(b. Pahiatua, Feb. 1904; d. 8 Dec. 1984) New Zealand; Prime Minister 1957, 1960 – 72, Governor-General 1977 for one term; Kt. 1978 Holyoake left school early and worked on the family farm. He was largely self-educated. When he became an MP by winning a by-election in 1932 for the Reform Party he was the youngest member of the House of Representatives. This began a political career which lasted for nearly fifty years. He lost the seat in 1938, was re-elected in 1943, and in 1946 became deputy leader of the opposition National Party. Three years later his party replaced Labour in office and he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture.
He became Prime Minister after Holland was persuaded to stand down in 1957, only to lose office in the following elections. The Nationals returned to power in 1960 with a majority of twelve which at three subsequent elections was strong enough to withstand whatever attacks a broken Opposition could manage.
A master of consensus-making, he happily ran a Cabinet where he listened, quizzed, and quietly commanded for eleven years. Holyoake's style was represented by his handling of right-wing pressure from National Party membership for an end to compulsory unionism. Hearings into a proposed bill to amend existing legislation showed that organizations representing employers, manufacturers, farmers, and unions were against change. The subsequent legislation had provisions for qualified or unqualified preference being given to unionists. Formally compulsory membership was abolished but in practice the situation remained the same with union membership maintained undisturbed.
A far greater threat developed when overseas prices for produce plunged. As Minister for Finance, Holyoake was faced with the possible necessity of introducing a "Black Budget" similar to that which had contributed to the defeat of the previous Labour government. However, the government did nothing spectacular and eventually prices rebounded. He was able to go to the 1963 election with the slogan "Steady Does It", which suited his style perfectly. By the late 1960s New Zealand was running into a recession with unemployment and industrial unrest increasing. In the 1969 election the National majority was reduced to six. Cabinet faltered as it tried to cope with Britain's entry into the Common Market, with inflation, and with farmer discontent. In February 1972 a reluctant Prime Minister was persuaded to stand down in favour of his deputy John Marshall. Ten months later the government was defeated by a resurgent Labour Party.
In 1975 Holyoake became a Minister of State in the first *Muldoon government. In 1977 Muldoon moved Holyoake out of his ministry to the Governor-General's chair.
Keith Holyoake
| Political Biography: Keith Jacka Holyoake |
| 5min Related Video: Keith Holyoake |
| Biography: Keith Jacka Holyoake |
Keith Jacka Holyoake (1904-1983) was a New Zealand prime minister and leader of the National Party who subsequently became his country's governor general. An astute politician, he led his party to four successive electoral victories and presided over material prosperity and rising social expectations from 1960 to 1972.
The Right Honourable Sir Keith Jacka Holyoake was born near Pahiatua in the lower part of New Zealand's North Island on February 11, 1904. He was the third of seven children and descended from settlers who had migrated to New Zealand from England in 1842. Holyoake's father ran a small general store before eventually taking over a mixed hops, tobacco, fruit, and dairy farm at Riwaka near Motueka in the South Island.
At the age of 12, when his father became ill, Holyoake left school to help on the farm. His ex-schoolteacher mother continued to teach him at home in the evenings. Although he later in life joined the Presbyterian Church, Holyoake was raised in the Plymouth Brethren religion, and his social life as a child was very restricted.
As a young man "Kiwi Keith" Holyoake became much more involved with the wider community as a tennis and rugby football player and rugby administrator. He also served on the executive committees of various farming organizations, eventually becoming the president of the Nelson Province of the Farmer's Union (later known as Federated Farmers) and then that organization's New Zealand vice-president. In 1938 for a time he was acting dominion president of the Farmers' Union.
At the age of 28 Holyoake was elected to the House of Representatives in a 1932 by-election for the seat of Motueka, following the suicide of the member of Parliament from that district. Holyoake had contested the seat unsuccessfully as a coalition government supporter at a general election the previous year. Following the landslide Labour Party victory of 1935 various antisocialist groups and parties formed the National Party, and Holyoake joined it. He held the Motueka seat until 1938 when, following extensive boundary changes and the influx into the electorate of hundreds of relief workers employed on public works, he lost to a Labour Party candidate.
For the next five years, 1938 to 1943, Holyoake returned to farming, first at Motueka. Following Ransom's retirement in 1943, Holyoake was selected unopposed as the National Party's candidate and was re-elected to Parliament as the representative for Pahiatua at the 1943 election. He held that seat until his retirement following his appointment as governor general in 1977.
Holyoake and his wife Norma (nee Ingram) had two sons and three daughters, and Holyoake always treasured the occasions he could escape from public life and spend time with his family on the farm or later at his holiday home on the western shore of Lake Taupo.
