Thomas Buick

Thomas Lindsay Buick (13 May 1865 – 22 February 1938) was a Liberal Member of Parliament for Wairau, New Zealand, a journalist and a historian. He published under the name T. Lindsay Buick.

Early life

Buick was born in Oamaru in 1865.^[1]

Member of Parliament

Thomas Buick represented the Wairau electorate in the New Zealand House of Representatives from 1890 to 1896, when he was defeated.^[2] The 1896 general election was contested by Buick and Charles H Mills, who received 2014 and 2072 votes, respectively. Mills thus succeeded Buick.^[3]

Historical work

Buick wrote numerous works on the pre-European and early contact history New Zealand, and two books on music. His The Treaty of Waitangi: or, How New Zealand became a British Colony (1916) remained the only substantial work on the Treaty until the late 1980s.

Later, he was owner/publisher of the Dannevirke 'Advocate'.^[4]

Published work

• Old Marlborough: or, The Story of a Province (1900)
• Old Manawatu: or, The Wild Days of the West (1903)
• Old New Zealander: or, Te Rauparaha, the Napoleon of the South (1911)
• Letters from Abroad (1914)
• The Treaty of Waitangi: or, How New Zealand became a British Colony (1916)
• New Zealand's First War: or, The Rebellion of Hone Heke (1926)
• Romance of the Gramophone (1927)
• French at Akaroa: An Adventure in Colonization (1928)
• Jubilee of the Port of Wellington, 1880-1930 (1930)
• Mystery of the Moa: New Zealand's Avian Giant (1931)
• British Residency at Waitangi (1932)
• Waitangi: Ninety-four Years After (1934)
• Old British Residency at the Bay of Islands (1934)
• Centenary of a Flag: New Zealand's Old National Ensign (1934)
• Elijah: The Story of Mendelssohn’s Oratorio (1935)
• The Discovery of Dinornis: The Story of a Man, a Bone, and a Bird (1936)
• Moa-Hunters of New Zealand: Sportsmen of the Stone Age (1936)

Notes

References

• The New Zealand Liberals: the Years of Power 1891-1912 by David Hamer (1988, Auckland University Press, Auckland)
• The New Zealand Parliamentary Record: 1840-1984 by J.O. Wilson (1985, Government Printer, Wellington)