1878 - 1943
A striking aspect of Gordon Coates’ political
career was his ability to work with a diverse range of political parties and
their leaders. When he entered parliament to represent the huge Kaipara
electorate in 1911 his loyalty was to Liberal leader Joseph Ward although he was
nominally elected as an independent member and shared the views of a number of
opposition MPs, particularly over the issue of freehold land tenure for farmers.
When Ward’s successor (Mackenzie) shifted the Liberals further towards the
leasehold camp Coates, an avowed freeholder, moved from supporting them in a
confidence vote after the inconclusive 1911 election to supporting the Reform
party, along with three other independent members, in a second vote enabling
Reform leader William Massey to form a government in 1912. Years later in 1931
as the Liberals had morphed first into the original, short-lived National party
and further still into United, Coates, now leading the Reform party was
persuaded to form a coalition government with erstwhile rival United to fend off
an impending challenge from Labour. This now saw Coates in a close working
relationship with United leader George Forbes. In a final demonstration of his
flexibility, Coates joined Labour leader Peter Fraser’s war cabinet in 1940 as
one of two opposition members and was given the major responsibility of all
defence issues as Armed Services minister. Clearly Coates was above party
politics and, as he always claimed, was willing to put the interests of his
country first.
Coates was an affable and energetic man with a
strong sense of fair play. He was informal, strikingly good-looking and mixed
well with his mainly farming constituents. He served as member for Kaipara from
1911 till his death in 1943.
He had a robust farm upbringing in a remote
coastal location on the Kaipara Harbour, could ride a horse and handle a gun. He
was strong and tall and his potential as a leader emerged in 1900 when he
joined, and soon led, the Otamatea Mounted Rifle Volunteers. In his early 20s he
was elected to the local county council and worked for improved access roads and
infrastructure in the remote regions of Northland.
His parliamentary career began unobtrusively
in 1911 and he rarely spoke in the house but continued to work tirelessly behind
the scenes in the interests of his constituents. He respected William Massey and
joined his Reform party in 1914 but remained one of the least partisan members
at a time of intense political partisanship. Another side to his character
emerged when war broke out. He wanted to enlist immediately but with only a slim
majority Massey could not afford to release him. It wasn’t until late 1916 that
he was finally able to leave for France where he served with distinction in the
front at Ypres and the Somme. He rose to the rank of Major and was decorated
with two bravery awards. In May 1919 he was welcomed back to parliament and
feted by many, especially those older members who had lost sons in the conflict,
Francis Bell among them.
Coates’ gallant war service raised his profile
and later that year Massey saw a chance to add glamour to his ministry by
offering him a cabinet post. Coates accepted the positions of minister of
justice and postmaster-general while aged only 41 - ten years younger than any
other member of the government.
By the time of the 1919 election, as a
returned war hero and now cabinet minister Coates was by far the best known
person in the Kaipara electorate. As expected he was re-elected with a handsome
majority and the Reform party secured a comfortable victory. By 1923 Coates was
recognised as a hardworking minister who got on well with officials and was now
also handling the major portfolios of public works and railways. But they were
difficult times. The post-war boom was over, export prices were dropping and
money was short for vital infrastructure projects. Coates performed a balancing
act and focussed on projects such as major railway lines, hydro-electric
construction and roading. In an innovative move Coates established eighteen
highway districts which shared roading costs with central government. As well as
public works and railways Coates served seven years as native minister, spoke
some Maori and was sensitive to land grievances.
Long before William Massey’s health faded in
1924-25 party members had identified Coates as his likely successor. The caucus
willingly backed him after Massey died and he became prime minister on 30 May,
1925.
But not an elected prime minister. An election
was due in November and Coates now had to face the whole country and compete
against opposition parties starved of office since 1912. But his prospects were
good. His genial progressivism made him one of the most popular MPs and the
press liked his breezy informality (John A. Lee labelled him ‘The jazz
premier'). A political advertising agent, AE Davy, turned these characteristics
into election-winning hype that carried Coates to the best win ever enjoyed by
the Reform party and one Massey could only have dreamed of: 47% of the national
vote and 55 seats in the house of 80.
Over the three year term of the Coates
government things began to falter. Coates was never a combative politician, nor
a staunch partisan of any party, including Reform which he now led. He was a
fine tactical politician but lacked the longer-term strategic vision required of
a successful leader. He surprised the press and opposition parties by
reappointing most of Massey’s aging cabinet ministers when a rejuvenated
ministry was expected. His politics remained middle of the road, in fact tending
socialist as clouds of financial depression loomed. He increased child support
and attempted to combat the growing ranks of unemployed by instructing railways
to employ more staff than they needed (he continued as railways minister
throughout his premiership). Coates’ progressive approach to welfare further
alienated his government from Reform's conservative, urban, commercial
constituency. And business leaders didn’t like government involvement in state
trading enterprises such as State Fire Insurance, State Coal and the Post Office
Savings Bank.
Coates dithered over dairy prices when the
London market dipped and price-fixing was advocated by the dairy industry.
Overall the government was seen to be drifting in the way the Ward government
had after 1911, in serious need of a sense of direction.
