TARANAKI MEMBERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 December 1922, Page 6

TARANAKI MEMBERS.

MR. J. C. ROLLESTON. Mr. J. C. Rolleston is a son of the late Hon. Wm. Rolleston, first Minister for Lands in the Atkinson Government. He was born in South Canterbury in 1878, and is therefore 44 years of age. He was educated at Christ’s College, Christchurch, and after leaving school indulged in farming pursuits in Canterbury, going to Te Kuiti twelve vears ago, and he has farmed a bush section there. At the outbreak of war he was accepted for service in the Canterbury Mounted Rifles, and left New Zealand as a trodper with the Main Bodv. He was severely wounded on Gallipoli. On his return to New (Zealand, he served for a while with (Tripp and Rolleston. a well-known Timaru legal firm, before returning to Rangitoto. where he had taken up a bush farm prior to the. outbreak of war.

MR. R. MASTERS.

Mr. Masters was born in Brunnerton, on” the West Coast, in 1880. In 1884 he went to Stratford and assisted his father in conducting a business which is rioW known as Masters, Ltd. Mr. Masters was educated at the Greymouth public school. Since going to Stratford he ha» identified himself with many organisations. Mr. Masters first entered

public life when he secured a seat on the '1 aranaki Education Board against Mr. . D. Anderson in 1912. He was reelected unopposed two years later, and two years after that, when the Taranaki Education Board district was enlarged, he topped the poll. He was then /■elected chairman, which he, held, for about three years. He has been identified with the A. and P. Association since its inception, and for a term was president. He was one of the prime movers in the establishment of the Stratford Model Dairy Farm. At the general election in 1919 Mr. Masters stood against the Hon. J. B. Hine, whom he defeated by 61 votes. The poll was upset by petition and at the by-election in May, 1920, Mr. Masters was returned with a majority of 152 votes.

MR. 0. HAWKEN. Mr. Oswald Hawken was born in 1870 in South Taranaki, where his parents were among the first settlers. Mr. Hawken has followed farming in Taranaki for many years. He was a member of the Patea County Council for several years, a member of the Egmont A. and P. Association, and he has served on other bodies. In agricultural matters Mr. Hawken has rendered a great deal of valuable service in such capacities as a member of the Board of Agriculture, the Butter Committee, etc. On the retirement of Mr. C. A. Wilkinson from the Egmont seat, Mr. Hawken was in 1919 chosen as the Reform candidate, and he won the seat against Mr. Astbury by 191 votes. MR. J. R. CORRIGAN. Mr. James R. Corrigan, or, as he is more familiarly known throughout NewZealand, “Jim Corrigan,” is a native of New Zealand, having been born a little place sixteen miles from Christchurch, called Woodend, in 1865. Owing to his father having lost all his money on the gold fields, he was compelled to fend for himself at the early age of 10 years, when he started to herd pigs at 5s per week. Mr. Corrigan has interested himself in public matters for many years, amongst his various activities being the following: He is chairman of directors of the Hawera Co-op. Dairy Factory, Ltd., president of the I Dominion winter show in South TaraI naki, member of the Patea Harbor Board for fifteen years, one of the first provisional directors of the Farmers’ Co-op. Organisation Society, Ltd., of New Zealand. He was chairman of the Farmers’ Union for years, one of the trustees of the memorial fund, and first chairman of -the young women’s hostel. In the world of sport, Mr. Corrigan needs no introduction. He is the owner of many of the finest trotting horses in the Dominion. Mr. Corrigan is also a well-known figure at the sheep dog trials and represent the West Coast on the executive of the North Island Sheep Dog Trial Association. As a breeder of stock, Mr. Corrigan yields place to none. He put up the record for stock of all sorts for five years running. In one season alone he. took 262 first and champion prizes in the North Island. He has for years imported some of the best cattle obtainable in the Jersey Island and is at present the largest supplier of butter-fat to the Hawera Dairy Company. He also breeds some of the finest stud Sheep to be obtained in, the Dominion. MR. S. G. SMITH.

Mr. Smith, who was born in 1879, is the seventh son of the late Mr. E. M. Smith, who represented the Taranaki district in Parliament for over 13 years. Mr. Smith is essentially a New Plymouth boy, for he w-as educated here and has spent all his life here. Mr. Smith was elected to Parliament for the Taranaki district at the by-election on October 10, 1918, which was rendered necessarv by the death of Mr. H. J. 11. Okey. The late Mr. Okey held the seat for Reform and Mr. Smith, who was then an Independent Liberal, defeated the Reform candidate (Mr. J. S. Connett) by 162 votes. At the general elections the following year Mr. Smith defeated Mr. G. H. Buckeridge (Reform) by 1023 votes. Mr. Smith has thus represented the district for four years. The public activities of Mr. Smith outside Parliament include member of the Taranaki Education Board. New Plymouth High Schools Board of Governors, Technical College Advisory Board, vice-President of the New Zealand School Committees’ Association and chairman of the Central School committee. For over 20 years Mr. Smith was a member of the New Zealand railway service, and several times he was elected to represent his district at railway conferences, and for a term he was a member of the national executive of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants.