Henry Fish
{{Short description|New Zealand politician (1838–1897)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Henry Fish
| image = Henry Fish.jpg
| caption = A portrait of Fish, taken c. 1881.
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1838|7|15|df=y}}
| birth_place = Pimlico, London
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1897|9|23|1838|7|15|df=y}}
| death_place = Dunedin, New Zealand
| opponents = Women's suffrage
}}
Henry Smith Fish (15 July 1838 – 23 September 1897) was a 19th-century New Zealand politician. For a time, he was a member of the Liberal Party. He was Mayor of Dunedin for a total of six years. Smith is remembered as one of the staunch opponents of women's suffrage.
Early life
Fish was born in Pimlico, London, in 1838. His parents were Mary Ann Passmore and Henry Smith Fish, a painter. He received his education at Cave House School and from 1849 at Melbourne, where the family settled. He accompanied his father to the gold diggings in The Ovens, Nova Scotia. Afterwards, he worked in his father's painting and glazier business in Melbourne, and from around 1863, in Dunedin, to where the family relocated.{{DNZB|Sinclair|F. R. J. |2f8|Fish, Henry Smith|25 December 2013}} They traded as H. S. Fish and Son and were based in Princes Street South.{{cite news |title=Page 4 Advertisements Column 5 |url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NOT18641201.2.3.5 |accessdate=25 December 2013 |work=North Otago Times |date=1 December 1864 |volume=II |issue=41 |page=4}}
On 31 January 1867, he married Jane Carr at Dunedin's St Paul's Church.
Political career
{{NZ parlbox header|nolist=true|align=right}}
{{NZ parlbox
|start = {{NZ election link year|1881}}
|end = 1884
|term = 8th
|electorate = Dunedin South
|party = Independent politician
}}
{{NZ parlbox break}}
{{NZ parlbox
|start = {{NZ election link year|1887}}
|end = 1890
|term = 10th
|electorate = Dunedin South
|party = Independent politician
}}
{{NZ parlbox
|start = {{NZ election link year|1890}}
|end = 1893
|term = 11th
|electorate = {{NZ electorate link|City of Dunedin}}
|party = New Zealand Liberal Party
}}
{{NZ parlbox break}}
{{NZ parlbox
|start = {{NZ election link year|1896}}
|end = 1897
|term = 11th
|electorate = City of Dunedin
|party = Independent politician
}}
{{NZ parlbox footer}}
Fish was first elected onto Dunedin City Council in 1867. He was the Mayor of Dunedin from 1870 to 1873 and again from 1893 to 1895.{{cite news|title=Mayors of Dunedin |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OW18980317.1.121 |accessdate=6 October 2010 |work=Otago Witness |date=17 March 1898 |issue=2298 |page=62 }} In total, he served on Dunedin City Council for over 20 years.
Fish represented the Dunedin electorate on the Otago Provincial Council in 1870, and from 1873 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876.{{sfn|Scholefield|1950|p=220}} He was briefly a member of the Executive Council in May/June 1875.{{sfn|Scholefield|1950|p=217}}
He represented the Dunedin South electorate from 1881 to 1884 when he was defeated, then from 1887 to 1890. He then held one of the three seats for the City of Dunedin multi-member electorate from 1890{{cite web |title=The General Election, 1890 |url= https://atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&cl=search&d=AJHR1891-I.2.1.6.2 |publisher=National Library |accessdate=26 November 2013 |page=2 |year=1891}} to 1893 when he was defeated, and from 1896 to 1897, when he died. He was replaced by Alexander Sligo.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|p=196}}
Fish represented liquor interests in Parliament, and was an opponent of Women's suffrage in 1890–1893 on their behalf. He paid his anti-suffragist campaigners a bounty for signatures collected, but lost credibility when some signatures were found to be fraudulent.Women’s Suffrage, Archives New Zealand Info Sheet 4, March 2011
Death
Smith died of throat cancer in Dunedin on 23 September 1897.{{cite news|title=Dunedin: Deaths |url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=OAM18970927.2.6&srpos=7&e=26-09-1897-10-10-1897--100--1-byDA-on--0Gillies-ARTICLE- |accessdate=29 July 2015|work=Oamaru Mail|date=27 September 1897|page=1}}
Notes
{{Reflist}}
References
- {{cite book |author-link = Guy Scholefield | last = Scholefield | first= Guy | title = New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 | edition = 3rd | orig-year=First published in 1913 | year = 1950 |publisher = Govt. Printer |location = Wellington}}
- {{cite book |last= Wilson |first= James Oakley |title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 |edition= 4th |orig-year=First published in 1913 |year= 1985 |publisher=V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer |location= Wellington |oclc= 154283103}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef | before = Thomas Birch}}
{{s-ttl | rows = 2 | title = Mayor of Dunedin|years=1870–1873
1893–1895}}
{{s-aft | after = Andrew Mercer}}
{{s-bef | before = Charles Haynes}}
{{s-aft | after = Nathaniel Wales}}
{{end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fish, Henry Smith}}
Category:Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
Category:Deaths from cancer in New Zealand
Category:Deaths from esophageal cancer
Category:New Zealand MPs for Dunedin electorates
Category:Burials at Dunedin Southern Cemetery
Category:Members of the Otago Provincial Council
Category:Members of Otago provincial executive councils
Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1884 New Zealand general election
Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1893 New Zealand general election