Alfred Domett (20 May 18112 November 1887) was the fourth premier of New Zealand, a close friend of the poet Robert Browning and author of the epic poem Ranolf and Amohia, a South Sea Day Dream. Born in England, he emigrated to New Zealand in 1842 and remained there for a further thirty years, holding many significant political posts. Early life Domett "is said to have been born on 20 May 1811" at Camberwell Grove, Surrey, and records show he was baptised on 4 November 1812 at Bermondsey; the sixth child and fourth son of Nathaniel Domett, a ship-owner. He entered St John's College, Cambridge, but left the university in 1833. Domett spent 1833 to 1835 travelling in the United States, Canada and the West Indies. Spending the winter of 1833 in Upper Canada, he gained some experience in surveying and conveyancing. Returning to England, he entered at the Middle Temple on 7 November 1835, and was called to the bar on 19 November 1841. Domett emigrated to Nelson, New Zealand, on the Sir Charles Forbes, departing Gravesend on 1 May 1842 and arriving in Nelson on 22 August with 187 settlers. The following year, a broken leg possibly saved his life as it prevented him from accompanying Captain Arthur Wakefield (1799–1843), the founder of the Nelson settlement and a younger brother of the New Zealand Company's principal architect Edward Gibbon Wakefield (1796–1862), to a confrontation with local Māori beside the Wairau River. On 17 June 1843, Wakefield, twenty-one other settlers, and four Maori were killed in the Wairau Affray. Domett married a widowed schoolteacher, Mrs Mary George of Wellington, on 3 November 1856. She had two sons, John (Johnny) George who joined the Colonial Forces and was killed during the storming of Te Kooti's pa at Te Porere, near Tongariro, and James George. In his epic poem “Ranolf and Amohia”, Domett speaks of his stepson John as “young, kindly, chivalrous". Alfred and Mary had a son, Alfred Nelson Domett. Domett retired in 1871 and he and Mary returned to England. Publications During his tenure as Colonial Secretary of New Munster, which he held from 1848 to 1853, Domett published the extensive Statistics of the province of New Munster, New Zealand, from 1841 to 1848, in which he revealed his vision of "a free, secular and compulsory elementary education for the colony's children". In June 1850 he published The ordinances