Patrick Charles "Paddy" Webb (30 November 1884 – 23 March 1950) was a
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
trade unionist and politician.
Early life
Webb was born in
RutherglenRutherglen is a small town in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, near the Murray River border with New South Wales. The town was named after the Scottish town of Rutherglen which lies just outside Glasgow...
, a small town in the
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n state of
VictoriaVictoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. His father, George Webb, was a
minerMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
, and Paddy Webb eventually worked in the mines himself. He quickly became active in the mining unions, becoming head of the local Amalgamated Miners' Association branch by 1904. During this time, he met
Michael Joseph SavageMichael Joseph Savage was the first Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand.- Early life :Born in Tatong, Victoria, Australia, Savage first became involved in politics while working in that state. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1907. There he worked in a variety of jobs, as a miner, flax-cutter and...
, who would eventually become the first
LabourThe New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. It describes itself as centre-left and socially progressive and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935....
Prime Minister of New ZealandThe Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...
.
As a result of his involvement in
strike actionStrike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
, Webb was
blacklistA blacklist is a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle...
ed, and in 1905, he moved to New Zealand to seek work. After briefly living in Dunedin, he moved to the
West CoastThe West Coast is one of the administrative regions of New Zealand, located on the west coast of the South Island, and is one of the more remote and most sparsely populated areas of the country. It is made up of three districts: Buller, Grey and Westland...
, working in mines first on the Denniston plateau and then at
RunangaRunanga is a small town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located ten kilometres to the northwest of Greymouth, to the north of the Grey River. Barrytown is 21 kilometres further north...
. Webb became involved with the
New Zealand Socialist PartyThe New Zealand Socialist Party was founded in 1901, promoting the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The group, despite being relatively moderate when compared with many other socialists, met with little tangible success, but it nevertheless had considerable impact on the development of New...
, and was an advocate for socialist ideals. Working in the Runanga mine, Webb was somewhat sheltered from repercussions he would otherwise have suffered — the Runanga mine was state-owned, and the governing
Liberal PartyThe New Zealand Liberal Party is generally regarded as having been the first real political party in New Zealand. It governed from 1891 until 1912. Out of office, the Liberals gradually found themselves pressed between the conservative Reform Party and the growing Labour Party...
was more tolerant of his agitation than private interests were. Webb scored a considerable victory when he organised a successful strike at a mine in
BlackballBlackball is a small town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, approximately 29 km from Greymouth.Blackball was named after the Black Ball Shipping Line, which leased land in the area to mine for coal. It was formerly known as Joliffetown and Moonlight Gully.Blackball is a centre...
, and became prominent in the labour movement nationally.
Early political career
Webb was one of the more radical figures in the unions. Many of the older leaders continued to support the loose alliance between the labour movement and the Liberal Party, but Webb believed that only independent action could advance workers' interests. Webb was involved in founding the radical New Zealand Federation of Labour (the "Red Feds"), and in the
1911 electionThe New Zealand general election of 1911 was held on Thursday, 7 and 14 December in the general electorates, and on Tuesday, 19 December in the Māori electorates to elect a total of 80 MPs to the 18th session of the New Zealand Parliament...
, he stood unsuccessfully in the
Grey electorateGrey is a former Parliamentary electorate in the West Coast region of New Zealand.The electorate of Grey Valley, created for the 1871 general election, was succeeded by the electorate of Greymouth in the 1881 general election, and lasted until 1890...
in Parliament. He then played a major role in the 1913 "Unity Conference", in which the
Socialist PartyThe New Zealand Socialist Party was founded in 1901, promoting the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The group, despite being relatively moderate when compared with many other socialists, met with little tangible success, but it nevertheless had considerable impact on the development of New...
and the more moderate
United Labour PartyThe United Labour Party of New Zealand was an early left-wing political party. Founded in 1912, it represented the more moderate wing of the labour movement. In 1916 it joined with other political groups to establish the modern Labour Party.- Origins :...
merged to form the
Social Democratic PartyThe Social Democratic Party of New Zealand was an early left-wing political party. It existed only a short time before being amalgamated into the new Labour Party...
