Joseph Dransfield (1827 – 21 September 1906) was the

Mayor of Wellington The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of the City of Wellington. The mayor presides over the Wellington City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the Single Transferable Vote method of proportional representati ...

, New Zealand, from 1870 to 1872. He was the first mayor of the reconstituted Wellington City since William Guyton was (briefly) mayor of the previous Wellington Borough in 1843.

Background

Dransfield was born

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, in 1827, where his father, also Joseph, was the owner of the Rookery Woollen Mills. He was educated in Huddersfield and migrated to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 1852 on the ''

Falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons ...

'' when he was 25 years old before coming to Wellington in 1857. His mother and father also settled in New Zealand living for a time in Lyttelton. He was married and had several sons and daughters. Dransfield's brother, C. E. Dransfield, was already in Wellington when he arrived and had established a general merchant business, which Dransfield eventually took over. They were major coal merchant into the 1860s, with supply contracts for the New Zealand Steam Navigation Company, and M'Meckan Blackwood's fleets. From 1878 to 1879 he was president of the

chamber of commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to ad ...

, having been a member for a number of years. Dransfield carried on in business until ill health forced his retirement in 1888. He sold out the goodwill and business to the United Importers Company.

Civic roles

In 1842 Wellington had been declared a borough and elected its own mayor. In 1843, while William Guyton was mayor, the British Government declared the legislation that founded the borough invalid and disbanded the local government there. For the period from 1843 to 1863 Wellington had no local authority. In 1863 legislation under the provincial government allowed a town board to be set up. This was followed by legislation that allowed the establishment of the

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...

in 1870. Dransfield became mayor in 1870 after Wellington was declared a city. He was mayor again in 1878, but resigned on 9 May 1879. He had previously been chairman of the town board from 1865 to 1870, and represented Wellington City in the

Wellington Provincial Council Wellington Province, governed by the Wellington Provincial Council, was one of the provinces of New Zealand from 1853 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. It covered much of the southern half of the North Island until November ...

from 1863 to 1867. He was noted as securing one of Wellington's more important reclamations. Dransfield Street in Vogeltown is named after him. Dransfield died at Wellington on 21 September 1906.Death of an old citizen and ex-Mayor, Colonist, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11740, 24 September 1906, Page 2

Notes

References

* * *''No Mean City'' by Stuart Perry (1969, Wellington City Council) includes a paragraph and a portrait or photo for each mayor. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dransfield, Joseph 1827 births 1906 deaths Mayors of Wellington Wellington City Councillors Members of the Wellington Provincial Council English emigrants to New Zealand People from Huddersfield English emigrants to Australia 19th-century New Zealand politicians 1870s in Wellington