MR. WILFORD, M.P.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1922, Page 5

MR. WILFORD, M.P.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION. 'Mr. Thomas Mason Wilford, M.P., for Hutt and Leader of the Opposition in the New Zealand Parliament, was borft at Lower Hutt, on June 20, .1870, o. Quaker parentage, his mother being the daughter of the late Thomas Mason, ex-M.P. for Hutt in the far back days. His father, Dr. J. G. F. Wilford, who was, like his mother’s parents, from Yorkshire, England, was one of the first medical men to settle in the Hutt district. Mr. Wilford’s political tendencies came from his mother’s side. At the age of seventeen years, having completed 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 final examinations as a solicitor, and had to wait until he was twentyone years of age to be admitted to practice. The same year he got his cap as a representative footballer, while he was a. first-class horseman, riding regularly to hounds, and a good field shot. At twenty-one years of age he married the second daughter of the late Sir George McLean. At twenty-three years of age Mr. Wilford was beaten for the Hutt seat by Dr. Newman by the narrowest of margins. At twenty-six he 'beat the Hon. T. W. Hislop for the Hutt seat, and was unseated on petition and made to stand down till throe years later (1899), when he again contested the seat and was successful. From that date till to-day he has continuously represented his birthplace. 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 he has now become Leader of the Opposition since the death of the Lite Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald. Mr. WT "d entered parliamentary life as a follower of the late Right Hon. R. J. Seddon, whose son, Mr. T. E. Y. Seddon, is now, with Mr. George Forbes, a Whip of the New Party. 'Outside of Parliament Mr. M ilford lias made bis mark as a barrister, and has found time in his very busy life to- put in twelve years on the Wellington Harbor Board, the last two years as chairman, besides being for i' vo years Mayor of the City of Wellington, the second year of which he was elected unopposed. On his retirement from, the mayoralty of the city he. was appointed with the late Hon. J. <«• Aitken. Sinking Fund Commissioner tor (he city, which position he held for eleven years until ho became Leader oi the Opposition, when he resigned. He is a. permanent trustee of the St. -tohn .Ambulance Association for f ea ‘ land. During the war Mr. Wilfoid toured New Zealand at his own expense, and raised by war lectures an< appeals over £20.000 for the Red -ros-s. (Published by arrangement) .