61-588: Henry Smith Fish (15 July 1838 – 23 September 1897) was a 19th-century New Zealand politician. For a time, he was a member of the Liberal Party . He was Mayor of Dunedin for a total of six years. Smith is remembered as one of the staunch opponents of women's suffrage . Fish was born in Pimlico , London, in 1838. His parents were Mary Ann Passmore and Henry Smith Fish, a painter. He received his education at Cave House School and from 1849 at Melbourne , where
122-441: A "holiday" from socially progressive legislation, halting any changes that might drive away conservatives. The party also introduced runoff voting (second ballot), hoping to reduce the chances of labour-aligned candidates from splitting the non-conservative vote, but this only applied in the 1908 and 1911 general elections, and the rule was repealed in 1913. In 1909, the conservative opposition (led by William Massey ) established
183-639: A Reform caucus resolution in November 1918 the two parties merge, Massey announced in May 1919 that the two parties would contest the 1919 election separately. The National Government subsequently lapsed in August 1919. During the 1919 election held on 17 December, Reform further strengthened its position, winning 47 seats (37%) of the vote. The Liberals won 19 seats while the Labour Party won eight seats. In
244-705: A bounty for signatures collected, but lost credibility when some signatures were found to be fraudulent. Smith died of throat cancer in Dunedin on 23 September 1897. New Zealand Liberal Party The New Zealand Liberal Party ( Māori : Pāti Rīpera ) was the first organised political party in New Zealand. It governed from 1891 until 1912 . The Liberal strategy was to create a large class of small land-owning farmers who supported Liberal ideals, by buying large tracts of Māori land and selling it to small farmers on credit. The Liberal Government also established
305-480: A coalition government, with United's Forbes remaining Prime Minister but Reform's Downie Stewart becoming Finance Minister . In coalition, the two parties suffered only minor losses in the 1931 elections ; the United-Reform Coalition government won 51 seats while Labour won 24 seats. As the depression failed to dissipate, however, the government became more and more unpopular, and support for
366-585: A graduated tax on unimproved values. Out of office after 1912, the Liberals gradually found themselves pressed between the conservative Reform Party and the growing Labour Party . The Liberals fragmented in the 1920s, and the remnant of the Liberal Party—later known as the United Party —eventually merged with Reform in 1936 to establish the modern National Party . Prior to the establishment of
427-534: A similar group formed the New Liberal Party to push for more "progressive" policies, but this group was defunct by the time of the 1908 NZ general election. In 1906, Seddon died. Joseph Ward , his replacement (after a period of stewardship by William Hall-Jones ), did not have the same charismatic flair. Increasingly, the Liberals found themselves losing support on two fronts – farmers, having obtained their goal of land reform, were gradually drifting to
488-454: A single leader — it was described by one historian as resembling a disparate band of guerrillas , and presented no credible threat to continued Liberal Party rule. Gradually, however, the Liberals began to falter — the first blow came with the death of Richard Seddon, their popular leader, but other factors contributed to their decline. Importantly for conservatives, the Liberals were slowly losing support from small farmers, who had once backed
549-421: A three-party system consisting of Reform, Labour and the Liberals. In 1925, Massey died. After a period under interim leader Francis Bell , Reform chose Gordon Coates as its new leader. Coates, while not regarded as politically astute, was relatively popular with the public, and campaigned well. In the 1925 elections , Reform won a surprisingly high number of seats — 55, compared with 12 for Labour and 11 for
610-545: A well-established reputation as a liberal, and was known for supporting land reform , women's suffrage , and Māori rights. During the last term in power of Harry Atkinson , a conservative , Ballance began to organise the liberal-aligned opposition into a more united movement, and was officially named Leader of the Opposition in July 1889. In the 1890 elections , Ballance led his liberal faction to victory, and early in
671-558: The 1911 elections , the Reform Party won thirty-seven seats compared with thirty-three for the Liberals. Supporters of the Liberals denied that Reform had won a mandate to rule, however, pointing out that the country quota (a system in which rural electorates were smaller than urban ones, meaning that rural areas were slightly over-represented in Parliament) worked to "inflate" Reform's vote. Nevertheless, it did not take long for
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#1732788104178732-589: The 1914 elections . While the party's share of the vote increased, Massey was disappointed that the party only won by two votes. In addition, the election was marred by allegations by both Reform and Liberals of voting irregularities in the Māori electorates . Following the outbreak of World War One , the Reform and Liberal parties formed a National Government in August 1915. After the Liberal leader Joseph Ward rejected
