Harry Bedford (politician)

Harry Dodgshun Bedford (1877-1918) was a New Zealand Member of Parliament for the City of Dunedin.

Member of Parliament

Harry Bedford represented one of the multi-member City of Dunedin seats in the New Zealand Parliament from 1902 to 1905.

Independent Liberal 1902

Bedford as an Independent Liberal in 1902 topped the poll for Dunedin City with 10,088 votes. He became the sensation of the 1902 election: a political novice who had obtained the highest individual vote ever recorded in New Zealand. The Lyttelton Times described him as: "the 'idol of Dunedin'...young, good-looking, able, earnest, energetic and highly attractive as a speaker"." [citation |newspaper = Lyttelton Times |year = 1902 |date = 26 November 1902 p.6] . In 1905, Bedford stood for the new seat of Dunedin North but was not successful.

He contested Dunedin West in 1911 as an Independent polling 3,635 votes to 778 votes for Jim Munro. The seat was held by John Millar on the second ballot.

Harry Bedford joined the United Labour Party in 1912. [citation |first = Barry |last = Gustafson |author-link = Barry Gustafson |title = The Advent of the New Zealand Labour Party 1910-1919 [M.A. - University of Auckland] |year = 1961 |page = 299]

Bedford was a professor of history and economics at Otago University in Dunedin.

Harry Bedford was tragically drowned in 1918, aged 40.

Books

:*citation |first = Harry D. |last = Bedford |title = Political Fingerposts: an Enquiry into what Labour should do and should not do |place = Dunedin, [N.Z.] |publisher = Printed by the Evening Star Co. |year = 1908

:*citation |first = Harry D. |last = Bedford |title = Cost of Living in New Zealand: War Profit and War Finance |place = Dunedin, [N.Z.] |publisher = Printed by the Evening Star Co. |year = 1916

:*citation |first = Harry D. et al. |last = Bedford |title = The Land Question in Parliament |place = Wellington, [N.Z.] |publisher = Government Printer |year = 1904

References

Further reading

:*citation |first = A.B. |last = Chappell |title = An Appreciation of the Late H.D. Bedford, M.A., L.L.D., Professor of Economics |place = Wellington, [N.Z.] |publisher = Wright & Carman |year = 1918

:*citation |first = Michael |last = Gill |title = 'Bedford, Harry Dodgshun 1877-1918'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 22 June 2007 |url = http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/ |accessdate = 2008-04-25

:*citation |first = Barry |last = Gustafson |author-link = Barry Gustafson |title = The Advent of the New Zealand Labour Party 1910-1919 [M.A. - University of Auckland] |year = 1961

:*citation |first = John T. |last = Paul |title = Professor Bedford: his Life and Work |place = Invercargill, [N.Z.] |publisher = Southland Times Co. |year = 1919

:*citation |first = G. F. |last = Whitcher |title = The New Liberal Party 1905 [M.A.(Hons.) - University of Canterbury] |year = 1966

:*citation |first = James Oakley |last = Wilson |title = The New Zealand Parliamentary Record 1840-1984|edition = 4th |place = Wellington, [N.Z.] |publisher = Government Printer |year = 1985

:*citation |first = G. Antony (ed.) |last = Wood |title = Ministers and Members in the New Zealand Parliament |place = Dunedin, [N.Z.] |publisher = Otago University Press |year = 1996 |isbn = 1-877-13300-0