Southern View: December 17, 2020
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SOUTHERN VIEW Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
Thursday <strong>December</strong> <strong>17</strong> <strong>2020</strong> 9<br />
The Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai<br />
Trust is a non-profit organisation<br />
formed to protect one of New<br />
Zealand’s most important coastal<br />
wetlands. Each week, board<br />
members will discuss matters<br />
regarding the estuary, its rich history<br />
and what makes it unique. This<br />
week Bill Simpson writes about<br />
the country’s youngst member of<br />
Parliament in history<br />
ESTUARY MATTERS<br />
NZ’s youngest MP has<br />
connections to estuary<br />
THE ELECTION of Green<br />
MP Chlöe Swarbrick raised<br />
questions about who was<br />
the youngest member of<br />
Parliament.<br />
Swarbrick, at 23-years-old,<br />
was the seventh youngest MP<br />
when she entered Parliament in<br />
20<strong>17</strong>. But the youngest MP had<br />
close connections with our own<br />
estuary.<br />
James Frederick Stuart-<br />
Wortley was just 20-years-old<br />
when elected to represent the<br />
Christchurch Country seat in<br />
New Zealand’s first Parliament<br />
in 1853.<br />
Stuart-Wortley was the third<br />
son of the Lord Wharncliffe<br />
II. He arrived in Christchurch<br />
aged 18-years-old and managed<br />
a block of land which now<br />
encompasses the Charlesworth<br />
Wetland Reserve.<br />
The land was owned by his<br />
James Frederick Stuart-<br />
Wortley – New Zealand’s<br />
youngest ever MP. <br />
father; Wharncliffe never came<br />
to New Zealand but vested his<br />
son with power of attorney.<br />
Charlesworth Wetland<br />
Reserve is now a significant<br />
wildlife refuge where more than<br />
130,000 native trees and shrubs<br />
have been planted so as to restore<br />
the former pasture land to<br />
its original wetland character.<br />
Stuart-Wortley came on the<br />
Charlotte-Jane and The Cyclopedia<br />
of New Zealand describes<br />
him as “a man of means, and an<br />
accomplished gentleman.”<br />
His electorate included much<br />
of rural Canterbury and Westland.<br />
He resigned in July 1855<br />
and returned to England.<br />
Little more is known of him<br />
other than that he unsuccessfully<br />
stood for the House of<br />
Commons in the United Kingdom<br />
in 1865 as Conservative<br />
Party candidate for Sheffield.<br />
A keen group of volunteers<br />
tend the plants at Charlesworth<br />
Reserve; if you want to help you<br />
are very welcome to join the<br />
group on Sundays at 3pm at the<br />
Charlesworth St entrance to the<br />
reserve.<br />
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