In 1869 he was called to the Legislative Council, but he retired in 1871 on leaving the Colony to live in England. There he died on 30 Apr 1903. His widow (Jassy) died on 29 Aug 1904. (See GEORGE BEETHAM) Ward; The Colonist, 30 Nov 1869; N.Z. Times, 1 May 1903. Reference: Volume 1, page 264 | Volume 1, page 264 🌳 Further sources |
William Hort Levin | William Hort LevinLEVIN, WILLIAM HORT (1845-93) was a native of Wellington, the son of Nathaniel Levin (q.v.). Educated at Toomath's school, he then went to England and on his return entered his father's firm as a wool clerk. In 1868 his father retired from the business, and he entered the partnership, which included also C. J. Pharazyn and Walter Johnston. When the partnership expired in 1878, Levin carried on for some years. In 1889 Edward Pearce joined his business with that of Levin and Co. and John Duncan also came in. Levin in 1879 consented to be nominated for Parliament, in which he represented Wellington City (1879-81) and Thorndon (1881-84). His health was never robust, and he resigned his seat in 1884. In municipal life he was a member of the City Council for three years, representing Thorndon ward. He retired in 1884, and declined to stand for the mayoralty. In 1875 he was president of the chamber of commerce, which he found moribund, but left once more thriving. Then he turned his attention to the harbour board. In 1879 Levin, as member for the City, secured the passage through Parliament of bills establishing a harbour board and giving it the necessary powers to manage and develop the harbour. He was a member of the board (1880-83), and its first chairman. Levin was a director of the Patent Slip Co., the Wellington Trust and Loan Co. (some time chairman), the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Co., a New Zealand director of the Colonial Land and Loan Association and of the National Mutual Life. He was a justice of the peace, and frequently presided in court. He was president of many sporting societies, including the Port Nicholson Yacht Club, and of the Art Society, the Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society, and the Horticultural Society. The free library in Wellington originated from his gift of £1,000. He liberally assisted also the Working Men's Club. His private charities were innumerable. The Home for the Aged Needy owed its existence largely to his munificence, and after his death, on 15 Sep 1893, a public meeting considered that the best memorial to him would be a home for friendless children. Levin married a daughter of James Edward FitzGerald. Cycl. N.Z., i (p); Ward (p); N.Z. Times, 16 Sep 1893; Evening Post, 24 Sep 1929 (p). Reference: Volume 1, page 264 | Volume 1, page 264 🌳 Further sources |
Morris Levy | Morris LevyLEVY, MORRIS (1821-1901) was born in Jersey, and went to sea as a boy. Finding his way to Melbourne he went into business, owning lighters and city property. In 1861 he came to Otago and settled at Invercargill, where he lightered, owned a coaster, the Eclipse, and acted as pilot to warships. During the depression Levy moved to the north, and with his brother kept a store at Opotiki and ran the Eclipse between that port and Auckland. As Jews, they were on good terms with the Hauhau. When Volkner was murdered, Levy remained to take off the Rev T. S. Grace, the survivor, and he piloted the Huntress when she arrived with the punitive expedition (Oct 1865). Levy lost heavily in the war. He moved to Nelson in 1871, and died there on 12 Sep 1901. Cowan, ii; The Colonist, 14 Sep 1901; Southern Cross, 25 Oct 1865; Wellington Independent, 13 Apr 1865. Reference: Volume 1, page 264 | Volume 1, page 264 🌳 Further sources |
Charles Lewis | Charles LewisLEWIS, CHARLES (1857-1927) was born at Christchurch, the son of David Lewis, of Halswell. He was educated at Christ's College (1869-73) and then at Clifton and Malvern Colleges, in England. Returning to Canterbury in 1875, he became a cadet under Duncan Cameron, of Methven, and afterwards began farming at Brookside, Ellesmere. He was a member of the Halswell road board. In 1896 Lewis contested as a Conservative the Christchurch seat, rendered vacant by the resignation of W. P. Reeves, and defeated two opponents. (Lewis, Conservative, 4,714; T. E. Taylor, prohibitionist, 4,204; R. M. Taylor, Liberal, 3,196). He was at the top of the poll at the following election, and represented Christchurch till 1901, when he resigned as a protest against the apathy of his supporters. In 1902 he won the Courtenay seat, which he represented till 1908. He was Conservative whip for some time. Lewis was chairman of the Canterbury College Council (1904-07) but did not take much part otherwise in public life. He was an expert breeder of Shropshire Down sheep, with which he won many prizes and he was interested in cricket and rifle shooting. In 1911 he moved to Hawke's Bay, and engaged in sheep farming at Makaretu. There he died on 28 Nov 1927. N.Z.P.D., 3 Jul 1928; Cycl. N.Z., iii; Hight and Candy; Who's Who N.Z., 1908, 1924; The Press, 29 Nov 1927. Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 265 | Volume 1, page 265 🌳 Further sources |
John James Lewis | John James LewisLEWIS, JOHN JAMES (1844-1931) was born at Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. After receiving an elementary education he studied at King Henry VIII Grammar School in his native town, and later at Boulogne-sur-Mer in France. After extensive travels in Europe he returned to England. He had been confirmed in the Church of England but joined the Wesleyan Methodist church in London in 1864. While following business pursuits there he served as a local preacher, and in 1868 was accepted as a candidate for the ministry. He was trained at Richmond Theological College. Lewis sailed for New Zealand in the City of Auckland (having as fellow-passengers the Revs F.W. Isitt, J.S. Smalley and W.J. Williams and W.F. Massey) and reached Auckland on 11 Dec 1870. A widely read scholar with a mastery of at least a dozen languages in which he studied the Scriptures, he was a superb expositor and a fervent evangelist. Lewis was ordained at the first Methodist conference held at Christchurch (1874). Owing to a breakdown in health he returned to England for two years and in 1877 he resumed work in New Zealand. He married (1880) M.E.G. Bowles of Waimate. Tireless in industry, punctual, exact in attention to detail, Lewis rose to eminence in administrative work in his church. Several times he represented New Zealand in the Methodist general conference of Australasia. In 1890 he was elected president of the New Zealand conference and in 1896 was appointed to represent New Zealand Methodism at the Irish Wesleyan conference. He held many important official positions and was chairman of synods on many occasions. He was an able and widely read scholar. Few were his equal in debate, but his powers of eloquence were most manifest in the pulpit. He was superannuated in 1919, but preached until his death (on 12 Jun 1931). M.A.R.P. Reference: Volume 1, page 265 | Volume 1, page 265 🌳 Further sources |
John Lewthwaite | John LewthwaiteLEWTHWAITE, JOHN (1816-92) was born in Halifax, Yorkshire. He purchased land orders from the Plymouth Company, and came to New Zealand in the Amelia Thompson (1841). Having selected his land at Waitara and Mangaoraka in 1842, he held it until being ejected by FitzRoy's order. He then paid visits to other provinces to calculate his prospects. In 1844 he was at Otakou with Tuckett, a son being born at Koputai. Lewthwaite returned to Taranaki and entered into business with some success. From 1856-58 he was M.H.R. for Grey and Bell. About 1860 he moved to Nelson, where also he took an interest in politics, being a member of the Provincial Council for Massacre Bay (1861-65). Besides being an enterprising man of business, Lewthwaite had considerable skill as a mechanic. He devised a floating breakwater for New Plymouth on a system which was adopted later by engineers and he invented a railway ticket stamping machine. Lewthwaite died in London on 2 Aug 1892. Parlty Record; Cycl. N.Z., vi; The Colonist, 20 Sep 1892. Reference: Volume 1, page 265 | Volume 1, page 265 🌳 Further sources |
Thomson Wilson Leys | Thomson Wilson LeysLEYS, THOMSON WILSON (1850-1924) was the son of a Scots supervisor of inland revenue, and was born at Nottingham. Educated at the People's College in Nottingham, he undertook at the age of 12 to teach classes of small boys in the ragged schools, and soon became interested in other social work. In 1862 his father became associated with the proposed Nonconformist colony for Albertland, New Zealand, for which they sailed in the Tyburnia. Landing at Auckland in Sep 1863, his father decided to remain there, and Thomson served a three-years' apprenticeship at the compositor's case in the Southern Cross. He afterwards became sub-editor, but ill-health compelled him in the early seventies to take a respite from journalism and for some years he contributed articles on commercial subjects and current topics. He then became sub-editor of the Auckland Star (1872) and on the retirement of G. M. Reed in 1876 was appointed editor, a position he held for 45 years. Leys compiled the first Auckland Provincial Almanac and Handbook and wrote the Auckland section of Vogel's Handbook of New Zealand. He edited the history of New Zealand, which was written by Sherrin and Wallace and published by Brett, and compiled the first Colonists' Guide (1883). In 1889 he became a partner in the Auckland Star, the New Zealand Graphic and the New Zealand Farmer, which had been floated into a company, and he was a managing director until his death. He was a director also of the Napier Daily Telegraph Co., the Auckland Gas Co., and the Northern Milling Co. Leys presided at the meeting held in Wellington at which the first Press agency was formed, which was afterwards amalgamated with the United Press Association. He was for many years the New Zealand representative of Reuters Telegram Co. and of the Sydney Daily Telegraph and the Insurance and Banking Record. In 1920, as chairman of the New Zealand delegation to the Empire Press conference in Canada, he received the honorary LL.D. of McGill University. Always strongly Liberal in politics, Leys supported Grey and later Ballance and Seddon. He declined a seat in the Legislative Council in the conviction that a journalist should not accept such a restriction on his freedom to criticise. In the nineties he represented a syndicate of New Zealand newspapers at the federal conventions in Australia, and in 1901 he was a member of the royal commission on federation. His services to education in Auckland were noteworthy. He made liberal donations to supplement the bequest of his brother William, in establishing the Leys institute in Ponsonby, and paid half the cost of the building and furnishings. He was president of the Ponsonby boys' brigade band and a councillor of the boy scouts' association. Having been interested in Mechanics' institutes, he was on the committee of the free public library in Auckland, assisted to draft its constitution and was president. He was president of the first libraries' conference in Dunedin, and took a great interest in school libraries under the Buffalo system. Leys was also connected with the Auckland Art Gallery, the McKelvie Trust board and the Auckland War Museum, and presented a number of paintings to the Art Gallery. He was a member and some years chairman of the Auckland University College council, a member of the Auckland Institute and of the council of the Workers' Educational Association. He died on 27 Sep 1924. Auckland Star, 27 Sep 1924 (P). Reference: Volume 1, page 265 | Volume 1, page 265 🌳 Further sources |
