An in-depth study of New Zealand's
second-longest serving prime minister William Ferguson
Massey.
FARMER BILL: William Ferguson Massey & the Reform
Party
Bruce Farland
First Edition Publishers, Box 32032, Maungaraki, pbk
Review by Ron Tyrrell
Remembered for his handling of the anarchical industrial
strikes of 1912-13, and particularly his "Cossacks",
leadership during World War 1, and the postwar failure of
many ex-servicemen on land-settlement farms, William Ferguson
Massey has not been accorded his due by historians, who are
described as "left-wing" by the author of this book.
This in-depth study of New Zealand's second-longest serving
prime minister is long overdue.
Massey's life is assessed as politician, party leader and
prime minister.
His heritage and rearing in Northern Ireland, including a
sound education at school level and family support, had a
lasting influence upon him.
From his Irish background he rejected leasehold, as advanced
by the Liberal Party, and led a group of oppositionists who
became the Reform Party, espousing freehold ownership for
farmers, a policy which was extended eventually to include
the rising urban classes, who were encouraged to build and
own their own homes.
As a Protestant prime minister and Freemason, Massey believed
in the British Empire and a partnership with Britain based on
his personal belief in a British-Israel (not the present
Israel) link harking back to ancient times and justifying the
legitimacy of the British monarchy.
He also had assimilated aspects of American populism
exemplified in New Zealand by state ownership of transport,
communications, a savings bank, and State Fire and Insurance,
which Reform extended to encompass co-operative marketing and
freight for overseas marketing, including a commandeer of
vital commodities during World War 1.
The author reminds us that Massey's administrations, apart
from the coalition years, and a term after the war, were
minority ones, sustained by the mutual distrust of the two
opposition parties for each other.
During the coalition wartime years and after, he made five
lengthy trips to Great Britain, each requiring slow sea
voyages and a sojourn abroad which left him out of touch with
his administration, and the ludicrous situation of Joseph
Ward, during the coalition, insisting on accompanying him,
leaving Sir James Allen as acting prime minister to
communicate by weekly letters and cables.
However, Massey served his country well as an advocate on the
Imperial War Cabinet and at the Peace Conferences which
followed the war.
One of his many problems was conscription, which raised
difficulties with the Roman Catholic Church and some Maori
tribes.
Farland asks two important questions: what sort of man was
Massey, and what motivated and guided him?
He asserts that Massey was a born leader, one who was honest,
steadfast and dominated Parliament, worked hard and expected
his colleagues to do likewise, was humane, pragmatic,
likeable, gregarious, humorous, intelligent, and with a
strong sense of duty.
He was a prime minister of the first rank and one who can be
placed alongside Seddon and Savage within the same tradition
of pragmatic humanism.
Farmer Bill is, perhaps, an unfortunate title for it suggests
some of the qualities the author decries; however, it is a
rewarding read, but it will by no means be the last word on
this controversial prime minister.
The binding of this volume is unsatisfactory, margins are too
narrow, pages have to be held apart to read the edges, and
the table of contents requires correct page references.
The separate index of topics is very useful, while unusually
the bibliography follows the index instead of preceding it.
- Ron Tyrrell is a Dunedin historian.
