Ernest Albert Barry (1928 − December 2003) was a New Zealand educator and politician. He was a Lower Hutt city councillor and was deputy mayor from 1977 to 1980.

Biography

Early life and career

Barry was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England. Both his father and brother were Labour Party members and local government politicians, influencing his own political philosophy. After his education he trained as a plumber. He then emigrated to New Zealand as a "

Ten Pound Pom Ten Pound Poms (or Ten Pound tourists) is a colloquial term used in Australia and New Zealand to describe British citizens who migrated to Australia and New Zealand after the Second World War. The Government of Australia initiated the Assisted ...

" in 1950 aboard the ''Atlantis''. After arriving in New Zealand he worked as a plumber. He and his wife, Barbara, had five children. They had met in 1952 and married in 1953. The family lived in

Wainuiomata Wainuiomata () is a large suburb of Lower Hutt, in the Wellington Region of New Zealand's North Island. Origin of name The word 'Wainui-o-mata' is a Māori name made up of the words Wai = water, Nui = big, O = of, and Mata – which could refer ...

and Barry started his own plumbing and sheet metal business. Subsequently, he became a technical tutor at the Petone Technical Institute in 1962. In 1968 purchased a plot of land in the hills behind

Epuni Epuni is a suburb of Lower Hutt, New Zealand situated in the south of the North Island of New Zealand. The suburb lies around one kilometre east of the Lower Hutt CBD. The suburb takes its name from the Te Āti Awa Te Āti Awa is a Māori ...

. He was involved in the local school committee, the Lower Hutt

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts may refer to: * Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement. * Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement. * An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are ...

and

Petone Rugby Club The Petone Rugby Football Club was founded in 1885 and has been the Wellington Premier Champion 39 times between 1895 and 2005. In addition, the club has won the Club Championship on 42 occasions between 1922 and 2005. Petone is a constituent cl ...

. For leisure he was a barbershop singer and woodturner.

Political career

He became involved in a community campaign to improve the water quality of the Hutt River. The mayor,

Percy Dowse Percy Dowse (4 December 1898 – 9 December 1970) was a New Zealand politician. He was mayor of Lower Hutt from 1950 to 1970. Biography Early life He was born in Lancashire in 1898 and was educated at Wigan Technical College. His coal miner fat ...

, persuaded him to put himself forward for local political office. At the 1971 local election he was elected to the

Lower Hutt City Council The Hutt City Council is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the city of Lower Hutt. Lower Hutt is the country's List of cities in New Zealand#City councils, seventh largest city. The city bo ...

on the Labour Party ticket. Once a council member he voiced the concerns of scientists around the council table that the effects of gravel extraction at the edge of the river bed was affecting the quality of the water, leading to discolouration and trout population reduction. When extracting, companies were using the river to wash the gravel which discharged fine materials back into the river and caused the restriction of surface water reaching the

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characteris ...

. The scientists' concern was that the blocking of the aquifer would destroy the fresh water store near the river mouth by salt water from Wellington Harbour. A court case ensued which was won by the council and led to the end of the extraction practice by gravel companies. As a result of the case water quality subsequently improved markedly. He stated this was his proudest achievement in local government. On the city council he was a member of the works, town planning and bylaws, traffic and health committees. He was particularly proud of his work in town planning to establish the Rata Street Loop walking track at the edge of

Naenae Naenae (, occasionally spelled NaeNae) is a suburb of Lower Hutt. It lies on the eastern edge of the floodplain of the Hutt River, four kilometres from the Lower Hutt Central business district. A small tributary of the Hutt, the Waiwhetu Strea ...

. From 1971 to 1974 he was an elected member of the Hutt Valley Electric Power Board. He was also a member of the Wellington Regional Water Board and Hutt Valley Drainage Boards. In 1977 he stood for the mayoralty, after Labour's previous mayoral candidate

John Seddon John Seddon is a British occupational psychologist and author, specialising in change in the service industry. He is the managing director of Vanguard, a consultancy company he formed in 1985 and the inventor of ' The Vanguard Method'. Vangua ...

declined to stand, but was defeated by incumbent John Kennedy-Good. He was, however, re-elected to the council where Labour won a majority. For that triennium he was deputy mayor. At the 1980 election he left local politics after he again lost the mayoralty to Kennedy-Good. The election was a landslide defeat for Labour and Barry, alongside all but one Labour candidate was defeated for the councillor seats. Fellow councillor

John Terris John James Terris (born 19 June 1939) is a New Zealand politician, priest and broadcaster who represented the Labour Party in the New Zealand parliament. Biography Early life and career Terris was born in Wanganui in 1939 to Alexander Roderick ...

, the only successful Labour candidate in 1980, said Barry was a "kindly soul" but not afraid of confrontation.

Later life and death

Barry was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the 1986 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to local government. Barry retired from teaching in 1989 and moved with his wife to live in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

. He was diagnosed with

acute myeloid leukemia Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal cells that build up in the bone marrow and blood and interfere with normal blood cell production. Symptoms may inclu ...

in September 2003. While in hospital under care he gave the hospital advice on how a nearby toilet cistern was leaking and occupied time calculating how much water was being lost. He died in December 2003. He was survived by his wife and children. His wife Barbara died in Brisbane in 2015.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barry, Ernie 1928 births 2003 deaths English emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand plumbers 20th-century New Zealand educators 20th-century New Zealand politicians New Zealand Labour Party politicians Hutt City Councillors Deputy mayors of places in New Zealand New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire Deaths from acute myeloid leukemia