Mataura is situated on the Mataura River on the eastern fringe of the Southland Plain. The land rises to the Hokonui Hills 8 miles north-west, and to the east is broken by discontinuous hilly blocks. The South Island Main Trunk railway and the Invercargill-Dunedin highway pass through Mataura, which is 8 miles south-west of Gore and 32 miles north-east of Invercargill.

Sheep, cattle, and dairy farming are practised on the surrounding plain. There is some logging and timber milling in the forested hills to the east. Mataura is centred on the extensive Mataura coalfield which produces good-quality lignite. Industrial establishments include a large meat-freezing works which also processes organic fertiliser and other by-products; a cheese factory and milk treatment station; a large paper mill; and a factory producing food for livestock.

The Mataura Falls close to Mataura were a source of large supplies of lampreys and attracted Maoris to the district. The original Maori village of Tuturau stood near the left bank of the Mataura River about 3 miles downstream from the present town. In 1836 this village was the scene of the last battle between North and South Island Maoris. A war party under Te Puoho, one of Te Rauparaha's chiefs, attacked and occupied the village which was later retaken by a party under the leadership of Tuhawaiki and Taiaroa who had been at the Bluff during Te Puoho's attack. On 4 December 1937 the Tuturau Centenary Reserve, comprising the site of the original village, was handed over to the Mataura Borough Council by the southern Maoris.

W. B. D. Mantell and party, who travelled overland from Dunedin to the Bluff to open the preliminary negotiations for the purchase of Southland in 1851, appear to have been the first Europeans to visit the vicinity of Mataura. They were closely followed by C. J. Nairn and C. J. Pharazyn, who were exploring for sheep country. The township of Mataura came into existence about 1858, having by that time become the recognised crossing place on the Mataura River for overland travellers between Dunedin and the Southland settlements. The town soon developed with the extension of the railway southwards from Gore in 1875. Two years later paper mills were founded, and today they are the oldest established unit of New Zealand's expanding paper industry. Mataura was constituted a borough in 1895.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 1,715; 1956 census, 1,850; 1961 census, 2,085.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.

Matamata is situated on level land, locally called Matamata Plain, a broad valley floor in the upper part of the common basin of the Piako and Waihou Rivers. This plain is the southern portion of the Hauraki Plain and is bounded on the east by the wooded Kaimai Range; on the west by the Peria Hills; and to the south the land rises to the central plateau. The town stands nearly midway between the Waihou River on the east and the Waitoa River, a tributary of the Piako River, on the west. The Hamilton-Rotorua railway passes through Matamata and the town is connected by road to Hamilton, 38 miles west; Rotorua, 46 miles south-east; and Tauranga, 38½ miles north-east.

Dairy farming, the predominant rural activity of the district, is associated with sheep farming and cattle fattening. Matamata is chiefly a servicing and distributing centre. There is a cheese factory in the town. Other industries include the manufacture of concrete products, joinery and furniture, clothing, and general engineering. At Waharoa, 4 miles north, there is a large dried-milk factory. Building stone is quarried at Hinuera, 5½ miles south-west. The thermal springs at Okauia, 4 miles north-east, are a popular tourist attraction.

Matamata means “headland”, and was the name of the pa of Te Waharoa, situated on a peninsula jutting into a swamp that covered a large area near the town of Waharoa. European flax-buyers employed by the trader, P. Tapsell, of Maketu, arrived at Matamata Pa about 1830 and are believed to have been the earliest white visitors. The Rev. Alfred Nesbitt Brown, assisted by the Rev. John Alexander Wilson, opened a mission station in 1833, near Matamata Pa, on a site about 2 miles north of Waharoa. After a short time a general war broke out and the station had to be abandoned. The chief's son, Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi te Waharoa was converted during Brown's ministry and became a strong advocate of Christianity. As a result of cordial relations with Te Waharoa the younger, Josiah Clifton Firth acquired in 1865 an extensive leasehold near Matamata. By 1884 he had increased his holding to 56,000 acres and had become an outstanding pioneer of large-scale land development. He carried out swamp drainage, established pastures, and pioneered the dairy industry; he constructed a dray road to Cambridge, and by 1880 had cleared the Waihou River of snags and obstructions, making it navigable for his vessels. The combined effects of falling prices and failure of other unrelated enterprises forced Firth to relinquish his large estate in 1888. Later, portions of this estate were sold and in 1904 the remainder was acquired by the Crown for closer settlement. The land was subdivided and provision made for town lots on the site of Matamata. Matamata became a dependent town district in 1917, an independent town district in 1919, and in 1935 was constituted a borough.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 2,127; 1956 census, 2,703; 1961 census, 3,292.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.

(1800?-93).

Maori war chief.

A new biography of Te Matakatea, Wiremu Kingi Moki appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Matakatea was a high-born Taranaki war chief in pre-European times. After the great Waikato victory at Maru (1826), many of the refugees of the Taranaki and Ngati Ruanui tribes fled to Matakatea's pa at Te Namu, close to Cape Egmont. There, in 1833, a strong party of Waikatos besieged him, but were repulsed. In 1834 a stronger Waikato party, led by such redoubtable chiefs as Potatau Te Wherowhero and Wahanui, laid siege to Te Namu, but Matakatea, aided by Titokowaru and other Taranaki chiefs, repulsed them so forcibly that the Waikatos sued for peace and ended their depredations against the west coast tribes. Although his forces were reinforced by eight whalers with four carronades, this victory was popularly attributed to Moki's own devastating accuracy with a rifle – hence he was always known as Matakatea – the “clear eyed”. Later in the same year, when the brig Harriet was wrecked near Cape Egmont, Matakatea rescued the wife and family of Captain John Guard from being eaten. Matakatea embraced Christianity and was well-disposed towards the Europeans. He also used his influence to prevent further outbreaks of tribal wars.

