SAUNDERS, ALFRED (1820-1905) was born at Market Lavington, Wiltshire; educated at Dr Day's Academy at Bristol and left at the age of 14 to follow the calling of his father as a farmer and miller. He was from his youth a total abstainer; at the age of 16 he was secretary of the Lavington Temperance Society, and in 1840 a delegate for the Bath society at the conference in Bridgwater. In Sep 1841 Saunders sailed in the Fifeshire for Nelson. He founded the first New Zealand temperance society on board, and carried it on in the colony. Soon after his arrival he was appointed secretary of the land purchasers' society, but he resigned after the Wairau affair in the belief that the society had exceeded its functions. He lived in Australia (1845-49), returning in time to be active in the demand for self-government.

Shortly after the constitution was brought into force, Saunders was elected M.P.C. for Waimea South (1855). In 1859, on account of a letter he wrote in the Examiner criticising the district judge (Travers), he was tried and sentenced to six months' imprisonment and a fine of £150. An influential public demonstration and his re-election to the Provincial Council while he was in prison caused the government to release him, and Travers resigned from the bench. Saunders was also elected M.H.R. for Waimea and restored to the commission of the peace, from which he had been removed. Fox offered him the post of Colonial Treasurer, but he declined. In 1864, owing to pressure of work as provincial secretary (1863-65), he resigned from Parliament, and a few months later was elected Superintendent of Nelson following the death of J. P. Robinson (q.v.). He was re-elected later in the year. Saunders took a strong attitude in arresting, without legal evidence, the four men suspected of the Maungatapu murders.

Early in 1867 he resigned the superintendency to visit England, where he spent five years (1867-72). While there he was elected president of the Bath temperance society and he did much work in this cause and in the press in defence of New Zealand settlers. On returning to New Zealand he made his home in Canterbury. In 1877 he was elected to Parliament for Cheviot, and again in 1879. He was a strong supporter of Sir George Grey throughout. In 1880 the Hall government appointed him chairman of the royal commission on the civil service. The report of the commission brought a good deal of disfavour on the members, and Saunders lost his seat. Uncompromising in his political views, which followed closely those of the English radicals, he was out of favour with the electors for some years. Five times he contested seats without success. At length in 1889 he defeated Ollivier for Lincoln, which he represented for that Parliament only. In 1890 he was returned for Selwyn, where in 1896 he suffered defeat by Wason (by 1,676 votes to 1,494).

Meanwhile he was indefatigably busy in his country and literary pursuits. In 1883 he published Our Domestic Birds and in 1888 Our Horses. He was keenly interested in horse breeding, and paid much attention also to his studs of English Leicester and Southdown sheep and Berkshire pigs. Saunders was always devoted to the cause of education. He helped to get the Nelson education act passed, he was a governor of Nelson College and a member of the board of education there, and in Canterbury was chairman of the education board and a governor of the Ashburton high school. He was also on the Ashburton county council. Saunders published in two volumes (1896 and 1899) his history of New Zealand, which is a notable contribution to the personal history of his own period. He first married (1846) a daughter (d. 1898) of William Flower (Nelson); and, secondly, a daughter (d. 1904) of Richard Box (Southampton). He died on 28 Oct 1905.

N.Z.P.D., pass (notably 30 Oct 1905); Saunders, op. cit.; Parltry Record; Nelson P.C. Proc.; Cycl. N.Z., ii, v (p); Broad; Gisborne; Lyttelton Times, 18 Jan 1889, 30 Oct 1905; The Press, 30 Oct 1905. Portrait: Parliament House.

Reference: Volume 2, page 140

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