Title: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]

Author: Cyclopedia Company Limited

Publication details: The Cyclopedia Company, Limited, 1897, Wellington

Part of: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

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Mr. Edward Pearce, Consul for Sweden and Norway, has held this important destinction since 1874. His Vice-Consuls are Mr. G. V. Johansen, Auckland, and Mr. Frank Graham. Christchurch. Mr. Pearce came to the Colony in 1861, under conditions which at once found for him a place in the van of commerce. Since then he has ever been one of Wellington's foremost men. For over a quarter of a century he was in business as a merchant on his own account, conducting a very large import and export trade in conjunction with one of the principal shipping agencies of the port. In 1889, Mr. Pearce and Messrs. Levin and Co., seeing the many advantages to be gained by amalgamation, joined their forces, and made one vast business. The partners were Mr. W. H. Levin, Mr. Edward Pearce, and Mr. John Duncan. By the death of Mr. W. H. Levin, in 1893, Mr. Pearce became senior partner, and his eldest son, Mr. Arthur Pearce, has since been admitted to the firm. A notice of this commercial house appears in this volume under “Wellington Merchants.” Mr. Pearce has at all times given ready and able assistance to enterprises and movements which have been inaugurated with the object of advancing the Colony generally, and Wellington particularly. In the old provincial days he was a member of the Provincial Executive during Dr. Featherston's Administration, and, in 1870 he was elected to represent the City in Parliament, which honourable position he retained for some seven or eight years. When the Harbour Board was called into existence, Mr. Pearce was one of its first members. As member, and sometimes chairman, of the Harbour Board, Mr. Pearce has exerted an influence upon the mercantile growth of Wellington, the benefits of which it would be difficult to over-estimate. In the Chamber of Commerce, too, the effect of his quiet, gentle-manly bearing has been powerful. So long ago as 1866, Mr. Pearce was President of the Chamber, and he has been a prominent member ever since. For many years he was the local director of the National Bank, and he has been chairman of the New Zealand directors of the National Mutual Life Assurance Association ever since that flourishing institution implanted itself in the Colony, now some fifteen years or more. Among a large number of other directorships may be mentioned the Wellington Patent Slip Company, the Wellington Gas Company, and the Wellington Trust Loan and Investment Company, of the whole of which companies he has been chairman for many years. Mr. Pearce is also the New Zealand director of the Colonists' Land Association of Feilding—referred to in the Feilding section of this volume. Mr. Pearce has visited the Old World some six or seven times. He was in England when the sudden death of his page 270 partner, Mr. Levin, occurred, and necessitated his immediate return. In volunteering, Colonel Pearce has, in the past, taken a very active interest. For many years he commanded the New Zealand Regiment of Artillery, whose twelve batteries are distributed throughout the Colony. In this connection, as in all the others, he was highly esteemed, and he is perhaps more widely known as Colonel Pearce than in any other capacity.