View source for Alfred Domett

{{Short description|Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1862 to 1863}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = [[The Honourable]]
|name             = Alfred Domett
|honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CMG|size=100%}}
|order            = 4th [[Prime Minister of New Zealand|Premier of New Zealand]]
|monarch          = [[Queen Victoria|Victoria]]
|governor         = [[George Grey]]
|image            = Alfred Domett c1870-1887.jpg
|term_start       = 6 August 1862
|term_end         = 30 October 1863
|predecessor      = [[William Fox (politician)|William Fox]]
|successor        = [[Frederick Whitaker]]
|birth_date       = {{birth date|1811|5|20|df=y}}
|birth_place      = [[Camberwell]], Surrey, England
|death_date       = {{death date and age|1887|11|2|1811|5|20|df=y}}
|death_place      = [[London]], England
|party            = None
|spouse           = {{marriage|Mary George|3 November 1856}}
|children         = 1 son<ref name="DNZB Domett">{{DNZB|Graham|Jeanine|1d15|Domett, Alfred|15 September 2013}}</ref>
|father           = Nathaniel Domett
|relatives        = [[Ernest Dowson]] (great-nephew)
|signature        = Alfred Domett Signature.jpg
}}
'''Alfred Domett''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CMG}} (20 May 1811{{snd}}2 November 1887) was the fourth [[Prime Minister of New Zealand|premier of New Zealand]], a close friend of the poet [[Robert Browning]] and author of the epic poem ''Ranolf and Amohia, a South Sea Day Dream''. Born in [[England]], he emigrated to [[New Zealand]] in 1842 and remained there for a further thirty years, holding many significant political posts.

==Early life==
Domett "is said to have been born on 20 May 1811" at [[Camberwell Grove]], Surrey, and records show he was baptised on 4 November 1812 at Bermondsey;<ref name="DNZB Domett" /> the sixth child and fourth son of Nathaniel Domett,<ref name=Mennell>{{cite Australasia|Domett, Alfred|pages=134–135}}</ref> a ship-owner. He entered [[St John's College, Cambridge]],<ref>{{acad|id=DMT829A|name=Domett, Alfred}}</ref> but left the university in 1833.<ref name="DNZB Domett" /><ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Domett, Alfred|volume=8|page=399}}</ref> Domett spent 1833 to 1835 travelling in the [[United States]], [[Canada]] and the [[West Indies]]. Spending the winter of 1833 in [[Upper Canada]], he gained some experience in surveying and conveyancing. Returning to England, he entered at the [[Middle Temple]] on 7 November 1835, and was [[Call to the bar|called to the bar]] on 19 November 1841.<ref name=Mennell/>

==Emigration to New Zealand==
Domett emigrated to [[Nelson, New Zealand]], on the ''[[New Zealand Company ships#Sir Charles Forbes|Sir Charles Forbes]]'', departing Gravesend on 1 May 1842 and arriving in Nelson on 22 August with 187 settlers. The following year, a broken leg possibly saved his life as it prevented him from accompanying Captain [[Arthur Wakefield]] (1799–1843), the founder of the Nelson settlement and a younger brother of the [[New Zealand Company]]'s principal architect [[Edward Gibbon Wakefield]] (1796–1862), to a confrontation with local Māori beside the Wairau River.<ref name="DNZB Domett" /> On 17 June 1843, Wakefield, twenty-one other settlers, and four Maori were killed in the [[Wairau Affray]].<ref name="Stafford in Kōtare">{{Cite journal |last=Stafford |first=Jane |date=2008 |title=Alfred Domett, 1811–1887|url-status=live |journal=Kōtare |volume=3 |pages=12–22 |url=https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/kotare/article/view/699/510|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130506060914if_/https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/kotare/article/view/699/510 |archive-date=6 May 2013 |access-date=31 December 2024}}</ref>

The aftermath of the Wairau incident resulted in the emergence of Domett as a public figure in Nelson. Governor Fitzroy investigated the affray and concluded that while the Māori who killed those who surrendered needed rebuking, the fault actually lay with the New Zealand Company. A public meeting held by angered settlers, asked Domett to take their case to the Colonial Secretary in Auckland where he said that the Company's claim to the land had been valid and that Pākehā killed were "innocent victims to Māori savagery".<ref name="Stenhouse 2000">{{Cite book |last=Stenhouse |first=John |url=https://www.otago.ac.nz/press/books/god-government |title=God and Government The New Zealand Experience |date=2000 |publisher=University of Otago |isbn=1-877133-80-9 |editor-last=Ahdar |editor-first=John |location=Chapter 1 |chapter=Religion, Politics, and the New Zealand Wars 1860-1872 |access-date=27 December 2024 |editor-last2=Stenhouse |editor-first2=John |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303133955if_/https://www.otago.ac.nz/press/books/god-government |archive-date=3 March 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp |p=p.36}} In response to the Secretary's reply that under the Treaty of Waitangi, Te Rauparaha was entitled to deny the sale of the land, Domett rubbished the Treaty, questioned the "rights of the aborigines to land, of the capabilities of what they cannot avail themselves" and suggested that the colonists should gather their forces together and defeat the natives.<ref name="Domett diary">{{Cite book |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/21927028?search%255Bi%255D%255Bsubject_text%255D=English+--+New+Zealand+--+Diaries&search%255Bpath%255D=items |title=The diary of Alfred Domett, 1872–1885 (pp 16–18)|date=1953  |editor-last=Horsman |editor-first=E.A. |location=Quoted in: John Stenhouse ''Religion, Politics, and the New Zealand Wars 1860–1872,'' Chapter 1 in ''God and Government The New Zealand Experience'' (2000), edited by Adhar, Rex and Stenhouse, John page 36 }}</ref>