Francis Liardet | Francis LiardetLIARDET, FRANCIS (1798-1863) joined the Mercury in 1809, and saw service in Greenland, North America, the West Indies and West Africa. In 1819 he visited the East Indies as mate of a merchant ship. Serving later in the Hyperion (42 guns) against pirates in the West Indies, he was detached to the schooner Union, and thus came into contact with Lieutenant (afterwards Governor) Hobson (q.v.), whom he succeeded in command of the schooner Lion (1824). In operations on the coast of Yucatan (1823) he received two severe gunshot wounds. Hobson was made prisoner and Liardet took command of the boats, receiving the warm praise of Hobson for his zeal, bravery and perseverance. While in command of the Lion, Liardet captured nine pirates and retook the French ship Calypso, which he reloaded and carried off the shoals. Promoted lieutenant (1825), he became commander of the Powerful (84 guns) in 1838, and gained post rank for distinguished service at the siege of Acre (1840) as flag captain to Sir C. Napier. His friendship with Wakefield secured him a post in the New Zealand Company and he sailed in the Whitby (1841). Liardet was banqueted at Wellington, and proceeded to take up the post of agent at New Plymouth. He had scarcely entered on his duties when he suffered severe injuries by an explosion while trying to clear the vent of a 4-pounder gun on the beach (29 Nov). Partially recovered, he returned to England (Feb 1842) and did not realise his hope of making New Zealand his home. In 1856 Liardet became a governor of Greenwich Hospital, dying there on 1 Mar 1863. He published Recollections of Seamanship and Discipline; Friendly Hints to the Young Lieutenant; and The Midshipman's Companion. Wells; Scholefield, Hobson; Taranaki Herald and Budget, 18 Dec 1928 (p). Reference: Volume 1, page 266 | Volume 1, page 266 🌳 Further sources |
Charles Whybrow Ligar | Charles Whybrow LigarLIGAR, CHARLES WHYBROW (1809-79) was born in Ceylon, where his father was stationed, and educated at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He received his commission in the Royal Engineers, but soon resigned and afterwards joined the field drafting department of the Ordnance Survey. He was serving in Ireland when he was appointed by the Colonial Secretary to be surveyor-general in New Zealand (1840). Ligar married (1839) Grace (1811-58), daughter of Thomas Hanyngton, of Dungannon, County Tyrone (a niece of Lord Charlemont). They sailed for New Zealand in the Prince Rupert, which was wrecked on the coast of Brazil, and they continued their voyage in the Antilla, arriving in Dec. In addition to his duties as surveyor-general, Ligar was a lieutenant-colonel in the Auckland battalion of militia, and served during Heke's war. He was a magistrate and land titles commissioner in 1846. In 1848 he was a member of the Legislative Council of New Zealand. In 1856 he retired from the position of surveyor-general, and proposed to take up a run in south Otago, where he had made extensive explorations. During this trip he reported to the Superintendent of Otago that he had discovered gold in the Mataura river at Tuturau. Ligar went on pension in 1857 and was afterwards surveyor-general in Victoria (1858-69). On retiring he settled in Texas as a cattle grazier, but without much success. He married (secondly) Marie, daughter of Captain Williams (of New Zealand). Ligar died in 1879. Mennell; N.Z.C., 32; Ordnance Survey records; Pyke; Beattie, ii. Reference: Volume 1, page 266 | Volume 1, page 266 🌳 Further sources |
George Wales Lightband | George Wales LightbandLIGHTBAND, GEORGE WALES (1804-91) was born in Worcestershire, and was brought up to the tanning trade. As a young man he was a strong Methodist, and when he came to Nelson he assisted to establish that Church there and became a trustee of it. In England he attended public meetings in connection with the Reform Bill. He came to New Zealand with his family in the Thomas Harrison (1842), settling at Nelson, where he established himself in a tannery. In 1857 he paid a visit to Australia on business, and while there obtained a printing plant and printer with which The Colonist was established, the first issue appearing on 23 Oct 1857. Lightband was much interested in the development of New Zealand industries, and made many experiments in the manufacture of leather and paper. He produced the first parchment made in New Zealand. He died on 22 Oct 1891. Broad; Cycl. NZ, v (34); The Colonist, 23 Oct 1891. Reference: Volume 1, page 266 | Volume 1, page 266 🌳 Further sources |
Martin Wales Lightband | Martin Wales LightbandLIGHTBAND, MARTIN WALES (1831-1914) was the son of G. W. Lightband (q.v.), and came to New Zealand with his parents in the Thomas Harrison (1842). He was educated in Nelson and brought up to his father's business, tanning, which he carried on for nearly 24 years. In 1896 he started business as a grain merchant. He was M.H.R. for Nelson City from 1871 till he resigned on 16 Apr 1872. Lightband was a member of the Nelson City Council from 1902. He died on 1 Aug 1914. Cycl. NZ., v (p); The Colonist, 3 Aug 1914. Reference: Volume 1, page 266 | Volume 1, page 266 🌳 Further sources |
William Still Littlejohn | William Still LittlejohnLITTLEJOHN, WILLIAM STILL (1859-1933) was born in Aberdeenshire, and educated at the Grammar School there and the University (M.A.). After serving as assistant at the Melrose boarding school, he came to New Zealand (1881) as mathematics and science master at Nelson College. On the resignation of J. W. Joynt he was appointed headmaster (1898), a position he held for only five years, though with distinction. A fine cricketer and football coach and referee, he was keen on all forms of sport and was president of the Nelson Rugby Union. He brought the College cadet corps to a state of high efficiency, and was a captain and adjutant of the Nelson volunteers and major in the infantry battalion. In 1904 he was appointed principal of Scotch College in Melbourne, where again his inspiring enthusiasm had a marked influence upon the development of the school. He was also a member of the council of Melbourne University. In 1929 he received from Aberdeen University the honorary degree of doctor of laws. Littlejohn died on 8 Oct 1933. Nelson Coll. O.B. Reg.; Who's Who in Australia; Evening Post and The Dominion, 9 Oct 1933. Reference: Volume 1, page 267 | Volume 1, page 267 🌳 Further sources |
Gottfried Lindauer | Gottfried LindauerLINDAUER, GOTTFRIED (1839-1926) was born at Pilsen, in Czecho-Slovakia, and at the age of 16 went to Vienna, where he studied art under Fuehrich and Kuppelwieser. He was there for seven years, and received many commissions for portraits and painting of Biblical subjects for Roman Catholic churches throughout Austria. Being attracted by reading about New Zealand, he came out in the ship Reichstag in 1873, and commenced painting portraits of prominent Maori chiefs. In 1874 he made the acquaintance of H. E. Partridge, who conceived the idea of forming a collection of Maori portraits and accompanied Lindauer on his visits to native villages. The principal collection was paid for by Partridge, who presented it to the Auckland Art Gallery in 1915. A description of the subjects was published by J. Cowan in 1901, and in 1930 many of them were reproduced and described by the same author. Lindauer made many other portraits of eminent New Zealanders, including Sir Walter Buller. He showed a collection of Maori pictures at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, from which one was selected by the Prince of Wales (Edward VII). Lindauer died at Woodville on 13 Jun 1926. Lindauer, op. cit.; Cowan, op. cit. (p); N.Z. Herald, 16 Jun; Evening Star, 15 Jun 1926 (p). Reference: Volume 1, page 266 | Volume 1, page 266 🌳 Further sources |
Edward Atherton Lingard | Edward Atherton LingardLINGARD, EDWARD ATHERTON (1839-1903) was born at Runcorn, Cheshire, England, and educated at the Latchford and Manchester Grammar Schools and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He came to New Zealand (1860) and became assistant master at the Bishop's school, Nelson (1861) and headmaster (1863). In 1864 (the year in which he was ordained deacon) he had temporary charge of Christ's College, and was appointed curate of Addington and Governor's Bay. In 1866 he became vicar of St Luke's, Christchurch; and in 1885 archdeacon of Akaroa. He was for some years clerical secretary to the synod, a member of the general synod and president of the bellringers' association. He died on 20 Sep 1903. Cycl. NZ, iii (p); The Press, 21 Sep 1903. Reference: Volume 1, page 266 | Volume 1, page 266 🌳 Further sources |
