RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM FERGUSON MASSEY, 1856-1925.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXX, Issue 5, 20 May 1925, Page 313

RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM FERGUSON MASSEY, 1856-1925.

The Journal records its sincere tribute to the memory of the late Prime Minister, who, though better known of late years in the wider policies of State, was so intimately associated with the great basic industry of the land. When, in 1912, Mr. Massey formed his first Ministry it was fitting that, a farmer himself, he should take the portfolio of Agriculture in addition to the Premiership. He' thus became the sixth Minister of Agriculture, and continued to administer the Department for the following three years, when the advent of the National Government, in 1915, caused a redistribution of offices. During Mr. Massey's term the activities of the Department of Agriculture were developed in various directions, • while a notable related measure of his regime was the creation of the Board of Agriculture. At this period he also held the portfolio of Lands with its wide rural scope. But Mr. Massey’s direct influence on agricultural interests did not end in 1915. During the war period, he was closely connected with the Imperial requisitions of our primary produce and related shipping affairs. More recently he became a force behind the export-produce-control movement. The welfare of the man on the land was ever to Mr. Massey a matter of true concern. His manifold service for the agricultural community will be kept in grateful remembrance.