Hugh Hart Lusk (28 August 1838 – 8 September 1926) was a New Zealand writer active in his home country, as well as Australia and America, during the late 19th century and early 20th century. He wrote books and articles on progressive social and political issues, in addition to works of fiction. In the mid-1870s he was briefly a member of parliament for an electorate in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. Lusk also worked as a solicitor and barrister, but in 1894 he was struck off the New South Wales roll of barristers for financial misconduct. His 1899 novel, Eureka, is an early example of Australian science-fiction.
Biography
Early years
Hugh Hart Lusk was born on 28 August 1838 at Carron Grove, near Falkirk in Stirlingshire, Scotland, the youngest son of Robert Baillie Lusk and Jessie (née Hart). His father was a stationer and bookseller. Hugh's mother died in 1841.Family records, ancestry.com.
In 1849 Hugh, aged 11 years, emigrated to New Zealand in company with his father and four siblings. The family were passengers on the Thames, a barque of 407 tons, which departed from London in July and arrived at Auckland on 26 November 1849.Shipping Intelligence, New Zealander, 28 November 1849, page 2.Obituary: Mr. Hugh Hart Lusk, Waikato Times, 9 September 1926, page 6. By 1852 the Lusk family was living at Onehunga, a suburb of Auckland.
By 1857 Hugh's father was employed as the Provincial Accountant of the Province of Auckland.Answers to Correspondents, Auckland Examiner, 2 July 1857, page 1.
In November 1860, after a competitive examination, Lusk attained an annual scholarship of £55 to attend St. John's College in Auckland.St. John's College, Daily Southern Cross, 6 November 1860, page 2.
Newspaper and legal work
Hugh Lusk and Mary Anne Butler were married on 14 November 1864 at Mangōnui, near the northern tip of New Zealand.Married, New Zealander, 18 November 1864, page 1. The couple had eight children, born between 1866 and 1887. By 1868 the family was living in Auckland.
In 1866 Lusk formed a company called the Auckland Advertiser Printing Company, in an attempt to establish a newspaper. The venture failed from a deficiency of shareholders.Bubble Companies: Garlick v. Lusk, Daily Southern Cross, 13 July 1866, page 4; To the Editor, Daily Southern Cross, 14 July 1866, page 7.
For several months in 1867 Lusk took on the role of editor of the Examiner newspaper, based at Nelson in New Zealand's South Island.We are gratified to learn..., Nelson Evening Mail, 2 July 1867, page 2.
Lusk travelled to Sydney and on 19 June 1867 he was admitted as a barrister to the New South Wales bar.Admission to the Colonial Bar, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 June 1867, page 2.The Case of Hugh H. Lusk, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 23 March 1894, page 3. He returned to Auckland in late June 1867 as a passenger on the clipper ship, Alice Cameron.Shipping Intelligence, New Zealand Herald, 2 July 1867, page 4. By October 1867 Hugh Lusk was working as a solicitor, with an office in Auckland.Resident Magistrate's Court, Daily Southern Cross, 4 October 1867, page 4.Mr. Alex. Saunders, Sharebroker (advertisement), Daily Southern Cross, 14 August 1868, page 1.
Politics
Lusk was a founding member of the Auckland Financial Reform League, formed in February 1868.Financial Reform in Auckland, Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 22 February 1868, page 3. In March 1868 he presented a lecture on 'The Past History and Present Position of Taxation in New Zealand' in the Odd Fellows' Hall in Auckland.Sales, Meetings, Amusements, &c., This Day, Daily Southern Cross, 31 March 1868, page 2. Lusk was described as "a polished speaker".Obituary: Death of Mr. H. H. Lusk, Auckland Star, 8 September 1926, page 8.
On 5 December 1870 Hugh Lusk was appointed to the roles of Provincial Secretary and Provincial Treasurer in the office of the Superintendent of Auckland Province.Public Notification, Daily Southern Cross, 6 December 1870, page 3.
During the 1870s Lusk was considered to be one of New Zealand's leading chess players. In August 1871 he assisted in forming the Auckland Chess Club.The Passing of a Pioneer, Evening Post, 13 September 1926, page 6.
In May 1873 Lusk announced his intention to become a candidate at the forthcoming election for Superintendent of the province of Auckland.Election of Superintendent, Auckland Star, 22 May 1873, page 3. Lusk was a strong advocate of free education for children; in his role as Provincial Secretary and member of the Education Board, he was associated with the implementation of an education tax that had been introduced in January 1873.The New Education Board, New Zealand Herald, 9 January 1873, page 3. His advocacy of the direct education tax proved to be unpopular and led to disruptions at political meetings in the lead-up to the election. At a meeting in the Auckland Mechanics' Institute in July 1873 in favour of Lusk's candidacy, the crowd was so boisterous and disorderly that an hour elapsed before the Lusk could be heard. When his speech concluded, "a motion was made that Lusk having introduced the Education tax he was not fit to be Superintendent". His supporters countered with an amendment in favour of Lusk, after which the gas-light was extinguished and the chairman and others on the platform were "hustled and bonneted". After the gas was relighted, the motion against Lusk was put and declared carried. The whole affair was described as the "rowdiest meeting ever held in Auckland".The Superintendency, Wanganui Herald, 16 July 1873, page 2.Superintendency Election, New Zealand Herald, 16 July 1873, page 3. One of the most prominent political issues of the mid-1870s was the question of the abolition of the New Zealand provincial governments. In his bid for the superintendency of Auckland Province, Lusk ran on an openly abolitionist platform. His speeches on this subject in Auckland's hinterland tended to be well received, where pro-abolition and anti-Auckland sentiments were strong.Mr. Lusk's Address, Waikato Times, 3 July 1873, page 2.André D. E. Brett (2012), 'The Great Kiwi (Dis)Connect: The New Provinces Act of 1858 and its Consequences', Melbourne Historical Journal, No. 40, page 147.
