Frederic Lang

Sir Frederic William Lang (1852 – 5 March 1937) was a New Zealand politician, initially an independent conservative, then from 1914 a member of the Reform Party.

[1] He emigrated to New Zealand as a young man and settled in Tuhikaramea near present-day Temple View.

[1] Lang's political career started with his election to the Tuhikaramea Road Board.

[4] In 1913 as speaker, in response to filibusting by Āpirana Ngata, Lang introduced a rule that MPs who could speak in English must not speak te reo Māori and by 1920 Parliament no longer employed translators.

The situation was reversed in the 1980s with the Māori Renaissance and the Maori Language Act 1987.