George Beetham,

F.R.G.S. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

, M.H.R. (1840 – 20 August 1915), known to

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 ...

as Hori Pitama, was a New Zealand politician and alpinist. Beetham was born in 1840 in

Horncastle, Lincolnshire Horncastle is a town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, east of Lincoln, England, Lincoln. Its population was 6,815 at the 2011 census and estimated at 7,123 in 2019. A section of the ancient Roman Britain, Roman wa ...

, England. His father was the noted portrait painter

William Beetham William Beetham (25 July 1809 – 3 August 1888) was an English-born portrait painter, who painted mainly in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. He exhibited his paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts in London (1834–53) and painted in Hamburg, ...

. The Beetham family emigrated to New Zealand in 1855, arriving on the ''William and Jane'' in 1855. Together with his brothers, he settled in the Wairarapa. The brothers built up a farm on land bought by his father, and Brancepeth Station was by 1901 the largest land holding in the Wairarapa, at . As the land had originally been owned by Māori, Beetham engaged with them frequently and they knew him as Hori Pitama. His sister Susannah married

Cecil Fitzroy Cecil Augustus Fitzroy (10 January 1844 – 13 November 1917) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from the Canterbury region of New Zealand, and later Mayor of Hastings. Early life Fitzroy was born in Norfolk, England, in 1844. His fathe ...

in 1878. Beetham made his first exploration of

Mount Ruapehu Mount Ruapehu (; ) is an active stratovolcano at the southern end of the Taupō Volcanic Zone and North Island volcanic plateau in New Zealand. It is northeast of Ohakune and southwest of the southern shore of Lake Taupō, within the Tongari ...

in March 1878. In 1879, Beetham, accompanied by Joseph Prime Maxwell, a civil engineer of Wellington, made a complete ascent of Mount Ruapehu, and, reaching its summit, crossed the large southern glacier, and made a close examination of the hot lake that is in the great ice plateau, the existence of which had not been previously recorded. Beetham represented the Wairarapa West electorate on the

Wellington Provincial Council Wellington Province, governed by the Wellington Provincial Council, was one of the provinces of New Zealand from 1853 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. It covered much of the southern half of the North Island until November ...

from February 1873 until the abolition of provincial government in October 1876. He represented the

Wairarapa The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service ...

electorate in

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, after winning the 1877 by-election, to 1881. He then represented the

Wairarapa North Wairarapa North is a former New Zealand parliamentary electorate, from 1881 to 1887. Population centres The previous electoral redistribution was undertaken in 1875 for the 1875–1876 election. In the six years since, New Zealand's European p ...

electorate from to 1887, and the

Masterton Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...

electorate from to 1890, when he was defeated by just 18 votes. For a time, he was in Parliament at the same time as Fitzroy, his brother-in-law. Beetham moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1898, and he died there on 20 August 1915.

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beetham, George New Zealand MPs for North Island electorates New Zealand mountain climbers New Zealand explorers 1840 births 1915 deaths Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Explorers of New Zealand Members of the Wellington Provincial Council Unsuccessful candidates in the 1890 New Zealand general election 19th-century New Zealand politicians British emigrants to New Zealand