Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]

The Hon. John Rigg

page 253

The Hon. John Rigg, M.L.C., is probably the youngest member of the Legislative Council. Born in 1858 at St. Kilda. Melbourne, he came with his parents to Port Chalmers at the age of five years. He was educated at private schools in Otago, at St. Mary's School, Wellington, and by private tutors. Mr. Rigg was apprenticed for six years at the Government Printing Office, and on completion of his term worked at his trade as a compositor in New Zealand, and for two years in Australia. In 1880 he was elected a member of the Board of Management of the Wellington Typographical Society, which he had joined two years previously. In 1881 Mr. Rigg was elected “father of the piece chapel” of the Government Printing Office. Shortly after this he was appointed secretary of a committee of representatives which was set up for the purpose of presenting a petition to Parliament against the teaching of trades in gaol. The petition contained signatures from all parts of the Colony, and was over sixty feet in length. As a member of the Executive Council of the New Zealand Typographical Association, and later as secretary of the Wellington branch of the same union, Mr. Rigg showed great energy and ability. He was appointed a member of the committee of trade representatives for restricting boy labour, and as such was one of the Trades Union Committee which after wards became the Wellington Trades Council. Mr. Rigg was sent as sole representative of New Zealand to the Intercolonial Typographical Congress held in Melbourne in 1888. From this year till 1891 he represented his society on the Australasian Typographical Union. He attended a conference of master printers in Dunedin as a delegate in the same year, and in 1892 was a delegate to the Conference of Trade Councils held in the same town. The honourable gentleman was appointed a member of the Legislative Council on the 15th of October, 1892, at which time he was president of the Trades Council, president of the Typographical Society, and president of the Tailoresses' Union, Mr. Rigg holds strong opinions on many subjects: he is an advocate of State Socialism or Collectivism, and of an inconvertible paper currency. Since being called to the Upper House he has devoted much time to the study of these and similar The Hon. John Rigg questions. At the Wellington Citizens' Institute he has delivered lectures on “Money” and “Paper Money,” and before the unionists of Wellington he lectured on the London County Council and its methods of local government.

Harbour From Tinakori Hill, Back Of Sydney Street—1860.

Harbour From Tinakori Hill, Back Of Sydney Street—1860.