William Cowper Smith (1843 – 5 March 1911) was a

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

in New Zealand.

Biography

William Cowper Smith was born in London on 28 December 1843, went to

Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet is a boys' grammar school in Barnet, northern Greater London, which was founded in 1573 by Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and others, in the name of Queen Elizabeth I. It is consistently ranked as one o ...

, arrived on the Egmont at Lyttelton on 7 July 1862, went to

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, received a war medal for service during the

invasion of the Waikato The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federation ...

and moved to

Waipukurau Waipukurau is the largest town in the Central Hawke's Bay District on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on the banks of the Tukituki River, 7 kilometres south of Waipawa and 50 kilometres southwest of Hastings. H ...

in 1872, where he ran a drapery and general store. In 1877 he was elected to Waipukurau Road Board and from 1879 was on Waipawa County Council. Smith defeated

John Davies Ormond John Davies Ormond (31 May 1831 – 6 October 1917) was a New Zealand politician whose positions included Superintendent (politics), Superintendent of Hawke's Bay Province, Minister of Public Works and member of the New Zealand Legislative Coun ...

to represent the

Waipawa Waipawa is the second-largest town in Central Hawke's Bay in the east of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a population of At the 2013 census, it had a population of 1,965, a change of 2.2 percent from the 2006 census. The town is locate ...

electorate from

1881 Events January–March * January 1– 24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans. * January 13 – War of the Pacific – Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos: The C ...

to 1887. His victory was narrow and described by one paper as a defeat of squatocracy; the 1891 Liberal government introduced reforms to break up large farms whose owners had often moved abroad. In the next election Smith was elected in the Woodville electorate, from

1887 Events January–March * January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher. * January 20 ** The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Har ...

to 1890 (the electorate only existed for those three years), then the

electorate again from

1890 Events January–March * January 1 ** The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony, in the Horn of Africa. ** In Michigan, the wooden steamer ''Mackinaw'' burns in a fire on the Black River. * January 2 ** The steamship ...

to 1893, when he retired, due to poor health. On 13 December 1895, he was appointed to the Legislative Council. At the expiry of the seven-year terms, he was reappointed on 13 December 1902 and on 13 December 1909. He remained a member until his death on 5 March 1911. For three periods between 1902 and 1908, he was Chairman of Committees of the Legislative Council. He had been the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

's preferred candidate as Chairman of Committees in 1901 but W. D. H. Baillie won the election and was confirmed for another (his last) session. He married Emma Augusta Tester, on 14 January 1874. His eldest son was Charles Cowper Smith, born on 16 Jan 1875, who became chairman of Hawke's Bay County Council. Emma died on 17 November 1882, aged 35. Two years after her death, he married Georgina Annie Grant, on 12 August 1884. Their son, Marcus Smith, was mayor of

Dannevirke Dannevirke ( "Earthworks (archaeology), work of the Danes", a reference to Danevirke; mi, Taniwaka, lit= or ''Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua'', the area where the town is), is a rural service town in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of the North Island, New ...

and was considered for the

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...

candidate for

Pahiatua , image_skyline = Market day pahiatua 1st dec 2007 1.JPG , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_flag = , flag_size = , image_seal = , seal_size = , image_shi ...

. Georgina died on 17 February 1962, aged 100. By his two marriages he had several sons and daughters. He died of pneumonia and was buried at Waipukurau Cemetery.

Notes

References

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, William Cowper 1843 births 1911 deaths New Zealand Liberal Party MPs Members of the New Zealand Legislative Council Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives New Zealand MPs for North Island electorates 19th-century New Zealand politicians