Joseph Ivess (8 February 1844 – 4 September 1919) was a member of the

New Zealand House of Representatives The House of Representatives () is the Unicameral, sole chamber of the New Zealand Parliament. The House passes Law of New Zealand, laws, provides Ministers in the New Zealand Government, ministers to form the Cabinet of New Zealand, Cabinet, ...

. He had an association with a large number of newspapers.

Early life and Australia

Joseph Ivess was born in

Askeaton Askeaton (, Waterfall of Géitine, also historically spelt Askettin) is a town in County Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is built on the banks of the River Deel which flows into the Shannon Estuary 3 km to the north. Aske ...

County Limerick County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...

, Ireland in 1844. His parents were John Pope Ivess and Anne Southwell. The family emigrated to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia on the

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...

, Alcyone, leaving Liverpool in September 1852. Four of his obituaries said he attended Barnett's Grammar School in Emerald Hill, but no other sources mention such a school. His father became a police sergeant. In 1864, he married Sarah Ann Reddin at

Castlemaine, Victoria Castlemaine ( , Variation in Australian English, non-locally also ) is a town in west central Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, in the Goldfields region of Victoria, Goldfields region about 123 kilometres (76 miles) northwest by road ...

. In 1865 a Joseph Ivess, printer, was owed £38 in Maldon. In 1866, he worked on the staff of the ''Bendigo Independent''. A photograph of Ivess with his family shows nine children. His obituaries listed 8 surviving children, Mrs Helena Lister, Mrs Barrett, Florence and Elizabeth Ivess, all living in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, John Ivess (

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; , colloquially known as Palmerston or Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatū Plains, the city is near the north bank of the Manaw ...

), Joseph Ivess and Charles Ivess, a billiard saloon owner in Gisborne.

New Zealand

On his arrival in New Zealand in 1868 he began work as the manager, and perhaps printer, of the ''New Zealand Celt'' at

Hokitika Hokitika is a town in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island, south of Greymouth, and close to the mouth of the Hokitika River. It is the seat and largest town in the Westland District. The town's estimated population is as of ...

. It is hardly surprising that an Irishman emigrating from Melbourne to New Zealand would land at Hokitika. The West Coast gold fields were at that time full of fellow countrymen and shipping routes made that coast a natural landfall. Ivess probably found employment rapidly as the manager of the New Zealand Celt, the Irish Catholic Party's newspaper whose proprietor John Manning was charged with

seditious libel Seditious libel is a criminal offence under common law of printing written material with seditious purposethat is, the purpose of bringing contempt upon a political authority. It remains an offence in Canada but has been abolished in England and ...

for erecting a memorial to the Fenian martyrs of

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

in the Hokitika Cemetery. It may have been in this heady political atmosphere that the seeds of Ivess's political ambitions were planted and nurtured. By 1870 Ivess had definitely established a printing business at Hokitika in partnership with George Tilbrook, as shown by advertisements in the first issue of the Tomahawk (5 March 1870) and subsequent issues. This heavily satirical weekly and its successor, the ''Lantern'', must also have encouraged Ivess in his political aspirations, for they relied on criticism of local and national political events for their effect. Even at this early stage in his career Ivess demonstrated a propensity for attracting legal action, being named as a defendant in a libel action in the Tomahawk (16 and 30 April 1870). To be fair, Ivess was not alone among newspapermen in being sued frequently. Conservative

libel Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

laws were retained in New Zealand long after they had been redrafted in England and resulted in frequent lawsuits of which Ivess attracted his fair share. He remained in and about the West Coast for the next eight years, but after 1875 his base became the

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

region, and particularly Ashburton. He started 45 newspapers in New South Wales and New Zealand.

Political career

Ivess represented the Inangahua electorate on the

Nelson Provincial Council Nelson Province was constituted in 1853 under the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, and originally covered the entire upper South Island, including all of present-day Buller, Kaikoura, Marlborough, and Tasman districts, along with Nelson Ci ...

from 21 January 1873 until the abolition of the Provinces on 31 October 1876. He used his various newspaper interests to increase his name recognition for election purposes. In September 1875, the first hint appeared that he would challenge

Harry Atkinson Sir Harry Albert Atkinson (1 November 1831 – 28 June 1892) served as the tenth Prime Minister of New Zealand, premier of New Zealand on four separate occasions in the late 19th century, and was Minister of Finance (New Zealand), Colonial Tr ...

in the electorate at the next general election, although it was clear that he would not stand a chance against the Colonial Treasurer. The election was held on 3 January 1876 and Atkinson defeated Ivess by 225 votes to 73. Ivess was one of the original nine councillors of the Ashburton Borough Council in September 1878. He was beaten by Hugo Friedlander for the Ashburton mayoralty in November 1879. Ivess contested the electorate in