As the 1928 election approached, the
domineering AE Davy abandoned Reform and turned his attention to what remained
of the Liberal party (ie, Joseph Ward) and what remained of the (original)
National party of former liberals, and fused them together with several
ambitious independents into a new party he called United, declaring it a
supporter of businessmen and wealthy city-dwellers. He passed over the incumbent
National party leader George Forbes and persuaded 72 year old Joseph Ward to
lead United into the election. He then proceeded to launch a campaign with the
same entrepreneurial flair he exhibited when helping Coates to victory. But this
time he was lobbying against him, with a message lambasting the Reform party’s
failure to deliver on its promises. Regardless, Coates remained confident that
his large 1925 majority would protect him and that his party would be safely
re-elected. Ironically a blunder by Joseph Ward (promising a $70 million dollar
loan from London instead of $7 million) set United’s campaign on fire, a fire
stoked enthusiastically by the redoubtable AE Davy. The Reform party was
devastated by the 1928 election result. Their seats shrank from 55 to 28. United
won 27, Labour 19 with four independents pledged to support United. Labour was
never going to support Reform so the party of Massey and Coates (beaten in a
confidence vote on 10 December by 50 – 28) was finally out of office after 16
years. United could now govern with support from all except the Reform members.
Joseph Ward was once again prime minister.
Coates led the opposition from1929 till 1931
with the house now split fairly evenly among three parties. Reform and United
began drifting closer, with Coates demonstrating his trademark flexibility and
remembering his early days supporting Joseph Ward whom he still liked. The two
centre right parties watched the progress of the increasingly popular Labour
party uneasily. Their respective rural and urban support bases shared compatible
philosophies and serious thought was given to forming a single party but Coates
was against such an idea. When Ward became ill and resigned in 1930 George
Forbes as the new United leader became prime minister. Labour’s support for
United collapsed over unemployment legislation and Reform caucus members and
party supporters began urging at least a coalition agreement with United to
bring them back into government. But Coates continued to resist, preferring to
hold out for the chance that the party might govern alone. Two by-election wins
for Reform had been an encouraging sign and a general election was due in 1931.
But continued pressure from businessmen, caucus (Downie Stewart in particular),
not to mention the Governor-General Lord Bledisloe, finally persuaded Coates to
enter into discussions with Forbes. Forbes had placed Coates in a difficult
position by threatening to bring government to a halt should Reform party
support not be secured by a coalition agreement. The following year Coates
capitulated and agreed to join the government with Forbes remaining prime
minister. Forbes and Coates did not enjoy a cordial relationship. It was a
pragmatic move to avoid splitting the right-wing vote in Labour’s favour in the
upcoming election. This arrangement came into force on 22 September 1931 with
Coates taking on the roles of minister of public works, transport, and with
responsibility also for employment. He was also deputy prime minister. Another
Reform member (Downie Stewart) was minister of finance. Forbes had dismissed
nine members of his rather over-sized cabinet and Reform ministers now dominated
the coalition. Coates was back in business.
As expected, Labour made gains in the
December, 1931 election but the coalition was safely re-elected with 52 seats,
the majority won by Reform candidates. Meanwhile the economic depression had hit
in all its fury and inevitably the public laid the blame on the United/Reform
government. Unemployment soared, peaking officially at about 80,000 in 1933 with
the 1930 legislation intended to combat it (strongly opposed by Labour) failing
badly. While Forbes carried responsibility for overall strategy, Coates applied
his tactical skills to addressing the problems. He was also the more prominent
of the two internationally, making an impression at the 1932 Imperial Economic
Conference in Ottawa and securing valuable agricultural concessions. He arranged
cheap loans for farmers and waged a campaign to devalue the NZ pound. This was
opposed by Downie Stewart but the caucus supported it and when the resolution
was passed Stewart resigned and Coates became minister of finance. He was now
the most powerful man in government. His achievements as finance minister
included establishing a central (Reserve) bank.
While the devaluation maintained respectable
incomes for farmers and some urban businesses, the unemployment numbers remained
high. The worst of the depression had been weathered by the time of the 1935
election but it was too late. Labour won in a landslide. Coates narrowly held
his seat but when Reform and United combined in 1936 to create the modern
National party, Coates, tainted by the depression, was passed over as leader in
favour of Adam Hamilton (shortly to be replaced by Sidney Holland). Another page
had been turned in Coates’ turbulent career. He again joined the opposition
ranks and endured a large salary reduction for the second time.
Things changed (again) with the onset of war
and the death of the avuncular and much-loved leader of the Labour party,
Michael Joseph Savage. The new prime minister (Peter Fraser) invited Coates to
join a war cabinet and in this role Coates formed a warmer relationship with
Fraser than he had ever had with Forbes, or indeed with his own National party
leader Holland (in fact he left the party and became an independent member in
1942). In the war cabinet he served as minister of armed forces and war
co-ordination and travelled widely in that capacity, particularly for the
purpose of choosing weaponry for New Zealand forces. But Coates’ contribution to
the war effort was tragically cut short. He died suddenly in his Wellington
office in May, 1943 aged only 65.
While Gordon Coates was a committed freeholder and devoted supporter of the farming and rural sector, his conservatism ended there. He cared deeply for his fellow man and his interventionist policies and government involvement in infrastructure defined him more of a socialist than others in either Reform or United. Ironically, he achieved less in his three years as prime minister than in his years in cabinet during which the country made great progress in roading, rail and electricity. As a person Coates was honest and generous almost to a fault with a gritty determination to serve his country to the full. He had no academic background, was no great orator and was no intellectual match for the likes of Joseph Ward. But he possessed limitless common sense and was able to grasp and penetrate complex issues. He was a genuinely likeable man with the rugged quality of a true New Zealander.
Goto next Prime Minister: George
Forbes