He was editor of the ''[[Nelson Examiner]]'' from c. 1843 to 1845 and was again editor, briefly, in 1857. He published a supplement to the paper concerning the [[Wairau Affray]] in 1843, and continued to write occasional contributions for that paper. Published in London was a "Petition to Parliament for the recall of Governor Fitzroy, together with a Narrative of the Wairau Massacre. 8vo. 1844–46."<ref>Supplementary Catalogue to the 1872 Catalogue of General Assembly Library, 1872. p4.</ref> Domett's experience of representing the wishes of local settlers in the aftermath of what is now called the Wairau Affray, made him a critic of the policies of Fitzroy, but his "masterly"<ref name="DNZB Domett" /><ref>The adjective "masterly" is first used of Domett's petition by A.H.McLintock in Crown Colony Government in New Zealand, p224, Government Printer, Wellington</ref> petition is seen as an even greater criticism of local authorities.

Domett married a widowed schoolteacher, Mrs Mary George of Wellington, on 3 November 1856. She had two sons, John (Johnny) George who joined the Colonial Forces and was killed during [[Te Kooti's War]], at the [[Battle of Te Pōrere]] near [[Tongariro]], and James George. In his epic poem “Ranolf and Amohia”, Domett speaks of his stepson John as “young, kindly, chivalrous". Alfred and Mary had a son, Alfred Nelson Domett.<ref name="DNZB Domett" />

==Publications==
During his tenure as Colonial Secretary of [[New Munster Province|New Munster]], which he held from 1848 to 1853, Domett published the extensive ''Statistics of the province of New Munster, New Zealand, from 1841 to 1848'', in which he revealed his vision of "a free, secular and compulsory elementary education for the colony's children".<ref name="DNZB Domett" />

In June 1850 he published ''The ordinances of New Zealand passed in the first ten sessions of the General Legislative Council, A.D. 1841 to A.D. 1849'', which had required extensive sorting of ordinances from the 1840s.

In his free time, he devoted himself to completing the poetic epic [[Ranolf and Amohia|''Ranolf and Amohia'']], which was published in London in 1872. A small volume of poems appeared in 1877. He continued to adjust ''Ranolf and Amohia''. In 1883, a revised edition of ''Ranolf and Amohia'' was printed with the subtitle "A dream of two lives", indicating the sustained bicultural conception, albeit from a Victorian and British-educated point of view, of this poetic project.

==Poetry==
[[File:Alfred Domett by George Lance (reproduction of water colour of 1836).jpg|thumb|Alfred Domett in 1836 (from the watercolour by George Lance)]]
Domett's first volume of poetry was published in 1832.<ref>See ''Notes'' following poem https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Waring</ref> Another book of poems, the "more technically proficient" ''Venice'',<ref name="Stafford in Kōtare"/>{{rp |p=12}} appeared in 1839.<ref>London, H. Leggatt, 1833, 226pp https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1801091/Details</ref> Domett contributed poems to ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'', one of which, ''A Christmas Hymn'', attracted some attention locally. During the ten years he lived in London, he became the intimate friend of [[Robert Browning]], of whose poem "Waring"<ref>{{Cite book|last=Browning|first=Robert|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Waring|title=Waring}}</ref> he is the subject. In that poem, Browning expresses regret for Domett's sudden disappearance from London, and speaks of Domett with emotion: 'How much I loved him, I find out now I've lost him'. In the poem Browning asks what has become of his friend, but believes he will achieve much in far-off lands:

  <blockquote>...so I saw the last
  Of Waring! ... Oh, never star
  Was lost here but it rose afar!</blockquote>

An account of the friendship between the two men appeared in ''The Contemporary Review'' for January 1905, by [[W. H. Griffin]].<ref name="EB1911"/> Thereafter, with the approval of Browning's son, [[Frederic G. Kenyon]] edited correspondence between and relating to Browning and Domett, after the 1904 auction purchase of the letters by Reginald Smith, head of publishing firm Smith Elder and Co.<ref>''Robert Browning and Alfred Domett'', edited by [[Frederic G. Kenyon]], 1906, Preface, pp v, vi</ref>

