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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]

The Hon. Colonel De Renzi Brett

The Hon. Colonel De Renzi Brett was called to the Legislative Council in 1871, and never missed attending a session up to the date of his death, which occurred in June, 1889. Colonel Brett was a brave old soldier, and a warm-hearted, impetuous, outspoken Irishman; a man who had served his Queen and country in many climes, and who was proud of it; one of the type of Irishmen, familiar enough in the pages of novelists, and in real life in the Old Country, but rarely met in New Zealand, and as full as any of them of those emotional Celtic qualities which endear them to men of the colder British temperament. He was born in Wexford, Ireland, in the year 1809, and was one of twentyfive children, the issue of one father and one mother. His father was a barrister, and captain of the Wexford Yeomanry Cavalry, and the son, when sixteen years of age, entered the 31st Regiment as ensign. He took part in the Burmese campaign of 1853–1854. During the Crimean war, he raised, by permission of the British authorities, a regiment of native irregular cavalry, for the Sultan of Turkey, and served with it with so much distinction, that the Sultan gave him the rank of a Major-General and a Pasha. [gap — reason: illegible] Colonel of the 108th Foot he went through the greater portion of the important affairs of the Indian Mutiny. Colonel Brett arrived in New Zealand in 1863, and purchased land in the Courtenay district. As a member of the Provincial Council he was successful in inducing the Executive Government, to adopt a scheme for irrigating the Courtenay, Malvern, and Horarata districts. Colonel Brett took an active interest in the volunteer movement, and was Colonel-Commandant of the Honorary Reserve Corps. He was also the first president of the Courtenay Agricultural and Pastoral Association. Colonel Brett was married, in 1845, at Limerick, Ireland, to a daughter of Colonel Harris, of the 24th Regiment of Foot, and he left a surviving family of three sons and two daughters. He was buried with military honours, and had completed his eightieth year two years before the date of his death.