John Stevens (New Zealand politician)

Stevens was born in Wellington in 1845.{{cite news |title=Interprovincial |url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=CHP19160801.2.83 |access-date=21 November 2013 |work=The Press |date=1 August 1916 |volume=LII |issue=15657 |page=10}} Stevens moved north and resided in first the Rangitikei then Manawatu districts from 1854. He made a living in agricultural until 1873, when he was hired by Henry Russell as an assistant and interpreter during a Native Lands Alienation Commission at Napier. He pursued an occupation as a Maori interpreter and land agent, then began an auctioneering and land agency in 1875.{{cite news |author= |title=The New Members. Biographical Sketches. |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19051207.2.3 |work=The Evening Post |location=Wellington |date=7 December 1905 |access-date=22 December 2015 }}

{{NZ parlbox header|nolist=true|align=left}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = 1881

|end = 1884

|term = 8th

|electorate = Rangitikei

|party = Independent politician

}}

{{NZ parlbox break}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = 1893

|end = 1896

|term = 12th

|electorate = Rangitikei

|party = New Zealand Liberal Party

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = 1896

|end = 1899

|term = 13th

|electorate = Manawatu

|party = New Zealand Liberal Party

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = 1899

|end = 1902

|term = 14th

|electorate = Manawatu

|party = New Zealand Liberal Party

}}

{{NZ parlbox break}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start = 1905

|end = 1908

|term = 16th

|electorate = Manawatu

|party = New Zealand Liberal Party

}}

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Stevens represented the Rangitikei electorate from 1881 to 1884 when he was defeated, and then from 1893 to 1896.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|pp=236}} He unsuccessfully contested the {{NZ electorate link|Palmerston}} electorate in the {{NZ election link|1890}}.{{cite web |title=The General Election, 1890 |url= http://atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&cl=search&d=AJHR1891-I.2.1.6.2 |publisher=National Library |access-date=25 February 2012 |page=1 |year=1891}}

Stevens contested the 1892 Rangitikei by-election as an Independent Liberal as the Liberal Party was reluctant to endorse him in light of the recent Bruce by-election in which the candidate the Liberal Party endorsed lost by a large margin. Stevens lost by only 61 votes.{{cite news|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=CHP18920604.2.40|title=Rangitikei Election|work=The Press|volume=49|issue=8190|page=6|date=4 June 1892|access-date=17 May 2016}}

He later returned to parliament, representing the Manawatu electorate from 1896 to 1902 when he was defeated, and from 1905 to 1908 when he was again defeated.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|pp=236}} Stevens served as the Liberal Party's Senior Whip from 1900 until 1902.{{sfn|Wilson|1985|pp=279–80}}

In his later years, he had become blind and his lower limbs were paralysed, but he was in good spirits and would not allow others to sympathise with him. He was in the midst of a conversation with friends when he leaned back and died on 31 July 1916.{{cite news |title=Interprovincial |url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=PBH19160731.2.21 |access-date=21 November 2013 |work=Poverty Bay Herald |date=31 July 1916 |volume=XLIII |issue=14058 |page=5}}{{cite news |title=Interprovincial |url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=CHP19160802.2.78 |access-date=21 November 2013 |work=The Press |date=2 August 1916 |volume=LII |issue=15658 |page=10}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|John Stevens (New Zealand politician)}}

• {{Cite book |last=Hamer |first=David A. |author-link=D. A. Hamer |title=The New Zealand Liberals: The Years of Power, 1891–1912 |year=1988 |place=Auckland |publisher=Auckland University Press |isbn=1-86940-014-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/newzealandlibera0000hame }}
• {{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-par | nz}}

{{s-bef | before= William Fox}}

{{s-ttl | rows=2 | title= Member of Parliament for Rangitikei|years=1881–1884
1893–1896}}

{{s-aft | after= Robert Bruce}}

{{s-bef | before= Robert Cunningham Bruce}}

{{s-aft | after= Frank Lethbridge}}

{{s-vac | abeyance | last= Douglas Hastings Macarthur}}

{{s-ttl | rows=2 | title= Member of Parliament for Manawatu|years=1896–1902
1905–1908}}

{{s-aft | after= Job Vile}}

{{s-bef | before= Job Vile}}

{{s-aft | after= Edward Newman}}

{{s-ppo}}

{{succession box | title = Senior Whip of the Liberal Party

| years = 1900–1902

| before = Charles H. Mills

| after = Walter Carncross}}

{{end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, John}}

Category:1845 births

Category:1916 deaths

Category:New Zealand Liberal Party MPs

Category:New Zealand MPs for North Island electorates

Category:Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives

Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1884 New Zealand general election

Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1890 New Zealand general election

Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1902 New Zealand general election

Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1908 New Zealand general election

Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1887 New Zealand general election

Category:19th-century New Zealand politicians