William Lingard | William LingardLINGARD, WILLIAM (1845-1922) was born in County Clare, Ireland, the son of an officer of the British army who served in the Waterloo campaign. He was educated in Yorkshire, and was intended for the army, but becoming slightly deaf had to change his course and came to New Zealand in 1863. He served in the 2nd Waikato militia during the Waikato war; then farmed in the Wanganui and Waitotara districts, and served successively in the Prince of Wales Rifles, the Alexandra Lancers (1865), the Wanganui Cavalry and the Kai-iwi Cavalry. While engaged with the last-named corps in front of Tauranga-ika (Feb 1869), he was with a party of four reconnoitring the position when they were suddenly fired upon. Troop-sergeant Maxwell was badly wounded, and Trooper Henry Wright was pinned down by his horse falling on him. He was about to be tomahawked when Lingard rode up and freed him, covering him with his revolver while he retreated. He then rode round to the back of the pa and captured a horse, with which they made good their escape. Lingard received the New Zealand Cross. He was afterwards in charge of a party of scouts, but was invalided at Patea and the command fell to C. Maling (q.v.). Lingard farmed for some years afterwards and then entered into an insurance and land agency in Wellington. He was on the Wellington City Council (1896-99). N.Z. Army records; Cycl. N.Z., i (p); Who's Who N.Z., 1908; Gudgeon (p); Cowan. Reference: Volume 1, page 266 | Volume 1, page 266 🌳 Further sources |
James Linton | James LintonLINTON, JAMES, was born in Dumfries, Scotland. He came to Australia in the fifties, and to New Zealand in 1860, going first to the goldfields at Queenstown. In 1871 he moved to Palmerston North, and he took a leading part in the progress of that town, of which he was mayor (1879-82 and 1884-85). He was a strong advocate of the Wellington Manawatu railway, and was for many years a director of the company. The town of Linton was named after him. (See E. S. THYNNE.) Cycl. NZ, i. Reference: Volume 1, page 266 | Volume 1, page 266 🌳 Further sources |
James Little | James LittleLITTLE, JAMES (1834-1921) was born in the parish of Moorefoot, Midlothian, Scotland. In 1863 he came to New Zealand in the Canterbury as manager to Dr George Webster (q.v.) on the Corriedale and Balruddery estates, in north Otago. He brought with him 22 Romney Marsh ewes and nine rams, some of the first of that breed to come to New Zealand. Sheep owners ridiculed the idea of using such a breed in a part of the country where the merino was predominant. Little in a year or two recognised that they were right, but was convinced that the merino also would have to go. He suggested to Dr Webster experimenting by crossing the Romneys with the merino flock at Corriedale and so producing an inbred halfbred sheep. At that time there was no English grass on either station and the native tussock would not carry the coarse-feeding Romney. Little had considerable success in showing and selling Romneys in Canterbury, and Webster then made available a flock of 600 ewes for his experiment, and was prepared to stand the loss if the inbred flock should prove a failure. When Webster died (1878) Little bought his Lincolns and a large number of merinos and established himself on the Allandale estate in North Canterbury. The Lincoln-merino cross he named 'Corriedale' because it was first produced on that station. After a few years he showed inbred Corriedales in Canterbury shows. Little began his flock at Allandale about 1878 or 1879, and by 1890 the new inbred Corriedale was thoroughly established. In 1911 the breed was admitted to the Flock Book. In 1923 there were 105 registered flocks in the South Island and seven in the North. Corriedale sheep became an established and very successful breed and many animals were shipped to other sheep countries. Little also bred Ayrshire cattle and Clydesdale and Shire horses. He died in 1921. James Little, The Story of the Corriedale (1927); Playne. Reference: Volume 1, page 267 | Volume 1, page 267 🌳 Further sources |
Alexander Livingston | Alexander LivingstonLIVINGSTON, ALEXANDER (1806-79) was one of five teachers brought to Otago from Scotland under the education ordinance of 1856. He enjoyed the title of rector of the High School and a salary of £250 a year, but there was no accommodation for the higher classes, and though he was a competent classics and mathematics master he was restricted to teaching the elementary subjects. The diggings drew away many of the older pupils (in 1861) and in 1862 Livingston resigned to accept the post of provincial auditor. He died on 21 Dec 1879. Otago H.S. Reg.; Otago Daily Times, 23 Dec 1879, 8 Aug 1893. Reference: Volume 1, page 267 | Volume 1, page 267 🌳 Further sources |
Henry Lloyd | Henry LloydLLOYD, HENRY, was a native of King's County, Ireland, and came to New Zealand in 1860, taking up farming at Wade. He represented Kaipara in the Auckland Provincial Council (1873-75), was chairman of the Wade highway board, a member of the Waitemata county council and a justice of the peace and coroner. He spent much time prospecting for gold, which he believed would be found in north Auckland. Lloyd died on 12 Jul 1891. Cycl. NZ, ii. Reference: Volume 1, page 267 | Volume 1, page 267 🌳 Further sources |
John Frederick Lloyd | John Frederick LloydLLOYD, JOHN FREDERICK (1810-75) was born in Ireland, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated M.A. (1835). Ordained deacon (1839) and priest (1840), he was curate of Kilmore, Ireland (1840-48). He then came to New Zealand, and was a fellow of St John's College, Auckland (1849-53); was vicar of St Paul's, Auckland (1853-65) and archdeacon of Waitemata (1865-70). He attended all the general synods to the third (1865), and in 1870, owing to impaired health, returned to England, where he became rector of Kirk-Ireton, Wirksworth, in the diocese of Lichfield. Lloyd read the prayers at the opening of the first session of the General Assembly (1854). While in Auckland he established the Orphans' Home. He died in 1875. (See SIR CHARLES CLIFFORD.) Synods of the Province of New Zealand and the Diocese of Auckland; Crockford; Jacobs; Tucker; Southern Cross, 15 Feb 1870. Reference: Volume 1, page 267 | Volume 1, page 267 🌳 Further sources |
John Yeeden Lloyd | John Yeeden LloydLLOYD, JOHN YEEDEN, was born in 1796, and appointed in 1813 an ensign in the 73rd Regiment, with which he served at Waterloo and in Canada. He attained the rank of major (1828) and retired in 1839. Lloyd arrived in Taranaki by the Kelso in 1849, and took up land at Waireka. When the natives became hostile in 1850, he advised the settlers to drill and offered his services to train them. Major Lloyd was called to the Legislative Council in 1853. He made a strong stand in defence of the rights of Parliament, and resisted the introduction of responsible government lest the government should overrule the representative house. He returned to England about 1856. Army Lists, 1814, 1829, 1840; N.Z.P.D., 16 Jun, 24 Jul 1854. Reference: Volume 1, page 267 | Volume 1, page 267 🌳 Further sources |
Trevor Lloyd | Trevor LloydLLOYD, TREVOR (?-1937), one of the earliest etchers in New Zealand, was the son of a farmer at Silverdale, Auckland, and was educated in the public school there. Artistically inclined, he taught himself and made many sketches and drawings of New Zealand fauna and flora and Maori faces until, on the death of his father in the early nineties, he moved to Auckland determined to make a living by his art. Lloyd's first commission was to illustrate stories for the New Zealand Magazine, and he also contributed to the New Zealand Graphic. In 1903 he was appointed to the staff of the Auckland Weekly News, for which at first he drew mainly political cartoons and sketches of night and indoor events which were not susceptible of treatment by photography. Most of his work, including cartoons in every mood, was done in line and wash until 1921, when he began to contribute pen and ink drawings to the supplement of the New Zealand Herald. Lloyd was one of the first in New Zealand to make etchings, his subjects being mainly New Zealand bush scenes and other genre and Maori heads. He was keenly interested in native tools and carvings and spent much time searching for relics in caves and middens on the west coast north of Manukau. He died on 11 Sep 1937. He married (1894) Emily Lamont. N.Z. Herald, 12 Sep 1937 (p). Reference: Volume 1, page 267 | Volume 1, page 267 🌳 Further sources |
Samuel Locke | Samuel LockeLOCKE, SAMUEL (1836-90) was born in Norfolk, the son of a landowner whose fortunes suffered in the depression of 1847-48. Having been educated as a surveyor, Locke came to Auckland in 1853 and engaged in his profession for some years, employing Maori labourers from whom he learned the language. In 1859 McLean gave him a position in the Native department, and he was appointed district surveyor in Hawke's Bay. During the Hauhau rising he raised a native contingent under Whanga and Kopu, and with fifteen Europeans defeated the enemy on the Wairoa river. In 1869 he joined the General Government. Locke was M.P.C. for Napier Town (1866-69). He was then appointed officer in charge of native affairs on the East Coast, and as resident magistrate at Taupo assisted materially to open up that district by means of roads after the conclusion of the war. He purchased the Seventy Mile Bush (1870-71), and in 1873 settled a dispute between the Wairoa tribe and the Urewera. In 1878 he gained the East Coast seat in Parliament, defeating Rees twice in that year. He retired in 1887, and died on 13 Apr 1890. He married Caroline Fanny, daughter of Joseph Rhodes (q.v.). Lambert; Woodhouse; Cowan, ii; Poverty Bay Herald, 5 Jan 1924; Auckland Star, 14 Apr 1890. Reference: Volume 1, page 267 | Volume 1, page 267 🌳 Further sources |
George Duncan Lockhart | George Duncan LockhartLOCKHART, GEORGE DUNCAN (1821-90) was a brother of the 10th baronet and father of the 11th baronet. He was an Australian squatter, and came to New Zealand in 1851, taking up land at Hakataramea, Canterbury. This failing, he devoted his whole attention to a Christchurch stock and station agency. He was interested in Sandy Knolls station (1851), and in 1854 he took up Valetta station near Ashburton, which he resold in 1858. He represented Timaru in the Canterbury Provincial Council (1859-60). Lockhart married (1856) a daughter of Dr Thomas, of Clifton, England. He died on 13 Sep 1890. Acland; Burke, Peerage; Andersen; Lyttelton Times, 1 Oct 1890. Reference: Volume 1, page 267 | Volume 1, page 267 🌳 Further sources |
