Robert McNab
Robert McNab was born at Knapdale near Gore on 1 October 1864, the eldest child of Alexander and Janet (nee McQueen) McNab. His father was a run holder who served as a member of the Otago and Southland provincial councils.
Robert was educated at the Invercargill District High School and attended university in Dunedin, where he graduated with a BA in 1883, an MA in mathematics and mathematical physics in 1885 and was awarded an LLB in 1891.
In 1886 he was hired as a law clerk and admitted to the Bar three years later, opening his own practice in 1890. McNab practiced law until 1896 when he went into farming on the family homestead block at Knapdale.
McNab became involved in national politics as a member of the Liberal Party when he won the Mataura seat in 1893. He lost in 1896, but was re-elected two years later and retained the seat until 1908.
In 1911 he stood unsuccessfully for Palmerston North, but in 1914 won the seat for Hawke’s Bay, which he held until his death.
During the late 1890s, McNab began researching the early history of New Zealand and published numerous articles and books on the subject.
The government invited him to edit for publication the primary material he’d gathered, and McNab’s Historical Records of New Zealand was the result, published in two volumes in 1908 and 1914 respectively.
Two of McNab’s other books, Murihiku: A History of the South Island of New Zealand (1909), and The Old Whaling Days (1913) were submitted as a thesis to the University of New Zealand, which awarded him a D.Litt in 1914. That same year, McNab published From Tasman to Marsden as part of his project to cover New Zealand’s history between 1642 and 1840.
For his research and general edification McNab amassed a collection of 4,200 books on New Zealand history and geography, which he donated to the Dunedin Public Libraries in 1913.
McNab died in Wellington on 3 February 1917.
Former Chief Librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library, J. E. Traue, summed up McNab’s life thus:
“He was [in his writings] a patriot, one of the small band of men and women, mostly New Zealand born, who came to maturity and positions of influence at the turn of the century [helping] to create in history, science, literature, the arts, journalism and politics a sense of a distinctive New Zealand destiny and identity.”