George Edward Read (1814/1815 – 23 February 1878) was a British

mariner A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the ...

, trader, landowner and politician in

Poverty Bay Poverty Bay ( Māori: ''Tūranganui-a-Kiwa'') is the largest of several small bays on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island to the north of Hawke Bay. It stretches for from Young Nick's Head in the southwest to Tuaheni Point in the no ...

, New Zealand. Known as Captain Read, he settled in Gisborne after a career in

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

, setting up a store in what was then a small town.

Early life

Read was born in Mendlesham, Suffolk, England, in either 1814 or 1815. Little is known of his early life. He came to the Pacific in the 1830s on a whaling ship, and worked on trading ships.

Poverty Bay

Read first arrived in the settlement of Tūranga in 1844. By 1852, he owned a schooner, and was a prominent trader and landowner.

Member of Parliament

Following the general election held on 6 January 1876, he represented the East Coast electorate until 22 August, when he was unseated on a petition. Read died at his home in Gisborne on 23 February 1878.

References

1814 births 1878 deaths Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand businesspeople People from the Gisborne District People from Mid Suffolk District English emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand MPs for North Island electorates 19th-century New Zealand politicians {{NewZealand-business-bio-stub