Famous Freemasons - Thomas Bracken - Poet
Thomas Bracken, (1841-1898)
Food For Thought
Thomas Bracken, the son of Margaret Kiernan and her husband, Thomas Bracken, was baptised a Catholic at Clonee, County Meath, Ireland, on 30 December 1841. His mother died in 1846, and his father, a postmaster, died in 1852. Thomas was cared for by an aunt until about the age of 12, when he was sent to Australia to the care of his uncle, John Kiernan, a farmer at Moonee Ponds, near Melbourne. He worked on his uncle's farm for about a year, and was then apprenticed to a chemist in Bendigo. After about 18 months he went to work on a station at Colbinabbin, north-east of Bendigo, where he became a proficient horseman and shearer. Little is known of this period of Bracken's life, except that he began writing verse during these years and published a volume, The haunted vale, in 1867.
Bracken is thought to have arrived in Dunedin, New Zealand, in early 1869. He may have been employed briefly as a warder at the Dunedin gaol, but he soon moved to journalism, finding employment on the Otago Guardian. Together with John and Alexander Bathgate he founded a threepenny weekly newspaper, the Saturday Advertiser, Time-table, and New Zealand Literary Miscellany, the first issue of which appeared on 17 July 1875. The paper was immediately successful under Bracken's editorship, attaining a circulation of about 7,000. It attracted informed contributors and stimulated discussion of political, literary and social issues. By 1879 it was being issued as the weekly edition of the Morning Herald, and in 1880 its title became the New Zealand Public Opinion, Sportsman and Saturday Advertiser.
On 1 February 1883, at St John's Church in Roslyn, Dunedin, Thomas Bracken married Helen Hester Copley, the daughter of a barrister. A son, Charles Copley, was born on 17 August 1885. By this time Bracken had ended his association with the Advertiser. In the early 1880s he held an editorial position with the Morning Herald, but resigned when the paper attacked Robert Stout. In 1885, together with John Bathgate and others, he became a part-owner of the paper, now called the Evening Herald. He retained this business interest until the paper was sold in September 1890.
In 1879 Bracken stood unsuccessfully for Parliament for the City of Dunedin. His entry into politics was prompted by his support for George Grey and his acquaintance with Robert Stout, as well as his strong concern for the underprivileged. In 1881 he won the seat of Dunedin Central, and was in Parliament for three years. His first speech, on 26 May 1882, was a forceful criticism of the native minister, John Bryce, and the West Coast Peace Preservation Bill: Bracken attacked the government's dealings with the Parihaka Maori, the detention of Te Whiti and Tohu, and what he saw as a dishonourable breaching of the commitments of the Treaty of Waitangi. Throughout the session he made conscientious contributions on local matters, taking a particular interest in prison policy and speaking on education and Catholic schools, the Land Bill, and the Eight Hours Bill, which he seconded for a second reading. An anecdote tells of his breaking into song and leading the House in a chorus of 'Behave yoursel before folk' during a vigorous debate on the Gaming and Lotteries Bill.
Bracken is thought to have arrived in Dunedin, New Zealand, in early 1869. He may have been employed briefly as a warder at the Dunedin gaol, but he soon moved to journalism, finding employment on the Otago Guardian. Together with John and Alexander Bathgate he founded a threepenny weekly newspaper, the Saturday Advertiser, Time-table, and New Zealand Literary Miscellany, the first issue of which appeared on 17 July 1875. The paper was immediately successful under Bracken's editorship, attaining a circulation of about 7,000. It attracted informed contributors and stimulated discussion of political, literary and social issues. By 1879 it was being issued as the weekly edition of the Morning Herald, and in 1880 its title became the New Zealand Public Opinion, Sportsman and Saturday Advertiser.
On 1 February 1883, at St John's Church in Roslyn, Dunedin, Thomas Bracken married Helen Hester Copley, the daughter of a barrister. A son, Charles Copley, was born on 17 August 1885. By this time Bracken had ended his association with the Advertiser. In the early 1880s he held an editorial position with the Morning Herald, but resigned when the paper attacked Robert Stout. In 1885, together with John Bathgate and others, he became a part-owner of the paper, now called the Evening Herald. He retained this business interest until the paper was sold in September 1890.
