NEW ZEALAND'S POLITICAL LEADERS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 33, 8 February 1935, Page 28 (Supplement)

NEW ZEALAND'S POLITICAL LEADERS

TVTEW Zealand politics have not been marked JL^T by many rapid changes. In the earlier days of Government, before parties became definitely marked, there was a tendency to remove Premiers on the turnover of a vote or two. Then the continuous Ministry held office tor^a considerable period of years with only slight changes in personnel. But in the last nity years politics have moved to a definite rhythm, with fairly prolonged terms of office first for one party and then for the other. During the first 25 years of responsible Government, that is to say, from 1854 to 1884, all •of our Premiers were university men from England, _Scotland, or Ireland. Henry Sewell, the first Premier, was an English lawyer finely equipped by his knowledge of constitutional law ior the tussles which occurred in the first days of the General Assembly,, leading up to the grant of responsible Government. Years-earlier he had stood out against the Colonial Office on behalf of the settlers of South Africa; and he had nP r ATith criticism and advice in the drafting ot the New Zealand Constitution. He came to New Zealand to settle the affairs of the Canterbury Association, but general politics demanded him, and when the General Assembly met in May,_lßs6, the Governor (Sir T. Gore Browne) called upon, him to form the first responsible Ministry. He chose Bell, Whitaker, and Tancred as his colleagues, and held office'for 13 days.. Many times thereafter he was in train for high office, but he had no faculty for cooperation, and had a disgruntled disposition. In the end he went hack to England rather soured and disappointed with the shortcomings of other men, which none could see'so well as he. ■ ■•-.. y?ot&s% '|^ x;i :He| too;- y^gs : in office^for;, '•r.tv^^?^fs»rffiight on' this occasion, but during" years he/was in fact the alternative S^ger. to; Stafford. Often when he -was not in . '''■■;:PM&; & .Premier 'he, was the virtual leader of ,the; Government. In fact, one.may say that nor ; . one_man had more influence, in public life during the first fifty, years of the colony than y,- Sir Willjam Fox. His philo-Maori policy >.; ed: the periods between the more vigorous Prosecution of, the war by other Ministries. . His > ■'; first 'term of office .was a mere episode in the i;; turbulent;days of formative politics. .He fought ; .agairist; the autocracy of Grey; yet he was one '■; .of.the founders of the Liberal: Party, at whose :.-' birthjGrey also officiated. Impulsive and pugnacious.4. Fox' shone rather in .Opposition than as leader of: the Government. He was an. official ofrtKeNewZealand Company.in the early days teqa&e;he refused to make an affirmation which . n?lc°nsidered derogatory to a barrister of the :, ' Inris of iCourt; In early life he was an ardent : proymcialist, but'he :lived to'change his mind. , : ; He was;|ari-artist, a ;widely-travelled man, and a ,\; leader-of -the : Temperance movement.. Fox was Premier on three occasions, but the total duration^of his bfficewas-less than five years. ; STAFFORD'S FATEFUL LEADERSHIP. The great protagonist of Fox was Sir Edward ; Stafford. He was thrice Premier, for a. total of ;; .nme.years, and was the first Premier at all who held .office for any length of time (1856:61). : A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, he came toNelson, soon after Wairaii, and was first .:■.■. Superintendent. That office he: served with. ■;■; and dignity, but he soon deserted the field iof provincial • politics for the- colonial arena. : His Ministry of 1856, with Whitaker, Sewell, ■ .; an^ C/W. Richmond, was a fateful one. The : Wahara War, though essentially local in its origin, was an expensive matter for the colony, andijcreated widespread uneasiness in provinces that had no Natives. Stafford was defeated in > 1861. For a few years the country staggered v; on under a cloud of anxiety and perplexity, but in'this interregnum the future policy was de- ' : cided upon, so that when Stafford came back ..; in. 1865 his course was clear though difficult. .He had only to push ahead to a decision. With ; : Whitmore, J. C. Richmond, and Haultain in his Ministry, he saw the last Maori War praotically ended before his next defeat (June, 1869). Once again, in 1872, he was Premier for a few weeks, ; trying hopelessly to stem the rising tide .of Liberalism. He was the best party leader in

New Zealand's first thirty years of responsible Government—cautious, self-confident, strong in judgment, well-balanced, and with a good knowledge of men. '

