William Rolleston

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix = The Honourable

|name = William Rolleston

|honorific-suffix =

|image = William Rolleston, 1895.jpg

|alt = seated portrait photo of a dark-haired clean-shaven man aged 64

|caption = William Rolleston in 1895

|order = 3rd Leader of the Opposition

|term_start = 31 August 1891

|term_end = 8 November 1893

|predecessor = John Bryce

|successor = William Russell

|order1 = 12th Minister of Native Affairs

|primeminister1 = John Hall

|term_start1 = February 1881

|term_end1 = 19 October 1881

|predecessor1 = John Bryce

|successor1 = John Bryce

|order2 = 6th Minister of Justice

|primeminister2 = John Hall

|term_start2 = 15 December 1880

|term_end2 = 23 April 1881

|predecessor2 = John Sheehan

|successor2 = Thomas Dick

|constituency_MP4 = Avon

|parliament4 = New Zealand

|term_start4 = 8 June 1868

|term_end4 = 27 June 1884

|predecessor4 =

|successor4 =

|constituency_MP5 = Geraldine

|parliament5 = New Zealand

|term_start5 = 22 July 1884

|term_end5 = 15 July 1887

|predecessor5 =

|successor5 =

|constituency_MP6 = Halswell

|parliament6 = New Zealand

|term_start6 = 5 December 1890

|term_end6 = 8 November 1893

|predecessor6 =

|successor6 =

|constituency_MP7 = Riccarton

|parliament7 = New Zealand

|term_start7 = 4 December 1896

|term_end7 = 15 November 1899

|predecessor7 =

|successor7 =

|order8 = 4th Superintendent of Canterbury Province

|term_start8 = 22 May 1868

|term_end8 = 1 January 1877

|predecessor8 =

|successor8 =

|birth_date = {{birth date|1831|09|19|df=yes}}

|birth_place = Yorkshire, England

|death_date = {{death date and age|1903|2|8|1831|9|19|df=yes}}

|death_place = Canterbury, New Zealand

|spouse = Mary Rolleston (married 1865)

|relations = Rolleston family

|religion =

|profession = Farmer

}}

William Rolleston (19 September 1831 – 8 February 1903) was a New Zealand politician, public administrator, educationalist and Canterbury provincial superintendent.

Biography

=Early life=

Rolleston was born on 19 September 1831 at Maltby, Yorkshire as the 9th child of the Rev. George Rolleston and Anne Nettleship. His brother was the physician and zoologist George Rolleston.{{cite book |title=The Cyclopedia of New Zealand : Canterbury Provincial District |date=1903 |publisher=The Cyclopedia Company Limited |location=Christchurch |url= https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc03Cycl-t1-body1-d2-d5.html |page=38 |chapter=The Hon. William Rolleston}} He attended Rossall School and Emmanuel College,{{acad|id=RLSN851W|name=Rolleston, William}} where he graduated in 1855 with second class honours in the classical tripos. He had intended to move to Canterbury but his father advised against it so he took up tutoring. However, this was merely a means of raising enough money to leave England in order to reject 'Conservatives and Ecclesiastics'.{{DNZB|Gardner|Jim|1r17|Rolleston, William|31 July 2011}}

=Political career=

{{NZ parlbox

|start={{By-election link year|Avon|1868}}

|end=1871

|term=4th

|electorate=Avon

|party=Independent politician

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start={{NZ election link year|1871}}

|end=1875

|term=5th

|electorate=Avon

|party=Independent politician

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start=1875

|end=1879

|term=6th

|electorate=Avon

|party=Independent politician

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start={{NZ election link year|1879}}

|end=1881

|term=7th

|electorate=Avon

|party=Independent politician

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start={{NZ election link year|1881}}

|end=1884

|term=8th

|electorate=Avon

|party=Independent politician

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start={{NZ election link year|1884}}

|end=1887

|term=9th

|electorate=Geraldine

|party=Independent politician

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start={{NZ election link year|1890}}

|end=1893

|term=11th

|electorate=Halswell

|party=Conservative (New Zealand)

}}

{{NZ parlbox

|start={{NZ election link year|1896}}

|end=1899

|term=13th

|electorate=Riccarton

|party=Conservative (New Zealand)

