Niels Rasmus Wilson Nielsen (2 March 1869 – 1 July 1930) was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

-born politician and union official in New South Wales, Australia.

Life and career

He was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

to Niels Peter Nielsen and Susan Wilson. He arrived in Australia around 1874, becoming a carpenter and farmer near

Young Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one is young, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an American roc ...

and a local officer of the

Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s and currently has approximately 80,000 members. It has exerci ...

. Around 1888 he married Marie Booth in Yass; they had three daughters and three sons. He was elected to the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

as the

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

member for

Boorowa Boorowa () is a farming village in the Hilltops Region in the south west slopes of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in a valley southwest of Sydney around above sea-level. The town is in Hilltops Council local government area. H ...

at the 1899 by-election. Boorowa was abolished in the 1904 re-distribution of electorates following the 1903 New South Wales referendum, which required the number of members of the Legislative Assembly to be reduced from 125 to 90, and was largely absorbed by Yass, with the balance going to the new district of Burrangong. He transferred to Yass in 1904. In 1910 he was appointed Secretary for Lands in the

McGowen ministry The McGowen ministry was the 34th ministry of the New South Wales Government, and was led by the 18th Premier, James McGowen. This ministry marks the first Labor ministry in the state of New South Wales. McGowen was elected to the New South ...

, the first state Labor government. Labor policy was that land should not be converted from leasehold to freehold. Nielson drafted legislation to repeal the Land Conversion Act however this proved to be controversial, with extensive division in the Labor Party, resulting in Bill Dunn and

Henry Hoyle Henry "Harry" Clement Hoyle (20 November 1852 – 20 July 1926) was an Australian politician and rugby league football administrator of the 1890s and 1900s. A life member of the New South Wales Rugby League, Hoyle is credited with helping t ...

resigning from parliament in July 1911, removing Labor's slim majority in the Legislative Assembly. Caucus dropped his legislation and Nielsen resigned from the ministry on 1 August 1911. Unable to regain ministerial office, he resigned his seat in 1913. He was the New South Wales trade commission in San Francisco from 1913 and in 1916 as a

conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

ist left the Labor Party for the Nationalist Party. His position was terminated in 1917. He was chairman of the Taronga Park Trust from 1927 until his death at

Gladesville Gladesville is a suburb in the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Gladesville is located 10 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Ryde a ...

on , survived by his estranged wife Marie, three daughters and two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Niels 1869 births 1930 deaths Danish emigrants to Australia Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales