Arthur Carman

Arthur Herbert Carman (2 August 1902–28 November 1982) was a New Zealand sports journalist and writer, bookseller, publisher, pacifist, local politician, and local historian.

He was born and died in Wellington, New Zealand.^[1] He was born in Paparangi, Johnsonville, and lived in Tawa (originally called Tawa Flat). He was a bookseller and publisher (as Wright and Carman); his Lambton Quay bookshop was a landmark for thirty years. He was on several local bodies: the Wellington Hospital Board, the Tawa Borough Council and the Hutt Valley Power and Gas Board.

He published sports books as Arthur Carman (The New Zealand Rugby Almanack, The New Zealand Cricket Almanack; both annuals) and local history books as A. H. Carman or Arthur H. Carman. These included The Birth of a City: Wellington 1840-1843 and Tawa Flat and the Old Porirua Road, which went into three editions (1956, 1970, 1982)

He was noted as a Christian pacifist, who spent some months in Mt Crawford prison in Wellington, NZ in 1941, for 'subversion' when he attempted to publicly espouse the Christian pacifist view. His viewpoint had changed from traditional Methodism toward Quakerism following a 1925 visit to the World War I battlefields (he had been touring the United Kingdom as the sole press correspondent travelling with the 'Invincibles' All Black rugby team), although he remained a Methodist local preacher for the whole of his life.

References

1. Grant, David. "Arthur Herbert Carman". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved December 2011.