Early Life and Career
Elsdon Best was born 30 June 1856 at Tawa Flat, New Zealand, moving with his family to Wellington at the age of 9, where he went to school. He passed the Civil Service Examination and became a clerk in 1873, but within a year found the work uncongenial and moved to the east coast, where he worked in farming and forestry. In 1881, he joined the Armed Constabulary, but soon left it to travel, visiting Hawaii and then California, where he worked in cattle mustering and lumbering.
In 1886, Best returned to New Zealand, resuming his life in the bush where he came into increasing contact with the Māori, whose language he learned and culture he began to study. When the Polynesian Society was founded in 1892, Best was working in Wellington in a warehouse, and wrote an article on the people of the Philippines and submitted it to the society's new journal. He also began a series on the history of Wellington Harbour.
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