In the early 1840s Matakatea was challenged by Iwikau, the Tuwharetoa chief from Taupo. Matakatea did not wish war and did his utmost to avoid it, but when it was forced on him he besieged Iwikau's forces in the derelict Patoka pa near Wanganui, starved them, and then overwhelmed them with terrible slaughter, slaying the chief Tauteka in personal combat. Matakatea took all the captured Tuwharetoa women to Taranaki where he shortly released them with an offer of peace. Ngati Tuwharetoa never forgave this insult, and the murders of Kereopa and Manihera (12 March 1847) arose out of it.

In 1860 Matakatea sided with Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake in the Waitara dispute and fought in the Waireka engagement. Nevertheless, he interceded to protect the survivors of the Lord Worsley, wrecked off Te Namu on 1 September 1862, and cared for them until they could be taken to New Plymouth. He later tried to restrain the “King-ites”, but his house was burned by the Imperial troops.

Matakatea took part in the ploughing incidents around Manaia in 1879 and supported Te Whiti. For this he and his followers were arrested and taken to Wellington. Realising the injustice of this, Rolleston offered to release Matakatea, but the chief refused to leave without his fellow prisoners. Matakatea's arrest was long held to be a stain upon the Hall ministry.

Wiremu Kingi Matakatea was one of the greatest war chiefs of his day, and in this ranks with Te Rauparaha and Tuhawaiki. His heroic resistance to the Waikatos saved his and allied tribes from subjugation, and he defeated the best Waikato chiefs in the field. His reputation as a fighting chief permitted him to stand aloof from Hauhauism and he died on 14 February 1893, at an extreme old age.

by Walter Hugh Ross, Journalist, Taupo.

• Maori Wars of the Nineteenth Century, Smith, S. P. (1910)
• History and Traditions of the Maoris, Gudgeon, T. W. (1885)
• Taranaki Herald, 24 Feb 1893 (Obit).

(Podocarpus spicatus).

Like other New Zealand podocarps, matai has a timber possessing very fine qualities. It is somewhat hard and brittle for a conifer but works to a satiny finish and wears extremely well. It is very durable except when in the ground and is a choice timber for flooring and weatherboards. The amount cut falls a long way behind rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum) which is the most important native timber; nevertheless, it is second in quantity.

Matai occurs throughout the country in lowland forest. It is rare in Stewart Island and most frequent in the forests of the pumice country in the centre of the North Island. Usually it indicates the presence of a good soil. Together with other podocarps such as rimu, totara, miro, and sometimes kahikatea, it helps to form the scattered, emergent upper storey of tall forest trees. It grows to heights of 80 ft and the trunk is usually 2–4 ft through. The crown is bushy and a lightish-green in colour. Leaves are linear, half an inch or less, and are arranged in two rows. Seedlings and small saplings have long, slender entangled branch-lets with smaller leaves. Male and female flowers are both borne in small spikes – hence the specific name of the tree – on separate trees. The fruit is black, globose, and about half an inch long. It consists of a hard seed covered by a fleshy layer.

by Alec Lindsay Poole, M.SC., B.FOR.SC., F.R.S.N.Z., Director-General of Forests, Wellington.

Masterton is situated at the northern part of the Wairarapa Valley and in the upper basin of the Ruamahanga River. The Waipoua River flows south-eastward through the town and joins the Ruamahanga River near the eastern borough boundary. The town occupies mainly flat land. Low hills impinge on the borough in the north. On the west, within about 10 miles, the country rises to the Tararua Range and, on the east, within 6–7 miles, to undulating and hilly country. The Wellington-Woodville section of railway and the main highway pass through the town. By road Masterton is 51 miles south-west of Woodville (49 miles by rail) and 64 miles north-east of Wellington (66 miles by rail); Eketahuna is 25 miles north (22 miles by rail); and Carterton is 9 miles south-west by road or rail.

The chief farming activity of the district is sheep raising. There is a limited amount of dairying. Lime for agricultural purposes is quarried at Gladstone (11 miles south), at Weraiti (3 miles south-east), and at Mauriceville (12 miles northeast). The New Zealand Forest Service manages an exotic plantation of about 4,300 acres at Ngaumu (19 miles south-east). At Waingawa (4 miles south-west) there is a meat-freezing works (established 1909). Coal gas is produced at Waingawa. Masterton is the chief commercial and market centre of the Wairarapa district. Town industrial activities include the manufacture of butter, culinary essences, joinery and furniture, household appliances, knitwear and clothing, plastic garments and buttons, concrete products, and ceramic tile ware; saw-milling; engineering; and fellmongering. There is a large milk-treatment station and wool, grain, and produce stores in the borough.

