Reform Party (New Zealand)

Defunct The Liberal Party, founded by John Ballance and fortified by Richard Seddon, was highly dominant in New Zealand politics at the beginning of the 20th century.

[3] Gradually, however, the Liberals began to falter — the first blow came with the death of Richard Seddon, their popular leader, but other factors contributed to their decline.

Having achieved the land reforms, farmers had little reason to continue their support for the Liberals, and drifted towards the socially conservative opposition.

At the same time, the Liberals were also slowly losing their other base of support, the urban working class — the Ballance and Seddon governments had introduced many reformist labour laws, but under later leaders (notably Joseph Ward) the reforms had slowed.

Also closely linked to the group were the Political Reform League, Auckland's "National Association", and (in an unofficial capacity) the Farmers' Union.

[6] Despite campaigning heavily against the government's "socialism", it did not propose to undo the Liberal Party's labour and welfare reforms.

Supporters of the Liberals denied that Reform had won a mandate to rule, however, pointing out that the country quota (a system in which rural electorates were smaller than urban ones, meaning that rural areas were slightly over-represented in Parliament) worked to "inflate" Reform's vote.

Ward resigned in 1912, and after successor Thomas Mackenzie lost a confidence vote, William Massey became Prime Minister on 10 July 1912.

The strikes prompted considerable concern about socialism in certain sectors of society, boosting Reform's re-election in the 1914 elections.

In order to maintain its majority, Reform was forced to build an unstable coalition with three former Liberal Members of Parliament, who became independents.

Coates lacked the political skills needed to manage the Reform party and parliamentary caucus, and also retained several poor-performing ministers.

[17] Reform also lost two by-elections in Eden and Raglan to the Labour Party, which began positioning itself as the new official opposition.

Key: Reform Liberal United Labour PM: Prime Minister LO: Leader of the Opposition †: Died in office †Total Coalition vote.