William Cowper Smith

William Cowper Smith (1843 – 5 March 1911) was a Liberal Party[1] Member of Parliament in New Zealand.

William Cowper Smith was born in London on 28 December 1843,[2] went to Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet,[3] arrived on the Egmont at Lyttelton on 7 July 1862,[4] went to Auckland, received a war medal for service during the invasion of the Waikato and moved to Waipukurau in 1872,[5] where he ran a drapery[6] and general store.

His victory was narrow and described by one paper as a defeat of squatocracy; the 1891 Liberal government introduced reforms to break up large farms whose owners had often moved abroad.

[12] He had been the government's preferred candidate as Chairman of Committees in 1901[13] but W. D. H. Baillie won the election and was confirmed for another (his last) session.

[16] His eldest son was Charles Cowper Smith, born on 16 Jan 1875,[17] who became chairman of Hawke's Bay County Council.