The first recorded European visitors to the district were Charles H. Kettle and Alfred Wills, whose party, including Maoris, travelled south from the Manawatu Gorge in 1842. On their return to Wellington they reported wide areas of land in the Wairarapa suitable for farming. Large sheep runs were leased from the Maoris in South Wairarapa as early as 1843, but little progress was made with settlement further north until the Wairarapa lands were purchased in 1853. Land around Castlepoint (42 miles east) was occupied as a sheep run in 1848 by Thomas Guthrie. After the earthquake of 1855 had destroyed a small but better anchorage on Palliser Bay, Castlepoint became the best of the landing places and shipping outlets serving the Wairarapa region. Goods were shipped via Castlepoint until the coming of the railway in the 1880s. Joseph Masters, prime mover of the Wairarapa Small Farms Association, founded Masterton. He arranged the finance for the town survey when State funds were inadequate. The first settlers arrived on the site in 1854. Others followed in 1855 and about this time a flourmill was erected. At first progress was slow but, with the expansion of sheep farming, Masterton became a centre for wool scouring, fellmongering, and the production of tallow. The formation of the track over the Rimutaka Range was commenced in 1853 and was opened for wheeled traffic in 1859. A regular coach service between Wellington and Masterton was inaugurated in 1866. The railway line was opened for traffic between Wellington and Masterton on 1 November 1880, but was not extended to Woodville until December 1897. The town became part of Masterton Highway District in 1871. In 1873 Masterton was constituted a local district and municipal affairs passed into the control of a five-man board of commissioners. On 10 July 1877 the town was constituted a borough – the first in the Wairarapa to attain that status. The name commemorates the founder, Joseph Masters.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 11,545; 1956 census, 13,000; 1961 census, 15,121.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.

(1856–1925).

Statesman, Prime Minister, and Reform Party leader.

A new biography of Massey, William Ferguson appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

W. F. Massey was born at Limavady, County Londonderry, Ireland, on 26 March 1856. He was the elder son (in a family of five) of John Massey, a tenant farmer, who also owned a small freehold property, and of Marianne, née Ferguson. Though the Masseys were a long-established Ulster family, W. F. Massey was himself predominantly Scots through his mother and paternal grandmother. He was educated at the local National school and at a private secondary school. Massey was making good progress in a curriculum of the classical type when his formal education was cut short by his father's decision to emigrate to New Zealand, the attraction being the Auckland Provincial Government's offer of land to emigrants who paid their own passages. His disillusionment when confronted with his Kaipara bush section probably contributed in large measure to his son's distaste for “Liberal” land schemes. The elder Massey took up, instead, a leasehold farm at Tamaki. William Massey had remained at school in Ireland, but at the age of 14 he followed the family, arriving in the colony on 11 December 1870. He gained farming experience with his father and with John Grigg at Longbeach in Canterbury. By the end of the 1880s he had set himself up as a small farmer and threshing-mill contractor. About this time he may have briefly been interested in the Knights of Labour.

In 1894, when he was first elected to Parliament, Massey had behind him several years of service in local and provincial affairs. Small farmers were becoming a considerable force in Auckland politics, and Massey's vigour and organising ability carried him steadily upward among his fellows, as far as can be judged, without any spur of political ambition. When political opportunity came, he had a thorough understanding of Auckland rural interests, and much experience in advocating them. In 1890 the Mangere Farmers' Club, of which he was president, took steps to revive the Auckland Agricultural Association, and Massey then became provincial leader. As such, he had his introduction to politics. To counter Ballance's Liberal Ministry, allegedly southern and radical, Auckland conservative interests formed the National Association in September 1891. Massey, as head of the only farmers' provincial organisation, was invited to take part, and was elected vice-president. Thus, unlike many “farmers' advocates”, he began his political career in close cooperation with city business men. The National Association attempted, with conspicuous lack of success, to rouse the electorate against the “socialism” of the Liberals, and to put forward Opposition candidates. Massey stood for Franklin at the general election of 1893. He polled well in his own district, but was defeated by Benjamin Harris.

His provincial, and not merely local standing, brought him nomination for the Waitemata seat, vacant in 1894 as a result of the unseating of Richard Monk on petition. His task was merely to hold the seat for Monk till 1896 when he stood again for Franklin, this time successfully. He continued to represent the constituency till his death. From 1894 until 1912 Massey journeyed with the Opposition through the political wilderness. He followed his leaders loyally, and was appointed Opposition Whip in 1896. His experience in holding together a rather loose group of “independent conservatives” taught him valuable lessons in political diplomacy, and gave him decided views on what to avoid in party organisation. He steadily consolidated his reputation as farmers' spokesman and as Auckland advocate, particularly of the Main Trunk railway. Under Sir William Russell (1894–1900), the Opposition denounced Government Legislation as contravening the “true Liberalism” of Herbert Spencer, and accused Seddon of corruption and “Tammanyism”. Massey's leaders could not adjust themselves to the new scope and pace of Seddonian politics. The best they could do by 1899 was to promise rather grudgingly not to upset Liberal legislation. By the turn of the century, Seddon had largely succeeded in his attempt to create an electoral image of a “Conservative Party” allied to a “National Ass”, and the friend of the “fat man” and the squatter. In 1900 the Opposition dissolved, partly because they could find no suitable leader in place of Russell, and partly to entice dissident Liberals from Seddon's crowded ranks. The manoeuvre was a complete failure, but Massey as unofficial whip continued to provide such coordination as there was, presiding over at least some meetings.