In 1879 Bracken stood unsuccessfully for Parliament for the City of Dunedin. His entry into politics was prompted by his support for George Grey and his acquaintance with Robert Stout, as well as his strong concern for the underprivileged. In 1881 he won the seat of Dunedin Central, and was in Parliament for three years. His first speech, on 26 May 1882, was a forceful criticism of the native minister, John Bryce, and the West Coast Peace Preservation Bill: Bracken attacked the government's dealings with the Parihaka Maori, the detention of Te Whiti and Tohu, and what he saw as a dishonourable breaching of the commitments of the Treaty of Waitangi. Throughout the session he made conscientious contributions on local matters, taking a particular interest in prison policy and speaking on education and Catholic schools, the Land Bill, and the Eight Hours Bill, which he seconded for a second reading. An anecdote tells of his breaking into song and leading the House in a chorus of 'Behave yoursel before folk' during a vigorous debate on the Gaming and Lotteries Bill.
A young Thomas Bracken, The National Anthem first cover, and Thomas Bracken later on
Bracken's last major book was a selection from his previous volumes, entitled Lays and lyrics: God's own country and other poems (1893). He also published two issues of a literary periodical, Tom Bracken's Annual, in 1896 and 1897; a book of essay sketches of Dunedin clergymen, Pulpit pictures (1876), over the pseudonym 'Didymus'; a collection of reminiscences of his life in Victoria, Dear old Bendigo (1892); and miscellaneous pamphlets and compilations. His single most important literary achievement, however, was his poem 'God defend New Zealand'. On 1 July 1876 the New Zealand Saturday Advertiser published the five stanzas under the title 'National hymn', and announced a competition to compose an air for the poem for a prize of 10 guineas. The 12 entries were judged by a panel of three German musicians in Melbourne, who unanimously chose the score written over the pseudonym 'Orpheus' by John Joseph Woods, a teacher from Lawrence in Otago. The first performance of the music may have been an arrangement for the Dunedin Royal Artillery Band, which the band planned to perform in a street parade in December 1876. The first presentation of the poem with its music was on Christmas night 1876, at a concert in the Queen's Theatre by the Lydia Howarde troupe.
On 17 September 1877 Bracken relinquished the copyright of the poem to Woods, who undertook the publishing and promotion of an edition of the work. It was printed in London in 1878, and a Maori translation by T. H. Smith, recently retired judge of the Native Land Court, was supplied to Woods by George Grey. Bracken had earlier included the text of the poem in Flowers of the free lands.
'God defend New Zealand' rapidly gained popular, although not official, recognition. At Woods's request, Richard Seddon presented a copy to Queen Victoria at her diamond jubilee, and at the outbreak of the First World War Woods assigned the copyright to the publishers Charles Begg and Company. In the 1930s the urgings of James McDermott, chief engineer in the Post and Telegraph Department, were instrumental in gaining official adoption of the work. The National Centennial Council recommended in December 1938 that the government adopt 'God defend New Zealand' as the national hymn, and on 1 May 1940 the minister of internal affairs, W. E. Parry, announced the government's purchase of the rights to Bracken's words and Woods's music. However, the work was not given equal status with 'God save the Queen' as a national anthem until 1977.
Bracken had been born into a Catholic family but lapsed in the faith, and was for many years a freethinker and a Mason. He was opposed to the introduction of religious teaching into state schools, and he saw Catholic opposition to secular education as ill advised. Nevertheless, his continued sympathetic association with the Catholic church went back at least to 1874, when R. A. Loughnan, one of the founding directors of the New Zealand Tablet, employed him to canvass for shares in the paper. The composition in 1879 of the poem 'Not understood' has been attributed to Bracken's unsuccessful application to Bishop Patrick Moran for appointment as editor of the Tablet.
From 1890 at least, there is some suggestion of continuing financial difficulty in Bracken's affairs. The expensive de luxe edition of Musings in Maoriland did not sell well in Australia, and economic problems appear to have been accentuated by a promotional tour of that country. The Evening Herald was sold at this time, and by 1892 Bracken was apparently in considerable financial distress. Seddon offered him a clerical post in the Land and Income Tax Department, but he chose instead to accept a position as a reader and record clerk of the House in May 1894. In late 1895 ill health forced him to resign. He returned to Dunedin, and died there of goitre on the night of 16 February 1898, survived by his wife and 12-year-old son. Helen Bracken died in the Orokonui Home, where she was a patient for the last 10 years of her life, on 26 November 1920.
