OBITUARY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20679, 18 March 1937, Page 11

OBITUARY

MR J. M. DICKSON, EX-M.P. By Telegraph—Press Association DUNEDIN, March 16. The death occurred to-day of Mr James McColl Dickson, aged 83. He represented the Reform Party in Parliament continuously from 1914 till 1928, when he retired from active politics. He became a member of the Otago Harbour Board in 1911, and held office for the succeeding 24 years. He was predeceased .by his wife and is survived by three sons and two daughters. Mr Dickson was born in Victoria in 1854 and arrived in New Zealand as a boy nine years of age, his education, which had been commenced in Victoria, being continued at public schools in Otago. As a young man he was for many years engaged in sawmilling operations with his brother, and he then purchased a farm on the Otago Peninsula near Portobello, where he remained for 40 years, achieving considerable success as a raiser of stock. Mr Dickson took a keen interest in the affairs of the district and for many years was a member of the Portobello Road Board, of which he was chairman for 12 years. He was also a member of the Portobello School Committee for 18 years, acting as chairman during a large portion of that time. In 1911 Mr Dickson became a member of the Otago Harbour Board and he held office for the succeeding 24 years as the representative of the borough of Green Island, and the counties of Taierl, Peninsula, Waikouaiti, and part of Waihemo. It was in 1911 also that he first sought a seat in Parliament In the Reform interest, but at that stage he was not so widely known in the extensive electorate of Chalmers as he was later to become, and he had no effective organisation behind him. Nevertheless it was by a margin of less than 100 votes that he failed to enter the second ballot, the voting being as follows: —E. H. Clark (Independent), 2850; J. T. Johnson (Independent Labour), 1476 J. McC. Dickson (Reform), 1376; Arthur McCarthy (Labour), 578. Mr Clark, who was elected on the second ballot, was not a contestant at the election in 1914, when Mr Dickson again sought election his opponents being Messrs W. D. Mason (Liberal) and G. S. Thomson (Labour). Mr Dickson was on this occasion elected by a majority of nearly 600 votes over Mr Mason. At. the election in 1919, when Mr Dickson again had two opponents, he polled 2693 votes against 1810 registered for Mr J. Gilchrist, representing Official Labour, and 1382 for Mr D. Colquhoun, who stood in the Liberal interest. Mr Dickson was once more successful at the general election in 1922, pojling 3644 against 2965 votes cast in favour of Mr J. Stephens, who on that occasion represented the Labour interest. In 1925 Mr Dickson was again opposed by a Labour candidate in the person of Mr M. Connelly, and was returned by the largest number of votes ever registered in his favour. He polled 4321 votes against 2728 given for Mr Connelly. At the conclusion of the Parliament in 1928 Mr Dickson retired from active general political life and did not seek re-election. But for the change of Government that then took place, it is probable that his services in the Lower House would have been recognised by appointment to the Legislative Council.