New Zealand Liberal Party

The Liberal Party was the first political party in New Zealand.

Frequently their founding date is given as 1890, the year when John Ballance with an alliance more or less liberal -minded people won election to the House of Representatives and a year later was elected on 24 January 1891 Prime Minister of New Zealand. In this election campaign, the opposition members under the leadership of John Ballance showed the fighting spirit that should be party later with the character of the Liberals. But was still a long way down to the actual founding of the Party at the national level.

History

Before the Liberal Party began to form, the Parliament of New Zealand was a loose structure fractions that were on the one hand based on personal connections and / or were supported by provincial and local interests. The candidates were largely independent, but as from 1880 were required to declare where they stood politically and what they wanted to be elected by them in public more and more.

In some cases, we read that the Governor George Edward Grey was the father of liberal thought in New Zealand. The distribution of this myth is the historians, journalists and politicians William Pember Reeves attributed to the Ballance designated as heirs of the liberal idea. But the Liberal movement emerged at the earliest in 1887 and had its first climax in the won election of 1890, in which they learned a great support from a broad spectrum of voters across all classes of society and particularly strong in the newly developing provincial towns and the port cities as in Gisborne, Napier, New Plymouth, Nelson and Invercargill, was.

First party foundations

The first party -ups took place at the local level, with the National Liberal Association in Dunedin, founded by the liberal politician and later prime minister, Richard John Seddon, was in May, 1890, the first of its kind. Similar foundations followed throughout the country, as the Liberal Electoral League in Wellington and Hawke 's Bay in Napier Liberal Association. Almost all local parties was founded before 1893.

The need for a centralized political organization, which occurred outside the Parliament, it became clear in the years after the election of 1896. Among the many liberal associations at the local level, the desire for political independence and remained so central to liberal demands and ideas were formulated only on the government. And there it was next splinter group two great camps. One led by Robert Stout, also later Prime Minister, and the other by Richard John Seddon.

The Liberal Party was organized until 1899 loose, especially at the national level.

Party establishment at national level

In July 1899, finally, to the pressure and the dissatisfaction of the unions on a slow involution with respect to matters of the working class Seddon, sent a representative around the country to promote the union of all local associations to a centrally organized party. Seddon wrote, based on the model developed by Joseph Chamberlain in the 1880s so-called Birmingham system a party constitution and united all local sections to a centrally organized Liberal and Labour Federation of NZ. Thus 1899 is regarded as the really founding year of the Liberal Party and was the first party measured in New Zealand today's standards.

The Liberal Party was with John Ballance Richard Seddon William Hall -Jones, Joseph Ward and Thomas Mackenzie until 1912, over 21 years in a row in the government, but then had to cope with a defeat because of weaknesses in the party leadership and temporary lack of leadership and the leave governmental affairs to the reform Party under William Massey. In May 1925, the party won a majority government under Gordon Coates then back again for three years. But the collapse of the party was unstoppable, but had in 1922 already some candidate members as Liberal - Labour and the election in 1925 as some national and others continue as Liberal Party.

Liquidation and merger

After the demoralizing years of the first half of 1920, the party split in 1925 into two groups. One group followed George William Forbes and formed the nationalists and the other group remained under Liberal WA Veitch, until the United Party was founded in 1927 and aufgingen the remaining liberals in it. Led by the Liberals Joseph Ward, who was Prime Minister from 1906 to 1912, the new party won the election in 1928 and reigned for two years until his retirement. With the government takeover by Forbes, the Alliance got a shift to the right. To select the 1931 United Party and the Reform Party founded in 1909, entered into a coalition and approached under the pressure of stronger Labour Party more and more. They fused for election in 1935 to the National Political Federation and completed after the first government takeover by the Labour Party under Michael Joseph Savage in 1935, the founding of the National Party in 1936.

Recent attempts

It was in the years repeated attempts to form a new Liberal Party and successfully participate in the elections. The most far-reaching attempt took place in 1963, when the introduced New Zealand Progressive Liberal Party Auckland and the New Zealand Liberal Party of Christchurch together under the name New Zealand United Liberal Party to election. The result was 10,339 votes, which is only 0.86% of the total votes more than disappointing.

Swell

  • Raymond Miller, Party politics in New Zealand, Oxford University press, South Melbourne, Australia, 2005. ISBN 0-19-558413-9
  • Liberal Party - Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand - ( accessed on March 11, 2010 )
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