Walter Nash
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Sir Walter Nash (born February 11, 1882 in Kidderminster , England , † June 4, 1968 in Wellington ) was Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1957 to 1960 and was a member of the Labor Party .
Pre-political life
Nash was born in Worcestershire , in the city of Kidderminster. After graduation, Nash from a poor family worked as an office worker in Kidderminster, later near Birmingham .
In 1906 he married Lotty May Easton and started a small business. When his wife and son fell ill in 1908 and an economic crisis paralyzed his business, he and his family decided to leave England and settle in New Zealand.
In Wellington, Nash became the secretary of a tailor. During this time, his religious and political views consolidated. He thought socialism and Christianity were two closely related components. A short time later, Nash set up a tailor shop in New Plymouth .
Political career 1918–1935
In 1918, Walter Nash helped build the Labor Party in New Plymouth, which was founded in 1911. Just one year later he was elected to the national management. Between 1920 and 1921 he traveled through Europe and took part in many socio-political conferences.
In 1922, Nash was elected to the Labor Party board. He mainly worked on increasing the number of members and made a major contribution to establishing the party.
In 1929 Walter Nash was elected to the New Zealand Parliament as a Labor Party MP in the Hutt District. He became one of the Party's financial policy spokesmen.
Finance minister
When the Labor Party won the elections in 1935, Nash was surprisingly nominated as Treasury Secretary. New Zealand's economy was in poor shape when he began his tenure. He started a number of significant changes, had the Reserve Bank of New Zealand nationalized and took part in conferences in Berlin and Moscow, among other things.
Nash's policies were felt to be too moderate by the more radical socialists. This sparked a heated debate about his administration, which Nash survived relatively unscathed because he was supported by then Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage .
During World War II, Nash was reluctant to break with his earlier pacifism, calling the war necessary. For some time he worked as a diplomatic representative in the USA . After the war, he attended the conferences establishing the United Nations and recommended New Zealand join the International Monetary Fund .
Opposition leader
Shortly after the 1949 election, Prime Minister Peter Fraser died and Nash was elected Labor Party leader without major complications. In the following years he led the opposition in parliament. This part of his work is generally not considered successful.
prime minister
In 1957, Nash's party won the elections for promises to cut taxes and abolish conscription. Walter Nash became Prime Minister of New Zealand. He set himself the goal of getting the dramatic financial situation of the state under control again, but had to increase taxes to do so, which met with great incomprehension among the population. Another factor that cost the Labor Party important sympathy was the fact that Nash did not intervene in a debate about apartheid in South Africa. In 1957, under pressure from the South African government, New Zealand withdrew all Maori players from their rugby team. During his tenure, the New Zealand Ross Sea Committee named the Nash Range in the Antarctic Ross Dependency after him.
After 1960
In the 1960 elections, the Labor Party lost and Nash became the opposition leader again. It was not until 1963, at the age of 81, that Walter Nash withdrew from political life due to massive protests against himself.
Nash remained a member of parliament for the Hutt district until his death. He was also active in the protest movement against the Vietnam War , as he sharply criticized the bombing. He died on June 4, 1968.
In his honor, Nash Peak on Ross Island in Antarctica has been named after him since 2000 .
Web links
- Official biography
- Newspaper article about Walter Nash in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Henry Sewell | William Fox | Edward Stafford | Alfred Domett | Frederick Whitaker | Frederick Weld | George Waterhouse | Julius Vogel | Daniel Pollen | Harry Atkinson | George Gray | John Hall | Robert Stout | John Ballance | Richard Seddon | William Hall-Jones | Joseph Ward | Thomas Mackenzie | William Massey | Francis Bell | Joseph Gordon Coates | George Forbes | Michael Savage | Peter Fraser | Sidney Holland | Keith Holyoake | Walter Nash | Jack Marshall | Norman Kirk | Bill Rowling | Robert Muldoon | David Lange | Geoffrey Palmer | Mike Moore | Jim Bolger | Jenny Shipley | Helen Clark | John Key | Bill English | Jacinda Ardern
Alfred Hindmarsh (1916–1918) • Harry Holland (1919–1933) • Michael Joseph Savage (1933–1940) • Peter Fraser (1940–1950) • Walter Nash (1951–1963) • Arnold Nordmeyer (1963–1965) • Norman Kirk (1965–1974) • Bill Rowling (1974–1983) • David Lange (1983–1989) • Geoffrey Palmer (1989–1990) • Mike Moore (1990–1993) • Helen Clark (1993–2008) • Phil Goff ( 2008–2011) • David Shearer (2011–2013) • David Cunliffe (2013–2014) • Andrew Little (2014–2017) • Jacinda Ardern (since 2017)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nash, Walter |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Nash, Sir Walter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | New Zealand politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 11, 1882 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kidderminster , England |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th June 1968 |
| Place of death | Wellington |