Benjamin Roberts (1880 – 17 November 1952) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party and a Cabinet Minister.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Benjamin_Roberts_1935.jpg)
Biography
editYears | Term | Electorate | Party | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1935–1938 | 25th | Wairarapa | Labour | ||
1938–1943 | 26th | Wairarapa | Labour | ||
1943–1946 | 27th | Wairarapa | Labour |
Roberts was born in 1880 in Liverpool. He started work as a farm labourer at 13. He brought his family to New Zealand in 1907 and settled in Carterton.[1]
He was elected to Parliament in the Wairarapa electorate in 1935, and remained a member of parliament to 1946, when he retired.[2]
He was both Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Marketing, from 1943 to 1946 in the First Labour Government under Peter Fraser.[3][4]
Roberts died in 1952.[2] His first wife, Mary Roberts, had died in 1936.[5]
Notes
edit- ^ Scholefield, G. H. (1951) [1908]. Who's Who in New Zealand (5 ed.). Wellington: Reed. p. 200.
- ^ a b Wilson 1985, p. 231.
- ^ Taylor, Nancy M. (1986). "The Home Front Volume II - Chapter 24 — Victory at Last". Wellington: Historical Publications Branch. p. 1224. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
- ^ Wilson 1985, p. 84.
- ^ "Obituary". The Evening Post. Vol. CXXII, no. 52. 29 August 1936. p. 11. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
References
editWikimedia Commons has media related to Ben Roberts (politician).
- Gustafson, Barry (1986). From the Cradle to the Grave: a biography of Michael Joseph Savage. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00138-5.
- Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.