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George William Forbes (12 March 1869 - 17 May 1947) served as Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1930 to 1935. Few expected him to become Prime Minister when he did, and some believed him unsuitable, but he nevertheless remained in that office for five years. Often referred to as "Honest George", Forbes had a reputation for rare debating skill and impressive memory, and his courteous and friendly attitude earned him the liking and respect of colleagues from all sides of the House. Throughout his time in national politics his Hurunui constituents held Forbes in high regard: even when Prime Minister he would roll up his sleeves and help load sheep from his farm on the rail carts for market. Forbes led the country through the worst years of the Great Depression, heading the coalition government that eventually became the modern National Party. March 12 is the 71st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (72nd in Leap years). ...
1869 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...
May 17 is the 137th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (138th in leap years). ...
1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealands head of government and is the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand. ...
1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...
1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
The Great Depression was a massive global economic recession (or depression) that ran from 1929 to approximately 1939. ...
Current National Party logo The New Zealand National Party currently forms the second-largest (in terms of seats) political party in the New Zealand Parliament, and thus functions as the core of the Opposition. ...
Early life
Forbes was born in Lyttelton, just outside the city of Christchurch. He gained his education at Christchurch Boys' High School in Christchurch, and did not attend university. He became kinown for his ability at sport, particularly in athletics, rowing, and rugby where he captained the Canterbury team. After finishing school he briefly worked in his father's ships' chandlery business in Lyttelton, but later established himself as a successful farmer near Cheviot, to the north of Christchurch. He quickly became active in the local politics of the region, particularly with regard to the Cheviot County Council and the Cheviot Settlers' Association. Lyttelton on a sunny day Lyttelton (43. ...
For other uses, see Christchurch (disambiguation). ...
Athletics, also known, especially in American English, as track and field or track and field athletics, is a collection of sport events, which can roughly be divided into running, throwing, and jumping. ...
A coxless pair, sweep-oar rowing to the left of the photo; the bowside rower (or the starboard one, although the British term applied on this occasion) is further towards the bow of the boat. ...
Argentina-France Rugby Union match Rugby football refers to sports descended from a common form of football developed at Rugby School. ...
== chandlerLink title == may refer to many different meanings: Profession: A chandlerBold textItalic text is someone who makes or sells wax or tallow candles, and also usually soap. ...
External links Yahoo! Finance Aggregates some really good business articles Categories: | | | ...
Cheviot is a town located in the Hurunui District of north Canterbury, on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. ...
Entry to parliament In the elections of 1902, Forbes made his first attempt to enter national politics, standing for the Hurunui electorate. He stood as an independent, having failed to gain the Liberal Party nomination. He lost the election. In the 1908 elections, however, he became the Liberal Party's official Hurunui candidate, and won the seat of Hurunui. He would hold this seat for thirty-five years. The New Zealand general election of 1902 was held November 25 to elect a total of 80 MPs to the 15th session of the New Zealand Parliament. ...
This article is about the original New Zealand Liberal Party. ...
The New Zealand general election of 1908 was held November 17, November 24 and December 1 to elect a total of 80 MPs to the 17th session of the New Zealand Parliament. ...
Forbes remained a backbencher for some time, but became the Liberal Party's Whip when party leader Thomas MacKenzie became Prime Minister in March 1912. He retained this position when his party went into Opposition on 10 July 1912. However, he had considerably higher status within the party than his official responsibilities indicated, although few thought of him as a potential leader. A backbencher is a Member of Parliament or a legislature who does not hold governmental office and is not a Front Bench spokesperson in the Opposition. ...
In politics, a whip is a member of a political party in a legislature whose task is to ensure that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires. ...
Sir Thomas Mackenzie, (1854-1930) was Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1912, and later served as High Commissioner. ...
Parliamentary Opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. ...
July 10 is the 191st day (192nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 174 days remaining. ...
By the early 1920s, the Liberal Party faced a decision as to its political future. The Reform Party government of William Massey dominated the political scene, having secured the conservative vote, while the growing Labour Party had styarted to undermine Liberal's progressive voter-base. Many members of the Liberal Party believed an alliance with the Reform Party inevitable, seeing such co-operation as necessary to counteract the "radicalism" of the Labour Party. When Massey died in 1925, Liberal leader Thomas Mason Wilford decided to approach Massey's successor with a merger-proposal, suggesting that the new party could use the name "the National Party". The Liberal Party chose Forbes to represent them at a joint conference. The new Reform Party leader, Gordon Coates, rejected the proposal, although Wilford declared that Liberal would adopt the name "National" regardless. Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America and in Australia as the Roaring Twenties . In Europe it is sometimes refered to as the Golden Twenties. ...
The Reform Party was New Zealands second major political party, having been founded as a conservative response to the original Liberal Party. ...
William Ferguson Massey (often known simply as Bill Massey) served as Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1912 to 1925, and was the founder of the Reform Party. ...
The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. ...
1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...
This article is about the New Zealand prime minister. ...
Party leader Shortly after the merger proposal was rejected, Wilford resigned as leader, and Forbes unexpectedly became party leader. In the election later that year, however, the party collapsed, gaining only eleven seats compared with Reform's fifty-five. To further compound the injury, Forbes no longer even held the post of Leader of the Opposition - the Labour Party had won twelve seats, enabling its leader Harry Holland to claim seniority in Opposition. The New Zealand general election of 1925 was held November 4 to elect a total of 80 MPs to the 22nd session of the New Zealand Parliament. ...
