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Prime Minister Massey inspects the Otago Mounted Rifles

New Zealand Prime Minister William Massey and Deputy Prime Minister Joseph Ward, accompanied by officers, inspect troopers of the Otago Mounted Rifles in France, July 1918.

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Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference no: 1/2-013351-G
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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Death of William Massey

A gruff Ulsterman from South Auckland, William Ferguson Massey, or ‘Farmer Bill’ as he was known to many, is our second-longest-serving prime minister.

He was reviled by the left for his actions in breaking the Great Strike of 1913, in which he employed mounted special police whom the unionists dubbed ‘Massey’s Cossacks’. As well as leading the country through the bitter industrial strife of 1912–13, he had to contend with the First World War, the 1918 influenza pandemic and the 1921–22 slump.

Massey and his Reform Party campaigned on platforms of patriotism, stability, law and order, and the protection of private property. Massey kept most of the Liberals’ reforms, cleaned up the public service, increased the rate of home-ownership and spent more on education, roads and electricity. His Reform Party also established meat and dairy producer boards.

Following his death from cancer on 10 May 1925, Massey was buried at Point Halswell above Wellington Harbour. In September 1930 a large memorial was unveiled at the site. His wife Christina was also interred there following her death in 1932.

Massey memorial

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The Massey Memorial at Point Halswell, Wellington, commemorates William Ferguson Massey, prime minister of New Zealand from 1912 until his death in 1925. The exterior is pale Tākaka marble, resting on a base of dark grey Coromandel granite. The memorial was unveiled in September 1930.

Originally known by its Māori name, Kaitawharo (‘to eat jellyfish’), the point in Wellington Harbour was renamed after the Commissioner of Native Reserves, Edmond Halswell, who arrived in New Zealand in 1841. In 1886, following fears about Russia’s presence in the Pacific that had grown since the Crimean War, an 8-inch gun emplacement was constructed on the site. The gun pit was later repurposed to form part of the tomb of Massey and his wife Christina.

'Massey's Cossacks' guarding the Athenic

‘Massey’s Cossacks’, mounted special constables, guard strike-breakers working Shaw Savill & Albion’s Home boat Athenic in 1913. The great waterfront strike that year left a legacy of bitterness that lingered during the war years. While most maritime workers supported the war effort, serving in the merchant marine or volunteering for military service, many remained critical of the Reform government and its war policies.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: 1/2-048780-G
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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William Massey

William Massey is our second-longest serving leader. Although he was reviled by the left for crushing workers in 1913 with his ‘Massey’s Cossacks’ (strike-breakers), his legacy is being re-evaluated. Massey kept most of the Liberals’ reforms, cleaned up the public service, increased home ownership rates and spent more on education, roads and electricity. His Reform Party also established meat and dairy producer boards.

‘Farmer Bill’ joked that he was atop a haystack when invited to contest the by-election that sent him to Parliament. The telegram was passed up on a pitchfork. Through hard work and sound tactics, this conservative Ulster Protestant built an effective opposition to the Liberals. Reform appealed to cow-cocky country, rich city seats and to northern voters resentful of the South Island-dominated Liberals. Massey used the issue of the freehold to peel away farmers who wanted to buy, not lease, the Crown land they farmed.

Massey was a better Cabinet maker and manager than Richard Seddon or Joseph Ward. He had to be, since only the 1919 election gave Reform much of a majority over the Liberals and Labour. He was not afraid to appoint strong men to Cabinet.

He also had to govern during war. In 1915 the governor persuaded Massey and Ward to form a wartime coalition, the National government. Ward’s contempt for Massey caused difficulties, but the ministry held until 1919.

Massey also put the prime ministership on the international stage by serving in the novel Imperial War Cabinet, spending extended periods in London. Signing the Treaty of Versailles on New Zealand’s behalf as a separate nation marked a turning point in our diplomatic history, but this ardent imperialist typically thought little of the act.

Written by Gavin McLean

William Massey

Head and shoulders portrait of William Massey (1856-1925), circa 1920.

See biography of William Massey

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: 1/1-001538-F
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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1925 - key events

Death of ‘Farmer Bill’ Massey

A gruff Ulsterman from South Auckland, William Ferguson Massey had been Prime Minister since 1912, leading the country through the bitter industrial strife of 1912–13, the First World War, the 1918 influenza pandemic and the 1921–22 slump. Campaigning on a platform of patriotism, stability, law and order, and the protection of private property, he led the Reform Party to (often very narrow) victories in the 1914, 1919 and 1922 elections.

After suffering from cancer for some years, Massey died in Wellington on 10 May 1925, aged 69. Sir Francis Dillon Bell served as stopgap PM for several weeks until Gordon Coates was appointed. Massey remains New Zealand’s second-longest-serving PM; his tenure was just three months less than that of Richard Seddon.

‘Coats off with Coates’ – the 1925 election

Gordon Coates became Prime Minister on 30 May 1925 and faced a general election six months later. A young leader for those days, the 47-year-old war veteran was a 'tall, lithe man’ with 'clear eyes, a tanned face, and a kindly mouth'. Labour’s John A. Lee labelled him the ‘jazz Premier’. His energetic management of the public works and railways portfolios had made him a popular figure, and as Native Minister (1921–28) he was more sympathetic to Māori concerns than most Pākehā.

The Reform Party’s advertising agent, Bert Davy, was able to turn Coates’ genial personality and pragmatic style into election-winning hype in the November election. He used the latest techniques from the commercial advertising industry to deliver an American-style presidential campaign. Instead of explaining detailed policies, Reform’s advertising employed bold imagery and simple slogans such as ‘Coates and Confidence’, ‘Coats off with Coates’, and ‘Safety, Stability, Progress’. New Zealand elections have never been the same since.

