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.