Portal:New Zealand/Selected article/Week 47, 2006

Sir Peter Henry Buck KCMG, DSO, MBChB, MD (ca. October 1877 – December 1, 1951), known for much of his life as Te Rangi Hīroa, was a prominent member of the Ngāti Mutunga Māori iwi.

Buck trained at Otago Medical School, where he also excelled in sport, becoming national long jump champion in 1900 and 1903. He became a medical officer to the Māori and campaigned successfully to improve sanitation in the small Māori communities around the country. From 1909 to 1914 he was the Member of Parliament for the Northern Maori electorate. He was a medical officer serving in World War I, served at Gallipoli, and was awarded a Distinguished Service Order. After the war, he became director of the Maori Hygiene Division in the Department of Health.

From the mid-1920s Buck carried out extensive anthropological investigations of many of the Pacific Island groups. He became widely known as a circuit lecturer in both Hawaii and the mainland United States, and in 1946, he was knighted, gaining a KCMG. Recently featured: New Zealand wine · Music of New Zealand · Queenstown, New Zealand · Archive