Rise of the National Party
When the National Party became the Government of New Zealand for the first time following the 1949 elections, Holyoake became deputy prime minister and minister of agriculture and marketing, negotiating minimum prices for wool in 1952, meat in 1955, and dairy produce in 1956. At the age of 53 he succeeded an ailing Sir Sidney Holland as prime minister three months before the 1957 election. Unable to establish himself sufficiently in the short time available, Holyoake and his party were defeated by the Labour Party, which won the election with a working majority of one seat in Parliament. For the next three years Keith Holyoake effectively led the Opposition.
In 1960, after Holyoake had stumped the country criticizing the new Labour government's economic management and "the Black Budget" of 1958, the National Party swept back into office and Holyoake again became New Zealand's prime minister. He won four elections in succession and remained the country's leader for over 11 years. During that time he also held the foreign affairs portfolio and frequently travelled overseas to attend conferences and meet other world leaders.
A realistic tactician and pragmatic and effective manager of both cabinet and caucus, Holyoake created the public image of a government that was reluctant to intervene in the economy or in the affairs of the individual New Zealanders and that practiced cautious but liberal government by consensus. His 1963 election slogan "Steady Does It" summed up his approach to politics. Only the corrosive controversy of New Zealand's limited involvement in the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s divided the electorate seriously during that time.
Holyoake was not an innovator, but he presided over a period in New Zealand history during which there was considerable economic growth, material prosperity, and upward social mobility. It was also a time of considerable social and technological change during which the country only partially started to recognize that it had to become economically and diplomatically more self-reliant. The seeds of serious future conflicts over foreign affairs, defense, and race relations were being sown, though they did not become major issues until after Holyoake relinquished office.
In February 1972 Holyoake, who had been knighted in 1970, stepped down as prime minister and leader of the National Party. Only two New Zealand prime ministers had served longer - Richard John "King Dick" Seddon (1893-1906) and William Ferguson "Bill" Massey (1912-1925). Holyoake stayed in Parliament as an "elder statesman, " and his experience and advice became essential to the National Party when it again tasted a bitter electoral defeat in November of that year. Within three years the National Party, under a new leader, Robert Muldoon, admirer of Holyoake, had won back the treasury benches, and in late 1975 Holyoake became minister of state in a new National Party government.
Becomes Governor-General
Tradition was broken in 1977 when the government appointed Holyoake as governor-general of New Zealand. Despite the controversy surrounding the nomination of an active politician as the queen's representative, Holyoake's three year term in the post passed without incident and he occupied the position with distinction and impartiality.
In 1980, shortly before retiring as governor-general, Holyoake became the only resident New Zealander ever to be honored by the queen as knight commander of the Order of the Garter. (Holyoake replaced the queen's uncle, Lord Mountbatten, who had been recently assassinated.) In addition to Knight of the Garter, Holyoake also could claim several other (lesser) honors.
Holyoake appeared somewhat aloof and sounded a little pompous in public. In fact he was a sensitive man who was remarkably modest about his role in New Zealand politics. Throughout his long public career - of over half a century and 16 election campaigns - Holyoake rarely if ever indulged in personality politics. He demanded and received from his National Party colleagues loyalty, "an ounce" of which, he frequently stated, was "better than a ton of cleverness." As prime minister Holyoake certainly earned for himself a place in New Zealand history as one of its greatest political figures. He died on December 8, 1983.
Further Reading
The only biography is by Ross A. Doughty, The Holyoake Years (1977). Keith Jacka Holyoake will be listed in the New Zealand Dictionary of Biography being prepared for publication during New Zealand's 150th anniversary in 1990. Holyoake is also discussed in two books by a successor as the National Party's leader, R. D. Muldoon: The Rise and Fall of a Young Turk (1974) and Muldoon (1977). See also B. S. Gustafson, The New Zealand National Party: The First Fifty Years (1986).
