Edward Robert Tregear
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Edward Tregear ISO |
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|---|---|
Edward Robert Tregear
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| Wellington City Councillor | |
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In office 1912–1915 |
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| Preceded by | David McLaren |
| 1st President of the Social Democratic Party | |
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In office 1913–1914 |
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| Vice President | Frederick Cooke |
| Succeeded by | Hiram Hunter |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
1 May 1846 Southampton, England |
| Died |
28 October 1931 (aged 85) Picton, New Zealand |
| Political party |
Social Democratic (1913-16) Labour (1916-31) |
| Spouse(s) | Bessie Tregear |
| Children | 1 |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Awards |
Imperial Service Order New Zealand Medal |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | New Zealand Army |
| Years of service | 1867-69 |
| Rank |
.svg){kind=small} Captain
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| Battles/wars | New Zealand Wars |
Edward Robert Tregear ISO (1846–1931) was a New Zealand public servant and scholar.
He was born in Southampton, England, on 1 May 1846, the son of Captain William Henry Tregear, a descendant of an old Cornish family. Tregear was educated in private schools and trained as a civil engineer. He arrived in Auckland in June 1863 and took a position as a surveyor. This work brought him into close contact with the Māori, and he began to study their language and culture. Poverty forced Tregear to enlist in the Auckland Engineer Volunteers. He saw action against the Māori in the Tauranga area and was awarded the New Zealand War Medal. Between 1869 and 1873 he worked as a surveyor on the goldfields at Thames and Coromandel and on Māori lands near Tokoroa. His investments in gold mining and saw milling ventures proved disastrous, and he lost what little money he had, setting a pattern for the rest of his life in financial matters. In 1877 he moved to Patea, working privately until 1881 as a surveyor for roads boards. He also captained the Patea Rifle Volunteers.
His research on comparative mythology and linguistics was expressed in a controversial book The Aryan Maori (1885), in which he placed the Māori language in the ranks of the Indo-European language family and further claimed that the Māori shared an Aryan origin with the European. While this 'Aryan Māori' theory was bitterly criticised in New Zealand it received favourable attention overseas. Tregear frequently contributed articles on Māori anthropology to scholarly British journals, received fellowships of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Historical Society. Following on the heels of these fellowships, in 1893 he received a silver medal and an offer of a fellowship from the Society of Science, Letters and Art, which he refused. His refusal triggered an exposé in New Zealand of this bogus institution. Tregear was to repeat and refine his theory of the Aryan origin of Māori in many works during the succeeding two decades.
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