By 1903 it was clear that normal party warfare must be resumed, and a leader chosen. The names of Russell, Herries, Duthie, and Allen – men senior to Massey – were canvassed, but all were in some degree disqualified by past associations or by insufficient dedication to politics. Massey was de facto parliamentary manager, and probably by then had the best claim as electoral organiser. Allen was his chief rival, but he lacked Massey's geniality and Seddon-like application to party work. Massey was unanimously elected Leader of the Opposition on 9 September 1903. The mere choice of leader could not efface the unfavourable image created by the party's own narrow policies and by Seddon's propaganda, nor could Massey change in a short space the Opposition's habits of thought. His 1905 campaign was therefore a gallant one-man tilting at Seddonian windmills. It was further frustrated by the ill-starred “New Liberal” campaign against the Premier. After the election débâcle, there was apparently an abortive attempt to depose Massey in favour of Herries. Liberal ascendancy remained after the death of Seddon in June 1906, and Massey had to content himself with calling for a stronger Opposition. In default of a positive appeal, he could only conduct a holding operation, and wait for the electorate to drift away from the Liberals. The turn of the tide came more quickly than many expected. Both rural and urban property owners became alarmed from about 1908 at the advance of militant Labour, and Massey won an increasing audience as a defender of the freehold, as a denouncer of “extreme Labour”, and as a critic of Ward's stratagems to hold his party together, particularly on the land-tenure question. The election of 1908 was an electoral triumph for the Liberals, but paradoxically gave the Opposition more seats for fewer votes, and a boost of confidence badly needed. In February 1909 Massey announced that he would henceforth lead the “Reform Party”, borrowing the name from the rather haphazardly-formed Political Reform League. Thus the Opposition came forward again as an alternative government. In these years Massey blossomed out as perhaps the most effective (if not spectacular) platform politician in New Zealand, in spite of his harsh voice, his homespun appearance, and his limited range of policy points and illustrations. His massive frame, his conviction and sincerity, and his developing gift of repartee marked him out more and more in the public eye as a match for Ward. In 1911 he shaved off the beard which seemed to tie him to the older school of political gentry, and emerged as “Bill Massey”, the twentieth-century farmer-politician. At the crucial election of 1911, Massey possessed the independent support of the Farmers' Union on the freehold issue, and his electoral organisation, though far from complete, was superior to Ward's. His party made its chief gains in rural Auckland and Taranaki, but there were some significant urban gains also. Once again, the electoral system (and country quota) favoured Massey, giving him 36 seats to the Liberal's 30. The party situation was rather like a reverse image of 1890–91, though there was even more uncertainty in 1911–12.

Again the political decision had to be made in Parliament. Massey was confident of narrow victory at the special session of February 1912, but he was temporarily frustrated by Ward's political conjuring, and by the decision of three Labour M.P.s, elected with Reform votes, to vote with the Liberals. Massey's hopes dissolved into unmeasured fury, and he became involved in unwise accusations and an inconclusive libel case . He soon recovered his composure, and awaited the inevitable disintegration of the stopgap Mackenzie Ministry, formed on Ward's calculated resignation. Some freehold Independent Liberals, including J. G. Coates, crossed the floor, and early in the morning of 6 July 1912, Massey led his party to victory by 41 votes to 33. In his hour of triumph, Massey showed both mastery of his party and a statesmanlike courtesy to his opponents. He had spent so long in the wilderness that he seemed to many almost a “professional Oppositionist”, but, as with Seddon and Fraser, the demands of office called out new resources in him. His first Cabinet consisted of James Allen, W. H. Herries, William Fraser, A. L. Herdman, F. H. D. Bell, R. H. Rhodes, F. M. B. Fisher, and Maui Pomare. It was as able a ministry as any in New Zealand history, though perhaps not as vigorous a group as it would have been in, say, 1905. Six of its nine members were university graduates, but Massey took his place at the head of the Cabinet table with a natural dignity, with the full loyalty of his colleagues, and certainly with no sense of inferiority.

Massey's judgment of men was never better shown than in his appointment of his old benchmate of 1894–96, F. H. D. Bell, to lead the Legislative Council. In a real sense this was to be a Massey-Bell Ministry, for the two men worked closely together to produce a unique combination of political judgment and administrative wisdom. Yet the Reform Party was rightly regarded as Massey's handiwork, and he received a great ovation when, as Prime Minister and leader, he stood before the Political Reform League's first national conference in August 1912. His long years of organisation and his new status gave him a party predominance approaching that of Seddon. Though he possessed no firm majority, he had built up the first really disciplined parliamentary party in New Zealand, and he was assisted by the grievous divisions of the Liberals. Hence, he was able to brush aside their challenges with ease. His 1911 programme did not remotely amount to a “conservative revolution”, being an undertaking to administer existing policies better, to clean up administration, and to resist radical aggression. Massey's most formidable task in 1912–13 was the settling of the worst industrial disputes New Zealand has known. They form a dark episode in our history, and many accounts have criticised Massey for his unsympathetic handling of the strikers' demands, for his refusal to accept offers of negotiation, and for his use of special constables. It is easy to be wise after the events. Massey could perhaps be fairly accused of employing more force than was necessary, and of conniving at the use of private force which was barely legal or plainly illegal. On balance, and in the short run, he gained more public support than he lost by his crushing of militant Labour. He was under threat of personal violence for some time, but bore himself with his customary firmness and courage. The 1914 election promised to revive on the political field all the bitterness of 1912–13, but Massey faced the prospect confident in the electorate's approval and in a vigorous Reform League. The coming of the First World War in August 1914 cut short his party's promising campaign, but Massey was nevertheless accused of making a “khaki election” in December. The Reform vote was substantially increased, yet the electoral lottery returned Massey only 40 seats, to his great disappointment. The resulting political deadlock continued into the session of 1915, as Massey and Ward manoeuvred to prevent each other from gaining party advantage. The British National Government of May 1915 provided a compelling example of party cooperation in crisis, but there was marked personal antipathy between Massey the Ulsterman and Ward the Roman Catholic. Further, backbenchers in both parties, but particularly Reform, did not relish the prospect of frontbenchers monopolising office in a coalition ministry. Massey therefore negotiated with Ward in July-August 1915 in a spirit of wariness and hard bargaining. He should have begun with more generous terms as head of State, but he was conscious that Ward would work to enlarge every offered concession. In the end, the Liberal leader gained parity in all matters except the title of Prime Minister. He took his place alongside Massey as de facto joint leader, and insisted on unanimity in cabinet decisions – an almost insurmountable barrier to much necessary domestic legislation. Further, Ward regained the portfolio of finance, while Allen continued to shoulder the unpopular and burdensome Defence Department.

