“NATIONAL” IN POLITICS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31108, 11 July 1966, Page 17

“NATIONAL” IN POLITICS

Origin Of Term 1 Traced The origins of the term “National” in New Zealand politics have been elucidated by Mr W. J. Gardner, a senior lecturer in history at the University of Canterbury. Mr Gardner has long been working on a biography of W. F. Massey, Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1912 to 1925, and he studied Massey’s Australian associations during refresher leave in Australia.

“From my work on the origins of Massey’s career, I had learned of his entry into politics through a body called the National Association, in 1891,” Mr Gardner said in a report.

“This body was a direct imitation of a similarly-named right-wing organisation founded in Melbourne in August. 1891, in the aftermath of the maritime strike of 1890. “A further New Zealand reference pointed to an Australasian National League, formed in Sydney in 1895. I was therefore anxious to investigate these trans-Tas-man political links, especially the only ‘Australasian’ political body I know of. “In the Mitchell Library, Sydney, I located the journal of the A.N.L. “Liberty,” and gained new light on rightwing politics on both sides of the Tasman in the 1890’s.

“Both in Sydney and in the Latrobe Library. Melbourne, I followed up this study in newspaper files, and have since traced another similar journal the “Country,” in Adelaide.

“I am assembling this material for a study of the organisations from which the current New Zealand use of the political term ‘National’ stems,” said Mr Gardner.