Peter Tait

Sir Peter L. Tait (1915–1996) was a New Zealand National Party Member of Parliament, Napier mayor, small businessman and opponent of New Zealand's Homosexual Law Reform Act.

Tait was born on 5 September 1915, in Wellington's Island Bay suburb. His family were Scottish immigrants, originally from the Shetland Islands. Through his early life, Tait suffered from tuberculosis, which meant that he was unable to play an active role in New Zealand's Second World War effort, nor could he become a Baptist minister.

He moved from Waipukurau,a rural community, to the East Coast of the North Island, and ultimately settled in Napier. Once established there, he opened a shoe store, which came to have branches in Waipukurau, Napier, Hastings and Dannevirke. Tait served as the National Member of Parliament for Napier (1951-1954), and two years later became Mayor of Napier for the next eighteen years (1956-1974).

Tait was a Baptist, who helped to organise the Coalition of Concerned Citizens in the mid-eighties, and fought against homosexual law reform. Ultimately, though, the Homosexual Law Reform Act passed its final reading.

Tait then ran foul of his former colleagues in the 'Gang of Twenty' affair in 1989 when the contributory mortgage company he chaired, AdvisorCorp, found itself the target of attacks from National Party leader Jim Bolger. Bolger would later publicly apologise to Tait but two of the principals in the company were successfully prosecuted and AdvisorCorp collapsed.

Tait was knighted in 1975. He died in 1996.

References

*"Obituary: Peter Tait" from "Evening Post (Wellington)" 2 October 1996.
*Laurie Guy: "Worlds in Collision: The Gay Law Reform Debate in New Zealand: 1960-1985":Wellington: Victoria University Press: 2002:ISBN 0-86473-438-7.