. The Grey electorate became vacant in 1913, and he was nominated as the Social Democrat candidate. In the by-election he was elected on the second ballot with Liberal Party support, and in the
1914 general electionThe New Zealand general election of 1914 was held on 10 December to elect a total of 80 MPs to the 19th session of the New Zealand Parliament. A total number of 616,043 voters were registered, of which 84.7% voters turned out to vote....
, he was re-elected. In 1916, the Social Democrats merged with the remnants of the United Labour Party that had resisted the previous merger, forming the modern
Labour PartyThe New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. It describes itself as centre-left and socially progressive and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935....
.
Jailed
In
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Webb became a prominent critic of
conscriptionConscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
, and in April 1917, he was briefly jailed on charges of sedition. In October that year, Webb was selected for military service himself, but refused to comply. In order to seek a public mandate for his decision, he resigned from his seat in Parliament, and challenged the government to fight the by-election on the issue. The government refused, and Webb was returned to Parliament unopposed. Webb was subsequently offered a non-combat role, but again refused. He was then sentenced to two years hard labour, and was barred from political office for ten years. In 1918, his vacant seat in Parliament was won in a by-election by
Harry HollandHenry Edmund Holland was a New Zealand politician and unionist. He was the first leader of the New Zealand Labour Party.-Early life:...
, also a member of the Labour Party.
After completing his sentence (spent planting trees), Webb returned to mining. He eventually established a
cooperativeA cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
coal depot in
ChristchurchChristchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
. This brought him into conflict with certain radical members of the labour movement, who believed that the cooperative structure undermined unionism, since in a cooperative corporation (where the workers are also the owners), there is no need for workers to organise against the owners.
Return to politics
In the
1932 Motueka by-election, Webb attempted to return to Parliament, but was defeated by
Keith HolyoakeSir Keith Jacka Holyoake, KG, GCMG, CH, QSO, KStJ was a New Zealand politician. The only person to have been both Prime Minister and Governor-General of New Zealand, Holyoake was National Party Prime Minister from 20 September 1957 to 12 December 1957, then again from 12 December 1960 to 7...
. The following year, the death of
Harry HollandHenry Edmund Holland was a New Zealand politician and unionist. He was the first leader of the New Zealand Labour Party.-Early life:...
(who had won Webb's old seat in 1918, and who now represented Buller) resulted in another by-election. Although Webb's nomination was opposed by radical members of the union movement, Webb was re-elected to Parliament, for
BullerBuller is a former New Zealand Parliamentary electorate, from 1871 to 1972.-History:Early members for Buller were:*Eugene O'Conor from 1871 to 1875 and again from 1884 to 1893 *Joseph Henry from 1876 to 1879...
.
When the Labour Party won the
1935 general electionThe 1935 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's 25th term. It resulted in the Labour Party's first electoral victory, with Michael Joseph Savage becoming the first Labour Prime Minister...
, Webb was appointed to
CabinetThe Cabinet of New Zealand functions as the policy and decision-making body of the executive branch within the New Zealand government system...
by Michael Joseph Savage, his old friend from the mines in Australia. He was given the position of Minister of Mines, a role in which he pressed for the nationalisation of the mining industry. Gradually, assisted by the heightened demand for coal during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Webb oversaw the purchase of many major operations. During this slow process, Webb had to contend not only with opponents of nationalisation but with radicals who demanded the immediate nationalisation of the entire industry.
Webb had a reputation as Parliament’s Lothario, and in mid-1939 he was being pursued by a woman for breach of promise to marry; the Hon
Mark FaganMark Anthony Fagan was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party and a union secretary. He stood several times for Labour but was not elected, although he was on Labour’s National Executive from 1930. In 1935 he was appointed to the Legislative Council, where he was Speaker, to 1947...
got
Colin ScrimgeourRev. Colin Graham Scrimgeour, known as Uncle Scrim or Scrim was a New Zealand Methodist Minister and Broadcaster....
then the head of commercial broadcasting to give her a job with radio station 1ZB in Auckland.
In 1946, Webb finally retired from politics. He died in Christchurch on 23 March 1950.