William Hutchison (1820 – 3 December 1905) was a New Zealand politician and journalist. Hutchison and his son

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

were both

Members 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 ...

Early life

Hutchison was born in

Banffshire Banffshire ; sco, Coontie o Banffshire; gd, Siorrachd Bhanbh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. The county town is Banff, although the largest settlement is Buckie to the west. It borders the Moray ...

, Scotland, and trained as a journalist. On 12 August 1846, he married Helen Hutchison (née Aicheson) of

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

. They emigrated to New Zealand in 1866 for him to take up employment with '' The Southern Cross''.

Life in New Zealand

A journalist, Hutchison worked for ''The Southern Cross'' in

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for some months, then bought the ''

Wanganui Chronicle ''The Whanganui Chronicle'' is New Zealand's oldest newspaper. Based in Whanganui, it celebrated 160 years of publishing in September 2016. It is the main daily paper for the Whanganui, Ruapehu and Rangitīkei regions, including the towns of Patea, ...

'' and started the ''Tribune'' in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. He was

Mayor of Wanganui The mayor of Whanganui (previously Wanganui) is the head of the Whanganui District Council. Since 1872, there have been 29 mayors. Andrew Tripe is the current mayor. History The Wanganui Town Board was first formed in 1862, and its first chairman ...

, New Zealand from 1873 to 1874. Then he was

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 ...

from 1876 to 1877, and from 1879 to 1881. As Mayor of Wellington, a central issue was whether the Wellington Waterfront should be controlled by the city council or a separate entity. He was a member of 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 1867 to 1876 for the Wanganui electorate. He stood in the 1875 election in the electorate and was decisively beaten by the incumbent,

William Fitzherbert William Fitzherbert may refer to: *Saint William of York, Archbishop of York *William Fitzherbert (New Zealand politician) (1810–1891), New Zealand politician * Sir William FitzHerbert, 1st Baronet (1748–1791), of Derbyshire *William Fitzherb ...

. He represented the City of Wellington in Parliament from to 1881, then

Wellington South Wellington South was a Canadian federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1968. It was located in the province of Ontario. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867 as the "South Riding o ...

from to 1884, when he was defeated. He moved to

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 ...

in 1884. He unsuccessfully contested the Bruce electorate in the , and the Dunedin Central electorate in the where he was a controversial candidate. He then stood for the Roslyn electorate in the 1887 general election. He then represented the City of Dunedin from to 1896, when he was defeated. He came fifth in the in the three-member Dunedin electorate. Following the death of

Henry Fish Henry Smith Fish (15 July 1838 – 23 September 1897) was a 19th-century New Zealand politician. For a time, he was a member of the Liberal Party. He was Mayor of Dunedin for a total of six years. Smith is remembered as one of the staunch opp ...

, he contested the resulting . Alexander Sligo,

Hugh Gourley Hugh Gourley (1825 – 16 December 1906) was a New Zealand politician born in Ireland. He was Mayor of Dunedin on two occasions and then appointed to the New Zealand Legislative Council for one seven-year term. Early life Gourley was born in ...

and Hutchison received 5045, 4065 and 2030 votes, respectively. He was a supporter of the

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. His son George Hutchison represented

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electorates in Parliament. For six years (from 1890 to 1896) they were in Parliament at the same time, ''and were often seen glaring at each other from opposite sides of the house.'' Another son, Sir James Hutchison, was editor of the ''

Otago Daily Times The ''Otago Daily Times'' (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a c ...

''.

Death

Hutchison's wife died five years before him. He had been ill for some time before he died on 3 December 1905 at his home in Queen Street, Dunedin. He was survived by four sons and four daughters. Hutchison Road in Wellington was named in his honour.

Notes

References

* *''No Mean City'' by Stuart Perry (1969, Wellington City Council) includes a paragraph and a portrait or photo for each mayor. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchison, William 1820 births 1905 deaths Mayors of Wellington Wellington City Councillors Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Members of the Wellington Provincial Council Scottish emigrants to New Zealand Mayors of Wanganui New Zealand MPs for Dunedin electorates Unsuccessful candidates in the 1884 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1887 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1896 New Zealand general election People from Banffshire 19th-century New Zealand politicians