William Parry (politician)
Encyclopedia
William Edward Parry (1878–1952) was a New Zealand
New Zealand
New 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...

 Minister
Minister (government)
A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....

 and trade unionist.

Early years

Bill Parry was born at Orange, in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , 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...

 and arrived in New Zealand
New Zealand
New 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...

 in 1906 (Gustafson: Savage, p. 293).

Parry was a miner at Waihi
Waihi
Waihi is a town in Hauraki District in the North Island of New Zealand, especially notable for its history as a gold mine town. It had a population of 4,503 at the 2006 census....

 and Secretary of the Waihi Miners' Union. He was imprisoned at Mt. Eden as a result of the 1912 Strike.
He opposed conscription
Conscription
Conscription 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...

 during World War I
World War I
World 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...

.

Member of Parliament

Bill Parry represented the electorates of Auckland Central
Auckland Central
Auckland Central is a New Zealand electoral division returning one member to the New Zealand House of Representatives. Its current representative is Nikki Kaye, a member of the National Party; she has represented the seat since 2008....

 from 1919 to 1946, and then Arch Hill from 1946 to 1951, when he retired.

Parry was the Minister of Internal Affairs
Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand)
The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs is a state sector organisation whose roles include the issue of passports; administering citizenship grant applications, and lottery grant applications; enforcement of censorship and gambling law; registration of births, deaths, marriages and civil...

 from 1935 to 1949 and the Minister in charge of Pensions when Labour introduced Social Security in 1938 (Gustafson: Labour's Path, p. 164).

Bill Parry died in 1952.

Further reading

  • New Zealand Parliamentary Record 1840-1984 By J. O. Wilson (1985, Government Printer, Wellington)
  • From the Cradle to the Grave: A Biography of M.J. Savage By Barry Gustafson
    Barry Gustafson
    Barry Gustafson is a New Zealand political scientist and historian, and a leading political biographer. He served for nearly four decades as Professor of Political Studies at the University of Auckland, and as Acting Director of the New Zealand Asia Institute from 2004 to 2006.-Politics and...

     (1986, Methuen/Reed, Auckland)
  • Labour's Path to Political Independence: The Origins and Establishment of the NZLP 1900-1919 By Barry Gustafson (1980, Oxford University Press, Auckland)

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