Sir Makere Rangiatea "Ralph" Love (16 September 1907 – 22 August 1994) was a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

public servant and leader of

Te Āti Awa Te Āti Awa is a Māori iwi with traditional bases in the Taranaki and Wellington regions of New Zealand. Approximately 17,000 people registered their affiliation to Te Āti Awa in 2001, with around 10,000 in Taranaki, 2,000 in Wellington and arou ...

. One of his brothers was

Eruera Te Whiti o Rongomai Love Eruera Te Whiti o Rongomai Love (18 May 1905 – 12 July 1942) was a New Zealand rugby player, interpreter and military leader. Of Māori descent, he identified with the Te Ati Awa iwi. One of seven surviving children of Wi Hapi Pakau Love an ...

(18 May 1905 – 12 July 1942), a New Zealand rugby player, interpreter and military leader.

Biography

He was born at Homebush on

Arapaoa Island Arapaoa Island, formerly known as Arapawa Island, is an island located in the Marlborough Sounds, at the north east tip of the South Island of New Zealand. The island has a land area of . Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui defines its western sid ...

, Queen Charlotte Sound. His parents, Wi Hapi Pakau Love and

Ripeka Wharawhara Love Ripeka Wharawhara Love OBE (28 June 1882 – 6 April 1953) was a New Zealand community leader. She was born on 28 June 1882 and was a member of Te Āti Awa. At age 15, Ripeka Love married Wi Hapi Pakau Love with whom she had ten children, seven ...

(28 June 1882 – 6 April 1953), who had ten children, seven of whom survived infancy, belonged to senior families of

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

and

Ngati Ruanui ''Ngati'' is a 1987 New Zealand feature film directed by Barry Barclay, written by Tama Poata and produced by John O'Shea. Production ''Ngati'' is of historical and cultural significance in New Zealand as it is the first feature film written an ...

, with connections to most of the iwi of Taranaki, Wellington and the northern South Island. His mother Ripeka Wharawhara Love was a

community leader Community leader is a designation, often by secondary sources (particularly in the media), for a person widely perceived to represent a community. A simple way to understand community leadership is to see it as leadership in, for and by the communit ...

. Love was a direct descendant of

Ngati Te Whiti ''Ngati'' is a 1987 New Zealand feature film directed by Barry Barclay, written by Tama Poata and produced by John O'Shea. Production ''Ngati'' is of historical and cultural significance in New Zealand as it is the first feature film written an ...

and Ngati Tawhirikura chiefs who controlled Petone and Ngauranga at the time of the Treaty of Waitangi. He was educated at Petone West School and Petone District High School. His father arranged for him to join the Native Trust Office as a cadet in 1925. Soon after, he became a clerk in the Native Department. On 6 May 1933, he married Flora Heberley, the daughter of carver Thomas "Tamati" Heberley. They had a daughter, Marie Nui Te He, and a son, Ralph Heberley Ngātata. When the Second World War broke out Love joined the army, but was declared medically unfit for overseas service: in 1927 he had broken ribs playing rugby and developed

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. He served as a recruiting and liaison officer with the Māori War Effort Organisation, and in 1946 was appointed a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

. From 1944–49, he served (at first unofficially) as

parliamentary private secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

to MP and cabinet minister Sir Eruera Tirikatene. Love was Tirikatene's private secretary again in 1957–60, and worked closely with him and his successor and daughter,

Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan Tini "Whetu" Marama Tirikatene-Sullivan (9 January 1932 – 20 July 2011) was a New Zealand politician. She was an MP from 1967 to 1996, representing the Labour Party, and was New Zealand’s first Māori woman cabinet minister. At the time of ...

, for many years. He was an active supporter of the

New Zealand Labour Party The New Zealand Labour Party ( mi, Rōpū Reipa o Aotearoa), or simply Labour (), is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers descr ...

. He was heavily involved in organising the inaugural conference of the

Māori Women's Welfare League The Māori Women’s Welfare League or Te Rōpū Wāhine Māori Toko I te Ora is a New Zealand welfare organisation focusing on Māori women and children. It held its first conference in Wellington in September 1951. The League's official aims ...

. His work in the Native (later Māori Affairs) Department included stints as assistant controller of social welfare, conversion officer and deputy registrar to the

Māori Land Court The Māori Land Court (Māori: Te Kōti Whenua Māori) is the specialist court of record in New Zealand that hears matters relating to Māori land. Māori Land Court history The Māori Land Court was established in 1865 as the Native Land Cou ...

. He was deputy chairman of the Wellington Tenths Trust. In

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wors ...

, he was elected to the

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...

, and became Māori welfare officer for Wellington under the

Department of Māori Affairs Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

. In 1965, he retired from Māori Affairs and was elected to the

Petone Petone (Māori: ''Pito-one''), a large suburb of Lower Hutt, Wellington, stands at the southern end of the Hutt Valley, on the northern shore of Wellington Harbour. The Māori name means "end of the sand beach". Europeans first settled in Pe ...

mayoralty on a Labour Party platform, defeating three other candidates including the incumbent mayor Annie Huggan who was deselected by the Labour Party in Love's favour. His son Ralph Heberley Ngātata Love (Ralph Jr.) was elected a borough councillor at the same election. In January 1967 he lost office after being convicted of technically breaching the Local Authorities (Members' Contracts) Act 1954 when he voted to increase his own pay. At the subsequent by-election he was re-elected mayor, defeating councillor Tom Watson who ran as an independent. He held office until October 1968 when he was defeated by councillor George Gee. He petitioned to have the

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in the treatment of the M ...

enshrined in legislation, and attempted to gain a guarantee that Māori representation in Parliament would be retained or increased. He also petitioned against proposed immigration legislation which would allow the British government to override the provision in the treaty for all the rights and privileges of

British citizenship British nationality law prescribes the conditions under which a person is recognised as being a national of the United Kingdom. The six different classes of British nationality each have varying degrees of civil and political rights, due to the ...

to be accorded to Māori, including the right to enter Britain. He even wrote directly to the

British prime minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

, objecting to this change. He died in Wellington on 30 July 1994, the

tangihanga ''Tangihanga'', or more commonly, ''tangi'', is a traditional Māori funeral rite held on a marae. While still widely practised, it is not universally observed in modern times. Each iwi (tribe/nation) differs on how they honour those who pass. ''T ...

was held at Pipitea and Te Tatau-o-te-Po marae, with the final service at

Saint Paul's Cathedral, Wellington The Wellington Cathedral of St Paul (also called St Paul's Cathedral or Wellington Cathedral) is an Anglican church in the city of Wellington, New Zealand. It is the mother church of the Diocese of Wellington and the cathedral of the Bishop of W ...

Honours

In the 1975 Queen's Birthday Honours, Love was appointed a

Companion of the Queen's Service Order The Queen's Service Order, established by royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, is used to recognise "valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to the Crown or similar services within the pu ...

for public services, for services to local-body affairs and the Māori people. He was appointed a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...

in the 1987 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to the Māori people and the community.

References

Sources

NZET Centre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Love, Ralph 1907 births 1994 deaths Te Āti Awa people Mayors of places in the Wellington Region Māori mayors Māori politicians New Zealand Labour Party politicians Wellington City Councillors New Zealand Māori public servants Companions of the Queen's Service Order New Zealand Knights Bachelor 20th-century New Zealand politicians People from the Marlborough Sounds Ngāti Ruanui people Taranaki (iwi) New Zealand justices of the peace New Zealand military personnel of World War II