The next Premier, Alfred Domett (1862-63), .in-the early years of the colony held a vast variety of posts by sheer force of circumstances. Both administrative and political life were uncongenial to his poetic temperament. If he had had the means he would undoubtedly have escaped back to the quiet shades of intellectual life in England long before he did. On the principle that an old horse is good for a long road^and Domett being now a horse of twenty years' experience in the colony, he was made Premier in 1862 simply because there seemed to be nobody else. But he could not stand up against the importunities of\the sturdy mendicants of the provinces, and in the. year that he held office the finances of the colony got into hopeless depths. Domett is first and foremost the author of "Ranolf and Amohia." Yet I am not sure whether his roving mind did not in some way give birth to the original idea of . the selfreliant policy. :

Domett handed over to his Attorney-General (Frederick Whitaker) the leadership bf the remnant of his Ministry, with Fox as Colonial Secretary. 'Whitaker was the first leader of a Government in New Zealand to adopt the title of Premier.' Hitherto,,.,the leader had always been Colonial Secretary- or Attorney-General. For two decades at least Whitaker was the only alternative Attorney-General in New Zealand, and until the eighties Premier after Premier called upon his veteran experience and craftiness. He struggled with the Waikato War which Domett had bequeathedto him; arid 6n being defeated "in went into repeat^as":^; private member, for twelve; years. D.uring that' time he was Superintendent of the Province of Auckland. He was Premier again from 1882-83.

Though he then retired ostensibly for good and took a'knighthood, Atkinson in 1887 called him out of his seclusion, and he led the Council until 1890. He was a lion for work and an expert at drawing Bills, but he shone rather as the rudder than the figurehead of the ship of State. POLICY OF SELF-RELIANCE. " . WhenWhitaker was defeated in 1864 the reins were taken by a man who did more than anyone else to create a national spirit in New Zealand. Weld came into office pledged to a policy of self-reliance, and he boldly stipulated with Grey that the British troops should be withdrawn and the colonials should finish the war themselves. He changed the face of New Zealand politics within a year, and when defeat was imminent (October, 1865); having no ambitions for himself and being in very delicate health, he willingly withdrew and sought rest.. Weld... was afterwards Governor of several Crown colonies. , The next Premier was George Marsden Waterhouse (1872-73), the son of a New Zealand

INDEX TO PORTRAITS: Loft to Right. l.rHenry Sewell, (856. v , 2 . John Ha||> 2. William Fox, 1856, 1861-62. 1869-72, 1873. | 3 . Sir Robert Stout. 1884- 1884-87 3. Edward William Stafford, 1856-61, 1865-69, 1872. 14. John Ballance 1891-93 4. Alfred Domett, .862-63. 15. Richard John Seddon, "1895-1906. 5. Frederick Whitaker. 1863-64, 1882-83. 16. William Hall Jones 1906 6. Frederick Aloysius Weld, 1864-65. = ,7. Sir Joseph George Ward, Wu, 1928-30. 7. George Marsden Waterhouse. 1872-73. . | 8 . Thomas Mackenzie. 1912 8. Sir Julius Vogel, 1873-75, 1876. . 19. William Ferguson Massey, 1912-25. 9. Dame. Pollen. .875-76. 20. Sir Francis Henry DHIon Bell, .925. 10. Sir Harry Albert Atkinson, 1876-77. 1883-84. 1887-91. 21. Joseph Gordon Coates. 1925-28 M. Sir Georjje Grey,. 1877-79. 22. George William Forbes, 1930-1. . IF fil GuyJH Schofefield. 0.8. E. D.Sc li 1| F.RMiat.S. B—. ■

missionary. He made a competence in Australia and retired, became Premier in South Australia and retired again; came over to New Zealand and bought land and unwillingly slid into politics. Full of ideals and reverence for the forms of Parliament, he became Premier against his wish, and slipped out just as quickly when he realised that he was merely the figurehead. Vogel was the real leader. DAZZLED THE COUNTRY WITH LOANS. The masterful Vogel came out into the open as leader of the Government in, April, 1873, and was really Premier until he left for England as Agent-General in 1876. Otago was too slow for the fast-moving journalist." With a magio carpet of borrowed millions he dazzled the country for a few years; assured a network of railways and a swift stream of immigrants. He -swept away the provinces and every other ob- . stacle to his political ambitions, spent lavishly in every direction. On the whole, he built well, but New Zealand was in for a decade of sacknlotb and ashes.

