Tregear, Edward
Entry updated 4 May 2026. Tagged: Author.
(1846-1931) UK-born author, surveyor and politician, in New Zealand from June 1863, where among other things he studied the Maori language and culture and became a notable social reformer. Maori scholarship informed his venture into Fantastika, Hedged with Divinities (1895), in which all males worldwide mysteriously and symptomlessly die, with a single exception in New Zealand who has been put into a healing trance by Maori elders. When the Sleeper Awakes he is told about the Disaster: "Three years ago, on the 4th January, every man and every male child drooped and died in the same hour." The surviving women, lacking the necessary male leadership (see Feminism; Women in SF) have "naturally" made a poor job of rebuilding society, cannot bear to butcher cows for meat or shear sheep for wool, and must ignominiously wear men's boots because there are no women's shoes left in the deserted shops; there is some Satire here. The protagonist Jack is crowned king, issues the necessary orders and sees the process of recovery under way. As the Last Man, though, he is required to marry twenty queens, for this is "the will of the people, and must be obeyed." After doing his manly duty to the extent of the first few male births, he abdicates and runs away with his old love from the times before, who does not wish to share her man with others. This happy ending leaves the future of the human race looking somewhat precarious. [DRL]
Edward Robert Tregear
born Southampton, Hampshire: 1 May 1846
died Picton, New Zealand: 28 October 1931
works (highly selected)
- Hedged with Divinities (Wellington, New Zealand: R Coupland Harding, 1895) [hb/]
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