DREYER, ALEXANDER SVEND (1820-1905) was the son of an officer in the Danish army. Owing to political troubles he came to New Zealand in the sixties. In 1866 he bought land in the Mount Patriarch run (Marlborough), but was refused a crown grant on the grounds of failure to improve. Dreyer then moved to the West Coast, where he represented Grey in the Nelson Provincial Council (1867-69). On the inauguration of Scandinavian immigration he was appointed by the Wellington provincial government as interpreter and storekeeper at the camp north of Masterton, on the edge of the Forty-Mile Bush (1871). He was responsible also for reception of the immigrants from Scandinavia, and accompanied many of them to their destinations. Dreyer settled near Kopuaranga, the township being named after him 'Dreyer's Rock' and later 'Dreyerton'. He died on 4 Aug 1905.

Kopuaranga School Jubilee Souvenir, 1935; Wellington Independent, 6 Nov 1871; Wairarapa Observer, 5 Aug 1905.

Reference: Volume 1, page 127

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