Daniel Pollen (1875-76) was one of those doctors of medicine who found no practice amongst the needy and went into politics. For forty years he held office as civil servant or Minister, sometimes both at once. His wide experience commended him for Ministerial rank, and for a few months he had charge of Vogel's team, which he handed back to his chief again. Like Waterhouse, he was never in the House of Representatives, v THE RISE OF THE LIBERALS. Now we come to the sturdy figure of Sir Harry Atkinson, who held office in five Ministries before leading his own (1876-77). When he came into office Liberal and Conservative were not clearly defined. The Ministries hitherto had been merely reshuffles of existing parties; but Grey withdrew his followers and formed the nucleus of a Liberal Party, which eventually drove Atkinson from office and inaugurated the great Liberal regime. No Premier in New Zealand ever had to bear the burden that rested on the shoulders of the redoubtable Atkinson during his Premierships in the eighties. He found the country in the depths of a depression which came as ,the natural sequel to the gay profligacy of the early seventies. A man of strong social views, he was compelled by the needs of economy to cut down in all directions when his own impulse was strongly towards social legislation. These four 3'ears completely broke his strength, and when he was defeated at the polls in. 1890 he accepted the Speakership of the Legislative Council, in which he died dramatically in 1892. \ Sir George Grey: (1877-79) was a soldier and an autocrat, quite unsuited for the compromise and teamwork that are called for in party politics. He came into Parliament to save provinces that could not be saved, and remained

there as a Liberal leader on the strength of his nne democratic speeches. His contribution to political life in New Zealand might be summed up m the creation of the nucleus of the Liberal Party arid his selection of men like Ballance and Stout for Ministerial ranks. Sir John Hall (1879-82) was another leader who took office in indifferent health from a sense of public duty rather than fronfpersonai ambition; took strong courses on occasion— notably in the case of Parihaka—and retired thankfully to nurse his shattered health. Sir Robert Stout (1884; 1884-87) is generally bracketed with Vogel., He probably had more say _m things than Waterhouse. Stbut was in the Lower House and filled with certain social reforms. Vogel was in failing Health. At the election of 1887 Stout was defeated. A considerable following in the country in the early nineties fully expected him to take control when Bailance died, but he had no seat when he did get back into the House (June, 1893) Seddon was firmly in the saddle. . • . John Ballance (1891-93), if his health had lasted, would undoubtedly have led the Liberal Party well on the road that it eventually took. JNoi man had a better apprenticeship in life and politics. He had been in Parliament twenty years and in more Ministries than one. He was an able leader with a strong team;: a lion for work; but when he came to power he could obviously not bear the strain for long. SEDDON'S DRIVING POWER. The death of Ballance called to power a man whose apprenticeship, was equally sound. The hard school of the world, the intricacies of local and provincial government and fourteen years of Parliamentary life had made of Seddon a shrewd, strong, understanding political leader;' and on the crest of the wave of returning prosperity and rising prices he drove full-speed ahead with a programme of social reform some of which took its inspiration from earlier leaders and some even from the opposing ranks: in Parliament. • Seddon is an outstanding figure not only in the politics of New. Zealand but in the history of the Empire. He was at his zenith when he returned from England in 1902, and about thajitime adopted the title of Prime Minister. The only survivor today of the long-lived Seddon Ministry, Sir William Hall-Jones, took" office in 1906 as Prime Minister on the death of his chief, carrying on with the same colleagues for six or seven weeks until the return of Sir Joseph Ward. He afterwards went to London as High Commissioner, and for the1 past 21 years has been, amember. of the Legislative Council. ........ • The more recent Ministries are fresh in the memory. On the defeat of Sir "Joseph Ward in 1911 Sir Thomas Mackenzie took office for a few months with an entirelyl new team from the Liberal benches. The Ministry fell as soon as Parliament met, and Sir Thomas, too, ended his days in the Legislative Council. MASSEY ANtiHIS SUCCESSORS. The wheel had now turned a full circle, and William F. Massey came into office for an extended period. He; too, in long years of Opposition had acquired a political acumen which' blossomed amazingly in tie startling conditions he was to face. He led the country into the war, and a year later formed a National Government to carry the task to success. ; Returned again at the elections of 1919, he died in office six years later. Once more a colleague, Sir Francis Bell, took' office temporarily during a short interregnum until the appointment a fortnight later of Mr. Coates to be Prime Minister. That Ministry held office until the elections of 1928, when Sir Joseph Ward was returned to power. In failing health, he resigned the leadership (May, 1930), and Mr. Forbes was elected to succeed him; Once more a national emergency—this time of an economic character—called > for a National Goveminent, and in September, 1931, the two parties of the Right formed the Coalition,-, which stiU holds office under.Mr. Forbes. '' -; . ;•