Herbert Valentine Tarte

Tarte was born in 1876 in the Taveuni village of Vatu Wiri, the oldest son of Clarissa and James Valentine Tarte,^[1] who had settled in Taveuni in 1868.^[2] He was educated at Brighton Grammar School in Melbourne and then worked for the Imperial Insurance Company for a year.^[1] He subsequently worked for Swan Hill and a stock and station business,^[1] before joining the family business. This became Tarte Brothers of Taveuni, and held 10% of the copra market in the mid-1920s.^[3] He married the daughter of senior civil servant James Thomas.^[1]

In 1920 he was elected to the Legislative Council from the Vanua Levu & Taveuni constituency. After being elected, he introduced a motion for Chinese labour to be recruited, which failed.^[4] He did not complete a full term, with William Edmund Willoughby-Tottenham elected to replace him in October 1922.

He died in Melbourne in 1936.^[5]