FLIGHT, JOSIAH (1800-84) was born at Tiverton, Devon, educated there and apprenticed to a wine merchant at Lyme Regis, Dorset, where he started in business on his own account. He married Ann, daughter of James Devenish, and in 1842 came to New Plymouth in the Timandra with his brother-in-law and took up land at Mangaoraka, on the road to Waitara. Native troubles and the award of Governor FitzRoy caused him to abandon this farm. One of the earliest justices in Taranaki, Flight was in 1852 appointed to succeed Captain King as magistrate at New Plymouth and sub-treasurer for the province. Later he was also sheriff and coroner, and in 1860 collector of customs. During the Maori war his duties as captain of militia and as magistrate were delicate and trying. On one occasion he assembled the residents to ask for military protection for the province, and in 1855 he called out the whole of the white male population for training as special constables. He had many disputes of a purely tribal nature to adjudicate in and was once indebted for his life to the protection of Katatore. A district judge was appointed in 1858 and Flight retired 10 years later. He and Devenish brought some of the first sheep to Taranaki, and also many English fruit trees and flowers (such as primroses and violets). He was a prominent social reformer and associated himself with every movement for the amelioration of the condition of both races. With the Rev W. Cannell he formed the first temperance society amongst the military (1861); and he assisted Whiteley to found the first total abstinence society amongst the Maori (1864). He was a charter member of lodge Egmont, I.O.G.T. (1873).

As a churchman Flight laid the foundation stone of the first Wesleyan Church, in Liardet street (13 Mar 1856). On 1 Jan 1862 he laid that of the Primitive Methodist Church; and on 11 Mar 1868 the place of worship of his own denomination, the Baptists, was opened, largely through his efforts. In secular matters he was a keen advocate of Taranaki ironsand and the harbour project. Flight died on 7 Mar and his widow on 3 Sep 1884.

Taranaki P.C. Proc. and Gaz; N.Z. Gaz; N.Z. Law Jour., 11 Nov 1928; Wells; Taranaki Herald, 8 Mar 1884; Taranaki News, 15 Mar 1884; Cycl. NZ. vi (p).

Portrait: Taranaki Hist. Coll.

Reference: Volume 1, page 151

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