James FitzGerald

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James Edward Fitzgerald (1890)

James Edward FitzGerald (born March 4, 1818 in Bath , County Somerset , England , † August 2, 1896 in Wellington , New Zealand ) was a colonialist, newspaper founder, journalist and politician in New Zealand.

Early years

James Edward FitzGerald was born the youngest son of Irish landowner Gerald FitzGerald , from Kilminchy , Queen's County , Ireland , and his second wife Catherine O'Brien in Bath , England. He attended school in Bath and from 1839 Christ's College in Cambridge , where he graduated in 1842 with a Bachelor of Arts .

His wish to become a member of the Royal Engineers in the British Army was not granted due to poor eyesight. So he decided to wander through Great Britain and Ireland. He got to know the country and its people and saw the poverty in which many people lived.

Profession and engagement in England

In 1884 FitzGerald found a job as an assistant in the Department of Antiquities at the British Museum . But during the Irish famine of 1846, he was committed to developing solutions for a systematic colonization of New Ireland , today's Vancouver Island . He saw emigration to the British colonies as a solution to the problem of famine and poverty in general. While he publicly challenged the Hudson's Bay Company , which had been significantly involved in the colonization and trade of North America since 1670, through publications and letters to the press in 1847 to buy the island for colonization purposes, he became Deputy Secretary of the British on January 17, 1848 Museum promotes.

In 1849 he met the colonization theorist Edward Gibbon Wakefield and was appointed secretary of the Canterbury Association . In this role he helped develop a plan to establish the Church of England in the colony of New Zealand. He wrote the statutes of the Society of Canterbury Colonists and became an emigration agent for the Canterbury Association . His involvement in the Colonial Reform Society led to his appointment as the Society's first secretary in 1850.

family

Before leaving for New Zealand, FitzGerald married 18-year-old Frances Erskine Draper , daughter of George Draper , a London merchant, on August 22, 1850 . The marriage resulted in 13 children.

New Zealand

Shortly after the marriage, FitzGerald and his wife traveled to New Zealand on the " Charlotte Jane ", a ship from the fleet of the First Four Ships , which left England with settlers from Plymouth in September . There was a printing press on the ship and a few employees who were willing to work for him in New Zealand to set up a newspaper. On December 16, 1850, the Charlotte Jane was the first of the four ships to reach Port Cooper , today's Lyttelton . Less than two months after arrival, FitzGerald published the first edition of the weekly Lyttelton Times on January 11, 1851 . He worked as a journalist and editor for the newspaper for two years.

During this time he worked as a police inspector, a task that was assigned to him by the colonial government. In addition, he assumed duties as agent for the Canterbury Association . Following the passage of the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 in 1852, FitzGerald was first elected Superintendent of Canterbury in 1853 . He held this government office for the province of Canterbury until 1857.

In 1854, FitzGerald was elected as a representative for Lyttelton in the newly elected parliament and was appointed to the Executive Council on June 14, 1954 by then Governor Sir Robert Henry Wynyard, along with the politicians Henry Sewell and Frederick Weld . Wynyard turned management responsibility over to FitzGerald . FitzGerald assumed that he now had government responsibility and was the first Prime Minister of the New Zealand colony. But Wynyard cleared the matter with the Colonial Office and subsequently informed him that a Royal Assent of the Crown would have been necessary as confirmation of his appointment . FitzGerald was frustrated and upset and too ill to appear and be sustained as Prime Minister at the opening of the first session of Parliament. Sewell was elected in his place and became New Zealand's first Prime Minister .

Weakened by his illness, his doctors advised him to take it easy for a year and recover from his illness. He then gave up his parliamentary seat in 1857 and the responsibility as superintendent for the province of Canterbury . He then went back to England, where he worked for three years in the Canterbury Association's emigration department.

Back in New Zealand in 1860, he founded the daily Press in 1861 and ran it until his re-election to parliament for the constituency of Ellesmere in 1862. On August 12, 1865, he was appointed Minister for Native Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Frederick Weld . But after Weld's cabinet resigned on October 16, FitzGerald was rid of the ministerial office after just two months. He kept his seat in parliament until 1867 and was elected to parliament once from 1866 to 1867 for the constituency of Christchurch . Then he said goodbye to politics entirely. In 1866 he took on the role of auditor for government expenses and later held a managerial role until his death.

FitzGerald died in Wellington on August 2, 1896 and was buried in Bolton Street Cemetery in Wellington .

Awards

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Blain : The Canterbury Association (1848-1852): A Study of Its Members' Connections . 2007, p.  31 (English, web archive ( memento from September 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; 661 kB ; accessed on February 22, 2016]).
  2. ^ A b McIntyre : FitzGerald, James Edward . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . 1990 (English, online [accessed February 22, 2016]).
  3. ↑ Scholefield : FitzGerald, James Edward (1818-1896) . In: A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . 1940 (English).
  4. ↑ a b c Mr. James Edward FitzGerald . In: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand . 1897.
  5. ^ Lyttelton Times . Paperpast - National Library of New Zealand , accessed February 3, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Press . Paperpast - National Library of New Zealand , accessed February 3, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME FitzGerald, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES FitzGerald, James Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colonialist, newspaper founder, journalist and politician in New Zealand
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1818
PLACE OF BIRTH Bath , England
DATE OF DEATH 2nd August 1896
Place of death Wellington , New Zealand