The period of the National Government (1915–19) was one of political frustration for Massey. Ward was able to direct with considerable freedom many important aspects of internal policy, while he accompanied Massey to Europe for the two meetings of the Imperial War Cabinet, and for various conferences, including the Peace Conference of 1919. The Prime Minister's strong imperialism was strengthened by his active part in the direction of war strategy in London. He became a firm believer in the Imperial War Cabinet and hoped it would develop into a permanent institution. His imperialism had, however, a distinctly New Zealand bias, like Seddon's. In October 1914 he had a sharp encounter with the British Government on naval convoys for our troops. At the conference of 1917 he spoke of “a partnership of nations”, and claimed the right of the Dominions to be consulted in foreign policy. But there was also a “British” element in his views. He did not consider himself as signing the treaty of 1919 as a representative of an independent State, but of a partner in the Empire. He regarded the post-war movement for fuller and freer Dominion status as a falling away from a fine and fruitful partnership. He came to feel that the Empire itself was threatened, and, in his own mind, he loosely linked this constitutional “radicalism” with the political upheavals in Europe. Hence his imperialism became more British and conservative than before. Meanwhile political troubles mounted at home. A civilian-minded country chafed at the sacrifices and burdens of war, most of which were necessary, though some arose from the inefficiency of government. Labour speakers who blamed the men in office found a wide audience, and in 1918 Labour won three by-elections, to Massey's disgust and alarm.

A general election, when it came, might well be used to punish the National Government. Ward found occasion to withdraw in July 1919; clearly he desired to evade unpopularity, and to head off the swift rise of Labour. The two leaders then engaged in recrimination about their commitments and responsibilities; Massey came out better, for Ward was regarded as repeating his over-cleverness of 1912. The 1919 election was widely considered a personal triumph for Massey, rewarding his perseverance and courage in running the country's war effort. Massey also had to contend with a “revolt” among his backbenchers in 1918–19. Several of them thirsted for office, but their leader seemed to be too preoccupied with Imperial matters to be interested in his party. The incident of the “Progressive Reformers” was not completely closed by the entry of three of their number – C. J. Parr, E. P. Lee, and G. J. Anderson – into the Reform ministry. It demonstrated Massey's hold over his party, but showed that he had not the same touch with his supporters as in 1912–14. Though the 1919 election gave Massey his first (and only) safe majority, the country was running into economic difficulties which threatened its wartime prosperity in farming. Politicians of the period have been dismissed as mediocre and lacking in vision, but it was selfishness and sectionalism in the electorate, and the reaction from wartime restraints, that dominated politics. The party stalemate further militated against firm leadership. Massey, the laissez-faire advocate of the 1890s, reconciled himself to the increasing power of the State, and set up public export control boards. Through these and other measures he largely succeeded in holding the farming vote, though threatened by a Country Party. The political centre of gravity was, however, shifting to the cities, and Massey was beset by industrial upheavals, which sapped the urban strength of his party. He himself at least gained the respect of Labour deputations for his straightforward dealings and his sympathy with actual hardship. Yet in the House and on the platform, he infuriated Labour leaders by labelling them as “Bolsheviks”, and by accusing them of subversive activities. Sometimes he spoke as if the Reform Party had the monopoly of patriotism.

The 1922 election registered the growth of discontent, particularly in the cities, with Reform administration, and left Massey dependent on the support of three Independents. Even his country supporters were restive, and Massey was forced to make concessions to rural sectionalism and localism that went against his better judgment. He more and more saw himself as holding the pass against the advance of “Bolshevism”, and he subordinated other considerations to that end. By 1923 his health was breaking under the manifold strains imposed upon him, and it was clear that the onset of internal cancer limited his future. Nevertheless, he continued to battle on under great political difficulties. It is not hard to understand why he became more irascible and domineering. Yet the latter stages of the 1923–25 Parliament seemed at long last to promise a political Indian summer for him. Ward had been defeated in 1919, and the Liberal Party seemed to be drifting into fusion with Reform. Massey was in the stronger position, and could afford to wait and raise his terms. The upswing of 1924–25 gave promise that he would face a general election under better auspices. Yet his failing health prevented him from grasping these opportunities, to which Coates fell heir. By late 1924 he was frequently prostrated, and his expectation of life was now only a matter of months. He died at Wellington on 10 May 1925 and was buried at Point Halswell, where a memorial has been erected. The sculpture was executed by F. A. Shurrock.