793-424: The 1922 elections , however, the approach of depression cost the government to lose nine seats, dropping from 47 to 38. The Liberals gained 24 seats while Labour gained 17 seats at the Reform party's expense. In order to maintain its majority, Reform was forced to build an unstable coalition with three former Liberal Members of Parliament, who became independents. By that time, New Zealand politics had developed into
854-629: The Dunedin South electorate from 1881 to 1884 when he was defeated, then from 1887 to 1890. He then held one of the three seats for the City of Dunedin multi-member electorate from 1890 to 1893 when he was defeated, and from 1896 to 1897, when he died. He was replaced by Alexander Sligo . Fish represented liquor interests in Parliament, and was an opponent of Women's suffrage in 1890–1893 on their behalf. He paid his anti-suffragist campaigners
915-473: The Reform Party , a united organisation to challenge the Liberals. At the same time, the first noteworthy labour-orientated parties were appearing, saying that the Liberals were no longer able to provide the reforms that workers needed. The Liberal Party found itself torn between its two primary constituencies, unable to satisfy both. This coincided with a gradual decline in the organisational standards of
976-501: The 1880s, however, factions had gradually become stabilised along lines of liberalism and conservatism , although the line between the two was by no means certain. The key figure in the establishment of the Liberal Party was John Ballance . Ballance, an MP, had served in a number of liberal-orientated governments, and had held office in posts such as Treasurer , Minister of Defence , and Minister of Native Affairs . He had
1037-433: The 84,000 acre Cheviot estate was broken up. In eleven years, 176 South Island pastoral estates were broken up; totalling 940,000 acres (3,800 km ) and divided into 3,500 farm. The main method used to persuade pastoralists to sell was taxation of large land holdings. Coupled with this, many of the early pioneer estate owners were dying and the estates were being divided amongst their often large families. Equal partibility
1098-614: The Labour Party soared. Clashes between Gordon Coates (who still led Reform) and Downie Stewart over economic policy eventually prompted Downie Stewart's resignation in January 1933, earning the government a new critic and hurting its popularity still further. In addition, some of the coalition's measures to revive the economy were condemned by some as "socialist" — the Democrat Party , founded to fight this "socialism", cost
1159-420: The Liberal Party established itself as the dominant party of New Zealand politics. In 1899, the Liberal and Labour Federation was formed to select candidates approved by the party leadership and ensure that they promoted a consistent and approved set of policies. Candidate selection was ultimately determined by Seddon. The Federation was New Zealand's first national party political organisation, and had most of
1220-540: The Liberal Party in rural North Island electorates. By 1903, the Liberals were so dominant that there was no longer an organised opposition in Parliament. Slowly, however, the Liberal Party's dominance began to erode. The "reforming fires" of the party, the basis of their original success, were dying, and there was little innovation in the field of policy. In 1896, a splinter group formed the Radical Party , to advocate more "advanced" policies than Seddon's. In 1905,
1281-512: The Liberal Party's policies were based more on pragmatism than on ideology, although politicians such as Ballance and Reeves definitely had theories behind their actions. In 1893, John Ballance died unexpectedly, leaving the Liberal Party's leadership open. It is believed that Ballance wished Robert Stout , a colleague known for his liberal views, to succeed him, but in the end, the leadership passed to Richard Seddon . Although Seddon went on to become New Zealand's longest serving Prime Minister, he
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#17327881041781342-431: The Liberal Party, MPs were all independent, although often grouped themselves into loose factions. Some of these factions were occasionally referred to as "parties", but were vague and ill-defined. In the history of Parliament, factions were formed around a number of different views – at one time, centralism and provincialism were the basis of factions, while at another time, factions were based on geographical region. Towards
1403-465: The Liberal Party, denouncing its policies as an attempt by the unsuccessful to rob the prosperous. In power, the Liberals enacted a large number of social, health, and economic reforms. This was made possible by their unity – previously, reforms had stalled due to the need for long and complex negotiations to win support from individual MPs. Among the changes introduced were land reforms , progressive taxes on land and income, and legislation to improve
1464-572: The Liberal Party, with the situation having reached the point where in some cases, multiple "Liberal" candidates were contesting the same electoral race. At the 1911 general election , the Liberal Party won four fewer seats than the Reform Party, but managed to remain in power with the support of some labour-aligned MPs and independents. In 1912, Sir Joseph Ward stepped down and was replaced by Thomas Mackenzie , who defeated George Laurenson by 22 votes to 9 ( John A. Millar did not stand in this leadership ballot on 22 March). In July 1912, coupled with
