MASSEY, WILLIAM FERGUSON (1856-1925) was born on 26 Mar 1856 at Limavady, County Londonderry, Ireland, the son of John Massey, a tenant farmer. He was educated in the National school there and at a secondary school kept by a classical scholar named Brandon. He was a quick learner and, in addition to the usual classical subjects, studied some political economy. While he was still at school his father sold the farm and emigrated to New Zealand. Not pleased with the prospect at Kaipara, where he had acquired a bush section, he did not settle there, but bought a farm at Tamaki. There he was engaged when William arrived in the City of Auckland on 11 Dec 1870. His fellow passengers included F. W. Isitt and W. J. Williams (q.v.), both later prominent in the Methodist Church and in the national life of New Zealand. Massey worked with his father until reaching the age of 17 and then, to learn more of farming, obtained a position with John Grigg (q.v.) who had been a neighbour at Tamaki. He was employed for more than two years at Longbeach, Canterbury. He then spent a few months with his people at their new farm at Mangere, and at the age of 21 purchased a small threshing machine and leased a farm of 100 acres. In 1882 he married Christina Allen Paul (1863-1932; C.B.E. 1918; Dame Gr. Cross 1926), the daughter of a neighbouring farmer.

Massey soon became a member of the Mangere road board and chairman of the school committee, an office-bearer of the Masonic lodge Manukau, and in 1890 president of the Mangere Farmers Club. This local organisation, which was afterwards replaced by the Farmers' Union, was formed to resume some of the duties and interests previously cared for by the Auckland Agricultural Association (known later as the New Zealand Agricultural and Pastoral Association). A show was held in 1890 under the auspices of the Farmers Club and as a result the old association was resuscitated in 1891, Massey being its first president. He became a member also of the National Association, a conservative political organisation; and of this also he was president for the Auckland district. It was partly due to the suggestion of Sir William Fox that Massey aspired to public life. At the end of 1893 he contested Franklin, which had been represented in Parliament for many years by Major Hamlin. He was defeated by Benjamin Harris by a narrow majority. A few weeks later the Waitemata seat became vacant through the unseating of Richard Monk as the result of a petition. Massey stood and defeated Jason Palmer (q.v.), who had previously held the seat.

Later in the year he accepted the duties of Opposition whip. At the next election (1896) he stood for his own district (Franklin) where he defeated Harris by 474 votes. That seat was held without interruption until his death. An inveterate fighter and a firm freeholder, he entered with zest into the debates on land tenure, condemning out of hand any form of landlordism, whether state or private. In debate after debate the opposition assailed the leasehold policy of the Liberal government, which was the subject of an important commission in 1905.

The Opposition was without a leader in the sessions of 1900-02, Captain Russell having relinquished the leadership to sit merely as member for Hawkes Bay, while the whip managed the affairs of the Conservative party. At last, in Sep 1903 Massey was elected leader. He galvanised the opposition into life and led it steadily forward to its victory in 1912. Meanwhile it suffered a severe setback at the general election in 1905, at which the public registered its disapproval of personal attacks which had been made on the Prime Minister by members who seemed to have some association with the Conservative party. The death of Seddon robbed the Liberal party of some of the profits of a sweeping victory. Yet Massey was 10 years leader before the swing of popular opinion brought him into office. Throughout this period the freehold principle was the principal divergence between the two parties. At the election of 1911 Sir Joseph Ward failed to carry the country, and when Parliament met (on 15 Feb 1912) the first policy vote resulted in a tie: 39 for and 39 against. The Speaker (Guinness) cast his vote in favour of the party in power, and Parliament adjourned to enable the Prime Minister to decide upon his course of action. A new ministry was formed from the Liberal side of the House under the leadership of T. Mackenzie, who assumed office on 28 Mar and carried on against the protest of the Opposition until the normal time for assembling Parliament. When Parliament did meet Massey at once moved a vote of no-confidence in the ministry and this was carried, on 5 Jul by 41 votes to 33. He was sent for by the Governor, and on 10 Jul his ministry was sworn in, the first from the Conservative side of the House since 1890. Massey in addition to the Premiership assumed the portfolios of Lands, Agriculture and Labour, most of which he held continuously until his death 13 years later. With him were the following ministers: James Allen (Finance and Education), W. H. Herries (Railways and Native Affairs), William Fraser (Public Works, Mines and Industries and Commerce), A. L. Herdman (Attorney General and Minister of Justice), F. H. D. Bell (Internal Affairs and Immigration), R. H. Rhodes (Postmaster-general and Public Health), F. M. Fisher (Customs and Marine) and Maui Pomare (as representative of the Native race).

