15 Facts About Elsdon Best

Elsdon Best was an ethnographer who made important contributions to the study of the Maori of New Zealand.

Elsdon Best was born 30 June 1856 at Tawa Flat, New Zealand, to William Best and the former Hannah Haynes Nibbs.

Elsdon Best left the Armed Constabulary after two years of service to travel to the United States of America, where he worked for three years, first in Hawaii and then in California, mustering cattle and doing forestry.

Elsdon Best returned to New Zealand in 1886 and entered into a timber venture with his brother, using sawmilling equipment he had purchased in the United States.

Elsdon Best came into increasing contact with the Maori and, encouraged by Gudgeon and other notable settlers from the Taranaki, including Percy Smith, studied their language and culture.

When Smith established the Polynesian Society in 1892 with the intention of promoting interest in and discussion of Polynesian history and culture, Elsdon Best became a foundation member.

Elsdon Best began a series of publications concerning the history of Wellington Harbour.

In 1895, when the Urewera district began to be opened up for European settlement, Elsdon Best took a position as quarter-master with the road works, beginning in Te Whaiti.

Elsdon Best recorded his observations in field records and note books that he kept now for the rest of his life.

In 1910, Elsdon Best was appointed ethnologist at the Dominion Museum which allowed him to pursue his research in a more focused manner.

From 1919 to 1923 Elsdon Best took part in each of the four Dominion Museum ethnological expeditions.

In 1914, Elsdon Best was awarded the Hector Medal of the New Zealand Institute, and in 1919 he was made a fellow.

Elsdon Best died in 1931 in Wellington, survived by his widow Adelaide.

Elsdon Best's ashes lay buried beneath a monument, erected in 1960, in his birth town of Tawa at Grasslees Reserve.

The nearby suburb of Elsdon Best, Porirua was named in his memory.