Francis Logan | Francis LoganLOGAN, FRANCIS (1784-1862) was the son of William Logan, a farmer in the parish of Dunlop, Ayrshire. He matriculated in 1802 and passed through his medical course at Glasgow University. In 1808 he was admitted as an assistant-surgeon and posted to H.M.S. Namur at the Nore. In 1811 he transferred to the Hyacinth, a 20-gun ship, in which he was present at the operations of Spanish guerillas against the French positions at Castle Nersa and Almunecar. Promoted surgeon, he served in the Rainbow (1812) and the Rifleman (1823) and in the Menai (1824) on the coast of North America. In 1830 he was in the Etna surveying in West Africa, and in 1832 he made his first voyage to Australia in charge of convicts in the Fanny. She had an outbreak of cholera during the voyage, and reached Port Jackson on 1 Feb 1833. After a few months in the Royal Sovereign on the home station, Logan again came to Australia, in the convict ship Mangles. He left her in Sydney (Aug 1837) and called at New Zealand on his way back to England in the John Barry. In 1839 he was reported as unfit for sea service. Logan was enthusiastic in his praise of New Zealand as a land for settlement, and joined the West of Scotland committee in 1839. He came to Wellington as surgeon in the Bengal Merchant (1839-40) bringing his wife and son, and selected his country land first at Porirua. He was interested in natural science. His death occurred on 30 May 1862. Admiralty Records; Hist. Records Aust.; Ward; Guthrie Hay; Cant. O.N. Reference: Volume 1, page 268 | Volume 1, page 268 🌳 Further sources |
James Kennedy Logan | James Kennedy LoganLOGAN, JAMES KENNEDY (1843-1912) was born at West Kilbride, Ayrshire, and educated at Paisley and trained in telegraphy in Glasgow. He came to Otago in the City of Dunedin (1864) and was employed on constructing the telegraph line from Dunedin to Christchurch. In 1865 he was appointed to the Dunedin telegraph office and later was appointed by the provincial government to construct the line to Queenstown. In 1869 he became inspector in Otago under the General Government; in 1894 superintendent of telegraphs for the Colony, from which position he retired in 1911. (C.S.O., 1909.) He died in Dec 1912. Cycl. NZ., i (p); Who's Who NZ., 1908; Otago Daily Times, 2 Dec 1912. Reference: Volume 1, page 268 | Volume 1, page 268 🌳 Further sources |
Robert Logan | Robert LoganLOGAN, ROBERT (1863-1935) was born in Berwickshire; educated at Wellfield and at Edinburgh Academy, and came to New Zealand in 1881. After some time on Ringway station in Southland, he acquired the nucleus of Maniototo estate in Central Otago. He was a member of the Maniototo county council from 1893 (chairman 1900-02) and of other local bodies; and raised a squadron of mounted rifles (Maniototo) in 1898. (Captain 1900-03; major 1904.) As colonel he commanded the expeditionary force which captured German Samoa (1914), and he administered that territory (1914-19). (C.B.; Chevalier Legion of Honour.) Logan died on 7 Feb 1935. Who's Who N.Z., 1908, 1924, 1932; Studholme. Reference: Volume 1, page 268 | Volume 1, page 268 🌳 Further sources |
Henry Alfred Lomax | Henry Alfred LomaxLOMAX, HENRY ALFRED (1847-1932) was born in London and came to New Zealand at the age of 16, settling at Wanganui. For many years he managed Pharazyn's Marahau sheep station at Nukumaru. He was a lieutenant in the Wanganui Cavalry. During the sixties he was appointed to the civil branch (1868), but in 1869 he was sent as A.D.C. to Colonel McDonnell with the force at Taupo. He distinguished himself at Tapapa (24 Jan 1870), and in further engagements on the Upper Waikato and Bay of Plenty (being promoted captain). After the war Lomax lived mostly in Wanganui and Waitotara county. He was a justice of the peace and for a short time acting magistrate, and took a great interest in sport (especially cricket and rowing). As staff officer to Colonel Newall, he had important duties connected with the Royal visit (1901). His death occurred on 31 Aug 1932. Gudgeon (p); Who's Who N.Z.; Wanganui Chronicle, 1 Sep 1932. Reference: Volume 1, page 268 | Volume 1, page 268 🌳 Further sources |
Patrick Lorigan | Patrick LoriganLORIGAN, PATRICK (1817-60) was born in Ireland, came to Auckland in the Duchess of Argyle (1842), and was engaged for many years as a timber merchant. He represented the Southern Division in the Provincial Council (1859-60) and died on 28 Aug 1860. Reference: Volume 1, page 268 | Volume 1, page 268 🌳 Further sources |
James Loudon | James LoudonLOUDON, JAMES (1839-1903) was born at Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland, and at the age of 20 emigrated to Australia to join his elder brother, who was mining at Ovens, Victoria. In the early sixties he crossed to Otago where, with his brother and Andrew Pollock, he became interested in coal mines at Green Island. He afterwards on his own account opened up the Walton Park mine, and when it was merged in the Walton Park Coal and Pottery Co. he became general manager. When this company wound up he opened up the Jubilee colliery, which was very successful. Loudon was a large employer of labour, and besides the mine operated a store at Walton Park. He was mayor of Green Island, chairman of the school committee, and president of several local societies. He died on 9 Aug 1903. Otago Daily Times, 17 Aug 1903. Reference: Volume 1, page 268 | Volume 1, page 268 🌳 Further sources |
Robert Andrew Loughnan | Robert Andrew LoughnanLOUGHNAN, ROBERT ANDREW (1841-1934) was born at Dacca, India, the son of R. J. Loughnan (1808-89, who was for 30 years a judge in the service of the East India Company, retired before the Mutiny and died in Canterbury). He received his education in France and at Stonyhurst College and the Catholic University in Dublin, and emigrated to Australia with his father at the age of 20 (the ship being wrecked on Flinders Island, in Bass Strait). For several years Loughnan was engaged on his father's run in the Murrumbidgee district. In 1865 he came to New Zealand on behalf of a syndicate which purchased the Mount Pisa run, near Cromwell. This property he managed for a short time, and then became interested in meat-canning works at Fairfield, where he made use of his Australian experience. Want of markets crippled the new industry. As phormium tenax was realising about £70 a ton, Loughnan went into this business at Cust, Canterbury. A slump soon closed down the mill and he moved to Dunedin, where he entered journalism by contributing to the Otago Guardian (of which Vincent Pyke was editor). Loughnan's education, experience and knowledge of music were of great service, and he became a valued writer both to the Guardian and the Otago Daily Times. He attracted the attention of William Reeves, and in 1875 was appointed editor of the Lyttelton Times, which he controlled until 1889. At that time Archbishop Redwood established in Wellington the Catholic Times, of which he appointed Loughnan editor. A few months later the New Zealand Times was purchased by Captain Baldwin, and Loughnan edited it for six years (1890-96). He then went to Australia, where he acted as correspondent at the Federal conventions and wrote descriptive articles for the New Zealand press. He was on the editorial staff of the Sydney Morning Herald for several years, and wrote also for Melbourne papers. After returning to New Zealand Loughnan was for many years associate editor of the New Zealand Times. In 1904 he was secretary of the land commission. In 1907 he was called to the Legislative Council, of which he was a member till 1914. Loughnan was a fine singer and a member of the choir of the Wellington Basilica. He published a good deal of literary work in book form, notably the New Zealand Handbook and The Royal Tour (1901), The Settlers' Handbook (1902), New Zealand at Home (1908) and a biography of Sir Joseph Ward (1928). He married (1877) Victoire de Mamanche (of Akaroa). Loughnan died on 14 Sep 1934. N.Z.P.D., 18 Sep 1934; Loughnan, op. cit.; Who's Who N.Z., 1908, 1924, 1932; Evening Post, 14 Sep 1934; The Dominion, 15 Sep (p). Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 268 | Volume 1, page 268 🌳 Further sources |
Andrew Loughrey | Andrew LoughreyLOUGHREY, ANDREW (? -1913) was born in Melbourne, and educated at Melbourne University, where he graduated B.A. Though he leaned towards law, he was appointed inspector of schools in Victoria and travelled all over the colony on duty. He came to New Zealand after the passing of the new act (1877) and was appointed headmaster of Christchurch East school. While there he was induced to return to Victoria in his old position; took advantage of the change to study law, and graduated LL.B. He came back to Christchurch (1880) and started to practise with McConnell; in 1882 with W. J. Holmes, and from 1890 as Loughrey and Lane. In 1886 he raised the Irish Rifles, of which he was captain until they were disbanded. In 1887 Loughrey was elected M.H.R. for Linwood, which he represented to 1889. He was a supporter of the Stout-Vogel party. He died on 24 Sep 1913. Cycl. N.Z., N.Z. Herald, 28 Sep 1887; The Press, 27 Sep 1913. Reference: Volume 1, page 268 | Volume 1, page 268 🌳 Further sources |