In his first session Massey passed an act placing the civil service under the control of a public service commissioner, and another amending the land settlement law in such a way as to give to crown tenants under the renewable lease or lease-in-perpetuity the right to acquire the freehold of their sections. This measure affected 13,175 state tenants and holdings aggregating about three million acres of land. In the realm of industrial relations, which could never for long be ignored, he was impelled by the events of 1912, when a stubborn strike of miners at Waihi was not terminated without violence, to try to devise a new method of adjusting disputes by the formation of proposals for settlement. This did not serve, however, to appease the grievances of labour, and at the opening of his second year of office Massey had to deal with a more formidable disturbance originating in a strike by shipwrights, which extended to the waterside workers at Wellington and eventually to a large body of labour throughout the Dominion. As the export of primary products was jeopardised at the height of the season, special constables were enrolled, and some violent clashes occurred before the dispute was terminated. During this struggle the New Zealand Labour party developed its unity and organisation and emerged as a permanent factor in the political field.

Whatever may have been Massey's intentions in the field of social and economic reform, his administration was destined to be governed by events over which he had no control. Devoutly attached to the Imperial connection, he had espoused without reservation the defence measures of the Liberal government, and appreciated the material which it had prepared for the emergency which arose in the middle of 1914. On naval policy he differed slightly, but only in method. Whereas Ward adhered to the policy of paying a contribution towards the maintenance of the British Navy, with the proviso that a squadron should be maintained in New Zealand waters, Massey adopted the policy of his far-seeing Minister of Defence (Allen), who in conference with the Imperial authorities had recommended that the maritime spirit in New Zealand should be fostered and that co-operation in naval defence could best be achieved by creating a new centre of strength in the form of a New Zealand navy. Nevertheless, when war with Germany became imminent, Massey's Government agreed that H.M.S. New Zealand should be freed from any restrictions and used wherever the Admiralty should consider most advantageous. She accordingly remained in Europe, and was thus able to take her place in the first line of defence in the North Sea.

When war broke out Massey made an immediate declaration of New Zealand's loyalty and solidarity with the Empire, and her willingness to do what was required by the Imperial plan of defence. With a single-mindedness and energy comparable with that displayed by Seddon 15 years earlier, and with the knowledge that Parliament and the country were almost unanimously behind him, Massey faced the heavy burden of responsibility involved. Before the end of Aug the German colony of Samoa had been occupied by New Zealand troops (without fighting), and on 16 Oct the Expeditionary Force, which had been made possible by the defence measures of the past six years, sailed for Egypt, to finish training there and participate in the fighting against the Turks in Gallipoli. Though unreserved in his attachment to the British cause, Massey showed no disposition to leave all decisions to the British Government. Before the first Expeditionary Force sailed he threatened the resignation of the cabinet if the Governor accepted the responsibility of dispatching it inadequately convoyed. Throughout the war he frequently protested against the methods adopted both in the operations and in the economic arrangements that were necessary between the two countries. The general election on 10 Dec 1914 was fought under the influence of war, which usually favours the Conservative cause. The outcome was that Massey had a following of 40 in the new Parliament, Ward had 34 and Labour appeared with a compact body of 6 members, whose adherence to the Liberal cause at any moment might place the Government in jeopardy.

Convinced that with such a precarious majority he was no longer justified in taking upon his own party the whole responsibility of administering the government in a time of crisis, Massey made overtures to the other party leaders which resulted in the formation of a National Government to carry New Zealand through the war. On 12 Aug 1915 the new cabinet was sworn in, with Massey as Prime Minister and Minister of Lands and Labour; Allen (in charge of the onerous portfolio of Defence); Herries (Railways and Native Affairs); William Fraser (Public Works) and Bell (Immigration). Ward became Minister of Finance and Postmaster-general, and his followers in the ministry were McNab (Justice and Marine), G. W. Russell (Internal Affairs and Health), A. M. Myers (Customs, Munitions and Supplies), W. D. S. Macdonald (Agriculture and Mines) and J. A. Hanan (Education). On the death of McNab in Feb 1917 T. M. Wilford became Minister of Justice and Marine, and D. H. Guthrie came in in 1918 to relieve Massey of the settlement of returned soldiers on the land. With the ranks thus closed, Parliament proceeded to create a national register (1 Aug 1916). The New Zealand division recovered from the losses it sustained in the unsuccessful operations against the Turks, and was removed to the western front, where it first went into action at Flers on 15 Sep. The first ballot for service under the compulsory act was held on 16 Nov, and thereafter the division was maintained at full strength by conscription. The only opposition to this measure came from the Labour party, whose principles were against compulsion for military service and whose hopes of social reform had been set back by the exigencies of the war. Massey and Ward were deeply engrossed in the multifarious demands of the war, and paid several visits to England to attend meetings of the Imperial War Cabinet. At the War Conference in 1917 the status of the dominions was fully discussed, and it was laid down, in a resolution which Massey seconded, that each dominion was autonomous, and that all were entitled to be consulted before the Imperial Government entered upon any act of foreign policy. Massey was in Europe in 1918, and finally in 1919 to attend the Peace Conference at Versailles, where he affixed his signature and the seal of the Dominion to the treaties of peace and the covenant of the League of Nations, and assured himself that Samoa should not be returned to Germany but should be placed under a mandate and governed by New Zealand. He received the freedom of London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, York, Bristol and Manchester and the honorary degrees of the Universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and Belfast, and was made a freeman of the Company of Clothworkers, London.

