Richard Oliver (21 February 1830 – 27 November 1910) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

, New Zealand. Oliver was the son of Robert Oliver, of

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and Elizabeth (Fox) his wife, and emigrated to New Zealand. Oliver represented the City of Dunedin electorate from to 1881, when he retired (to England). He was Minister of Public Works in charge of the

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

in the

John Hall John Hall may refer to: Academics * John Hall (NYU President) (fl. c. 1890), American academic * John A. Hall (born 1949), sociology professor at McGill University, Montreal * John F. Hall (born 1951), professor of classics at Brigham Young Unive ...

Ministry from October 1879 to May 1881. He was included in the

Frederick Whitaker Sir Frederick Whitaker (23 April 1812 – 4 December 1891) was an English-born New Zealand politician who served twice as the premier of New Zealand and six times as Attorney-General. Early life Whitaker was born at the Deanery Manor House, ...

Government as a member of the Executive Council till September 1883, when on a second reconstruction he became

Postmaster-General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a Ministry (government department), ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having ...

and Commissioner of Electric Telegraphs under Major (later Sir)

Harry Atkinson Sir Harry Albert Atkinson (1 November 1831 – 28 June 1892) served as the tenth premier of New Zealand on four separate occasions in the late 19th century, and was Colonial Treasurer for a total of ten years. He was responsible for guiding t ...

, retiring, with the rest of his colleagues, in August 1884. On 10 November 1881, he was appointed to the Legislative Council. He resigned from that role on 4 April 1901. Oliver married first at Penzance on 18 June 1858, Ellen, daughter of William Purchase; and secondly, at Penzance, on 19 August 1885, Louise d'Este, daughter of J. S. Courtney, of Alverton House, Penzance, and sister of Right Hon. Leonard Courtney, M.P., Chairman of Committees,

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

Death

Oliver had retired from public life in 1899 and retired to London, England. He was recovering from a road accident twelve months age, but died early on the morning of Sunday 27 November; although the news took several days to reach New Zealand by telegraph. He left an estate of £78,975.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Oliver, Richard 1830 births 1910 deaths Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Members of the Cabinet of New Zealand Members of the New Zealand Legislative Council New Zealand MPs for Dunedin electorates English emigrants to New Zealand People from Penzance 19th-century New Zealand politicians