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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]
Mr. Edward Jerningham Wakefield
Mr. Edward Jerningham Wakefield, frequently mentioned in “Old Wellington,” was the only son of Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield. After assisting his uncle, Colonel Wakefield, in the founding of Wellington, New Plymouth, and Nelson, he returned to England in 1844 While in New Zealand on the first occasion he occupied important appointments for one so young. He was a magistrate; and though he was rebuked, if not insulted, by Governor Fitzroy, all the authorities mentioning the circumstances declare such rebuke to have been entirely unwarranted. On his return to the Colony, Mr. Wakefield [Teddy Wakefield, as he was familiarly called to distinguish him from his numerous relations, so many of whom were prominent in New Zealand at that time] was elected as a representative of Canterbury in the first House of Representatives in 1854, and he was during that same year appointed to the Executive Council (see page 56). He was a young man of great promise, but, unfortunately for himself and his friends, he neglected to make the most of his opportunities, and formed habits which doubtless did much to bring his illustrious career to an early finish. In 1876 he again represented Christchurch, but died in that city during that year, leaving a widow, a sister of Mr. Rowe, about that time well known as the proprietor of the Denbigh Hotel, Feilding. As early as 1848 Mr. Wakefield wrote and compiled The Handbook for New Zealand (London: John ‘N. West Parker, Strand), under the nom de plume “A Late Magistrate of the Colony,” and three years before that he handed to the press his Adventures in New Zealand. Mr. Wakefield was the author of several other works in connection with the Colony. His early death, and the causes which so undoubtedly led to it, were very deeply regretted by a large number of colonists.