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest party not in government in a Westminster System of parliamentary government. ...
Henry Edmund (Harry) Holland (10 June 1868 - 8 October 1933) was a New Zealand politician and unionist. ...
The party's poor fortune did not last long, however. In 1927, Liberal Party politician William Andrew Veitch secured an alliance with Albert Ernest Davy, a former Reform Party organizer who had become dissatisfied with what he saw as Reform's paternalism and intrusive governance. The former Liberal Party (still known as National) absorbed Davy's new "United New Zealand Political Organization", and adopted the name "the United Party". Forbes and Veitch both vied as candidates for the leadership of the United Party, but the position eventually went to a former Liberal Party Prime Minister, Joseph Ward. Forbes became one of two deputy leaders, having particular responsibility for the South Island. 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Traditional cultural paternalism: Father Junipero Serra in a modern portrayal at Mission San Juan Capistrano, California Paternalism often refers to the hierarchic pattern of the family applied as a paradigm to state policy; it also can refer to paternalistic attitudes and actions by individuals and non-state institutions. ...
This article discusses the party which originated in 1927 from a faction of the Liberal Party. ...
This article is about the New Zealand prime minister. ...
The South Island The South Island forms one of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the North Island. ...
Under the United banner, bolstered by Reform Party dissidents, the remnants of the old Liberal Party once again gained traction. In the 1928 elections, United formed a government with backing from the Labour Party. Forbes gained the portfolios of Lands and Agriculture. Gradually, however, Ward's health declined to the state where he was unable to carry out his duties, and Forbes became leader in all but name. In 1930, Ward finally gave his official resignation, and Forbes became Prime Minister. He also made himself Minister of Finance. The New Zealand general election of 1925 was held November 14 to elect a total of 80 MPs to the 23rd session of the New Zealand Parliament. ...
1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...
The Minister of Finance is a senior figure within the government of New Zealand. ...
Prime Minister As Prime Minister, Forbes, described as "apathetic and fatalistic", reacted to events but showed little vision or purpose. Opponents also criticised him for relying too much on the advice of his friends. However, the depression years proved a difficult time for many governments around the world, and his defenders claim that he did the best job possible in the adverse circumstances of the Great Depression.
The Forbes government began to show signs of instability when the Labour Party withdrew its support. Labour expressed dissatisfaction with a number of the government's economic measures - Forbes intended them to reduce the government deficit and to stimulate the economy, but Labour claimed that they unnecessarily harmed the interests of poorer citizens. Forbes had perforce to continue with reluctant support from the Reform Party, which now feared Labour's growing popularity.
In late 1931, Forbes called for a "grand coalition" of United, Reform, and Labour to resolve the country's economic problems. Forbes told a joint conference that he would not implement the measures he deemed necessary without broad backing. Labour refused to join this coalition, but Reform leader Gordon Coates (prompted by the Reform Party's finance spokesperson, William Downie Stewart) eventually agreed. 1931 (MCMXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday. ...
In the 1931 elections, the United-Reform coalition performed well, winning a combined total of fifty-one seats. Forbes remained Prime Minister, but surrendered the finance role to William Downie Stewart. Slowly, however, many people came to believe that Coates held significantly too much power, and that Forbes showed himself overwilling to give in to Coates' demands. This view became reinforced when Coates and Stewart argued over financial policy - although Forbes was known to prefer Stewart's policy, he publicly sided with Coates, and Stewart resigned. The 1931 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliaments 24th term. ...
Coates replaced Stewart as Minister of Finance, and became even more dominant in the coalition. Stewart, noting this, complained that "the Prime Minister is too passive and the Minister of Finance is too active". Both Forbes and Coates, however, increasingly took the blame for the country's ongoing economic problems, and could not avoid public dissatisfaction. In the elections of 1935 the Labour Party defeated the coalition government, gaining fifty-five votes to the coalition's nineteen. The 1935 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliaments 25th term. ...
Retirement By 1935 Forbes had become increasingly weary of politics, writing that he agreed with Downie Stewart's description of the profession as "slavery that is miscalled power". Nevertheless, Forbes reluctantly allowed his colleagues to select him as Leader of the Opposition, and from May 1936 led the new National Party (created out of United and Reform) until October 1936 when Adam Hamilton became the party leader. Both Party and Leader agreed on Forbes's tenure as leader of the new National Party as a temporary measure, as Forbes had indicated his desire to withdraw from the limelight and no doubt some now saw his past tenure as a political liability. Adam Hamilton (20 August 1880 - 29 April 1952) was a New Zealand politician. ...
Forbes retained his parliamentary seat until 1943, when he retired after 35 years as a Member of Parliament. He declined the offer of the customary knighthood,and four years after his retirement he died at Crystal Brook, his farm near Cheviot. The national memorial for Forbes, the George Forbes Memorial Library, forms part of Lincoln University near Christchurch. 1943 (MCMXLIII) is a common year starting on Friday. ...
Lincoln University is New Zealands second newest university, formed in 1990 when Lincoln College, Canterbury was made independent of the University of Canterbury. ...
External links - Prime Minister's Office biography
- Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (search for "Forbes, George William")
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