Edward Metcalf Smith
Overview
New Zealand Liberal Party
The New Zealand Liberal Party is generally regarded as having been the first real political party in New Zealand. It governed from 1891 until 1912. Out of office, the Liberals gradually found themselves pressed between the conservative Reform Party and the growing Labour Party...
politician in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and an advocate of the development of Taranaki's ironsand
Ironsand
Ironsand is a type of sand with heavy concentrations of the metal iron. It is typically dark grey or blackish in colour.It comprises mainly magnetite, Fe3O4, and as such is attracted to magnets....
and oil.
Smith was born on 10 January 1839, in Bradley
Bradley, Staffordshire
Bradley is a civil parish in Staffordshire, England. It is off the A518 road headed out to the villages of Haughton and Gnosall towards Telford....
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. His father Charles Smith was a sculptor, and his mother was Maria Joiner. He arrived in New Zealand in 1861, initially as an armourer for the New Zealand Wars.
Smith served as an MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
in the New Zealand House of Representatives
Parliament of New Zealand
The Parliament of New Zealand consists of the Queen of New Zealand and the New Zealand House of Representatives and, until 1951, the New Zealand Legislative Council. The House of Representatives is often referred to as "Parliament".The House of Representatives usually consists of 120 Members of...
, representing the New Plymouth electorate
New Plymouth (New Zealand electorate)
New Plymouth is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate. It was first created for the 1st New Zealand Parliament in 1853 and has existed since, with one 22-year interruption...
from 1890
New Zealand general election, 1890
The New Zealand general election of 1890 was one of New Zealand's most significant. It marked the beginning of party politics in New Zealand with the formation of the First Liberal government, which was to enact major welfare, labour and electoral reforms, including giving the vote to women.It was...
to 1896, and then the Taranaki electorate
Taranaki (New Zealand electorate)
-History:The electorate existed from 1881 to 1928, and from 1978 to 1996. In 1996 it was combined with the adjacent King Country to form the Taranaki-King Country electorate.-Election results:...
from 1899
New Zealand general election, 1899
The New Zealand general election of 1899 was held on Wednesday, 6 December in the general electorates, and on Tuesday, 19 December in the Māori electorates to elect a total of 74 MPs to the 14th session of the New Zealand Parliament. A total number of 373,744 voters turned out to...
to 1907.
Quotations
Excellent plan! Devious minds are attracted to Python, like mimes to unappreciative crowds.
Tim Peters, 13 Nov 1998
Python's syntax succeeds in combining the mistakes of Lisp and Fortran. I do not construe that as progress.
Larry Wall (author of Perl), May 12 2004
Python is an experiment in how much freedom programmers need. Too much freedom and nobody can read another's code; too little and expressiveness is endangered.
Guido van Rossum, 13 Aug 1996
And what defines a 'python activist' anyway? Blowing up Perl installations worldwide?
Ivan Van Laningham, June 2005, on comp. lang. python
Python is more concerned with making it easy to write good programs than difficult to write bad ones.
Steve Holden, June 2005, on comp.lang.python