Arthur Nelson Field (27 February 1882 – 3 January 1963) was a New Zealand

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, writer and political activist."Arthur Nelson Field Collection."
'' Turnbull Named Collections.''

National Library of New Zealand The National Library of New Zealand ( mi, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (''Nat ...

. Archived fro
the original.
Retrieved 8 March 2021. Born in Nelson, he was the first son of four children born to

Tom Field Thomas Geoffrey Field (born 14 March 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a left back for Canadian Premier League club Cavalry FC. A product of the Brentford Academy, Field graduated into the senior team in 2016. A fringe player, h ...

and Jessica Black. His father was managing director of Wilkins and Field Hardware in his native city, which his grandfather had founded, and served as a Nelson City Councillor and Reform Party

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the electorate from to 1919. Field took up journalism and worked as a reporter for '' The Evening Post'', ''

Taranaki Herald The ''Taranaki Herald'' was an afternoon daily newspaper, published in New Plymouth, New Zealand. It began publishing as a four-page tabloid on 4 August 1852. Until it ceased publication in 1989, it was the oldest daily newspaper in the country. ...

'', ''

Poverty Bay Herald ''The Gisborne Herald'' is the daily evening newspaper for Gisborne and environs. It is one of only four independently owned daily newspapers in New Zealand. History Established in 1874 as the ''Poverty Bay Herald'' it was published biweekly ...

'' and '' Melbourne Argus'' (1901–1907), before returning to Nelson in 1907. He served as a Wellington ''

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...

'' columnist for the next 21 years (1907–1928). There was a break during this period when he served as a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

sub-lieutenant and adjutant at Portsmouth, and on board RNV ''Spenser'' in the

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. He returned to New Zealand when discharged in 1914.

Career and associations

While working as a journalist and serving in the Navy, Field became involved in

right-wing politics Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, author ...

. In 1909 he published ''The Citizen'', an early far right publication which upheld motherhood,

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

and monetary reform, and opposed "Maori Obstructionism" for seven years, 1912–1919. After that period, he also became involved with "The Britons", a group that specialised in publishing New Zealand editions of ''

The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a antisemitic canard, fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagia ...

'' (of questionable authorship, but of contextual significance) and published a New Zealand edition himself. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he was kept under surveillance by the Security Intelligence Bureau of New Zealand's Department of External Affairs. Field won later "acclaim" from kindred anti-socialists such as the

League of Empire Loyalists The League of Empire Loyalists (LEL) was a British pressure group (also called a "ginger group" in Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations), established in 1954. Its ostensible purpose was to stop the dissolution of the British Empire. The League ...

and the late

Eric Butler Eric Dudley Butler (7 May 1916 – 7 June 2006) was an Australian political activist and journalist, who in 1946 founded the far-right Australian League of Rights, which he led until 1992. He was known as a staunch anti-communist and virulent ...

of the

Australian League of Rights The Australian League of Rights is a far-right and antisemitic political organisation in Australia. It was founded in Adelaide, South Australia, by Eric Butler in 1946, and organised nationally in 1960. It inspired groups like the Canadian Leag ...

. Marcus van Rooij wrote a paper on A.N. Field's influence on Australian neofascism, suggesting his

conspiracy theory A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a nega ...

discourse impacted on other such Australian organisations during the Depression era. In particular, ''The Truth About the Slump'' (1931, 1932) enjoyed widespread circulation and stimulated the interest of organisations such as the Guild of Watchmen of Australia, the Australian Catholic Truth Society, the League of Truth, the British Australian Racial Body, and Evangelical Publishing Company of New South Wales. Australian anti-Semite Patricia Lewin cited ''Truth About the Slump'' in her tract, ''The Key'' (1933), as did numerous other Australian Social Credit and

Douglas Credit Party The Douglas Credit Party was an Australian political party based on the Social Credit theory of monetary reform, first set out by C. H. Douglas. It gained its strongest result in Queensland in 1935, when it gained 7.02% of first preferences under ...

figures that based their work on the monetary theories of

C.H. Douglas Major Clifford Hugh "C. H." Douglas, MIMechE, MIEE (20 January 1879 – 29 September 1952), was a British engineer and pioneer of the social credit economic reform movement. Education and engineering career C.H. Douglas was born in either Edg ...

. Rooij designated him the "Kiwi theoretician of the Australian Radical Right". Field was a creationist. He authored the book ''Why Colleges Breed Communists'' (1941). It was republished in 1971 under the title ''The Evolution Hoax Exposed''.Busse, Ulrich; Hübler, Axel. (2012). ''Investigations into the Meta-Communicative Lexicon of English: A Contribution to Historical Pragmatics''. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 145. Despite the recognition of his work in Australia and the United States, and the circulation of his books within those countries, Field preferred to work from his isolated Nelson homestead. In his later years, Field wrote a series of self-published tracts on his interpretations of economics, anti-socialist articles about the New Zealand Labour Party and trade union movement, and related matters. Some were republished in the United States in the early 1960s. Field died aged 81 in 1963 at a private hospital in Nelson.

Arthur Nelson Field Collection

Field's collection of more than 2500 right-wing publications was acquired by the

Alexander Turnbull Library The National Library of New Zealand ( mi, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (''Nat ...

at the

on the year of his death. The collection includes over 650 of his own books, pamphlets, periodicals, manuscripts and ephemera published between 1890 and 1970, and now accounts for one of the largest complete collections of published right-wing materials available to the public anywhere in the world.

Bibliography

* ''Wanted: Accurate Data about Human Heredity''. Timaru: Timaru Post Publishing, 1911. * ''Medical Marriage Certificates''. London: Eugenic Education Society, 1912. * ''The Defence Department's Failure''. Wellington: Wellington Publishing Company, 1915. * ''The Truth about the Slump: What the News Never Tells You.'' Nelson: A. N. Field, 1931, 1932. * ''The Stabilisation of Money''. Nelson: A. N. Field: 1934. * ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion''. Nelson: A. N. Field, 1934. * ''The Untaught History of Money''. Nelson: A.N. Field, 1938. * ''All These Things, Vol. 1''. Nelson: A.N. Field, 1936. * ''Socialism Unmasked''. Nelson: A.N. Field, 1938. * ''Why Colleges Breed Communists''. Hawthorne, California: Omni Publishing, 1941. * ''The Bretton Woods Plot''. Nelson: A. N. Field, 1957. * ''All These Things'', Vol. 2. Hawthorne, California: Omni Publishing, 1963. * ''The Truth About New Zealand''. Bullsbrook: Veritas Books, 1987.

References

External links

A. N. Field
at

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A. N. Field
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Nelson Provincial Museum The Nelson Provincial Museum, ''Pupuri Taonga O Te Tai Ao'' is a regional museum in the city of Nelson, New Zealand. The museum showcases the Nelson and Tasman regions' history, from geological origins to the stories of individuals and families. N ...

A. N. Field papers
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Arthur Nelson Field Collection
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, A. N. 1882 births 1963 deaths Christian creationists New Zealand activists New Zealand social crediters People from Nelson, New Zealand 20th-century New Zealand journalists

Career and associations

Arthur Nelson Field Collection

Bibliography

Further reading

References

External links