Charles Louisson | Charles LouissonLOUISSON, CHARLES (1842-1924) was born in London, educated at Gravesend, and at the age of 14 emigrated to Victoria, where he worked for some time on sheep and cattle stations and on the goldfields at Ballarat. In 1865 he crossed to New Zealand and joined his brother Alfred in carrying across the Port Hills. They then went into business as general merchants in Hokitika, and after a year or two took up a sheep station in Marlborough. Meeting with no success, they returned to Canterbury and commenced farming at Southbridge, where they were joined by another brother (Cecil). In 1871 they took over the Crown brewery in Christchurch, which they operated with considerable success. Louisson took an active part in municipal affairs, being for some years from 1881 a member of the City Council and on two occasions (1888-89 and 1898-99) mayor of the City. In 1888 he was one of the New Zealand commissioners at the Melbourne Exhibition. He was also a member of the North Canterbury hospital and charitable aid boards before they amalgamated, deputy-inspector of the mental hospital at Sunnyside, and an official visitor to the school for deaf mutes at Sumner. He was one of the founders of the Jewish congregation at Christchurch, in which he held every office. He was a trustee of the synagogue at the time of his death, having previously been elected a life member in recognition of his services. As a trustee for Hyman Marks, he did important service in connection with one of the largest benefactions in New Zealand, one of its activities being the establishment of the Marks ward at Christchurch hospital. Louisson was a prominent freemason (S.C.) and for some years district grand master for Canterbury. In 1900 he was appointed to the Legislative Council, in which he held a seat (except during 1915-18) until his death on 19 Apr 1924. He took a keen interest in volunteering (having been a sergeant-major in the Westland Light Horse), and he gave prizes for rowing, shooting and other sports. His main interest was trotting. He was a member of the committee of the N.Z. Metropolitan Trotting club from 1893 until 1907, and thereafter president, and a member of the Canterbury Jockey club. Who's Who N.Z., 1908; N.Z.P.D., 24 Jun, 1 Jul 1924; Wigram; The Press and Lyttelton Times, 21 Apr 1924. Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 269 | Volume 1, page 269 🌳 Further sources |
John Lovell | John LovellLOVELL, JOHN (1810-97) was born in England, and came to New Zealand in the Tasmania in 1853. He took up land at Sawyers Bay, near Dunedin, and later a sheep station near Kaitangata, from which Lovell's Flat took its name. His son John (who was drowned shortly afterwards) discovered coal there. Lovell returned to live in England and bought an estate in Sussex, but came to New Zealand again in 1864 and lived in Dunedin until his death (on 11 Mar 1897). Otago Daily Times, 13 Mar 1897. Reference: Volume 1, page 269 | Volume 1, page 269 🌳 Further sources |
John Lowden | John LowdenLOWDEN, JOHN (1845-1924) was born in County Durham, and educated at an elementary school in Gateshead. Apprenticed to engineering, he served in his father's works at Sunderland. In 1879 he came in the Taranaki to Otago, bringing his own engineering material; and for some years he was in business in Oamaru. Lowden erected the machinery in the Mataura paper mill, of which he had charge for some years. In 1883 he again entered into business for himself. He was nine years a member of the Mataura town board, and was on the first borough council, being elected mayor on 10 occasions between 1903 and 1921. He was a member also of the Southland hospital and charitable aid boards and the Bluff Harbour Board (1918), secretary and chairman of the school committee, and for 40 years an elder of the Mataura Presbyterian Church. Lowden died on 21 Apr 1924. N.Z. Herald, 22 Apr 1924. Reference: Volume 1, page 269 | Volume 1, page 269 🌳 Further sources |
Alexander Francis Lowe | Alexander Francis LoweLOWE, ALEXANDER FRANCIS (1861-1929) was born at Nelson, the son of James Townsend Lowe; educated at Nelson College and in England and became a clerk in the House of Representatives in 1885. In 1915 he became clerk of the House and in 1920 clerk of the Legislative Council and of Parliaments (C.M.G., 1924). He was honorary secretary of the Empire Parliamentary Association. Lowe was keenly interested in acclimatisation and was a vice-president of the Wellington society. He married (1895) Laura Mildred, daughter of Henry Phillips, of Canterbury. He died on 20 Nov 1929. N.Z.P.D., 1 Jul 1930; Parltry Record; Who's Who N.Z., 1924; Nelson Coll. Reg. Reference: Volume 1, page 269 | Volume 1, page 269 🌳 Further sources |
William Lowes | William LowesLOWES, WILLIAM, was born in Northumberland, and came to New Zealand in the Ramsay (1865). Though he was a farmer by training, he carried on a business in Wellington as an importer of saddlery until 1873, when he moved to Wairarapa, purchased several properties and founded a stock and station agency (1879). He represented Porirua in the Wellington Provincial Council (1873-75), and in Masterton was chairman of the trust lands trust and a member of the education board. Cycl. N.Z., i Reference: Volume 1, page 269 | Volume 1, page 269 🌳 Further sources |
Richard Jennings Lowry | Richard Jennings LowryLOWRY, RICHARD JENNINGS, was chief mate in the Tory, which brought the New Zealand Company's preliminary expedition to Port Nicholson (1839). He assisted in the survey of the harbour, his name being given to Lowry Bay. In Apr 1840 he succeeded Chaffers in command of the vessel. Lowry died at sea in the East Indies about Oct and the command of the vessel passed to his brother Nicholas, who had joined her in Sydney. She was wrecked on the Half Moon shoal in Palawan passage (23 Jan 1841), and Nicholas died at sea on board an American whaler. N.Z.C.; E. J. Wakefield; Ward. Reference: Volume 1, page 269 | Volume 1, page 269 🌳 Further sources |
John Edmund Luck | John Edmund LuckLUCK, JOHN EDMUND (1840-96) was born at Peckham, London. His father belonged to a Protestant family in Kent, but became a Catholic during his stay in France. Studious as a child, John went at the age of nine to St Edmund's School in Hertfordshire. During his vacations he came into contact with the Benedictine fathers of the Congregation of the Primitive Observance at Ramsgate, and in 1858 he decided to become a monk. With that in view he studied philosophy at the seminary of St Sulpice in Paris, and in 1860 he joined the order (taking the name of Edmund). He was sent to the monastic college of St Ambrogio, in Rome, and prosecuted his theological studies at the Collegio Romano, where he took his D.D. (1865). His father (Alfred Luck) had meanwhile built the monastery at Ramsgate at his own expense; had with the sanction of the Pope been ordained a priest (1863) and died in 1864, leaving his own home to house St Augustine's College. John completed his theological course, was ordained priest (1865), and spent two years at Subiaco, where he taught philosophy. In 1867 he assisted in the foundation of a novitiate at Tenterden, Kent. Here he fulfilled the duties of novice master and administered the temporalities. In 1872 Luck was appointed superior of the monastery and college and in 1875, his health having failed, he was appointed assistant-chaplain at Hales Place, Canterbury. During this period he translated and published the Short Meditations. In 1878 he returned to the monastery at Ramsgate, and was vice-president of the college until the end of 1880, when the abbot-general of the Congregation decided to employ him in the foundation of a novitiate for the Italian province in Malta. While on his way to that post he was appointed Bishop of Auckland, and on 13 Aug 1882 he was consecrated by Cardinal Manning in the prioral church of St Augustine, Ramsgate. Arriving in Auckland on 14 Nov 1882, he met his brother (Father F. A. Luck, O.S.B., 1841-99), who had preceded him by 18 months. During his episcopate of 13 years, Bishop Luck opened 19 new churches in the Auckland diocese, extended St Patrick's Cathedral and established 13 schools and eight convents (including the Home for the Aged Poor at Ponsonby). The number of priests in the diocese increased from 15 to 30, the Marist Brothers were introduced, and various extensions and new organisations carried out. Luck was scholarly and studious, a charming conversationalist, an eloquent preacher, an accomplished musician and a skilled botanist and horticulturist. He wrote in 1888 an introduction to Pompallier's history of the Church in Oceania. His death occurred on 23 Jan 1896. N.Z. Herald, 9 Aug 1882, 24 Jan 1896 (p). Reference: Volume 1, page 269 | Volume 1, page 269 🌳 Further sources |
David Mitchell Luckie | David Mitchell LuckieLUCKIE, DAVID MITCHELL (1828-1909) was born at Montrose, Scotland, educated there and entered a mercantile office. He afterwards worked as a law clerk, and became an assistant assessor under the property tax act. Leaving this for journalism, he became in turn sub-editor of the Montrose Review, editor of the John o' Groats Journal, and editor of the Arbroath Guide. Coming to New Zealand in 1863, he became part proprietor and editor of the Nelson Colonist. In 1869 he was gazetted a justice of the peace. He contested the Nelson seat in Parliament in 1866 against Stafford and Curtis without success, but he represented Nelson City in the Provincial Council (1869-72). In 1872 he was elected to Parliament, sitting for Nelson City till 1875. After the amalgamation of the Southern Cross with the New Zealand Herald (1876) he was editor till 1878, when he assumed control of the Evening Post, Wellington. In 1879 Luckie was appointed commissioner of the Government Insurance department. Ill-health compelled him in 1889 to relinquish this post and become deputy-commissioner. In 1894 he published The Raid of the Russian Cruiser Kaskowiski to impress upon the public the danger of being unprepared for possible invasion. He was a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (1885). Luckie died on 6 May 1909. Cycl. N.Z., i (p); Luckie, op. cit., 1885; Who's Who N.Z., 1908; Evening Post, 7 May 1909. Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 269 | Volume 1, page 269 🌳 Further sources |
