James Allen (New Zealand)
James Allen (
1855 -
1942) was a prominent
New Zealand politician and diplomat. He held a number of the most important political offices in the country, including
Minister of Finance and
Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was also New Zealand's Minister of Defence during
World War I.
Allen was born on
10 February,
1855, in
Adelaide,
Australia. After his mother's early death, his father took him to
Dunedin,
New Zealand, where the family resided for several years. In either
1861 or
1862, however, Allen and his brother were given into the care of an uncle in
Somerset,
England. Shortly afterwards, Allen's father also died, leaving him an orphan.
Despite this rather turbulent beginning to his life, Allen made a good start. After first attending
Clifton College in
Bristol (having won a scholarship to do so), he gained admittance to
St John's College at
Cambridge University. He graduated with a
BA in
1877. Shortly afterwards, Allen decided to return to Dunedin, where he had inherrited a significant amount of property from his father.
In Dunedin, Allen was highly successful, serving on the City Council and even playing for the
Otago provincial
rugby team. He left for England once again in
1883, studying at the
Royal School of Mines for several years. When he returned to Dunedin, he established a presence in Otago's coal and gold mining industries.
In
1887, Allen decided to enter national politics, standing in the Dunedin East seat as a conservative opponent to
Robert Stout, the
Premier. Few expected a first-time challenger to defeat the Premier, but amazingly, Allen managed to do just that. Allen's own tenure as MP for Dunedin East was short, however, as he was himself voted out of office at the next election. In
1892, however, Allen returned to Parliament after winning a
by-election in Bruce.
Gradually, Allen developed a reputation as a solid performer in Parliament. He lacked the skills at oratory that some of his contemporaries had, and was often seen as humourless and uncharismatic, but was nevertheless considered dependable, reasonable, and practical. He was sometimes cited as a possible leader for Parliament's conservative faction, but when the conservatives eventually came together to found the
Reform Party, the more charismatic
William Massey became leader instead.
When the Reform Party won the
1912 elections, and Massey became Prime Minister, Allen was elevated to
Cabinet. His primary responsibilities were finance, education, and defence, and he was highly active in all three. As Minister of Finance, he attempted (with only a limited degree of success) to curtail the spending of the outgoing Premier,
Joseph Ward, believing strongly in the need to reduce New Zealand's overseas borrowing. As Minister of Education, he was responsible for legislation that guaranteed for statutory funding for
universities. As Minister of Defence, he encouraged New Zealand's development of naval and air capabilities independent of the
United Kingdom, and worked to improve the quality of compulsory military training. He also reversed the previous government's policy of opposing close defence co-operation with
Australia.
In
World War I, Allen was a major figure in New Zealand's war effort, playing a very significant organizational role. His reforms of the military training program were widely credited with allowing a rapid deployment of New Zealand forces, including the forces which invaded and occupied
Samoa (then a territory of
Germany). In August
1915, a war-time coalition government was formed, and Allen lost his finance and education roles to members of the erstwhile Opposition, but he continued to play a significant role. Towards the end of the war, when both Massey (the Prime Minister) and Ward (the Leader of the Opposition) travelled overseas for meetings and conferences, Allen was Acting Prime Minister - in total, he spend nearly two years in this role. The stress of his many responsibilities during the war was considerable, and was only worsened when his son was killed in the ill-fated
landing at Gallipoli.
After the war, the coalition government collapsed, and Allen once again became Minister of Finance. He also gained the additional responsibility of Minister of External Affairs (the precursor to the modern Foreign Affairs portfolio). He took up these posts reluctantly, describing himself as weary of politics. In
1920, he resigned to Parliament to take up a position as New Zealand's
High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. He also represented New Zealand at the
League of Nations, taking a prominent part in the League's Permanent Mandates Commission.
After returning to New Zealand, Allen became active in a number of organizations. Reflecting his long-held interest in the
Pacific Islands, which had been stimulated by a number of visits in the course of his political career, he was a prominent member of the Institute of Pacific Relations. He was also vice-president of the Bible-in-Schools League, reflecting a cause which he had controversially championed while Minister of Education.
On
1 June 1927, Allen was appointed to the
Legislative Council, the (now-abolished) upper house of Parliament. The Legislative Council was considerably more sedate than in the lower house, and Allen was not overly stressed by its activities.
Allen retired from public life in
1938, and died in Dunedin on
28 July 1942.
