John Robertson (1875 – 5 August 1952) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.

Biography

Early life

Robertson was born in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, and was a

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their par ...

by trade. Interested in politics early, he joined the

Social Democratic Federation The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Con ...

. He was then in 1893 a foundation member of the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

in Britain. In 1895 he became Secretary of the party, the youngest man to hold the job. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1902. He settled in Dunedin and continued his trade as a watchmaker until moving to

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

in 1910. In 1920 he entered the film trade as the manager of the Crystal Palace Theatre in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

. Upon the formation of the New Zealand Motion Picture Exhibitors' Association in 1927 he became its national secretary. He was in addition a member of both the Government Film Advisory Committee and the New Zealand Film Industry Board.

Political career

He represented the Otaki electorate from

1911 A notable ongoing event was the Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott Expeditions, race for the South Pole. Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ...

, when he was elected on the second ballot with Reform Party support, having been nominated by the flax-workers union. He stood Labour Party. though was also endorsed by the

New Zealand Socialist Party The New Zealand Socialist Party was founded in 1901, promoting the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The group, despite being relatively moderate when compared with many other socialists, met with little tangible success, but it neverthe ...

. Robertson was the only sitting Labour MP who supported the formation of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

in 1913 and joined the party. He ran for re-election in Otaki in

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...

, but he was defeated by

William Hughes Field William Hughes Field (17 July 1861 – 13 December 1944) was a Member of Parliament in New Zealand; first for the Liberal Party, then Independent, and then for the Reform Party. He made a significant contribution to the development of tramping ...

of the Reform Party. During the 1914 election, Robertson was the Social Democrat's representative in distributing servicemen's votes as he was their most senior MP at the time. Robertson was the candidate for the Labour Party in the electorate in the , but came last of the three candidates. In

1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...

he stood unsuccessfully for a seat on 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 ...

on the Labour Party ticket. Later he represented the

Masterton Masterton ( mi, Whakaoriori), a large town in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand, operates as the seat of the Masterton District (a territorial authority or local-government district). It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a r ...

electorate for the Labour Party from to 1943, when he was again defeated. After he lost his seat in parliament he stood for

Mayor of Masterton The Mayor of Masterton is the head of the municipal government of Masterton, New Zealand, and presides over the Masterton District Council. The Mayor is directly elected using First Past the Post In a first-past-the-post electoral system ( ...

as Labour's candidate, but was defeated by William Kemp. He was then appointed to the Legislative Council on 31 January 1946 and served until its abolition on 31 December 1950. He was then an active member of the Miramar branch of the Labour Party.''The Standard'' 13 August 1952

Death

He died in Wellington aged 76 on 5 August 1952. He was survived by his wife, son and daughter.

Notes

References

* * , - 1875 births 1952 deaths Scottish watchmakers (people) Film exhibitors New Zealand left-wing activists New Zealand Labour Party MPs Members of the New Zealand Legislative Council Scottish emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand Labour Party MLCs Unsuccessful candidates in the 1943 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1914 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1919 New Zealand general election Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand MPs for North Island electorates Social Democratic Party (New Zealand) MPs New Zealand Labour Party (1910) MPs {{NZLabour-politician-stub