Sir Walter Nash (12 February 1882 – 4 June 1968) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 27th prime minister of New Zealand in the Second Labour Government from 1957 to 1960. He is noted for his long period of political service, having been associated with the New Zealand Labour Party since its creation.
Nash was born in the West Midlands, England, and is the most recent New Zealand prime minister to be born outside the country. He arrived in New Zealand in 1909, soon joined the original Labour Party, and became a member of the party's executive in 1919. Guided to politics by his beliefs in Anglicanism, Christian socialism and pacifism, he gained a reputation for brilliant ability as an organiser and administrator which compensated for a lack of charisma and bouts of indecisiveness.
Nash was elected to the House of Representatives in the Hutt by-election of 1929. He served as the member of Parliament (MP) for the Hutt electorate for 13 consecutive terms, over a period of 38 years and 168 days. As of 2023, he is the fourth-longest serving MP. Appointed as minister of finance in 1935, Nash guided the First Labour Government's economic recovery programme during the Great Depression and then directed the government's wartime controls. At 14 years he has the longest period of continuous service of any New Zealand minister of finance, and this service included the entire period of World War II. He succeeded Peter Fraser as leader of the Labour Party and leader of the Opposition in 1951. He was from the moderate wing of the Labour Party and was criticised by the left wing of the party for failing to support the strikers during the 1951 Waterfront Dispute, and for not taking stronger action over the controversial exclusion of Māori players from the 1960 rugby tour of South Africa.
In the , the Labour Party won a narrow victory and Nash became prime minister. The Second Labour Government's "Black Budget" of 1958, in response to a balance of payments crisis, increased taxes on luxuries such as beer and tobacco. Public hostility toward the budget contributed to Labour's heavy defeat in the . Nash was active in international affairs and travelled extensively during his premiership, revising trade terms and supporting aid and development in other nations. Leaving office at 78 years of age, Nash is to date New Zealand's oldest prime minister. He died on 4 June 1968 at the age of 86 while still a serving MP, apparently the oldest person to be a serving MP. He was accorded a state funeral, the first in New Zealand for 18 years.
Early life Nash was born on 12 February 1882 in Kidderminster, a town in the English county of Worcestershire. He was born into a poor family and his father was an alcoholic. Nash performed well at school and won a scholarship to King Charles I Grammar School but additional costs associated with attending prevented him from accepting. Nash began employment as a clerk, initially with a lawyer in Kidderminster and then at a factory near Birmingham.
On 16 June 1906, Nash married Lottie May Eaton and established a shop. He became highly active in his community, participating in a large number of societies and clubs. He also attended night school to further his education. However, by 1908 problems began to arise. His wife and son were both ill and a daughter died at birth. In addition an economic recession in the following year seriously harmed his business. The family decided to leave England, settling on New Zealand as a destination.
After arriving in Wellington, in May 1909 Nash became secretary to a local tailor. His wife had two more sons. Nash's religious and political beliefs also began to solidify at this point, with the strong Christian faith he received from his mother being merged with a growing belief in socialism. Nash would remain a Christian socialist for the rest of his life, believing that the two components were inseparable. His political opinions were influenced by his friendship with prominent New Zealand socialists such as Michael Joseph Savage, Bob Semple and Harry Holland. Nash also became a committed pacifist. During World War I he made many speeches at the Church of England Men's Society stating his reasons for pacifism were faith based and called for understanding with German and Austrian Christians. Despite anti-German sentiment in New Zealand during the war, Nash allowed a German to stay at his home. Due to his open pacifism and friendship with other anti-war activists such as Holland his mail was scrutinised by police looking for evidence on himself and colleagues for sedition or treason.
Nash's financial situation deteriorated when the tailor's firm that he worked for (and was a shareholder of) declined. Nash and his family moved to Palmerston North where he became a salesman for a wool and cloth merchant. Later he established a tailoring company in New Plymouth along with Bill Besley, a tailor from Stratford, although the business performed poorly.
Political career Early political career
Nash had briefly been involved with the first Labour Party, established in 1910, but this association had been interrupted by his financial difficulties. In 1918 however, he helped to establish the New Plymouth branch of the modern Labour Party and he became highly active as secretary of the branch and main organiser for the Labour Party ticket at the 1919 local-body elections. Labour campaigned on borrowing £30,000 to finance council housing which the occupiers were to have a right to purchase, with the rest funded by profits made by the local electric light department. Another pledge was to establish a municipal milk supply. Twenty-six thousand leaflets were printed and distributed by the branch. Nash was a candidate for the borough council himself, but was unsuccessful though did poll the highest of the Labour candidates. The following year Nash was elected to the party's national executive.
In 1920 Nash and his wife travelled to Europe, attending various socialist conferences. When they returned to New Zealand in January 1921, Nash was fined for importing "seditious literature". Despite the reputation that this fine gave him among his fellow socialists, Nash was one of the more moderate members of the Labour Party. In 1922, a year after he had returned to Wellington, Nash was elected national secretary of the Labour Party. After winning the national secretary position he withdrew as Labour's candidate for the seat at the upcoming . When he took up the national secretary role he found the party had a total debt of £220. The debt was settled when together with Nash's own loan, John Glover (manager of the Maoriland Worker) lent some £100 interest free.
Nash is often credited with turning the Labour Party into a fully functioning entity by establishing an efficient organisational structure and paying off the party's debts. Following his announcement of "" in the Maoriland Worker he worked hard to increase the party's membership which grew from 21,000 in 1919 to 45,000 in 1925. The delegates at Labour's 1922 annual conference voted to establish a permanent national office which Nash was given the responsibility of doing. Having now set up a centralised location to coordinate party activities and election campaigns was a vital step up to Labour becoming a major political party in New Zealand.
As he had been in New Plymouth, Nash became involved in local politics in Wellington. At the 1927 local elections he stood as a Labour candidate for a seat on the Wellington City Council. He polled well but was not successful. Two years later he contested the Wellington mayoralty for Labour at the 1929 election, but was defeated by the incumbent mayor George Troup.
Member for Hutt
Nash stood for election in the electorate in the and s, but was not successful until the . He served the electorate for 13 consecutive terms over a period of 38 years and 168 days which, , makes him New Zealand's fourth-longest serving MP. Immediately upon entering Parliament Nash became one of Labour's main finance spokesmen. By 1932 he had moved up to the front bench and had become the senior finance spokesman. After entering Parliament, Nash built a house in the electorate he represented. The house, a modest bungalow in St Albans Grove, was completed in 1930 and he lived in the house the rest of his life.
Minister of Finance
When Labour, led by Michael Joseph Savage, won the 1935 election Nash was appointed to Cabinet as minister of finance, although he also held a number of more minor positions. His other portfolios were customs, statistics, marketing, revenue and social security. He was ranked third in the First Labour Government, with only Savage and Peter Fraser above him. Nash remained as minister of finance, responsible for the New Zealand Treasury for the next 14 years. As of 2023, he has the longest period of continuous service in that role. Soon after its election the government gave a "Christmas bonus" of £270,000 to the unemployed and needy.
New Zealand's economy was in poor shape at the time of Nash's appointment as finance minister and he was very busy for the early part of his ministerial career. Nash introduced a number of substantial changes, in an attempt to improve the situation. He reintroduced a graduated land tax at high rates. The land tax (which had been rescinded in October 1931) netted an extra £8 million to fund government spending. He also supervised the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. Although some unemployment persisted, rising export prices helped the government to implement its election policies. The changes in economic policy included restoring wage cuts, expanding pensions, guaranteeing farmers' prices and revaluation of the currency. In 1936 Nash departed for England to conduct trade negotiations. The negotiations were only partially successful, with an agreement reached over New Zealand's meat prices for beef and lamb exports. He also visited other European capitals, particularly Berlin and Moscow, to determine whether there was scope for trade agreements there. He reached a bilateral trade deal with Germany to export butter there. He also went to Copenhagen to study the Danish system of exchange controls, and had further fruitless trade talks in both Paris and Amsterdam.
After returning to New Zealand he became involved in disputes within the Labour Party about economic policy. In particular he was heavily criticised by supporters of the Social Credit movement who wanted their views adopted as Labour Party policy. Nash was also attacked by the more radical socialists in the party who saw Nash's pragmatic economic policies as too moderate. However, Nash was supported by both Savage and Fraser and emerged relatively unscathed. He gained the additional responsibility of implementing Labour's social security plan. Nash himself had limited involvement in the formulation of Labour's economic reform policies, however he was largely responsible for putting them into effect, with other ministers relying on him for his attention to detail.