Massey deserves, and awaits, a full-scale biography. In the meantime, he may be regarded as standing second only to Seddon as head of Government and party. His political attitudes and beliefs were a combination of his short Irish and long New Zealand experience. His loyalties in politics were in some ways sectarian and clannish. Genial and expansive among political friends, he could show a face of flint across the House. Though he admitted to being not a strict Presbyterian, his Scottish-Ulster upbringing, reinforced by his British Israelism, endowed him with a tremendous knowledge of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, and his command of chapter and verse made a great impression in the House and elsewhere. His vigilance against Roman Catholic influence was reinforced by his membership of Orange, Oddfellow, and Masonic lodges. He was grand master of the last-named order in 1924. When sectarian conflict in New Zealand rose to a peak in the post-war years, Massey was accused of encouraging the Protestant Political Association, a militant body, whose views in the main clearly coincided with his own. The P.P.A.'s sectarian campaign became also an anti-Labour vendetta, the success of which could only benefit Reform. Massey's emphatic denials of any connection with the P.P.A. were not entirely convincing. Imperialism was Massey's first article of political faith. His favourite author was Kipling, from whom he quoted freely. By about 1917, he had adopted British Israelism, a private interest which he shared with Lord Jellicoe, and developed an almost mystical belief in the permanency of the Empire. Yet Massey tried conscientiously to keep his private views out of politics. “I am Prime Minister, and my duties as Prime Minister come first,” he said when taxed with yielding to sectarian pressure. As a politician, Massey added to New Zealand conservative experience, if not tradition. He confirmed Atkinson's pragmatism, and appropriated Seddon's imperialism. He was not a “Conservative”, calling himself a “true Liberal”. He was conservative in his dislike of appeals to class hatred or envy against men of property, but he used the same kind of emotional appeal against the Labour Party. Though, in 1925, he was acclaimed as an imperialist, his more important contributions were as administrative head, Leader of the House, and party chief. In the unprecedented, harassing days of 1914–19, his power of decision, his political judgment, and his grasp of detail were invaluable to his country. Confronted with practical situations, he could show fairness, balance, and sympathy. He was an astute parliamentary manager, ranking with Seddon, but working under far more difficult circumstances. Massey outshone the latter as head of Cabinet, at least in his early years of power. Massey was not an orator, but developed a Seddonian skill in debate and repartee. With considerable justice, the Reform Party was described as the “Massey Party”. As has been seen, he earned his pre-eminence for leadership before the First World War. From 1919, however, his habits of self-reliance positively stood in the way of necessary party reorganisation. He preferred to work through ad hoc committees, and virtually kept the reins of power in his hands. With the help of a small group of devoted followers, such as Sir Walter Buchanan, E. F. Hemingway, H. H. D. Wily, and the party secretary, E. A. James, he ran Reform largely by personal control. The result was a dangerous decline in local initiative and in contact between centre and branches. There was no Reform conference in the period from 1914 to Massey's death.

Massey has not achieved the status of “father figure” accorded by posterity to Seddon and Savage, though in fact he stands within the same tradition of pragmatic humanitarianism. Of his great “causes”, imperialism was hardly to survive him, while the “freehold” after 1912 could not remain as a creed. In any case, it would commit New Zealanders to less State assistance than they are accustomed to receive. Massey's industry, integrity, and commonsense in government were admirable, but they are overshadowed by the tragedy of the Great War, while his party's reputation was killed by the Great Depression. New Zealanders look back to governments more directly associated with welfare policies, and with the passing of grim crises – namely, the Liberals of the 1890s and the Labour Party of the 1930s. As a conservative politician, Massey first showed that the drift to the Left could be checked, and that, in fact, the conservatism of small property owners, and their demand for security, are the chief ingredients of New Zealand politics.

In 1882, at Auckland, Massey married Christina Allen Paul (died 1932), by whom he had three sons and two daughters. Two of his sons had political careers: John Norman Massey represented Franklin from 1928 to 1935, and from 1938 to 1957, while Walter William Massey represented Hauraki from 1931 to 1935. Dame Christina Massey, C.B.E. (1918), G.B.E. (1926), was prominent in women's and patriotic organisations.

by William James Gardner, M.A., Senior Lecturer, History Department, University of Canterbury.

• N.Z.P.D., Vol. 206 (1925) (Obit)
• Sir Francis Bell, His Life and Times, Stewart, W. D. (1937)
• Rise of the Reform Party, Webb, L. C. (1928)
• Political Science, Vol. 13, Nos. 1 and 2 (1961), “The Rise of W. F. Massey, 1891–1912”, and “W. F. Massey in Power, 1912–25”, Gardner, W. J.

(1863–1932).

Social worker.