}}

Rolleston first joined the Canterbury Provincial Council when he was appointed to the Canterbury Executive Council on 4 December 1863. His tenure on the Executive Council finished on 16 June 1865.{{sfn|Scholefield|1950|p=191}} On 23 January 1864, he was elected as a provincial councillor in the Heathcote electorate and remained a councillor until 23 June 1865.{{sfn|Scholefield|1950|p=196}} On 22 May 1868, he was elected unopposed{{cite news |url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP18680525.2.10 |title=Superintendency of Canterbury. Election of Mr. Rolleston |volume=IV |issue=86 |date=25 May 1868 | work=The Evening Post |page=2 |access-date=22 April 2010}} as the 4th (and last) Superintendent of the Canterbury Province. He held that office until the abolition of the provinces on 31 October 1876.{{sfn|Scholefield|1950|p=188}}

Rolleston represented the Avon electorate from a by-election in 1868 to 1884. In 1878 as an MP Rolleston proposed a school for deaf children. The government agreed to open a state school for the deaf in Christchurch, and the Sumner Deaf and Dumb Institution opened in 1880.{{cite web |title=1880 |url=http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Chronology/Year/1880.asp |publisher=Christchurch City Libraries |access-date=26 August 2016}}

In the 1879 general election, he was returned unopposed.{{cite news |title=The General Elections. |url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=TS18790828.2.7 |access-date=14 November 2011 |work=The Star |date=28 August 1879|issue=3551|page=2}} He then represented Geraldine from 1884 to 1887. The Geraldine electorate was abolished in 1887 and replaced with the {{NZ electorate link|Rangitata}}, where he was defeated by Searby Buxton. He then represented Halswell from 1890 to 1893. The Halswell electorate was abolished in 1893, and he contested Ellesmere, where he was defeated. He then represented Riccarton from 1896 to 1899. He had won the 1896 election against George Warren Russell, but was defeated by him in 1899 by just one vote.{{DNZB|Rice|Geoffrey W.|2R31|Russell, George Warren|27 May 2010||Geoffrey Rice}}

Rolleston served as Minister of Justice in the government of Premier John Hall from December 1880 to April 1881. He was also appointed Minister of Native Affairs in January 1881 after the resignation of John Bryce, heading the department as the Government prepared to invade the Māori settlement of Parihaka in November. Rolleston stood aside as minister on the night of 19 October 1881 after the Hall government's Executive Council held an emergency meeting in the absence of Governor Sir Arthur Gordon to issue a proclamation against Māori prophet Te Whiti and the inhabitants of Parihaka, ordering them to leave Parihaka and accept the sale and dismemberment of their land or face "the great evil which must fall on them".[http://www.waitangi-tribunal.govt.nz/scripts/reports/reports/143/873CF3DD-F852-4150-B5AE-A87072C09A11.pdf The Taranaki Report: Kaupapa Tuatahi by the Waitangi Tribunal, chapter 8.] He was replaced as minister by his predecessor, John Bryce, who three weeks later led a raid by 1600 Armed Constabulary on the settlement, the centre of a passive resistance campaign against the sale of Māori land.

In 1891 he was elected unopposed as Leader of the Opposition.{{cite news |title=The Opposition Leadership |url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP18910909.2.47 |access-date=5 November 2017 |work=The Press |date=9 September 1891 |volume=XLVIII |issue=7962 |page=5}}

In 1893 he supported women's suffrage, and subsequently claimed the credit in the {{NZ election link|1893}}.

File:Codlin's the friend.jpg

=Later life and commemoration=

He married Elizabeth Mary Brittan in 1865 at Avonside, Christchurch; she was the daughter of Joseph Brittan. They had four daughters and five sons, including John, Frank and Arthur Rolleston. William Rolleston died at his Rangitata farm at Kapunatiki on 8 February 1903. He is buried at Holy Trinity Avonside.{{cite news |last=Crean |first=Mike |title=Anguish over unique church |work=The Press |date=30 July 2011 |page=C12}} A statue was erected in his honour in front of the Canterbury Museum.

Notes

References

{{cite book |author-link = Guy Scholefield |last= Scholefield |first= Guy |title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 |edition=3rd |orig-year= First ed. published 1913 |year= 1950 |publisher=Govt. Printer |location= Wellington}}

External links

[http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/alt_essayBody.asp?essayID=1R17 Gardner, W. J. Rolleston, William 1831 - 1903. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 7 July 2005]
[http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/R/RollestonWilliam/RollestonWilliam/en Biography in the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand]
{{Cite Australasia|Rolleston, Hon. William}}