New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition

The New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition opened on 17 November on reclaimed land at Logan Park, Dunedin. Architect Edmund Anscombe had designed ‘a series of seven pavilions grouped on two sides by a Grand Court and converging by colonnaded passages towards a Festival Hall surmounted by a magnificent dome’. The buildings occupied approximately 16 acres 64,750 sq m (6½ ha). Visitors were able to tour almost the entire exhibition under cover. By the time it closed in May 1926 the exhibition had attracted over 3.2 million visitors, more than double New Zealand’s total population at the time. The closing Saturday drew a record attendance of 83,935.

Rewi’s last stand brought to the big screen

A ‘wild west’ drama-romance set during the New Zealand Wars, Rewi’s last stand centred on the epic but doomed defence of Ōrākau pā by Kingite forces led by Rewi Maniapoto. It was the second silent feature film written, directed and produced by Rudall Hayward, New Zealand’s most prolific pioneer film-maker. The story was researched from James Cowan’s history The New Zealand Wars, as was Hayward’s 1927 feature, The Te Kooti trail. He remade the film as a ‘talkie’ in 1940; it was released in Britain under the name The last stand.

Other events in 1925:

A Committee of Inquiry into Mental Defectives and Sexual Offenders, which included Frederic Truby King, proposed (among other things) the compulsory segregation and sterilisation of ‘incurable’ mental defectives.
The Radio Broadcasting Company, essentially New Zealand’s first national broadcaster, began operations. By 1927 it was running the YA stations in the four main centres.
The Rātana Church was formally established.
Tram passenger numbers reached a peacetime peak of 168 million trips. (This figure was only bettered during the Second World War, when petrol rationing prompted a temporary surge in tram patronage.)
The railway linking Auckland with Whāngārei and Ōpua in the Bay of Islands was completed.
Pioneer conservationist Pérrine Moncrieff published the field guide New Zealand birds and how to identify them.
New Zealand formally took over the administration of Tokelau from Britain.
The Women’s Division of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union (from 1946 Federated Farmers) was formed.
Dozens of British merchant ships and hundreds of seamen were stranded in New Zealand ports for up to two months during the ‘Home Boat Strike’, an industrial dispute that circled the globe.
A United States Navy fleet visited New Zealand for the first time since 1908, when the ‘Great White Fleet’ had toured the world.
The prohibitionist cause again fell short of a majority in the national licensing referendum held alongside the November general election, polling 47.3%.

New Zealand Tunnelling Company, 1918

Prime Minister William Massey addresses soldiers of the New Zealand Tunnelling Company near Arras, France, on 2 July 1918. Immediately behind him is his deputy, Sir Joseph Ward.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: 1/2-013354-G.
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Anzac cyclists

Prime Minister William Massey and Deputy Prime Minister Joseph Ward inspect the New Zealand Cyclist Corps at Oissy in northern France, 3 July 1918.

The New Zealand Cyclist Corps was created in New Zealand in March 1916 using recruits who were training to join the Mounted Rifles. Intended as mobile light infantry, the cyclists found on arrival in France in July 1916 that stationary trench warfare left them with little to do. They spent much of the war behind the lines performing tasks such as controlling traffic, laying cables and repairing trenches.

New Zealand cyclists, as part of the 2nd Anzac Cyclist Battalion, were involved in the Flanders offensives of 1917. building an 1800-m support track across no-man’s-land at Messines, and laying signal cables behind advancing troops at Gravenstafel and Bellevue Spur.

In early 1918, the New Zealand Cyclist Corps was called upon to fight as infantry, taking part in important defensive actions in the Battle of the Lys (April) and offensive actions in the Second Battle of the Marne (July-August).

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand
Reference: 1/2-013358-G
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Demise of Dominion Day

A short-lived celebration

Dominion Day, 26 September, never really took hold in New Zealand. Wellington was one of the few places that kept up ceremonies after 1907.

Dominion Day celebrations, 1908

In 1908 over 20,000 people went to the Wellington suburb of Newtown to watch a parade and see 5000 children form a living flag. Parliament Buildings were lit up as they had been the previous year.

Elsewhere, the day passed with little fanfare after 1907, especially in centres distant from the capital. In Dunedin, government agencies and banks closed, the garrison paraded and schoolchildren saluted the flag. Although ships in port flew flags or raised bunting, ‘the display, taken all round, was rather a meagre one’, according to the local paper.

During the 1910s, politicians and diplomats still made occasional speeches, but Dominion Day faded away as a public event. The Public Holidays Act 1910 'Mondayised' the day, so it was marked on the Monday closest to 26 September rather than the actual date.

William Massey, who had not supported the change to dominion status, did nothing to promote Dominion Day after becoming prime minister in 1912. The day was marked mainly by the closure of government departments, law offices and banks, but that gradually fell out of favour. In schools, however, children still held ceremonies, such as saluting the flag.

Why did Dominion Day not catch on?

There are a range of reasons why Dominion Day never really caught on in New Zealand. Some people thought there were enough public holidays already. Empire Day (24 May) and Labour Day (late October) were more popular.

Some blamed the unreliable early spring weather. Others complained that the day was not made a paid holiday, except briefly for a privileged few. Still others blamed the weak sense of nationalism – ‘“independence in our time” is not the cry of the British loyalists today’ was written in the Evening Post in 1907. For most people, though, there was no strong emotional attachment to the day: nothing tangible had happened with the shift from colony to dominion status.