A new biography of Massey, Christina Allan appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Christina Allen Massey was born near Sydney, New South Wales, on 11 January 1863 and was the eldest daughter of William Paul and Patience, née Allen. When she was only a few years old the Paul family moved to New Zealand, where they farmed in the Auckland district. At the age of 19 she married William Ferguson Massey, who was farming nearby at Mangere. The couple lived at Mangere until her husband's political career obliged them to move to Wellington where, for 13 years, Dame Christina was hostess at the ministerial residence in Tinakori Road. On the outbreak of war in 1914 she inaugurated a soldiers' club for servicemen on leave. She was vice-president of the Red Cross Society and of the Countess of Liverpool's Fund, and also worked for the Women's National Reserve. At the same time she supported the Victoria League and was president of the Plunket Society. Dame Christina was a fine organiser and an inspiring leader, qualities which were reinforced by her gift of sound common sense.

Dame Christina accompanied her husband on three visits overseas – to the Imperial Conference (1916–17), to the Peace Conference in Paris (1919), and to the Imperial Conference of 1921. In 1918 she received the C.B.E. in recognition of her war services. During the 1918 influenza epidemic, while organising emergency care for the sick, she became herself a victim, with the result that her health was permanently undermined. When she was created Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1926, she became the first New Zealand woman to receive this honour. Dame Christina died in Wellington on 19 April 1932 and was survived by three sons – two of them became members of Parliament – and by two daughters.

by Judith Sidney Hornabrook, M.A., National Archives, Wellington.

• Evening Post, 20 Apr 1932 (Obit)
• Dominion, 20 Apr 1932 (Obit).

Marton is situated in the lower Rangitikei basin on the Tutaenui Stream, a north-bank tributary of the Rangitikei River. The surrounding country is alluvial plain. About 6 miles to the north and north-east of the town the land rises to the hilly hinterland. The New Plymouth – Wellington and North Island Main Trunk lines meet at Marton Junction, 2 miles south-east. By road Wanganui is 23 miles north-west (28 miles by rail from Marton Junction), Taihape is 49 miles north-east (45 miles by rail), and Palmerston North is 27 miles southeast (29 miles by rail).

The main rural activities of the district are sheep raising, mixed farming, and dairying. There is a butter factory at Rata (12 miles north-east). Marton is a servicing and distributing centre with well-developed secondary industries. These include sawmilling, timber impregnation, joinery and furniture making, general engineering, motor-body building, the manufacture of clothing and textiles (chenille), wool scouring, seed cleaning, and flourmilling, and the manufacture of concrete products.

In pre-European times an important Maori track followed the Rangitikei Valley and the river carried canoe traffic. The Rangitikei Block, an area extending from the vicinity of Rata to the sea and bounded by the lower courses of the Turakina and Rangitikei Rivers, was purchased on behalf of the Crown by Donald McLean on 15 May 1849. G. F. Swainson, who was established at Tututotara in 1858, was probably the earliest permanent European settler in the Marton district. By the early 1860s rough roads had been constructed linking the district with Wanganui. The future town site was close to a place used by drovers for watering their stock and at which an early accommodation house was built. Four settlers, Charles Follett, Robert Signal, and Thomas and Richard Morris, who were the owners of three 60-acre sections near the accommodation house, subdivided their properties into town lots and sold them for a private township in 1866. The first section to be subdivided and sold was that belonging to Signal. His subdivision was named Tutaenui, after the nearby stream. The adjoining subdivisions adopted the same name, and it distinguished the township from a farming settlement 4 miles north which was already called Upper Tutaenui. For a short period during 1868 the settlers in the lower Rangitikei Valley feared raids by hostile Maoris, and blockhouses for defence and refuge were constructed at several places in the district including Marton (then Tutaenui). Later in 1868 the Marton blockhouse was demolished and St. Stephen's Anglican Church was erected on the site. The first major industry in the town was a flourmill, which was established in 1864 and is still working on its original site. The railway from Aramoho reached Turakina in January 1878 and in February was at Marton Junction (until 1885 called Puketapa). In May of the same year the Halcombe – Marton Junction section was opened and the Government line was thus completed between Foxton and Wanganui via Palmerston North and Marton Junction. Rochfort and a party commenced the survey for the North Island Main Trunk line from the vicinity of Marton in June 1883, and shortly afterwards bridle tracks were cut that later developed into a more or less contiguous highway. Construction of the first section of the North Island Main Trunk from Marton Junction began in April 1885 and the line reached Mangaweka in November 1902. At a public meeting in 1869 it was resolved to rename the town Marton in commemoration of the birthplace of Captain James Cook. As a private township Marton was not originally endowed with Crown land for domains and parks, but this lack has been met by liberal gifts of private land for recreational purposes and by the purchase of suitable areas by public subscription. Marton was created a town district in 1869; in 1879 it was constituted a borough.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 3,475; 1956 census, 4,001; 1961 census, 4,317.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.

Martinborough is situated on flat, open land south of the junction of the Huangarua and Ruamahanga Rivers in the southern Wairarapa Valley. The town is 11 miles by road south-east of Featherston, the nearest railhead, and the same distance south by road from Greytown. The nearest large centre is Masterton, 26 miles north by road.

Martinborough is essentially a servicing centre for a district engaged in intensive sheep raising with some dairy farming. About 9 miles southwest, at a place locally called “Pakohe”, there are limeworks. Industrial activities in the town include cheese making, light engineering, and saw-milling.

The town site once formed part of the estate of Sir John Martin. The earliest village was called Te Waihenga. In 1879, after his return from a world tour, Sir John Martin laid out a town to be called Martinborough. He dedicated the square, and named various streets after cities he had visited during his tour. The centre of the town was planned to represent the Union Jack. Martinborough became a town district in 1906 and was constituted a borough in 1928.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 970; 1956 census, 1,192; 1961 census, 1,422.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.

