Hiram Hunter

Hiram Hunter (10 February 1874 – 9 May 1966) was a New Zealand politician and trade unionist.

Hiram Hunter
Christchurch City Councillor
In office 1911–1915
In office 1917–1923
2nd President of the Social Democratic Party
In office 1914–1915
Vice President	Frederick Cooke
Preceded by	Edward Tregear
Succeeded by	Frederick Cooke
Personal details
Born	10 February 1874 Christchurch, New Zealand
Died	9 May 1966 Ashburton, New Zealand
Political party	Labour (1910–13) Social Democratic (1913–16) Labour (1916–31) National (1938–66)
Spouse	Jane Bayliss

Early life

Born in Christchurch in 1874, Hunter was a farmer, storekeeper, carter, and trade unionist.^[1]

Political career

Hunter stood for the Christchurch East electorate in the New Zealand House of Representatives in 1911 for the Labour Party (original), 1914 for the Social Democratic Party and 1919 for the New Zealand Labour Party. His best result was losing by 136 votes in 1911 in a close three-way contest, and failing to qualify for the subsequent run-off election by just four votes. He was President of the LRC^{[clarification needed]} (1911–1913) and of the Social Democratic Party (1913–1915). In 1931, he contested the Mid-Canterbury electorate as an Independent Labour candidate against Jeremiah Connolly, but was unsuccessful.^[2]

During the 1930s, Hunter became increasingly disillusioned with the NZ Labour Party and argued that: "We have learned much of socialisation through its application in Russia. The result has been servility for the workers under the domination of dictators and, what seemed a book of beautiful ideal in 1915 has turned out to be in practice, a horrible reality".^[3] In 1938 he stood for the conservative National Party against his former Labour comrade Dan Sullivan who beat him by a three to one margin, with the election-night crowd booing him so loudly his speech could not be heard leaving Hunter with an undignified end to his public career.^[1]

Hiram Hunter was a member of the Christchurch City Council for ten years (1911–1915; 1917–1923).^[4]

Death

Hunter died in 1966 at Ashburton.^[1]