Alfred Ludlam | Alfred LudlamLUDLAM, ALFRED (1810-77) seems to have been born in County Down, Ireland. Nothing is known of his early life, but he was a man of culture, with the tastes of a country gentleman. He spent some time in the West Indies before coming to New Zealand in the London (which arrived on 12 Dec 1840). He was then unmarried. He had a section in Ghuznee Street, Wellington, and established his farm, Newry, at the Waiwetu. Ludlam soon achieved a reputation by his farming methods, and his steady selection of good class stock. His sheep had a New Zealand reputation, and at the Dunedin Exhibition (1865) he received a silver medal for information on his exhibits of fine and crossbred wools. He was an enterprising gardener, and experimented with many imported plants. When the Horticultural and Botanical Society was founded (1842) he was a member of the committee, and years later he co-operated with Travers, Hector and Mantell in securing for Wellington the botanical gardens, which he endowed with gifts of plants from his own property. Ludlam and Molesworth's windmill at Newry began grinding flour in Sep 1845. The barn was often used for public events (such as the dinner to Sir George Grey in 1851). The house was almost completed when the earthquake of 1848 caused considerable damage. In the earthquake of 1855 Ludlam and his wife (a daughter of Lieutenant-colonel Gibbes) were caught inside the house and were in danger of being killed by the fall of a chimney. Ludlam was appointed by Grey a member of the nominated Legislative Council of New Munster (1849), but he resigned in the following year. He had a disposition for public affairs, and when the new constitution came into force he was elected to the Wellington Provincial Council for one of the Hutt seats, which he represented 1853-61 and 1865-75. He sided with the Hutt members (led by Wakefield) against Featherston in the political feud of 1857-61, and after the election in 1858 was elected Speaker. It was an unenviable position, since he was required to register decisions of the Wakefield majority of which he obviously did not approve. As Speaker he was called upon in emergencies to act as Superintendent. Such an emergency arose when Featherston resigned (1858), and Ludlam had to appeal to the courts to assert his rights against the ex-superintendent. Eventually Featherston handed over the keys, but only for a few days until he was re-elected Superintendent. Ludlam escaped from his unpleasant position by resigning the speakership (Sep 1859). He was too outspoken to be politically successful, and it is said that he spoke too often to be a strong man. In any case, his interests were those of a country gentleman rather than a man of affairs. He was one of the first members of the General Assembly, in which he represented the Hutt (1853-56 and 1866-70). Twice in the first period he resigned his seat. Between the first meeting of the Provincial Council and the assembling of Parliament in 1854 he changed his opinions regarding responsible government, and when Parliament met he moved the address-in-reply as a convert to the principle. He never appeared as a parliamentary candidate after 1870, but he was at the head of the poll at the provincial election in 1873. In 1867 Ludlam was appointed a governor of the newly created New Zealand Institute, and a member of the reception committee for the Duke of Edinburgh's visit. He was an enthusiastic volunteer, and attained the rank of major in the Hutt militia in 1868. In 1870 he was a pallbearer at the funeral of Te Puni. Ludlam's last days were spent, we are told, in a summer of golden charity: so that 'wherever his name was known there will be mourning for the honest, somewhat impractical, but outspoken and enterprising man.' A year or two before his death he visited England for the health of his wife, who died while away. Ludlam died on 8 Nov 1877. Ludlam's Gardens were afterwards called 'McNab's' from a gardener (James McNab, 1831-90) who acquired them after his death. App. H.R. 1874 H24, 1875 H35; Wellington P.C. Proc.; Ward; Wakelin; Carter; Wellington Independent (notably 22 Apr 1872) and Spectator, 1854-56; Evening Post, 15 Nov 1929. Reference: Volume 1, page 270 | Volume 1, page 270 🌳 Further sources |
Samuel Luke | Samuel LukeLUKE, SAMUEL (1832-1906) was born at Royston, Hertfordshire, came to New Zealand in the Annie Longton (1857), and commenced farming at Paerata. On the outbreak of the war he had to remove to Otahuhu, where he farmed for the remainder of his life. He was chairman of the Otahuhu highway board (1877-79) and school committee, and a member of the county council and licensing committee. He was for 30 years from 1878 a member of the education board (and chairman in 1888 and on three other occasions). He was a member of the Auckland Grammar School board and the council of Auckland University College, and a member of the teachers' salaries commission (1901). Luke was on the Anglican diocesan synod and the general trust board and was a licensed lay preacher. He died on 28 May 1906. Otahuhu Borough Council Diamond Jubilee (p); N.Z. Herald, 29 May 1906. Reference: Volume 1, page 270 | Volume 1, page 270 🌳 Further sources |
John Pearce Luke | John Pearce LukeLUKE, SIR JOHN PEARCE (1858-1931) was born at St Just, Penzance, Cornwall, and educated at the Penzance Wesleyan day school. In 1874 he came with his parents to New Zealand, and entered the engineering shop of E. W. Mills to complete his apprenticeship. He was afterwards employed by Edward Seagar, of the Victoria foundry, and was then engaged by the Government as an engineer in the Petone workshops. In 1879 he joined his father and brothers in founding the firm of S. Luke and Sons, which carried out many important engineering works, including shipbuilding and lighthouse construction. Luke was later joint manager and director until the business was merged in J. J. Niven and Co. He was a member of the Wellington City Council (1898-1911) and mayor of the City (1913-21). In the Council he moved the resolution to purchase the horse trams for the City, and as mayor he furthered reclamations and inaugurated the superannuation scheme for city employees. He was many years president of the New Zealand Engineers' and Ironmasters' Association, and was a member of the hospital board, the technical education board and the Wellington Industrial Association. In 1908 Luke was elected Liberal member for Wellington Suburbs. Defeated by W. H. D. Bell in 1911, and for Wellington South by Hindmarsh in 1914, he was returned for Wellington North in 1918, and held the seat till 1928. He was defeated by C. H. Chapman in 1928 and 1931. Luke received the C.M.G. (1917) and was knighted in 1921. He died on 7 Dec 1931. He married (1880) Jacobina (1861-1937, daughter of H. A. Gordon), who was awarded the C.B.E. for social and war work. N.Z.P.D.; Who's Who N.Z., 1908, 1924; Evening Post (p) and The Dominion, 8 Dec 1931 (p), 16 Mar 1937. Reference: Volume 1, page 270 | Volume 1, page 270 🌳 Further sources |
Gresley Lukin | Gresley LukinLUKIN, GRESLEY (1840-1916) was born at Launceston, Tasmania (the son of English parents), and educated in his native town. He studied engineering for two years, but disliked it and went on the stage, where for a few years he took a variety of parts in comedy and drama and was particularly successful in Shakespeare characters. In 1866 he relinquished acting and accepted a post in the Queensland civil service, rising in two years to be chief clerk of the Lands department. He was for a while superintendent of a vast land district, which he had to traverse on horseback, thus gaining an insight into administrative matters and the life of the outback settlers. He personally drafted the Queensland land act of 1868. In 1871 Lukin was transferred to the Justice department as chief clerk in the supreme court at Brisbane. In 1873 he purchased an interest in the Brisbane Newspaper Co., which owned the Courier and the Queenslander. He edited the latter paper for some years with considerable success and became managing director of the company. He was one of the movers in the despatch of Ernest Favenc's expedition across the continent. Lukin was at this time a prominent citizen of Brisbane, and in 1879 he was sent to Sydney as Queensland commissioner to the International Exhibition. In the following year he disposed of his Brisbane interests and moved to Sydney, where he entered into journalism as a freelance writer and correspondent. He also tried a small pastoral venture in New South Wales, but in a year or two returned to Brisbane, and purchased the Boomerang from W. Lane (q.v.). This was a bright and convincing weekly run with great vigour and personality, and advocating the cause of the working class with fairness and humanity. While conducting the Boomerang Lukin made the acquaintance of many rising writers afterwards famous in Australian journalism. He took a great interest in the Australian Natives' Association and was one of the founders of the Queensland Agricultural and Pastoral Association. He also founded the Johnsonian Club, which included in its membership many professional men of Brisbane. He was keenly interested in mining enterprises, and was instrumental in the flotation of several companies. In 1892 Lukin suffered a breakdown in health and was compelled to seek a more invigorating climate. He disposed of the Boomerang and paid a visit to New Zealand. While living in Otago, the floods occurred in Queensland and he wrote to the Otago Daily Times an eloquent appeal for relief for the sufferers (his first contribution to the New Zealand press). After doing a little freelance writing he joined the staff of the Evening Post, Wellington, then edited by Gillon (q.v.), and soon made a reputation as a fine writer and a scrupulously honest, humane and fairminded journalist. In him the highest traditions of the press were maintained. At an early date he made a 'scoop' by forecasting the proposed legislation to rescue the Bank of New Zealand. On the death of Gillon (1896) Lukin became editor. Essentially a non-party man and a convinced democrat, he was a constant advocate of liberal land laws, education, and a white New Zealand. Though a strong imperialist, he was also an ardent nationalist and a supporter of home rule for Ireland. He advocated also a non-political civil service and the reform of the legislative council (which became law before his death, but was not brought into operation). Under his control the Post became the leading independent paper in New Zealand. In 1906 he represented the Commonwealth of Australia at the funeral of Seddon and in 1909 he attended the first Imperial press conference in London. As president of the New Zealand Institute of Journalists he warmly advocated a better organisation of the professional interest in journalism, but failed to get it accepted. Lukin died on 12 Sep 1916. Evening Post, 12 Sep 1916 (p); Otago Daily Times, N.Z. Herald, Brisbane Courier, 13 Sep 1916; Cycl. N.Z., vol i; Who's Who N.Z., 1908. Reference: Volume 1, page 271 | Volume 1, page 271 🌳 Further sources |