Bracken's poetry was highly praised in his lifetime and in the early twentieth century. He and Alfred Domett were the only New Zealand poets mentioned in the 1916 Cambridge history of English literature. A posthumous collection, Not understood and other poems, went to eight printings between 1905 and 1928 and at least four reprintings between 1942 and 1956, its title poem gaining worldwide popularity. However, although a selection, Ballads, was published in 1975, recent literary historians and anthologists have shown little interest in him, and he did not appear in major anthologies of New Zealand poetry published in 1956, 1960 and 1985. His current poetic reputation must depend, therefore, solely on 'God defend New Zealand'. It may be that this recognition owes little to reasoned response to Bracken's words and much more to the readily identifiable melody by Woods. The poem remains, nevertheless, Bracken's one permanent poetic memorial.
SOURCE: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2b35/bracken-thomas
"God Defend New Zealand" is one of two national anthems of New Zealand, the other being "God Save the Queen". Legally they have equal status, but "God Defend New Zealand" is more commonly used, and is widely albeit incorrectly referred to as "the national anthem". Originally written as a poem, it was set to music as part of a competition in 1876. Over the years its popularity increased, and it was eventually named the second national anthem in 1977. The anthem has English and Maori lyrics, with slightly different meanings. When performed in public, the usual practice is to sing the first verse in both Maori and English.
"God Defend New Zealand" was written as a poem in the 1870s by Irish-born, Victorian-raised immigrant Thomas Bracken of Dunedin. A competition to compose music for the poem was held in 1876 by The Saturday Advertiser and judged by three prominent Melbourne musicians, with a prize of ten guineas. The winner of the competition was the Tasmanian-born John Joseph Woods of Lawrence, New Zealand who composed the melody in a single sitting the evening after finding out about the competition. The song was first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Princes Street, Dunedin, on Christmas Day, 1876.
The song became increasingly popular during the 19th century and early 20th century, and in 1940 the New Zealand government bought the copyright and made it New Zealand's national hymn in time for that year's centennial celebrations. It was used at the British Empire Games from 1950 onward, and first used at the Olympics during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Following the performance at the Munich games, a campaign began to have the song adopted as the national anthem.
In May 1973 a remit to change the New Zealand flag, declare a New Zealand republic and change the national anthem from 'God Save The Queen' was voted down by the Labour Party at their national conference.
In 1976 Garth Henry Latta from Dunedin presented a petition to Parliament asking 'God Defend New Zealand' to be made the national anthem. With the permission of Queen Elizabeth II, it was gazetted as the country's second national anthem on 21 November 1977, on equal standing with "God Save The Queen". Up until then "God Save The Queen" was New Zealand's national anthem.
An alternative official arrangement for massed singing by Maxwell Fernie was announced by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Allan Highet on 1 June 1978.
It is interesting to observe that Woods' autograph manuscript has an error in bar 3 of the tune itself. The second note is clearly written as a C but it is always sung as D-flat as indeed the accompaniment is a D-flat triad.
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has responsibility for the national anthems. The guidelines in the 1977 Gazette notice for choosing which anthem should be used on any occasion advise that "God Save The Queen" would be appropriate at any occasion where The Queen, a member of the Royal Family, or the Governor-General, when within New Zealand, is officially present or when loyalty to the crown is to be stressed; while "God Defend New Zealand" would be appropriate whenever the national identity of New Zealand is to be stressed even in association with a toast to Elizabeth II as Queen of New Zealand.
"God Defend New Zealand" has five verses, each in English and Maori. The Maori version is not a direct translation of the English version. The Maori language version was produced in 1878 by Thomas H. Smith of Auckland, a judge in the Native Land Court, on request of Governor George Edward Grey, and in 1979 this was back-translated into English by former Maori Language Commissioner, Professor Timoti Karetu.
From as early as the late 1880s, some versions of the Maori translation of the National Anthem have been incorrect. A typescript of the translation by Thomas Smith uses Whakarangona as one word. ˜Whaka is a prefix and can't stand alone, and angona and ongona mean the same thing but Smith used the former. Ihowa is the standard version of God (Jehovah) and was the one used by Smith. The incorrect form, Ihoa, has been used for so long as to seem correct but Ihowa is the correct version.
