McNAB, ROBERT (1864-1917) was born at Puni Bush, Southland, the son of Alexander McNab (q.v.), and educated at the Invercargill Grammar School (dux 1879) to the age of 16. At Otago University he graduated B.A. in 1883, was senior mathematical scholar of the University, and took his M.A. in 1884 with honours in mathematics and physics. He became a clerk in the legal office of Chapman, Sinclair and White, in Dunedin, was called to the bar in 1889 and graduated LL.B. in 1890. He commenced the practice of law in Invercargill.

McNab took a keen interest in volunteering and at different times commanded the North Dunedin Rifles and G and B batteries of the New Zealand artillery. He was a good rifle shot and competed in several championship meetings. In 1891 he was elected to the Southland education board, and in the following year to the board of governors of the Southland Girls' and Boys' High schools. In 1893 McNab stood as a Liberal for the Mataura electorate and defeated G. F. Richardson. Richardson regained the seat in 1896, but retired in 1898, when McNab was elected. He held the seat till 1908, when he was defeated by G. J. Anderson. In 1914 he was elected for Hawke's Bay, for which he sat till his death.

A strong Liberal and a vigorous advocate of the leasehold tenure, he declined office in the Seddon Government, but was Minister of Lands and Agriculture in the Ward administration (1906). In his first session in office he introduced a land bill to strengthen the leasehold legislation passed by Ballance and Seddon. He made one of the finest speeches of his political career on this measure, but the Premier, who feared the growing body of freehold sentiment in the country, withdrew the bill. McNab lost his seat at the following election. He then devoted his attention to the subject of national training, upon which he made many speeches throughout the country, supporting the principles of the National Defence League. He instituted Saturday training classes for school teachers in Southland.

McNab was also interested in the history of Southland, and eventually of New Zealand as a whole. In 1904 he published Murihiku; Some Old Time Events, which was followed in the next few years by three new editions or re-writings. His researches took him abroad to search the archives of the ports of New England, Great Britain and France. In 1908 he published the first volume of Historical Records of New Zealand, taken from the printed or unprinted records of New South Wales; and in 1909 a fuller edition of Murihiku. In 1914 appeared the second volume of Historical Records, which included the valuable French, English and American sources.

McNab again took office when the National ministry was formed during the war of 1914-18. He held the portfolios of Justice and Marine from Aug 1915 till his death (on 3 Feb 1917). He published two more historical works, The Old Whaling Days and From Tasman to Marsden in 1914, and received the degree of Litt.D. from the University. His methods of historical research were painstaking and exhaustive, and he left a vast amount of unpublished matter. Before his death he arranged for the transfer of his valuable collection of books on New Zealand and Pacific history to the Dunedin Public Library, thus endowing the capital city of Otago with one of the finest historical collections in the Dominion.

N.Z.P.D., pass. (notably 29 Jun 1917); Who's Who N.Z., 1908; Russell (p); McNab, op. cit.; Otago Daily Times, 5 Feb 1917. Portrait: Parliament House.

Reference: Volume 2, page 23

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