1525-505: The Liberal Party. Reform also demonstrated its tough line against "socialism" with its responses to a number of notable strikes — the Waihi miners' strike , led by left-wing "Red Fed" unions which Massey condemned as "enemies of order", was harshly suppressed, and one worker died. A dockworkers' strike in 1913 was also broken. The strikes prompted considerable concern about socialism in certain sectors of society, boosting Reform's re-election in
1586-461: The Liberal government, now ruling only with the support of independents, to fall. Ward resigned in 1912, and after successor Thomas Mackenzie lost a confidence vote, William Massey became Prime Minister on 10 July 1912. In government, the Reform Party implemented many of its policies regarding freehold and public service reform. Many other Liberal-era policies were not changed, however, and Reform gained further support from disillusioned members of
1647-399: The Liberal reforms, especially how the state regulated labour relations . It was innovating in the areas of maximum hour regulations and compulsory arbitration procedures. Under the Liberal administration the country also became the first to implement a minimum wage and to give women the right to vote . The goal was to encourage unions but discourage strikes and class conflict. The impact
1708-508: The Liberals due to their promise of land reform . Having achieved the land reforms, farmers had little reason to continue their support for the Liberals, and drifted towards the socially conservative opposition. At the same time, the Liberals were also slowly losing their other base of support, the urban working class — the Ballance and Seddon governments had introduced many reformist labour laws , but under later leaders (notably Joseph Ward )
1769-512: The Liberals), and then merged with United to form the modern National Party . Defunct The Liberal Party , founded by John Ballance and fortified by Richard Seddon , was highly dominant in New Zealand politics at the beginning of the 20th century. The conservative opposition, consisting only of independents, was disorganised and demoralised. It had no cohesive plan to counter the Liberal Party's dominance, and could not always agree on
1830-417: The Liberals, was strengthened. The foundation of the Reform Party was closely associated with this return of the opposition to political significance, and with growing agitation against the Liberal Party's alleged socialism. The party itself crystallised around a farmer-turned-politician named William Massey , who became the leader of most conservatives in Parliament in 1903 after serving many years prior as
1891-466: The Liberals. This victory was not as pronounced in the statistics for the popular vote since many believed that Reform had profited from the three-party configuration, with the anti-Reform vote being split. Coates was also unable to live up to the high expectations generated by the election result. Coates lacked the political skills needed to manage the Reform party and parliamentary caucus, and also retained several poor-performing ministers. Under Coates,
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1952-508: The Opposition †: Died in office New Zealand Reform Party The Reform Party ( Māori : Pāti Riwhōma ), formally the New Zealand Political Reform League , was New Zealand 's second major political party , having been founded as a conservative response to the original Liberal Party . It was in government between 1912 and 1928, and later formed a coalition with the United Party (a remnant of
2013-666: The Reform Government passed the Family Allowances Act, which was unpopular with party supporters. Coates' administration was also blamed for a major drop in farm export prices in 1926. Reform also lost two by-elections in Eden and Raglan to the Labour Party, which began positioning itself as the new official opposition. In the 1928 elections , however, there was a substantial reversal. The new United Party led by former Liberal leader Joseph Ward, founded on
2074-474: The United Kingdom at this point in time. New Zealand never had an aristocracy but it did have wealthy landowners who largely controlled politics prior to 1891. The Liberal Party set out to change that by a policy it called "populism." Seddon had proclaimed the goal as early as 1884: "It is the rich and the poor; it is the wealthy and the landowners against the middle and labouring classes. That, Sir, shows
2135-592: The United Kingdom. Seddon also introduced a number of new welfare and pension measures, sometimes compared to the welfare reforms of the UK Liberal Party under Prime Minister H. H. Asquith in the United Kingdom . These measures eventually formed the basis on which the Labour Party 's Michael Joseph Savage built the modern NZ welfare state . Seddon was extremely popular with common New Zealanders, and under his particular brand of populism ,
2196-501: The United Party government struggling, and in 1931, the Labour Party withdrew its support in protest at certain economic measures. Following Ward's resignation in May 1930, George Forbes became the leader of the United Party and Prime Minister. The Reform Party reluctantly agreed to support the United Party government, as the depression had raised fears of major gains for Labour if an election were held. United and Reform established
2257-453: The ashes of the Liberal Party, experienced a surge of support. While Reform's parliamentary presence was reduced to 28 seats, the United Party won 27 seats, Labour won 19 seats, the new Country Party gained one seat, and there were five independents. The United Party formed a new government with the support of Labor and the five independents. The Reform Party, still led by Coates, continued in opposition. The worsening economic situation left