Additional Sources
Doughty, Ross Alexander, The Holyoake years, Fielding: R. Doughty, 1977.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Sir Keith Jacka Holyoake |
| Wikipedia: Keith Holyoake |
| The Right Honourable Sir Keith Jacka Holyoake KG, GCMG, CH, QSO, KStJ |
|
 Rt. Hon. Sir Keith Holyoake |
|
|
|
|
|---|---|
| In office 20 September 1957 – 12 December 1957 12 December 1960 – 7 February 1972 |
|
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Deputy | Jack Marshall (1957 and 1960 - 1972) |
| Preceded by | Sidney Holland (1957) Walter Nash (1960) |
| Succeeded by | Walter Nash (1957) Jack Marshall (1972) |
| Constituency | Motueka, Pahiatua |
|
|
|
| In office 13 December 1949 – 12 December 1957 |
|
| Prime Minister | Sidney Holland |
| Preceded by | None (new office) |
| Succeeded by | Jack Marshall |
|
|
|
| In office 26 October 1977 – 25 October 1980 |
|
| Prime Minister | Robert Muldoon |
| Preceded by | Denis Blundell |
| Succeeded by | David Beattie |
|
|
|
| In office 1932 – 1938 |
|
| Preceded by | George Black |
| Succeeded by | Jerry Skinner |
|
|
|
| In office 1943 – 1977 |
|
| Succeeded by | John Falloon |
|
|
|
| Born | 11 February 1904 Pahiatua, New Zealand |
| Died | December 8, 1983 (aged 79) Wellington, New Zealand |
| Political party | Reform National |
| Spouse(s) | Dame Norma Janet Ingram, DCMG QSO married 1934, five children |
| Profession | Farmer |
| Religion | Presbyterian |
Sir Keith Jacka Holyoake, KG, GCMG, CH, QSO, KStJ (11 February 1904 - 8 December 1983) was a New Zealand politician. The only person to have been both Prime Minister and Governor-General of New Zealand[1], Holyoake was National Party Prime Minister from 20 September 1957 to 12 December 1957, then again from 12 December 1960 to 7 February 1972. He was appointed as Governor-General in 1977 and served until 1980.
Holyoake was the third longest-serving New Zealand Prime Minister (just under 12 years), surpassed only by Richard Seddon's 13 years and William Massey's close to 13 years. He was known for his diplomatic style and "plummy" voice. He was also fondly (or mockingly) known as Kiwi Keith, a name given to him in childhood.
Contents |
Early life
Holyoake was born a short distance from Pahiatua, a town in New Zealand's Wairarapa region. His family lived for a time in both Hastings and Tauranga, but in 1913, settled in Riwaka, near Motueka.
At age 12, having left school after his father's death, Holyoake worked on the family hop and tobacco farm in Riwaka. His mother, Esther, had trained as a school teacher, and continued his education at home. After taking over the management of the farm, he became involved in various local farming associations, something that increased his interest in politics.
Early political career
| Years | Term | Electorate | Party | |
| 1932–1935 | 24th | Motueka | Reform | |
| 1935–1938 | 25th | Motueka | Reform | |
| 1943–1946 | 27th | Pahiatua | National | |
| 1946–1949 | 28th | Pahiatua | National | |
| 1949–1951 | 29th | Pahiatua | National | |
| 1951–1954 | 30th | Pahiatua | National | |
| 1954–1957 | 31st | Pahiatua | National | |
| 1957–1960 | 32nd | Pahiatua | National | |
| 1960–1963 | 33rd | Pahiatua | National | |
| 1963–1966 | 34th | Pahiatua | National | |
| 1966–1969 | 35th | Pahiatua | National | |
| 1969–1972 | 36th | Pahiatua | National | |
| 1972–1975 | 37th | Pahiatua | National | |
| 1975–1977 | 38th | Pahiatua | National | |
The Reform Party, which had strong rural support, selected Holyoake as its candidate for the Motueka seat in the 1931 election. The incumbent MP, George Black, held the seat, but died the following year. Holyoake was the Reform Party's candidate in the resulting by-election, and was successful. He became the youngest Member of Parliament at the time.
In the 1935 election, Holyoake retained his seat despite a massive swing against the Reform-United coalition. In the aftermath of this election, he played a key role in transforming the coalition into the modern National Party. He very quickly gained considerable respect from his colleagues, and was regarded as a rising star in the new party. But in the 1938 election, Holyoake lost his seat to a rising star of the governing Labour Party, Gerry Skinner.
In 1943 he returned to Parliament as MP for Pahiatua, having been lined up by National for that nomination. In 1946, he became the party's Deputy Leader. After National won the 1949 election, new Prime Minister Sidney Holland appointed Holyoake as Minister of Agriculture. Later, Holland made him the first person to be formally appointed Deputy Prime Minister.
Prime Minister
First term
Holyoake became Prime Minister a two months before the 1957 election, when outgoing Prime Minister Sidney Holland retired due to ill-health. The election was won by the Labour Party by a margin of one seat, and Holyoake was Leader of the Opposition for three years.
Second term
National was returned to power in the 1960 election, in a victory attributed to Holyoake's skillful campaigning, particularly his attacks on Minister of Finance Arnold Nordmeyer's so-called "Black Budget", which increased taxes on petrol, cigarettes and liquor.