The election for the Superintendent of Auckland Province was held in November 1873 and was won by the veteran politician, John Williamson, with Lusk attracting the least number of votes of three candidates. In a report of the election results it was noted that "Lusk had all the dead weight of the education tax to carry, but may justly pride himself on having secured a large support with very little expenditure, employing hardly any canvassers, and having the confidence of a great proportion of the most respectable electors".Auckland, Otago Witness, 29 November 1873, page 4.A Disappointment, Darling Downs Gazette, 5 January 1889, page 2.
By November 1875 Lusk was being mooted as a candidate for the Franklin electorate, a rural district south of Auckland, at the forthcoming general election.The General Elections, New Zealand Herald, 20 November 1875 |page=5. The elections of members of the sixth session of the New Zealand parliament were held in December 1875 and January 1876. On 18 January 1876 Lusk and Ebenezer Hamlin were elected for the electorate of Franklin, which at that time was a two-member electorate. Both Lusk and Hamlin were candidates supporting Sir George Grey's faction.The General Elections: Franklin, New Zealand Herald, 19 January 1876 |page=3.
In 1877 Lusk, the member for Franklin, was found guilty of contempt in the New Zealand House of Representatives after having received a payment from the Auckland City Council for advocating legislative amendments advantageous to the council. The fine of £50 was the maximum allowed under the Standing Orders and was equal to the amount paid to Lusk.David Wilson (2011), The power of the New Zealand legislature to fine for breach of privilege, Australasian Parliamentary Review, Autumn 2011, Vol. 26(1), page 53.
At a public meeting of Franklin electors at Ōtāhuhu on 16 April 1878, Lusk announced his intention to resign from Parliament. His stated reason was monetary considerations, claiming that he "was sacrificing his business to politics, and it was incumbent on him to study his own and his family's personal interests".Messrs. Lusk and Hamlin's Address to the Electors of Franklyn, Auckland Star, 17 April 1878, page 4. In an editorial in the Auckland Star, reporting his resignation, it was said of Lusk: "While endowed with considerable intellectual talent and conspicuously industrious, the retiring member lacks that sincerity and depth of conviction, and that enthusiasm which fits a man for great undertakings".Mr. H. H. Lusk informed a meeting..., Auckland Star, 17 April 1878, page 2.
Legal work
After resigning from parliament in April 1878, Lusk resumed work as a solicitor.See example: On the instructions..., New Zealand Herald, 10 June 1878, page 2.
In about December 1885 Lusk travelled to Samoa in an attempt to enforce a legal claim, on behalf of a man named Cornwall, upon parcels of land (totalling ten thousand acres) on the main islands of Upolu and Savai'i, then in possession of McArthur and Co. Lusk, with two others, travelled by boat from Apia to the village of Fale'ula (on Upolu), intending to take formal possession of the land, but were ordered off by a native chief and two others. The party then left by boat and proceeded to Fasito'o Tai village, but the chief and the two others had travelled there by horseback and again ordered them off. Lusk returned to Apia where he commenced proceedings against McArthur and Co. for the recovery of damages amounting to twenty-one thousand pounds. Lusk returned to Auckland in early January 1886.The Samoan Land Dispute, Auckland Star, 9 January 1886, page 7.
Lusk returned to Samoa in May 1886 as part of the legal team appearing for "a native woman named Maneama", in a case against McArthur and Co., seeking to recover possession of about 250 thousand acres of land. Manaema had previously received a deed for the land from Cornwall. The case, heard before the Deputy-Commissioner on Samoa, occupied nine days, at the conclusion of which the Court decided in favour of the defendants, "holding that the deed to Manaema did not entitle her to the legal possession of the land".The Great Samoan Law Case, New Zealand Herald, 31 May 1886, page 5.
Australia
In August 1886 Lusk was a passenger aboard the steam-ship Rotomahana, travelling from Auckland to Sydney.Exports, Auckland Star, 12 August 1886, page 2. By September 1886 Lusk was living in Sydney.Problem, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney), 11 September 1886, page 31.
In early January 1888 Lusk was elected vice-president of the Sydney School of Arts Chess and Draughts Club at their annual meeting.Sydney School of Arts, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney), 14 January 1888, page 40.
In January 1888 Lusk chaired a meeting of about 100 New Zealanders at the Sydney Club House in Pitt Street, described as a gathering "partly of a political and partly of a social character". A resolution carried at the meeting called for the Protection Union in Sydney to secure a tariff to protect the industries of New South Wales, and thus retain those "artisans and others" who had "left New Zealand through lack of employment in that colony". The meeting also carried a resolution condemning the New Zealand government "for its action in shelving the tariff question last year".A meeting of New Zealanders..., Sydney Morning Herald, 19 January 1888, page 9.