2318-469: The basis of the later welfare state , with old age pensions , developed a system for settling industrial disputes , which was accepted by both employers and trade unions. In 1893 it extended voting rights to women , making New Zealand the first country in the world to enact universal adult suffrage . The Liberal Party became extremely successful, winning seven consecutive elections and the popular vote in each. New Zealand gained international attention for
2379-592: The coalition a certain amount of support. In the 1935 general election , the coalition to suffered a massive defeat to the Labour Party, winning only 19 seats to Labour's 53. Shortly after losing the 1935 elections, Reform and United resolved to merge completely in 1936, creating a united front against Labour. The new group was named the National Party , and has remained Labour's principal opponent ever since. The merged party's first three leaders- Adam Hamilton , Sidney Holland , and Keith Holyoake —came from
2440-581: The conservative whip . Also closely linked to the group were the Political Reform League, Auckland's "National Association", and (in an unofficial capacity) the Farmers' Union. The opposition began referring to itself as the Reform Party in 1909, and adopted a common platform for contesting elections. Among the party's important policy planks were farmers' freehold and the reform of the public service . Despite campaigning heavily against
2501-430: The conservative opposition, and workers, having become dissatisfied at the slowed pace of reform, were beginning to talk of an independent labour party. The Liberals were aware of the problem facing them, and attempted to counter it. As early as 1899, Seddon had founded the "Liberal and Labour Federation", an attempt to relaunch Ballance's old Liberal Federation with more support from workers. Later, Joseph Ward declared
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2562-462: The defection of some Liberal MPs like Millar; this arrangement collapsed, and twenty-one years of Liberal Party government came to an end. The Liberals adopted a number of new policies in an attempt to win back votes, including an increase in land tax (supported by the labour movement) and the introduction of proportional representation , with Grey Lynn MP George Fowlds ' Proportional Representation And Effective Voting Bill 1911 (86–1). However,
2623-640: The family settled. He accompanied his father to the gold diggings in The Ovens, Nova Scotia . Afterwards, he worked in his father's painting and glazier business in Melbourne, and from around 1863, in Dunedin , to where the family relocated. They traded as H. S. Fish and Son and were based in Princes Street South. On 31 January 1867, he married Jane Carr at Dunedin's St Paul's Church . Fish
2684-453: The features of a modern political party , including: subscribing members, a central council and an annual conference. The Liberal Party aggressively promoted agrarianism during their dominant period from 1891 to 1912. They believed a truly democratic society had to rest on the foundations of an independent land-owning class of small farmers, as opposed to large farms with hired help, or urban factories. The landed gentry and aristocracy ruled
2745-573: The foundation of the Labour Party in 1916 deprived the Liberals of many votes from working-class areas, while the business world, concerned at Labour's rise, was uniting behind Reform's "anti-socialism" platform. The Liberal Party was accused by Labour of being a party of the elite, and by Reform of having socialist sympathies – between the two, many predicted that the Liberals would continue to decline. Several leadership changes – back to Ward in mid-1912, to William MacDonald and then Thomas Wilford in 1920, and to George Forbes in 1925 – failed to revive
2806-424: The government's "socialism", it did not propose to undo the Liberal Party's labour and welfare reforms. In 1911 a consistent theme of the Reform campaign was that it stood for "true Liberalism" and the Opposition accepted the permanency of the basic reforms of the Liberals in the 1890s. They claimed patronage, corruption and " Tammanyism " (patronage based on connections) for example in civil service appointments. In
2867-440: The middle class. In the countryside, the Liberals won support from those farmers who lacked the ability to compete with the large runholders , who monopolised most of the available land. Both groups saw themselves as being mistreated and oppressed by what had been described as New Zealand's "early colonial gentry" – the well-educated and aristocratic land-owners and commercial magnates. It was this group that most strongly opposed
2928-504: The new year, became Premier . Ballance and his allies, recognising the benefit that they had gained from their unity, set about building a permanent organisation. The Liberal Party, with common policies and a well-defined leadership, was proclaimed. A national party organisation (called the Liberal Federation) was established, with supporters of the new party encouraged to become members and help organise party activities – this
2989-624: The party itself, United won a considerable victory, and formed a government in 1928. Later, United would reluctantly merge with Reform to counter the Labour Party. The result of this merger, the National Party , remains prominent in New Zealand politics. Both the National and the Labour Parties, the two main powers since 1936, claim to be the Liberal's successors. Key: Liberal Conservatives Reform PM : Prime Minister LO : Leader of
