George Edward Read (1814/1815 – 23 February 1878) was a British

mariner A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor' ...

, trader, landowner and politician in

Poverty Bay Poverty Bay (Māori language, Māori: ''Tūranganui-a-Kiwa''), officially named Tūranganui-a-Kiwa / Poverty Bay, is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawke Bay. It stretches for ...

, New Zealand. Known as Captain Read, he settled in Gisborne after a career in

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

, setting up a store in what was then a small town.

Early life

Read was born in Mendlesham, Suffolk, England, in either 1814 or 1815. Little is known of his early life. He came to the Pacific in the 1830s on a whaling ship, and worked on trading ships.

Poverty Bay

Read first arrived in the settlement of Tūranga in 1844. By 1852, he owned a

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

, and was a prominent trader and landowner.

Member of Parliament

Following the general election held on 6 January 1876, he represented the East Coast electorate until 22 August, when he was unseated on a petition. Read died at his home in Gisborne on 23 February 1878.

References

1810s births 1878 deaths Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand businesspeople People from the Gisborne District People from Mid Suffolk District English emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand MPs for North Island electorates 19th-century New Zealand politicians {{NewZealand-business-bio-stub