Mr T. M. Wilford, M.P.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 October 1922, Page 4

Mr T. M. Wilford, M.P.

A SHOUT BIOGRAPHY. (Reprinted from ilii- Dunedin ‘Star’). Mr Tliouuis Mason Wilford, .M.l’. tor II ntt and Leader of Iho Opposition in tiic New Zealand Parliament. is a stranger comparatively to tin 1 South Island., tluiif.'Ji known of course. through tho Press o! the country for many years as tt public rnan. Mr Wilford, or Tom Wilford, its Ite is called affectionately, wits horn in the Lower Unit on .June 'JO, 1870, of (.Hmk.r parentage, his mother being (lie (laughter of the late Thomas Mason. ex-M.P. for Mutt in the far hack days. His father, l)r .1. (!. F. Wilford, wlio was, like his mother's pitrents, from Yorkshire, Kngland, was one of Lite iirst medical men to settle In the Mutt district, arriving there a voting lad of twenty-three with his Guv’s Hospital, London, ritialilications just obtained. Mr AYilford’s political tendencies came entirely from his mothers side. At the age of seventeen years, having oempleted his education at Christ’s College, Canterbury, he joined the legal firm of Brandon and Son, in Wellington, and at eighteen years of age passed his Until examinations as a solicitor, and had to wait until he was twenty-one years of age to be admitted to practice. The same l year he got his cap as a representative footballer, while he was a first-class horseman, riding regularly to hounds, anil a good field shot. At twenty-one years of age he came to Dunedin and was married at Knox Church by the late Dr Stuart to Georgia, the second daughter of the late Sir George M’ Lean.

At twenty-throe years of age Hr Wilton! was henten for the Ifult seal by Dr Newman by the narrowest of margins. At twenty-six he heat the lion T. W. Mislnp. late .Minister of Education, for the Hutt seat,. and was unseated on petition and made to stand down till three years later (1899), when he again contested the seat and was sueeessful. From that date till to-day he has continuously represented his birthplace to the satisfaction of that constituency, and durin gtlie last election, when members of bis side were going down like ninepins in a three-cornered contest, with a Reform and an extreme Labor candidate against him be romped home with over 1.000 votes to his credit. In Parliament he has been Chairman of Committees and .Minister of Justice, Minister of Marine, and Minister in Charge of Police, and in control of Estate and Stamp Duties for two years, and a member of the Executive, and be has now become Leader of the New Party and Lender of the Opposition since the death of the late TTon W. D. S. MacDonald. Mr Wilford entered parliamentary life as a follower of Ibe late Right lion R. J. Seddon, whose sen, Mr T. E. V. Seddon, is now, with Mr Geo. Forbes, a Whip of the New Pa rtv.

Outside of Parliament Mr Wilford lias made his mark as a barrister, and has found time in his very busy life to nut in twelve years on the Wellington Harbor Hoard, the last two as chairman, besides being for (wo years Mayor of the Cite of Wellington, the second year of which bo was elected unopposed. On his retirement from the mayoralty of the city he was appointed with the late Hon J. 0. W. Aitkcn Sinking Fund Commissioner for the city, which position ho hold for eleven years until lie became Lender of the Opposition, when ho resigned. Tie is also a permanent trustee of the St John Ambulance Association for Now Zealand. During the war Air Wilford toured New Zealand at his town expense. and raised by war lectures and appeals over £20.000 for the Red Cross.

Mr Wilford is an optimist to his fin cm r-tips as far as Now Zealand is eonverned. “No politicians can ruin this country,” lie said in the course ol an interview, hut he continued: “T am satisfied that it does not follow that the country is heiiuc run as well as it could he run”: and he concluded: “T have been on the inside as a Minister for two years, and T know.” This review would not be complete without a*reference to Mrs Wilford. whose able assistance Mr Wilford claims has helped him all alonir the line. While he was lyinrr ill in 1911. and unable to conduct, his election of that year. Mrs 'Wilford personally

took the platform on his behalf, speak- ' ing at all the polling centres, and ho : was that year returned by. a very sub- 1 stantial majority. Mrs Wilford has also worked on the social welfare si do , in the city of Wellington, and received i no less than 13,000 votes when she was ; e elected to the Wellington Hospital ; .. Hoard, being beaten only by Dr Platts- I ([ .Mills, though there were more than thirty candidates standing for elec- ) tion.' | 11