Michael Connelly (New Zealand)

Michael Connelly (1887 - 1970) was a New Zealand trade unionist, politician of the Labour Party, and a member of the Legislative Council (upper house) from 1936 to 1943, and from 1943 to 1950.

Born in Kakaramea, he was active in the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants as Secretary of the Thorndon (Wellington) branch 1914-18 and national president 1923-25.

He was a Dunedin City Councillor 1944-47 & 1950-59, and unsuccessfully contested the Dunedin mayoralty in 1956 and the Port Chalmers parliamentary electorate in 1925. He was a director of the Grey River Argus when it became a Labour newspaper.

He was a railway officer i.e. a civil servant when he was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1936 by the First Labour Government, hence a special act, the Michael Connolly Appointment Validation Act 1936 (technically a private act) had to be passed to validate his appointment.

His son Mick Connelly (Michael Aynsley Connelly, 1916–2003) was a Labour Party MP and cabinet minister.

Reference

• From the Cradle to the Grave: a biography of Michael Joseph Savage by Barry Gustafson (1986, Reed Methuen, Auckland) ISBN 0474001385 (Biographical Appendix, page 278)
• New Zealand Parliamentary Record 1840-1984 by J. O. Wilson (1985, 4th edition, Government Printer, Wellington) (pp 146, 151)

Persondata
Name	Connelly, Michael
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Short description
Date of birth	1887
Place of birth
Date of death	1970
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