Holyoake's government rewrote the criminal legal code, passing the Crimes Act 1961. One of the main features of this act was the abolition of capital punishment, though only ten National MPs voted for its abolition. His government also introduced a form of "voluntary unionism", but the majority of industrial workplaces remained unionised.
In 1972 he resigned as Prime Minister to ease the succession for his deputy and friend, Jack Marshall.
Retirement
When National under Marshall was defeated, Holyoake remained prominent in Opposition. He played an active part in the 1975 election, which saw National regain power again under Robert Muldoon. Muldoon appointed Holyoake to the specially created sinecure of Minister of State.
Governor-General
In 1977, Holyoake was unexpectedly and controversially appointed Governor-General by Queen Elizabeth II on the advice of the then Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. This choice was controversial, as Holyoake was a sitting Cabinet minister and former Prime Minister. Many opponents of Muldoon's government claimed that it was a political appointment. The Leader of the Opposition, Bill Rowling hinted that Labour might remove Holyoake as Governor-General should the Labour Party win the 1978 general election, and openly suggested that he would have appointed Sir Edmund Hillary as Governor-General.[2] This suggestion was in turn criticised by the Government, as Sir Edmund had backed Labour in 1975 as part of the "Citizens for Rowling" campaign.[3]
As a result of the appointment, Holyoake resigned from Parliament, leading to the Pahiatua by-election of 1977.
His conduct while in office, however, was acknowledged by most to be fair and balanced. His term as Governor-General was only for three years, on account of his age (usually Governors-General serve for five years, but Holyoake was the oldest Governor-General to date) and ended in 1980.
Later life
He died in December 1983, aged 79, in Wellington. His daughter Diane married National MP Ken Comber.
Decorations, Awards and Memberships
- Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council
- Freeman of the City of London
- Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
- Doctor of Laws (Agric), Honoris Causa, Seoul National University, South Korea
References
- ^ Sir George Grey served as both Governor of New Zealand and Premier of New Zealand in the nineteenth century, but Holyoake is the only person to have served in both capacities since the vice-regal post was renamed Governor-General upon New Zealand becoming a dominion in 1907.
- ^ Rowling: The man and the myth by John Henderson, Australia New Zealand Press, 1980.
- ^ Doughty, Ross The Holyoake years, Feilding, 1977, Chapter 7 "Elder Statesman"
- Biography in 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
- Kiwi Keith: a biography of Keith Holyoake by Barry Gustafson (2007, Auckland University Press, Auckland) ISBN 9781869404000
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Keith Holyoake |
| Parliament of New Zealand | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by George Black |
Member of Parliament for Motueka 1932-1938 |
Succeeded by Jerry Skinner |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Pahiatua 1943-1977 |
Succeeded by John Falloon |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Sidney Holland |
Prime Minister of New Zealand 1957 1960-1972 |
Succeeded by Walter Nash |
| Preceded by Walter Nash |
Succeeded by Jack Marshall |
|
| New title | Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand 1949-1957 |
|
| Preceded by Sir Denis Blundell |
Governor-General of New Zealand 1977-1980 |
Succeeded by Sir David Beattie |
| Prime Minister of New Zealand | |||
| Preceded by: Sidney Holland | (1957) | Succeeded by: Walter Nash | |
| Preceded by: Walter Nash | (1960-1972) | Succeeded by: Jack Marshall | |
| Sewell | Fox | Stafford | Domett | Whitaker | Weld | Waterhouse | Vogel | Pollen | Atkinson | Grey | Hall | Stout | Ballance | Seddon | Hall-Jones | Ward | Mackenzie | Massey | Bell | Coates | Forbes | Savage | Fraser | Holland | Nash | Holyoake | Marshall | Kirk | Rowling | Muldoon | Lange | Palmer | Moore | Bolger | Shipley | Clark | |||
|
|||||||
.svg){kind=small}
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
 | Ken Comber |
| Ian G. Lythgoe |
| Leonard A. Atkinson |
 | Who is keith carson? Read answer... |
| Where is Keith Segear? Read answer... |
| What is the movie keith about? Read answer... |
 | Do people like holyoaks? |
| What was employment like for men and women in holyoak? |
| How much does joe holyoak earn a second? |
Copyrights:
 |
 | Political Biography. A Dictionary of Political Biography. Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Keith Holyoake". Read more |
- What age is jorgie porter from holyoaks?
- What happened to Keith in the movie keith?
- What was Keith's Condition in the movie Keith?
- What does keith holyoake do as Prime minister?
- Who is connor holyoak?
- Who made the holyoaks theme tune?
- How does tina die in holyoaks?
Mentioned in
- Ken Comber
- Ian G. Lythgoe
- Leonard A. Atkinson
- Pahiatua (New Zealand electorate)
