Sir Peter Tait (5 September 1915 – 31 January 1996) was a New Zealand National Party Member of Parliament, mayor of Napier, small businessman and opponent of New Zealand's Homosexual Law Reform Act.

Early life

Tait was born on 5 September 1915, in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

's Island Bay suburb. His family were Scottish immigrants, originally from the

Shetland Islands Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the Uni ...

. His father Jack and his uncles Peter and Ross belonged to the best known Shetland fishing families in Island Bay. Through his early life, Tait suffered from tuberculosis, which meant that he was unable to play an active role in New Zealand's

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

effort, nor could he become a Baptist minister. He recovered from tuberculosis at the Pukeora sanitorium at

Waipukurau Waipukurau is the largest town in the Central Hawke's Bay District on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on the banks of the Tukituki River, 7 kilometres south of Waipawa and 50 kilometres southwest of Hastings, New ...

, a rural community, to the East Coast of the

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

. From there he moved to, and ultimately settled in Napier. Once established there, he opened a shoe store, which came to have branches in Waipukurau, Napier,

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

and

Dannevirke Dannevirke ( "Earthworks (archaeology), work of the Danes", a reference to Danevirke; or ''Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua'', the area where the town is) is a rural service town in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of the North Island, New Zealand. It is the ...

. He married Lilian Jean Dunn in 1946 with whom he had one son and one daughter.

Political career

Member of Parliament

In August 1951 he was selected over six other nominees to be the National Party candidate for the Napier electorate. National won a landslide victory at the election and Tait won the Napier seat, somewhat surprisingly as Napier had been a relatively safe Labour seat for decades. Tait served as a Member of Parliament for one term until he was defeated by Labour's Jim Edwards. In 1953, he was awarded the

Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal () is a commemorative medal instituted to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. Award This medal was awarded as a personal souvenir from the Queen to members of the Royal Family ...

Mayor of Napier

Two years after leaving Parliament, he was elected Mayor of Napier, defeating the incumbent mayor Ron Spriggs. He remained mayor for the next eighteen years until 1974 when he retired. He campaigned on a platform of improving council services and recreational facilities, increasing pensioner housing and tourist promotion. Major projects were completed during his mayoralty including the construction of the National Aquarium of New Zealand and Marineland. The council began cleaning up the inner Ahuriri harbour by shifting sewerage outfall to Awatoto from Perfume Point, the construction of a new Civic Centre and a massive extension of land for housing. Napier also absorbed the Taradale Borough Council after a 1968 amalgamation and Tait secured Napier Airport being designated the main airport for Hawke's Bay in preference to the

Hastings Aerodrome Hastings Aerodrome is a small airport in Hastings, New Zealand, Hastings, Hawke's Bay Region, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. It is sometimes referred to as Bridge Pa Aerodrome. It is owned and operated by the Hawke's Bay & East Coast Aero Club Inc ...

. Some of his projects caused opposition such as the building of a boating marina in the Ahuriri inner lagoon and a proposal to demolish the iconic Sound Shell. Tait was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the 1967 New Year Honours and promoted to

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the

1975 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1975 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 1 January 1975 to celebr ...

Later life and death

After leaving office Tait worked as a financial consultant and was appointed as a financial adviser and professional fundraiser for the Auckland Regional Authority in 1977. Later that year he was appointed chairman of directors of Bowring Burgess Finance. Tait was a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

, who helped to organise the Coalition of Concerned Citizens in the mid-eighties, and argued against homosexual law reform. Together with Keith Hay, the former Mount Roskill, he organised a public petition to oppose the Homosexual Law Reform bill in Parliament. Ultimately, though, the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986 passed its final reading. He sold his company Tait Associates Limited to AdvisorCorp, contributory mortgage company he chaired. The company failed in 1988, causing Tait (and his investors) much emotional and financial grief. Tait himself was suspected of corporate fraud in relation to AdvisorCorp however he escaped any prosecution, though two of the principals in the company were successfully prosecuted after AdvisorCorp collapsed. He fought for years afterwards attempting to clear his name. AdvisorCorp, found itself the target of attacks from National Party leader

Jim Bolger James Brendan Bolger ( ; born 31 May 1935) is a New Zealand retired politician of the National Party who was the 35th prime minister of New Zealand, serving from 1990 to 1997. Bolger was born in Ōpunake, Taranaki, to Irish immigrants. Bef ...

in the 'Gang of Twenty' affair in 1989. Bolger would later publicly apologise to Tait. He funded the Tait Fountain in Napier, which commemorates

Victory in Europe Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official surrender of all German military operations ...

and was dedicated on 9 May 1995 on the 50th anniversary of the end of that war. He died in 1996, aged 80. His widow, Lilian, died in 2011.

Early life

Political career

Member of Parliament

Mayor of Napier

Later life and death

References

Further reading