George Lumsden | George LumsdenLUMSDEN, GEORGE (1815-1904) was born in Fifeshire, educated at the Kilrenny school in his native shire and served his apprenticeship with his uncle, a jeweller in Pittenweem. In 1836 he went to Edinburgh and worked for many years for James Whitelaw. Having married Christina Blackwood Anderson in 1842, he went into business for himself. In 1853 he came to Australia in the Ravenscraig and opened a shop in Geelong, but was soon attracted to the goldfields at Ballarat. Having little success, he returned to his shop in Geelong. In 1861 Lumsden came to Invercargill. In 1866 he was elected to the Southland Provincial Council for Invercargill, which he represented until 1870, being a member of the executive in 1867 and 1868. After the reunion of Otago and Southland he continued to represent his constituency in the Otago Council until the abolition of the provinces. He was again in the executive in 1874-75 and for another term in 1875. Lumsden was elected to Parliament in 1876. After attending two sessions he found that the absence affected his business, and resigned (1878). He promoted the interests of his city in many ways, notably in the matter of education. He was one of the founders of the Southland Boys' High School (of which he was chairman for 14 years), and was a member of the education board and the land board. He died on 1 Feb 1904. Southland and Otago P.C. Proc.; Southland B.H.S. Reg.; Cycl. N.Z., iv (p); Otago Daily Times, 12 Feb 1904. Reference: Volume 1, page 271 | Volume 1, page 271 🌳 Further sources |
John Lundon | John LundonLUNDON, JOHN (1829-99) was born at Caherelly, County Limerick, and came to New Zealand with his parents in the Westminster in 1842. In 1852 he visited the Victorian diggings, and for some time after returning was engaged in shipping potatoes to Australia. He built the Harp of Erin hotel (1857), erected the first grandstand at Ellerslie and inaugurated horseracing there. In 1860 he joined Nixon's Volunteer cavalry, with which he served in the field. He was also engaged in transport and road work. In 1863 he raised the Manukau Rifle volunteers (of which he was captain) for service in the Waikato. He lived for some years at Onehunga and Awanui. He represented Raglan in the Auckland Provincial Council (1863) and Onehunga (1870-75). In 1868 he settled at Thames, but soon returned to Onehunga. He was elected M.H.R. for Mangonui and Bay of Islands (1879-81) as a follower of Grey. In 1883 Lundon was appointed as the representative in Samoa of the South Sea Island Produce Co. While there he conceived the idea of annexation, and proposed to Sir R. Stout (then Premier) that the New Zealand Government should take action so as to forestall German annexation. He returned to Apia to treat with the chiefs for the transfer of sovereignty and the recognition of Malietoa as paramount chief. The Samoan Parliament, on his recommendation, passed a bill favouring annexation to New Zealand (9 Feb 1885) and appointing Grey and Lundon agents of Samoa to carry the measure into effect. The Germans had meanwhile hoisted their flag, and the action of Lundon was officially disavowed in London. During the war scare in the eighties he raised two volunteer companies and a cadet company in Onehunga. In 1886 he launched a scheme of land settlement in north Auckland. Lundon died on 7 Feb 1899. Auckland P.C. Proc.; App. H.R., 1884, ii, A, 1885 A1, 4D; Auckland Star, 8 Feb 1899. Portrait: Parliament House. Reference: Volume 1, page 271 | Volume 1, page 271 🌳 Further sources |
Daniel Henderson Lusk | Daniel Henderson LuskLUSK, DANIEL HENDERSON (1833-1921) was born in Renfrewshire, Scotland, the son of R. B. Lusk (q.v.). Educated at the High School in Glasgow, he studied civil engineering and arrived in New Zealand with his parents in the Thames (1849). He was employed by the Government in the survey of the Canterbury block and Christchurch (1850). Then he was appointed assistant engineer and engineer of roads under C. W. Ligar (1857). Lusk had a bush farm at Mauku, and was at an early date involved in native hostilities. In 1858 he assisted to form the first volunteer company in Auckland, and when the war broke out in Taranaki he and Judge Maning enrolled 1,500 Ngapuhi and Rarawa to serve against the Taranaki tribes. The offer was not accepted, and the enrolment lapsed. Having surveyed a road from Auckland to Waikato, he was attached to the Royal Engineers in constructing it. When hostilities commenced, he was the principal agent in forming three companies of Forest Rangers (at Mauku, Pukekohe East and Waiuku), and early in the operation he showed a marked faculty for leadership. On 8 Sep he was in command of the stockade at Mauku when his force became engaged in a sharp action, and were extricated with difficulty from a dangerous ambush. Again on 23 Oct, in a fight against an overwhelming force, Lusk gave evidence of his skill and daring. Von Tempsky, who was present as an ensign, remarked that he was a man of consummate judgment about Maori warfare. These operations, which relieved Auckland of danger from a strong body of King natives who had eluded General Cameron in the Waikato, are fully described in Gudgeon (pp. 113-7) and are the subject of a laudatory despatch by Sir G. Grey to the Secretary of State (2 Nov 1863). In Dec the transport service on the river broke down through the sinking of the gunboat Avon, and Lusk, who was with the troops as guide, was transferred to the transport corps. Working with great energy, he opened up a track which he had previously surveyed from Raglan to the Waikato at Te Rore. He was then appointed to command the transport service at Te Awamutu. While in this post he became aware of the enemy entrenching themselves at Orakau, and reconnoitred the position, narrowly escaping capture. He took part in the siege and capture of Orakau and the battle of Rangiriri. After the cessation of hostilities Lusk was appointed to command the Waiuku and Wairoa district. On news arriving of the approach of Te Kooti (1868), he mobilised his force of 300 men and marched them thirty miles into Mercer as a precautionary measure, for which he received the thanks of the Government. He remained in command of this district for another ten years. In 1893 he was chief crown ranger for the Auckland land district. Retiring in the following year, he took up a cattle station in the King country, where he was one of the earliest settlers of Te Kuiti and was a member of the borough council. He promoted the new county of Waitomo (1906), and was its first chairman. He helped to establish the dairy company and was president of the racing club. After returning to live in Auckland, Lusk was president of the provincial Farmers' Union when the Trading Co. was established, and when the special constables were organised to break the strike (1913). He married (1864) Ellen Henrietta (d. 1890), daughter of Captain William Butler (q.v.). Lusk's death occurred on 11 Jun 1921. Cycl. N.Z., ii (p); Cowan i (p); Gudgeon (p); Jourdain; N.Z. Herald, 13 Jun 1921. Reference: Volume 1, page 271 | Volume 1, page 271 🌳 Further sources |
Hugh Hart Lusk | Hugh Hart LuskLUSK, HUGH HART (1837-1926) was the youngest son of R. B. Lusk (q.v.). He came to New Zealand in 1849, and was educated in Auckland, and practised as a barrister and solicitor there. He married (1864) Mary (1845-1905), daughter of Captain William Butler (q.v.). Lusk had advanced views on social matters, and as early as 1870 supported the principle of free education. In 1870 he was elected to the Provincial Council for Parnell, which he represented to 1873, being a member of the executive all the time. His political career received a setback from his suggestion that a poll-tax should be levied for education purposes. From 1875 until the abolition of the provinces he represented Wairoa and Mangapai. In 1876 he was elected M.H.R. for Franklin, resigning the seat two years later. In 1890 he went to Australia and the United States, residing abroad for many years. Lusk wrote a good deal all his life. In 1865 he contributed to the Fortnightly Review an article on Hauhauism, which he described as 'Maori Mohammedanism.' He also published Our Foes at Home (1899) and a thoughtful work on Social Welfare in New Zealand (1913). Lusk died on 8 Sep 1926. N.Z.P.D., 24 Jun 1927; N.Z. Herald, 9 Sep 1926; Auckland P.C. Proc.; Otago Daily Times, 13 Apr 1907. Reference: Volume 1, page 272 | Volume 1, page 272 🌳 Further sources |
Robert Baillie Lusk | Robert Baillie LuskLUSK, ROBERT BAILLIE (1798-1891) was born in Ayrshire, and educated at the Greenock Academy and Edinburgh University. His deeply religious views and high ideals were due in some measure to early association with Dr McLeod Campbell, Thomas Erskine and the Rev F. D. Maurice. For sharing their opinions on points of doctrine he was disqualified from being an elder of his church in Glasgow. Lusk came to New Zealand in 1849; settled first at Turanga creek, Auckland; and moved later into the city. He was a zealous Anglican and a member of the diocesan and general synods. He became provincial accountant during the superintendency of Williamson (1857), and treasurer in 1865, holding office until the abolition (1876). Lusk married Jessie E. Hart. His death occurred on 6 Sep 1891. Cowie; Morton; Cycl. NZ. Reference: Volume 1, page 272 | Volume 1, page 272 🌳 Further sources |
John Aldred Luxford | John Aldred LuxfordLUXFORD, JOHN ALDRED (1854-1921) was born at Hutt, his parents having arrived in New Zealand in the Duke of Roxburgh (1840). He was educated at the school of the Rev. W. Fell and later at the Wellington Grammar School (before it was incorporated in Wellington College). In 1875 he was received for training for the Methodist ministry. He studied under the Rev. Joseph Berry and at Canterbury College, began his ministry at Woodend (1876), and was ordained in 1880. He married (1880) Emma Allen Mansfield, daughter of the Rev. John Aldred. Luxford held several important pastorates, and proved himself a thoughtful preacher, a wise administrator, and an able representative of his Church in the community. The church at Rugby Street, St Albans, was erected under his leadership. As a freemason he filled the master's chair and also the office of grand chaplain. For many years he was convener of the naval and military committee. In 1902 he was chaplain to the 40th New Zealand contingent in South Africa. In 1903 he became president of the New Zealand Methodist conference. In the war of 1914-18 he left New Zealand with the Main Body, served in Egypt and Gallipoli, and won a wide reputation for valorous and self-denying devotion to the needs of the wounded and dying. At Suvla Bay, while ministering to the wounded, he was shot in the leg (which was amputated). Later he was chaplain to the military hospital at Walton-on-Thames. He sought superannuation from active work in 1916, and returned to New Zealand in Sep 1919. A resolute and heroic soldier, he was twice mentioned in despatches; attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was made a C.M.G. He died on 28 Jan 1921. M.A.; R.P. Reference: Volume 1, page 272 | Volume 1, page 272 🌳 Further sources |
