Charles Mathew Gray (1853 – 11 June 1918) was a New Zealand

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Christchurch North, and

Mayor of Christchurch The Mayor of Christchurch is the head of the municipal government of Christchurch, New Zealand, and presides over the Christchurch City Council. The mayor is directly elected using a First Past the Post electoral system. The current mayor, Ph ...

Early life

Charles Gray was born in

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

, Victoria, in Australia and came to New Zealand in 1862.

Local body politics

Gray was elected to the

Christchurch City Council The Christchurch City Council is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Christchurch is Phil Mauger, who ...

in 1885. Mayoral elections were held on 26 November 1890. The two candidates were the incumbent, Samuel Manning, and Gray, who received 492 and 665 votes, respectively. Gray was thus elected as the 17th mayor of Christchurch and was installed on 17 December 1890. He was mayor until the end of 1891. On 18 April 1904, he succeeded

Henry Wigram Sir Henry Francis Wigram (18 January 1857 – 6 May 1934) was a New Zealand businessman, politician and aviation promoter. He is best known for his role in developing a public transport system in Christchurch and as a key player in the establishme ...

as mayor, when he was declared elected unopposed. He served for one year, and his chief aims were beautifying the city, drainage, sanitation, lighting and high pressure water supply.

Member of Parliament

Charles Gray represented the Christchurch North electorate in the

New Zealand House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the New Zealand Parliament. The House passes Law of New Zealand, laws, provides Ministers of the New Zealand Government, ministers to form Cabinet of New Zealand, Cabinet, and supervises the ...

from the 1905 election to 1908. Gray defeated

Tommy Taylor Thomas Taylor (29 January 1932 – 6 February 1958) was an English footballer, who was known for his aerial ability. He was one of the eight Manchester United players who died in the Munich air disaster. Career Taylor was born in Smithies, ...

in the 1905 contest for Christchurch North. Gray made it clear during the election campaign that he was an independent Liberal who would go to the House unfettered by party obligations. He declared that he was not a 'party man'.

Death

Gray died in Christchurch on 11 June 1918.

Early life

Local body politics

Member of Parliament

Death

References

Further reading