The Future Prime Minister of New Zealand
ALS “James Edward Fitzgerald” as Assistant Secretary of the British Museum to William Gourlie.
London, British Museum: 21 August 1848.
1 page. 1 vols. 4to. The Future Prime Minister of New Zealand. Folds, some light discoloration and remains of stubs on verso, else excellent. From the collection of Sir Melville MacNaghten, Assistant Commissioner of the C.I.D., Scotland Yard and his daughter Item #27402
Fitzgerald acknowledges the receipt of “your obliging present of two specimens of Melania from the Falls of Essequibo” [Kaieteur Falls in Guyana] to the National Collections. Gourlie was a noted botanist and member of the Edinburgh Botanical Society, the Glasgow Philosophical Society and the Linnean Society.
Fitzgerald, left his position in 1850 to pursue a new venture, following Edward Gibbon Wakefield and John Robert Godley the organizers of the Church of England colony, Canterbury, in the south island of New Zealand. Fitzgerald became the first superintendent and progressed to become the prime minister of New Zealand. In 1861 FitzGerald founded and edited a newspaper “The Press” which became one of the leading newspapers of the colony.
MacNaghten is probably best remembered historically as the author of the MacNaghten Memoranda, written in 1894 when the “Sun” reported that Thomas Cutbush was “Jack the Ripper.” MacNaghten proved that he was not.
Price: $175.00