The epic ''Ranolf and Amohia, a South Sea Day Dream'' (1872, new edition 1877), includes details of both European and [[Māori culture|Māori]] life, and is by far the best known of his works. ''Flotsam and Jetsam'' (1877) is dedicated to Browning.<ref name="EB1911"/> More than a century after its publication, literary critic Patrick Evans commented: "Like a stranded whale, the poem lies rotting on the beach of New Zealand literature, an embarrassment that no one knows what to do with."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Evans |first=Patrick |title=The Penguin history of New Zealand literature |date=1990 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-011371-6 |edition= |series= |location=Auckland |pages=43}}</ref>


He continued to write poetry all his life, in the style of rhyming panegyrics such as An Invitation, with its allusions to the sub-tropical flora and threatened inhabitants of countries such as New Zealand:

  <blockquote>And if weary of mists you will roam undisdaining 
  To a land where the fanciful fountains are raining 
  Swift brilliants of boiling and beautiful spray 
  In the violet splendour of skies that illume 
  Such a wealth of green ferns and rare crimson tree-bloom; 
  Where a people primeval is vanishing fast, 
  With its faiths and its fables and ways of the past: 
  O with reason and fancy unfettered and fearless, 
  Come plunge with us deep into regions of Day—Come away—and away! –</blockquote>

[[Decadent movement|Decadent]] poet [[Ernest Dowson]] was his great-nephew.

==General Assembly Library==
While Ranolf and Amohia has been the object of both critical scrutiny (chiefly for its prolixity), and post-colonialist analysis (of its 19th-century colonialist values),<ref>See 'That Savage Story': Alfred Domett's "Ranolf and Amohia" in Its Ethnographic Verse Context, by John O'Leary. Journal of New Zealand Literature, No. 25 (2007), pp. 94–113 (20 pages). Published By: Journal of New Zealand Literature</ref> Domett's legacy in the literary history of New Zealand was the founding of a library of exceptional scope. Domett's involvement in the founding of the General Assembly Library<ref>Volume 1 of the 1897 Catalogue https://archive.org/details/cataloguegenera01librgoog</ref><ref>Volume 2 of the 1897 Catalogue https://archive.org/details/cataloguegenera00stregoog</ref> cannot be overestimated. William Gisborne, who later (1881) favoured widening access to non-parliamentarians, described him as the 'father' of the library.<ref>John E. Martin, Parliament's Library, 150 Years, Steele Roberts, 2008, p16 & p56</ref> The ''[[An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand|Encyclopedia of New Zealand]]'' emphasises his importance in establishing one of the finest libraries of its time, "both in the selection of the collection and in its organisation and classification", laying foundations "for the successful development of that institution."<ref name="DNZB Domett" /> Domett is, therefore, a founder not only of the General Assembly Library, but, also of the [[National Library of New Zealand]]. In 2008, [[Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives]] [[Margaret Wilson]] cited the role of the General Assembly Library "in the creation" of that 1965-established institution.<ref>John Martin, op cit, p7</ref>

==New Zealand politics==
{{NZ parlbox header|nolist=true|align=left}}
{{NZ parlbox
 |start = [[1855 New Zealand general election|1855]]
 |end = 1860
 |term = 2nd
 |electorate = [[Nelson (New Zealand electorate)|Town of Nelson]]
 |party = Independent politician
}}
{{NZ parlbox
 |start = [[1860–1861 New Zealand general election|1860]]<!-- election held on 27 December 1860 -->
 |end = 1866
 |term = 3rd
 |electorate = [[Nelson (New Zealand electorate)|City of Nelson]]
 |party = Independent politician
}}
{{End}}
After immigrating to New Zealand, Domett filled several important administrative posts, [[Colonial Secretary (New Zealand)|Colonial Secretary]] for [[New Munster Province]] in 1848,{{sfn|Scholefield|1950|p=18}} and secretary for the colony in 1851. During his tenure, he urged "a legislative check to large, speculative land holdings".<ref name="Stafford in Kōtare"/>{{rp |pp=12–22}}

In February 1854, Domett took up the position of Commissioner of Crown lands and resident magistrate in the Ahuriri district of Hawke's Bay. During his time in Hawke's Bay, Domett played a principal part in naming Napier after General Sir [[Charles James Napier]], GCB (1782–1853), who led the military conquest of Sindh in India in 1843, and the streets of Napier after other men whom he admired in British Indian history and after various poets and literary figures.<ref name="DNZB Domett" />

In 1855, Nelson residents elected Domett to the House of Representatives and in September 1856, he was appointed commissioner of Crown lands in Nelson.<ref name="DNZB Domett" />

