- Hiram Hunter
Hiram Hunter (1874-1966) was a
New Zealand politician and trade unionist.Political career
Born in
Christchurch , Hunter was afarmer , storekeeper, carter, andtrade unionist . Hunter stood for the Christchurch East electorate in theNew Zealand House of Representatives in 1911 (New Zealand Labour Party , NZLP), 1914 (SDP) and 1919 (NZLP). He was President of the LRC (1911-13) and SDP (1913-15). In 1931, he contested the Mid-Canterbury seat as an Independent Labour candidate againstJeremiah Connolly , but was unsuccessful (Gustafson, p.159).During the 1930s, Hunter became increasingly disillusioned with the NZ Labour Party and argued that: "We have learned much of socialisation through its application in Russia. The result has been servility for the workers under the domination of dictators and, what seemed a book of beautiful ideal in 1915 has turned out to be in practice, a horrible reality" (The Christchurch Press, 6 October 1938).
Hiram Hunter was a member of the
Christchurch City Council for ten years (1911-15; 1917-23).Further reading
"Labour's Path to Political Independence: The Origins and Establishment of the New Zealand Labour Party 1900-1919" by
Barry Gustafson (1980, Oxford University Press, Auckland)
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