Thomas Lindsay Buick

Thomas Buick (generally known by his second name Lindsay) was born in Oamaru in 1865. As a young man he worked as a journalist until being elected as a Liberal MP for the Wairau electorate in 1890. After leaving Parliament in 1896 he purchased interests in the Manawatu Standard and the Dannevirke Advocate newspapers. He then was able to put his earlier experience as an MP to use when he became a senior parliamentary reporter for the Press Association. However, it is his work as a historian that he is best remembered. He published 12 books and numerous pamphlets about national and regional histories but is best known for his work The Treaty of Waitangi (1914) which helped establish the treaty as New Zealand's foremost historical document with the assertion that it was "in very truth the foundation of our nationhood". He died in Wellington in 1938 aged 73. See link below to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography for further information.