David Lyall | David LyallLYALL, DAVID (1817-95) was born at Auchinleck, Scotland, and educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities. Having entered the Royal Navy, he was chosen in 1839, on account of his knowledge of natural history, as assistant surgeon in the Terror, under Sir John Clark Ross (Hooker holding the same position in the Erebus). He served in this capacity (much of the time in New Zealand waters and the Antarctic) until 1842, when he was sent to the Mediterranean. Promoted surgeon, Lyall came to New Zealand again as surgeon and naturalist in the Acheron. Returning to England in 1852, he volunteered as surgeon in Belcher's expedition to find Franklin, and was posted to the Assistance. For the next two years he was senior medical officer in the relief expedition, with jurisdiction over many crews then concentrated in the Arctic. He served in the Pembroke in the Russian war (1855), had a short term in the Royal William, and was then appointed to the surveying ship Plumper, delimiting the boundary between Great Britain and the United States in the north Pacific. Following this he was surgeon and naturalist to the land boundary commission under Sir John Hawkins, R.E. He was medical officer again in the Pembroke, and in 1868 received a home appointment, from which he retired in 1873 as deputy-inspector-general. Lyall's activities as a naturalist are recorded in the early scientific history of New Zealand and the Antarctic. His work was much appreciated by Hooker. He died on 25 Feb 1895. J. C. Ross, A Voyage of Discovery ... 1839-43, 1847; J. D. Hooker, The Botany of Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror, 1844; The Times, 2 Mar 1895. Reference: Volume 1, page 272 | Volume 1, page 272 🌳 Further sources |
Robert Lynd | Robert LyndLYND, ROBERT (1816-51) was born at Plymouth, England. At the age of sixteen he became an ensign in the 65th Regiment, with which he served in the Persian Gulf (1819) and Arabia (1821). In 1823 he became a lieutenant on half-pay, but some years later was appointed barrackmaster at Dominica, whence he was transferred to Hobart, and then to Sydney. He came to Auckland in the same capacity in 1847. A man of scientific interests and considerable literary attainments, Lynd studied natural history in New South Wales and was a close friend of Dr Leichhardt. On the report of Leichhardt's death in 1845 he wrote some of his best stanzas. He was associated with many charities and was a vice-president of the Auckland Mechanics' Institute. He died on 24 Sep 1851. N.Z. Herald, 29 Sep, 4 Oct 1851. Reference: Volume 1, page 272 | Volume 1, page 272 🌳 Further sources |
William Lyon | William LyonLYON, WILLIAM (1805-79) was born in Scotland, brought up to the bookselling trade, and had a business in Hamilton, near Glasgow, before coming to New Zealand in the Duke of Roxburgh, which arrived on 8 Feb 1840. He entered into business as a bookseller, for which he had every qualification. He was a man of some attainments; a fluent writer who wrote much for the early press of Wellington; and a fellow of the Geological Society of London who gave many public lectures at the Mechanics' Institute. His business afterwards became known as Lyon and Blair, and was merged early in this century in Whitcombe and Tombs. Besides his business, Lyon had a farm near Pito-one, which he called Glenlyon, and where the first St Andrew's day picnic was held (30 Nov 1840). During the day a Scotch thistle was sown on the property. A man of commonsense and broad humanity, Lyon soon had an assured position in the settlement. When the first election was held of mayor and aldermen (under the abortive charter) he came second on the poll (George Hunter 273; Lyon 237; Fitzherbert 210). From an early date he was a justice of the peace, and he sat on the bench regularly. He was a founder of the Pacific lodge, the first lodge of freemasons in New Zealand, and took a part in the establishment of the Spectator and the Independent, to both of which he was a regular contributor. Shortly after the pioneers arrived, the Port Nicholson Institute, library, and reading-room was formed, and acquired for its rooms a native house built originally for Barrett's hotel. When this institution failed (1842), Lyon at his own risk negotiated for the purchase of the rooms, and with the help of friends formed in May the Mechanics' Institute. When this became moribund, he called a meeting to resuscitate it. He was vice-president for many years, and was the last survivor of the original trustees. Lyon attended the public meetings to consider measures of defence after the attack at Boulcott's farm (1846). He took a prominent part in the movement for representative government, and when the Settlers' Constitutional Association was formed in 1850 he was elected a corresponding member. He was one of the first members of the Provincial Council for Wellington City, which he represented 1853-57, being throughout a supporter of Featherston. He was a member of the Council's first education committee (1853) and afterwards of the education commission. With Hunter, R. Duncan, Dransfield and others, Lyon assisted at the formation of the New Zealand Steam Navigation Co., of which he was a director for some years. In business he was strictly honourable, in public life straightforward and generous. He was an acute observer and a great reader, and possessed one of the best libraries in the Colony. He was known later to have been the author of a clever political satire, The Chaldean Manuscript. Lyon was a strong Presbyterian, and at the time of the disruption warmly supported the Free Church. He married (1843) Margaret Barr (d. 1871). His death occurred on 22 Feb 1879. Wellington P.C. Proc.; Cycl. N.Z., i (p); Ward. Reference: Volume 1, page 272 | Volume 1, page 272 🌳 Further sources |
William Charles Lyon | William Charles LyonLYON, WILLIAM CHARLES (1825-87) was the only son of General Sir James Lyon, K.C.B., G.C.H., sometime governor of Barbados. Receiving his commission in the Coldstream Guards, he exchanged into the 92nd Highlanders in order to see active service, and was for 10 months in the Crimea. After returning to England, he had an accident which resulted in the loss of an arm, and he retired from the army to settle in New Zealand. When the Maori war broke out Lyon was given command of a volunteer company, and was adjutant to Colonel Balneavis. In May 1863 he received his majority and command of a wing of the 3rd battalion Auckland militia. With a force of 150 Imperial and Colonial troops he repulsed an attack on the stockade at Wairoa, and then drove the Maori from their position. He was mentioned in despatches and thanked by Generals Cameron and Galloway. In Oct he was promoted lieut-colonel and given command of the 3rd Regiment Waikato militia. He commanded the expedition to Opotiki (1865), and then returned to the Waikato command. In 1869, during the absence of Whitmore on the East Coast, he took command of the Colonial Field Force assembling at Wanganui. He served throughout the campaign against Titokowaru as second in command, being present at Otautu (13 Mar) and Te Ngaere, and remaining in command at Patea until returning to his post in Waikato. Lyon was appointed acting Under-secretary for Defence and Commissioner of Armed Constabulary during Colonel Moule's absence on leave, and in 1884 (during the Russian war scare) he was entrusted with the defence of Auckland and command of the district. Lyon was brusque and blunt in manner, but courteous and considerate and most popular with the rank and file. He died on 16 Nov 1887. He married (1865) Sophia, daughter of Edward Rawlinson, Blair Castle, county Cork. Gudgeon (p); Gorton; Cowan ii (p); Auckland Star, 18 Nov 1887; N.Z. Herald, 27 Feb 1888. Reference: Volume 1, page 273 | Volume 1, page 273 🌳 Further sources |
Richard Burdsall Lyth | Richard Burdsall LythLYTH, RICHARD BURDSALL (1810-87) was born in York, England. He was educated for the medical profession and admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. At the age of 26 he entered the Methodist ministry and was one of the first medical missionaries sent out by the Wesleyan Missionary Society. He and his wife arrived at Sydney in 1837 and proceeded to the Friendly Islands in H.M.S. Conway. Leaving Sydney on 11 Oct 1837, the Conway anchored off Entry Island, New Zealand, where Lyth established contacts with the Methodist missionaries in various stations. For three years he served in Tonga, acquiring a mastery of the language. He was next appointed to Fiji, where his medical skill gave him great influence over the natives. He soon gained an accurate knowledge of the Fijian language which he wrote with idiomatic correctness. He translated some of the New Testament books and revised a large part of the Fijian Old Testament. Many Fijian hymns are his composition. His greatest work in Fiji was the training and directing of a large body of native missionaries who were sent throughout the group and other fields in the Pacific. In 1855, because of his scholarship, his culture and his refinement he was appointed governor of the Wesleyan college at Auckland. He made an indelible mark upon the life of the college and of his Church and stamped the impress of his character upon many students. Returning to England in 1858, he was for some time engaged in revising the Fijian scriptures for the British and Foreign Bible Society. Later he was engaged in mission work in Gibraltar for five years and he subsequently took an active part in army chaplaincy. In 1876 he was superannuated and settled in York. He resided in Fulford Barracks and until his death (on 11 Feb 1887) did devoted pastoral work amongst soldiers and civilians. M.A. Reference: Volume 1, page 274 | Volume 1, page 274 🌳 Further sources |