South Canterbury South Canterbury is the area of the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand bounded by the Rangitata River in the north and the Waitaki River (the border with the Otago Region) to the south. The Pacific Ocean and ridge of the S ...

in the against

Cathcart Wason John Cathcart Wason (17 November 1848 – 19 April 1921), generally known as Cathcart Wason, was a Scotland, Scottish farmer and politician who served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament in two countries: first in Ne ...

and

Charles Purnell Charles William Purnell (1843 – 7 December 1926) was a New Zealand soldier, journalist, lawyer, and publisher of political and scientific texts. Early life and career Purnell was born in Lambeth, London, England, where he received his educat ...

. Ivess petitioned against Wason's election win on numerous grounds. The election petitions court started hearing the case in February 1882. Members were sworn in on 18 May 1882 for the first session of the 8th Parliament. Wason was not present. On the following day, the results of the various election petitions were read out, and the 1881 Wakanui election was declared void. Wason lost his seat in Parliament without having ever taken it. A 16 June

1882 by-election Year 188 (CLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in the Roman Empire as the Year of the Consulship of Fuscianus and Silanus (or, less frequently, year 941 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomi ...

was held, which was contested by

Alfred Saunders Alfred Saunders (12 June 1820 – 28 October 1905) was a New Zealand farmer, reformer, women's suffrage and temperance advocate and politician. He was Superintendent of Nelson Province and represented several electorate in the New Zealand Hous ...

and Ivess. Ivess and Saunders received 604 and 541 votes, and Ivess was thus declared elected. In the , Ivess was beaten by

John Grigg John Edward Poynder Grigg (15 April 1924 – 31 December 2001) was a British writer, historian and politician. He was the 2nd Baron Altrincham from 1955 until he disclaimed that title under the Peerage Act on the day it received Royal Assen ...

. Grigg resigned in mid-1885, and this caused the , at which Ivess was re-elected. Having moved to the North Island, Ivess contested the electorate in the against the incumbent

John Davies Ormond John Davies Ormond (31 May 1831 – 6 October 1917) was a New Zealand politician whose positions included Superintendent of Hawke's Bay Province, Minister of Public Works and member of the New Zealand Legislative Council. He repre ...

, but was beaten. After that, he lived in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

for some years. Back in New Zealand from 1893, he concentrated his activities in the North Island, especially in the

Taranaki Taranaki is a regions of New Zealand, region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano Mount Taranaki, Taranaki Maunga, formerly known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the ...

and Rangitikei areas. He returned for some years to Ashburton around the turn of the century, and from 1903 based himself in the central North Island. A description of Ivess in late 1875 portrayed him as a "fine plump man with a well-groomed appearance. He wore a moustache and a little bunch of hair on his under lip, as was customary in some professional men of those days. . . . Always an optimist, it was hard for others to compete with him." Ivess stood in several more elections, including in , and in , and (every time beaten by

Charles Hardy Admiral Sir Charles Hardy ( – 18 May 1780) was a Royal Navy officer, politician and colonial administrator who sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain between 1764 and 1780. He served as governor of New York from 1755 to 1757. Early ...

). He contested the in the electorate as an

Independent Liberal Independent Liberal is a description which candidates and politicians have used to describe themselves, designating them as liberals, yet independent of the official Liberal Party of their country. To avoid confusion with the Liberal Party of ...

, but was eliminated in the first ballot.

Death and commemoration

Ivess died on 4 September 1919 in Christchurch, New Zealand and was buried at Linwood Cemetery two days later. In 1994 Ivess Peak was officially named after Joseph Ivess. At , it is the tallest peak in the Victoria Ranges, between

Reefton Reefton is a small town in the West Coast, New Zealand, West Coast region of New Zealand, approximately northeast of Greymouth, New Zealand, Greymouth, in the Inangahua River valley. Ahaura is south-west of Reefton, Inangahua Junction is to ...

Springs Junction Springs Junction is a small settlement and road junction in the West Coast Region, West Coast region of New Zealand. It lies at the junction of and New Zealand State Highway 65, State Highway 65 (the Shenandoah Highway), east of Reefton, on th ...

and

Maruia Maruia is a locality in the West Coast, New Zealand, West Coast region of New Zealand. The Shenandoah Highway (State Highway 65) passes through it. Murchison, New Zealand, Murchison is 65 km north, the Lewis Pass is 39 km to the south- ...

, in the South Island. Inangahua Herald, Reefton's first newspaper, was founded by Ivess in 1872.

References