Copyright on the English lyrics for "God Defend New Zealand" expired from the end of the year that was 50 years after the death of the author (Bracken), i.e., from 1 January 1949. Karetu's back-translation is under New Zealand Crown copyright until 2079.
Until the 1990s, only the first verse of the English version was commonly sung. A public debate emerged after only the first Maori verse was sung at the 1999 Rugby World Cup match against England, and it then became common to sing both the Maori and English first verses one after the other.
Maori verse: "Aotearoa"
E Ihowa Atua,
O nga iwi matou ra
Ata whakarangona;
Me aroha noa
Kia hua ko te pai;
Kia tau tõ atawhai;
Manaakitia mai
Aotearoa
English translation of Maori first verse (Karetu) is -
Lord, God over yonder,
Of all our nations
Listen to us gently,
With the infinite love
May the goodness bear fruit;
May your kindness come;
Please give protection to
Aotearoa
On 17 September 1877 Bracken relinquished the copyright of the poem to Woods, who undertook the publishing and promotion of an edition of the work. It was printed in London in 1878, and a Maori translation by T. H. Smith, recently retired judge of the Native Land Court, was supplied to Woods by George Grey. Bracken had earlier included the text of the poem in Flowers of the free lands.
'God defend New Zealand' rapidly gained popular, although not official, recognition. At Woods's request, Richard Seddon presented a copy to Queen Victoria at her diamond jubilee, and at the outbreak of the First World War Woods assigned the copyright to the publishers Charles Begg and Company. In the 1930s the urgings of James McDermott, chief engineer in the Post and Telegraph Department, were instrumental in gaining official adoption of the work. The National Centennial Council recommended in December 1938 that the government adopt 'God defend New Zealand' as the national hymn, and on 1 May 1940 the minister of internal affairs, W. E. Parry, announced the government's purchase of the rights to Bracken's words and Woods's music. However, the work was not given equal status with 'God save the Queen' as a national anthem until 1977.
Bracken had been born into a Catholic family but lapsed in the faith, and was for many years a freethinker and a Mason. He was opposed to the introduction of religious teaching into state schools, and he saw Catholic opposition to secular education as ill advised. Nevertheless, his continued sympathetic association with the Catholic church went back at least to 1874, when R. A. Loughnan, one of the founding directors of the New Zealand Tablet, employed him to canvass for shares in the paper. The composition in 1879 of the poem 'Not understood' has been attributed to Bracken's unsuccessful application to Bishop Patrick Moran for appointment as editor of the Tablet.
From 1890 at least, there is some suggestion of continuing financial difficulty in Bracken's affairs. The expensive de luxe edition of Musings in Maoriland did not sell well in Australia, and economic problems appear to have been accentuated by a promotional tour of that country. The Evening Herald was sold at this time, and by 1892 Bracken was apparently in considerable financial distress. Seddon offered him a clerical post in the Land and Income Tax Department, but he chose instead to accept a position as a reader and record clerk of the House in May 1894. In late 1895 ill health forced him to resign. He returned to Dunedin, and died there of goitre on the night of 16 February 1898, survived by his wife and 12-year-old son. Helen Bracken died in the Orokonui Home, where she was a patient for the last 10 years of her life, on 26 November 1920.
Bracken's poetry was highly praised in his lifetime and in the early twentieth century. He and Alfred Domett were the only New Zealand poets mentioned in the 1916 Cambridge history of English literature. A posthumous collection, Not understood and other poems, went to eight printings between 1905 and 1928 and at least four reprintings between 1942 and 1956, its title poem gaining worldwide popularity. However, although a selection, Ballads, was published in 1975, recent literary historians and anthologists have shown little interest in him, and he did not appear in major anthologies of New Zealand poetry published in 1956, 1960 and 1985. His current poetic reputation must depend, therefore, solely on 'God defend New Zealand'. It may be that this recognition owes little to reasoned response to Bracken's words and much more to the readily identifiable melody by Woods. The poem remains, nevertheless, Bracken's one permanent poetic memorial.