Thereafter he was the [[List of Prime Ministers of New Zealand|fourth]] [[Prime Minister of New Zealand|Premier of New Zealand]] from 1862 to 1863.<ref name="EB1911"/>{{sfn|Scholefield|1950|p=30}} He represented the electorate of [[Nelson (New Zealand electorate)|Nelson]], first as the ''Town of Nelson'' 1855–1860 and then ''City of Nelson'' 1860–1866 (retired).{{sfn|Scholefield|1950|p=104}} As electorates at this time returned multiple members, Domett shared representation of Nelson with [[Edward Stafford (politician)|Edward Stafford]], who had also served as Premier. Domett was a member of the [[New Zealand Legislative Council]] from 19 June 1866 until 3 July 1874, when his membership ceased as he had returned to the country of his birth for his final years.{{sfn|Scholefield|1950|p=76}}

During his tenure in office, Domett brought about the moving of New Zealand's capital from Auckland to Wellington in 1865.  In November 1863 he moved a resolution before Parliament that "it has become necessary that the seat of government... should be transferred to some suitable locality in Cook Strait."<ref>Phillip Temple: ''Wellington Yesterday''</ref> His movement was carried, but many reference books and parliamentary papers of the inchoate General Assembly Library (known officially after 1985 as [[New Zealand Parliamentary Library]]), were lost in a shipwreck during removal from Auckland to Wellington.<ref>Wreck of steamer White Swan https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/wreck-white-swan</ref>

While Premier during the [[Invasion of the Waikato|Waikato war]], Domett urged for the confiscation of all lands of [[Waikato Tainui|Waikato]] and [[Taranaki (iwi)|Taranaki tribes]] suitable for settlement<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Malley |first=Vincent |title=The great war for New Zealand: Waikato 1800–2000 |date=2016 |publisher=Bridget Williams Books |isbn=978-1-927277-57-7 |location=Wellington |pages=398}}</ref> and took the position that to enforce this would require increased military presence to "cut down the towering notions of savage independence so long nursed by the Maoris".<ref name="Stenhouse 2000"/>{{rp |p=p.37}} One biographer suggested that despite advocating for secular education and establishing the General Assembly Library, "[h]is  political legacy in New Zealand is mixed...[because of his]... punitive views on the native question and his prosecution of widespread land confiscation".<ref name="Stafford in Kōtare"/>{{rp |p=p.21}}

Domett became a [[Order of St Michael and St George|CMG]] in 1880.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Later life and death==
Domett retired in 1871 and he and Mary returned to England. He died in [[Kensington]], close to [[Central London]], on 2 November 1887.<ref name="DNZB Domett" />

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book  |last= Scholefield |first= Guy |title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 |author-link= Guy Scholefield |edition=3rd |orig-year= First ed. published 1913 |year= 1950 |publisher=Govt. Printer |location= Wellington}}
<!-- *[http://www.primeminister.govt.nz/oldpms/1862domett.html Prime Ministers’ Office biography] all the PM bios are dead -->

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}

* A critical analysis of Domett's work, 'That Savage Story': Alfred Domett's "Ranolf and Amohia" in Its Ethnographic Verse Context, by John O'Leary. Journal of New Zealand Literature, No. 25 (2007), pp.&nbsp;94–113 (20 pages). Online version.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/20112447?seq=1 That Savage Story]
* [https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/411/alfred-domett Engraving from a watercolour by G. Lance of Domett when a law student (1836)] 
* [https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/28969/premiers-and-prime-ministers-alfred-domett Photograph of Domett in his later years by Herman John Schmidt] 
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Alfred Domett}}
* {{Librivox author |id=4642}}
* [https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/cartoon-drunk-mp-1856 Cartoon of un-named drunk MP by Alfred Domett, 1856]
* [https://archive.org/details/robertbrowningal00brow/page/n7 Online reproduction of above-referenced correspondence between Domett and Browning, published in 1906, edited by Frederick G. Kenyon]

{{s-start}}
{{s-gov}}
{{S-bef | before = [[Edward Stafford (politician)|Edward Stafford]]}}
{{s-ttl | title= [[Prime Minister of New Zealand|Premier of New Zealand]]|years=1862–1863}}
{{s-aft | after= [[Frederick Whitaker]]}}
|-
{{s-par | nz}}
{{s-bef | before = [[James Mackay (New Zealand politician, born 1804)|James Mackay]] <br />[[Samuel Stephens (New Zealand politician)|Samuel Stephens]] }}
{{s-ttl | title = [[Nelson (New Zealand electorate)|Member of Parliament for Nelson]] | years = 1855–1866 | alongside = [[Edward Stafford (politician)|Edward Stafford]] }}
{{s-aft | after = [[Oswald Curtis]] }}
{{s-end}}

{{New Zealand prime ministers}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Domett, Alfred}}
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