Before he returned to New Zealand it became clear that he and the Liberal leader could not agree on the methods to be adopted in settling the returning soldiers. The gap became more pronounced, and on 21 Aug 1919 Ward and his Liberal colleagues withdrew from the National ministry to fight the general election under their old party colours. Massey reformed the cabinet on 25 Aug, inviting William Nosworthy, J. G. Coates and J. B. Hine to assume the portfolios surrendered by the seceding ministers. The elections, which were held on 17 Dec, returned the Reform party to office, with the largest majority that Massey ever commanded as Prime Minister. The state of parties was: Reform 44; Liberal 18; Labour 8; independent Labour 3; other independents 7. Ward lost his seat, as did also one of Massey's colleagues (Hine).

Massey re-constructed his cabinet, taking in E. P. Lee (as Minister of Justice), C. J. Parr (as Minister of Education and Health), and a little later G. J. Anderson (as Minister of Internal Affairs). His task now was to resettle the country, to demobilise its soldiers, industries and war departments, and to move away, if possible, from the elaborate system of controls and prohibition which had grown up in the war. The attempt to repeal the various moratoria failed. They were even extended to protect other interests as it became obvious that the prosperity of the agricultural classes depended on the disposal of the accumulated stores of meat and wool without causing a slump in prices. Out of these difficulties grew the meat control board (1922) and the dairy export control of the following year. The difficulties of the position increased rather than diminished as the election of 1922 approached, and Massey's health began to show signs of the strain of 10 years of arduous administration and political turmoil. The appeal to the country gave him no grounds for optimism. The state of the House after the polling (on 7 Dec 1922) was as follows: Reform 38; Liberal 21; Labour 17; Independent Labour 1; Independent 3. Faced with the probable co-operation of Labour with the Liberal party (which would make the voting equal) and the possibility of four Independents voting against him, he met his last Parliament in no very hopeful circumstances. Sir James Allen had gone to London as High Commissioner, and the ministry had been strengthened by the appointment of W. Downie Stewart as Minister of Internal Affairs and Customs. In 1923 Massey lost by death two more valued colleagues (Herries and Fraser), and he was still bearing the load of the Treasury and several smaller departments in addition to the Prime Ministership. In 1924 it became evident that far-reaching adjustments would have to be made before the returned soldiers could be considered settled; and labour was becoming more and more restive under the steady increase in the cost of living. Massey's health suffered severely under the prolonged strain, and he died on 10 May 1925.

Massey possessed many of the characteristics of his predecessor Seddon. Hearty, straightforward and genial, he had a faculty for drawing men to him, and he was not lacking in the power of weighing them up. He had most of the traits also of the north of Ireland Protestant, deep religious feeling, robust loyalty, boundless energy and industry and unflinching determination in moving towards a goal, which he generally saw plainly. His Imperialism was full-blooded, asking no questions, but permitting no liberties in the name of duty. He never hesitated to speak his mind in Imperial councils. Through the crisis of the war of 1914-18 he led his country unerringly. From the moment when he assured Britain that 'all we have and all we are are at the disposal of the Imperial Government,' he never questioned the final outcome or the wisdom of throwing all his weight into the issue. As a political leader Massey was very successful with the electorate. He was an astute and capable parliamentarian, but he was unfortunate in that he was only for a short time free of anxiety regarding his parliamentary majority. A farmer himself, he enjoyed the unwavering support of the farming community. Some of his dilemmas could be traced to his dependence upon that support at times when his own judgment pointed in other directions.

Two of Massey's sons became members of Parliament: WALTER WILLIAM MASSEY (1882-) who was M.P. for Hauraki (1931-35) and JOHN NORMAN MASSEY (1885-) who was M.P. for Franklin (1931-35, 1938-).

N.Z.P.D., pass. (notably 26 May 1925); Who's Who N.Z., 1905, 1924; Scholefield, W. F. Massey, A Personal Biography, 1925 (p); W. D. Stewart, Ball, The Dominion and Evening Post, 11 May 1925 (p).

Portrait: Parliament House.

Reference: Volume 2, page 36

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