SOURCE: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2b35/bracken-thomas
GOD DEFEND NEW ZEALAND
"God Defend New Zealand" is one of two national anthems of New Zealand, the other being "God Save the Queen". Legally they have equal status, but "God Defend New Zealand" is more commonly used, and is widely albeit incorrectly referred to as "the national anthem". Originally written as a poem, it was set to music as part of a competition in 1876. Over the years its popularity increased, and it was eventually named the second national anthem in 1977. The anthem has English and Maori lyrics, with slightly different meanings. When performed in public, the usual practice is to sing the first verse in both Maori and English.
"God Defend New Zealand" was written as a poem in the 1870s by Irish-born, Victorian-raised immigrant Thomas Bracken of Dunedin. A competition to compose music for the poem was held in 1876 by The Saturday Advertiser and judged by three prominent Melbourne musicians, with a prize of ten guineas. The winner of the competition was the Tasmanian-born John Joseph Woods of Lawrence, New Zealand who composed the melody in a single sitting the evening after finding out about the competition. The song was first performed at the Queen's Theatre, Princes Street, Dunedin, on Christmas Day, 1876.
The song became increasingly popular during the 19th century and early 20th century, and in 1940 the New Zealand government bought the copyright and made it New Zealand's national hymn in time for that year's centennial celebrations. It was used at the British Empire Games from 1950 onward, and first used at the Olympics during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Following the performance at the Munich games, a campaign began to have the song adopted as the national anthem.
In May 1973 a remit to change the New Zealand flag, declare a New Zealand republic and change the national anthem from 'God Save The Queen' was voted down by the Labour Party at their national conference.
In 1976 Garth Henry Latta from Dunedin presented a petition to Parliament asking 'God Defend New Zealand' to be made the national anthem. With the permission of Queen Elizabeth II, it was gazetted as the country's second national anthem on 21 November 1977, on equal standing with "God Save The Queen". Up until then "God Save The Queen" was New Zealand's national anthem.
An alternative official arrangement for massed singing by Maxwell Fernie was announced by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Allan Highet on 1 June 1978.
It is interesting to observe that Woods' autograph manuscript has an error in bar 3 of the tune itself. The second note is clearly written as a C but it is always sung as D-flat as indeed the accompaniment is a D-flat triad.
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has responsibility for the national anthems. The guidelines in the 1977 Gazette notice for choosing which anthem should be used on any occasion advise that "God Save The Queen" would be appropriate at any occasion where The Queen, a member of the Royal Family, or the Governor-General, when within New Zealand, is officially present or when loyalty to the crown is to be stressed; while "God Defend New Zealand" would be appropriate whenever the national identity of New Zealand is to be stressed even in association with a toast to Elizabeth II as Queen of New Zealand.
"God Defend New Zealand" has five verses, each in English and Maori. The Maori version is not a direct translation of the English version. The Maori language version was produced in 1878 by Thomas H. Smith of Auckland, a judge in the Native Land Court, on request of Governor George Edward Grey, and in 1979 this was back-translated into English by former Maori Language Commissioner, Professor Timoti Karetu.
From as early as the late 1880s, some versions of the Maori translation of the National Anthem have been incorrect. A typescript of the translation by Thomas Smith uses Whakarangona as one word. ˜Whaka is a prefix and can't stand alone, and angona and ongona mean the same thing but Smith used the former. Ihowa is the standard version of God (Jehovah) and was the one used by Smith. The incorrect form, Ihoa, has been used for so long as to seem correct but Ihowa is the correct version.
Copyright on the English lyrics for "God Defend New Zealand" expired from the end of the year that was 50 years after the death of the author (Bracken), i.e., from 1 January 1949. Karetu's back-translation is under New Zealand Crown copyright until 2079.
Until the 1990s, only the first verse of the English version was commonly sung. A public debate emerged after only the first Maori verse was sung at the 1999 Rugby World Cup match against England, and it then became common to sing both the Maori and English first verses one after the other.
Maori verse: "Aotearoa"
E Ihowa Atua,
O nga iwi matou ra
Ata whakarangona;
Me aroha noa
Kia hua ko te pai;
Kia tau tõ atawhai;
Manaakitia mai
Aotearoa
English translation of Maori first verse (Karetu) is -
Lord, God over yonder,
Of all our nations
Listen to us gently,
With the infinite love
May the goodness bear fruit;
May your kindness come;
Please give protection to
Aotearoa