3050-406: The party were uneasy about Seddon's views, Seddon himself was charismatic, and it was correctly predicted that he would win considerable support from the public. An early clash between the Liberal Party's two wings came over the issue of women's suffrage . Ballance had been a strong supporter of the suffrage movement, having proclaimed his belief in the "absolute equality of the sexes", but Seddon
3111-498: The party's foremost theorist, promoted a number of other similar reforms including the world's first compulsory system of state arbitration . Reeve's efforts to introduce further union-friendly regulation created friction with Seddon, who disagreed with Reeves's intellectual view of political matters and was nervous about public toleration of the Liberals' pace of reforms. In 1895, Reeves resigned from his cabinet portfolio and became New Zealand's Agent-General (later High Commissioner) in
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#17327881041783172-437: The party's fortunes. In June 1926, the Liberals were overtaken as the second-largest party and official opposition by Labour who won the 1926 by-election for Eden . Gradually, the Liberal Party's organisation decayed to the point of collapse. In 1927, a faction of the Liberal Party formed a new organisation, which was eventually named the United Party . To the considerable surprise of most observers, including many members of
3233-485: The real political position of New Zealand." The Liberal strategy was to create a large class of small land-owning farmers who supported Liberal ideals. To obtain land for farmers the Liberal government, over a twenty-year period from 1891 to 1911 purchased 3.1 million acres (13,000 km ) of Maori land. The government also purchased 1.3 million acres (5,300 km ) from large estate holders for subdivision and closer settlement by small farmers. In South Island,
3294-428: The reforms had slowed. The Liberals were split between the farmers and the workers, attempting to please both and therefore satisfying neither. The attempts of the Liberals to win back the labour vote were decried by conservatives as "socialistic", and the flight of farmers and businessmen from the Liberal Party was accelerated. The conservative opposition, which pledged its opposition to the alleged socialist tendencies of
3355-546: The working conditions of urban labourers. Many of the Liberal Party's policies were described as " socialist " by both its opponents and sympathetic international observers such as André Siegfried and Albert Métin , but there is debate over whether this label is valid. William Pember Reeves , a Liberal Party politician and theorist, said that while the party supported an active role for the state, particularly in social matters, it did not in any way seek to discourage or inhibit private enterprise. Many historians have claimed that
3416-404: Was a new development in New Zealand, as previously, parliamentary factions existed only as loose groupings of politicians, not as structured party organizations . The Liberal Party drew its support from two basic sources – the cities, and small farmers. In the cities, the Liberals were supported particularly strongly by workers and labourers, but also by the more socially progressive members of
3477-554: Was especially strong on the reform movement in the United States. It is widely argued that the New Zealand Liberal Party in 1891 lacked a clearcut ideology to guide them. Instead they approached the nation's problems pragmatically , keeping in mind the constraints imposed by democratic public opinion. To deal with the issue of land distribution, they worked out innovative solutions to access, tenure, and
3538-743: Was first elected onto Dunedin City Council in 1867. He was the Mayor of Dunedin from 1870 to 1873 and again from 1893 to 1895. In total, he served on Dunedin City Council for over 20 years. Fish represented the Dunedin electorate on the Otago Provincial Council in 1870, and from 1873 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. He was briefly a member of the Executive Council in May/June 1875. He represented
3599-499: Was not as highly regarded by the Liberal Party as he was by the general public. In particular, Seddon's social views were more conservative than those of Ballance or Stout, and he was seen by many as having a controlling and autocratic style of management. Seddon had originally assumed the leadership on an interim basis, with a full caucus vote intended for a later date, but no such vote was ever held. Stout and his liberal colleagues challenged this, but were unsuccessful – although many in
3660-458: Was opposed. Considerable bitterness arose over the matter, with Stout and his allies strongly promoting suffrage despite Seddon's hostility. In the end, the pro-suffrage MPs were able to get enough support to pass the measure despite their leader actively campaigning against it. In other matters, however, Seddon was more closely aligned with Ballance's original vision. Many of the party's earlier reforms were strengthened. William Pember Reeves, now
3721-597: Was the norm amongst families of Irish and middle-class English backgrounds. The success of the small farm enterprises went hand-in-hand with the rapid development of dairy farming, underpinned by the invention of refrigerated shipping in 1882. The Advances to Settlers Act of 1894 provided low-interest mortgages, while the Agriculture Department disseminated information on the best farming methods. The Liberals proclaimed success in forging an egalitarian, anti-monopoly land policy. The policy built up support for
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