Stephenson Percy Smith (1840–1922) was a New Zealand ethnologist and surveyor. He founded The Polynesian Society.
Percy Smith (as he was known) was born in 11 June 1840 at Beccles, Suffolk, the eldest son of Hannah Hursthouse and John Stephenson Smith, a merchant and later a civil servant. Smith emigrated to New Zealand with his family in February 1850. Percy Smith attended school at New Plymouth and later Omata, leaving to help on the family far...
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Stephenson Percy Smith (1840–1922) was a New Zealand ethnologist and surveyor. He founded The Polynesian Society.
Percy Smith (as he was known) was born in 11 June 1840 at Beccles, Suffolk, the eldest son of Hannah Hursthouse and John Stephenson Smith, a merchant and later a civil servant. Smith emigrated to New Zealand with his family in February 1850. Percy Smith attended school at New Plymouth and later Omata, leaving to help on the family farm in 1854. Interested in the natural world and the landscape of the Taranaki region, Smith took lessons in painting from John Gully, a landscape artist. In 1855, aged 14, he joined the provincial survey department, helping to survey the land around New Plymouth, spending long periods in the bush and coming into frequent contact with Māori. Following two years of training, he was made assistant surveyor. While still in his teens, he began a series of expeditions in his spare time, joining a party to scale Mount Taranaki in 1857, for example,...
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