(1807–80).

First Chief Justice of New Zealand.

A new biography of Martin, William appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

William Martin was born in Birmingham, England, in 1807, the youngest son of Henry Martin, and was educated first at King Edward VI Grammar School in Birmingham. In 1826 he proceeded to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1829, with the Second Chancellor's Gold Medal in law. In 1831 he was elected a fellow and tutor of his college and in the following year he took his M.A. In June 1832 he entered Lincolns Inn to study law and was called to the Bar in 1836, but he did not undertake common-law work, specialising instead in drafting and conveyancing in equity chambers.

In January 1841 William Martin was appointed Chief Judge for the colony of New Zealand, taking up his duties at Auckland in September of that year. For over two years Martin was the only Judge in New Zealand and administered justice throughout the colony, but in 1843 a further Judge was appointed who become responsible for the administration of justice in the Wellington district and the South Island, although Martin, as Chief Justice, still retained general administrative control of justice over the whole colony.

Besides his purely judicial duties William Martin also considerably assisted the Government, especially in the first few years, in formulating the legislation necessary for the new colony which at the time of his arrival had merely adopted in quite general terms the law of New South Wales. Martin and the Attorney-General for the colony, William Swainson, laboured to design and formulate legislation specifically adapted for New Zealand conditions. Of special significance, so far as Martin was concerned, were the ordinances setting up the judicial system by way of sessions of Justices of the Peace, Police Magistrates' Courts, Courts of Requests, County Courts, a Supreme Court, and trial by jury. Moreover, from 1844 until 1856 Martin was one of the Commissioners appointed to formulate rules regulating the procedure of the Supreme Court.

Martin's delicate constitution was steadily debilitated by his official duties and the physical rigours of life in early New Zealand and in March 1856 he and his wife left the colony to spend the winter of 1856–57 in Rome. His health, however, still remained weak and on 12 June 1857 Martin formally tendered his resignation to the Colonial Office on that account. After a further year in England he returned to New Zealand, arriving late in December 1858, and entered into a life of official retirement at Tauraroa. Whilst he was in England, Martin was honoured with a doctorate of civil law conferred by the University of Oxford, and the New Zealand Parliament had in 1858 enacted a statute to provide him with a pension. After his return he was further honoured in 1860 with a knighthood. In 1874 Martin returned permanently to England and settled in Torquay, devoting himself to his interests in religion and languages. In his Cambridge days he had excelled in ancient languages and to these he had, whilst in New Zealand, added Maori and other Polynesian and Melanesian dialects. In 1876 he published the first volume of a work entitled Inquiries Concerning the Structure of Semitic Languages, and completed the second volume in 1878. Martin continued to reside at Torquay until his death there on 8 November 1880. He was survived by his wife, Mary Ann, whom he had married in 1841, and who was the daughter of the Rev. W. Parker, Rector of St. Ethelburga, Bishopsgate, London, and Prebendary of St. Paul's.

Apart from the official duties of his office, Martin also took a deep interest in education and the providing of educational facilities for Europeans and Maoris, and in the establishment and development of the Church of England in New Zealand, particularly in the formulation of its constitution and in its missionary activities amongst the Maoris. From the time of his arrival in New Zealand, Martin had shown a deep regard and sympathy for the Maori people, and was prepared to champion their interests whenever it seemed to him that these were endangered. Thus in 1846 he published his views on the amended constitution enacted by the British Government in a pamphlet entitled England and the New Zealanders, and he joined with Bishop Selwyn, and others in presenting a petition to the Queen against the Government's measure on the ground that it prejudiced the Maori people. Again, after his retirement and return to New Zealand in 1859, Martin vigorously opposed the action of the New Zealand Government in the securing of certain lands in Taranaki from the Maoris. His views were incorporated in a pamphlet entitled The Taranaki Question, and in a further pamphlet, Remarks on the Notes, which was an answer to a Government-sponsored pamphlet entitled Notes on Sir William Martin's Pamphlet. In 1863 Sir William further championed the Maori cause in a pamphlet entitled Observations on the Proposal to Take Native Lands Under an Act of the Assembly. In succeeding years Sir William Martin was consulted by Ministers on various aspects of the Maori problem, but his advice, designed to secure the welfare of the Maoris, was not always followed.

As only one of Martin's judgments is available to us today, it is not possible to make an accurate assessment of his position as an exponent of the law; but it is clear that during his tenure of office his contemporaries considered that as a judge of men he was honourable, able, and just. As a man, it appears that Martin was of quiet and modest disposition, avoiding social ostentation and publicity but resolutely seeking what was fair and honourable in all things. It is significant and indicative of his character and temperament that, although he never took holy orders, he often wore clerical attire and constantly participated in the practices and observances of the church, and that at the time of his death he was preparing notes on the New Testament.

by Donald Edgar Paterson, B.A., LL.M.(N.Z.), LL.M., J.S.D.(YALE), Lecturer in Jurisprudence and Constitutional Law, Victoria University of Wellington.

• Crown Colony Government in New Zealand, McLintock, A. H. (1958)
• History of New Zealand, Rusden, G. W. (3 vols., 1895)
• New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen, Gisborne, W. (1897).