Open/Close Toolbox
Copyright is retained by the photographer and/or contributor. Please do not reuse without permission.
Format: Photograph
Copyright
Copyright is retained by the photographer and/or contributor. Please do not reuse without permission.
Menu
Mary Anderson from Greymouth - One of the first women appointed to the Legislative Council in 1946.
Expand/collapse
About this image
Description One of the two first women appointed to the Legislative Council in 1946, was Mary Anderson from the West Coast.
Blog by Westport's Michelle Lomax:
mary-anderson-photo
Mary Anderson, Labour stalwart from Greymouth, and cool chick.
How about this for something I just found out? One of the two first women appointed to the Legislative Council[1] in 1946[2], was Mary Anderson from the West Coast. Ok so she was from Greymouth, not Westport, which is a bit disappointing, but still very cool.
Mary was a solid lefty, being a founding member of the Greymouth Labour Party in 1917. She said in later life that ‘as we were always working people, my politics were for those who toiled’. Good for her!
My daughter Isabelle thinks there should be a statue of Mary put up somewhere on the West Coast to commemorate her. Not a bad idea.
Mary was born in 1887 at Moonlight[3], (which now has a population of about four, including a couple of horses and a goat), one of nine or so kids. Politics was surely in their blood, as one of her brothers became Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska[4]. And another became a member of the Washington State Legislature.
Mary’s mum was Irish, which was pretty common back then on the Coast, but her dad, was from Sweden of all places. I wonder how many other Swedes there were on the Coast at that time[5]? Not many I’m picking.
Her first home in Moonlight was a two room shack, until the family moved to town in 1910 and ran a boarding house. By then they had most of their kids, so it must have been quite a squash in that shack[6].
pike-memorial
Pike River Memorial, for the 29 men who went to work one day, and never came home.
Moonlight is a stone’s throw or two from the Pike River Memorial. I wonder what Mary would have made of the Pike River tragedy, and the way the Pike families have been treated? I can see her joining the protest with Bernie, Anna, Sonya and the other families. Certainly in spirit.
For Mary, her big moment on the national stage came when she was nearly 60. She was appointed to the Legislative Council (LC), by Peter Fraser’s Labour government, along with Mary Dreaver.
Unfortunately for both the Marys, just a few years after they got onto the LC, it was gone burgered. Yep, it was abolished in 1950. Apparently they were more in the business of rubber stamping government laws, than actually looking at them critically, and having like an opinion[7]. So they probably deserved everything they got. To get rid of it, Sidney Holland who was the PM by then, appointed 20 or so LC members as a kind of ‘suicide squad’ to vote themselves out of existence.
And just like that Mary was out of a job, and sent packing back to her home town.
Some fun facts, women got the vote in 1893, but it was not until 1919 that they were able to become members of parliament. And not until 1942 could they be appointed to the Legislative Council. Not long before they got rid of it. Hmmm.
Interestingly, although Mary achieved a milestone for women with her appointment, she was recorded as saying that she that she didn’t see herself as a representative of women while on the LC.
So hopefully she didn’t mind that despite being a founding member of the Greymouth Labour Party, she got stuck as the secretary/treasurer for almost forty years. My personal opinion is that being secretary of any committee is a very bad idea. It’s a job where you get to do all the work and have almost none of the say. Kind of like being the committee’s mother. Just saying.
seddon
King Dick Seddon, who was ridiculed in Parliament as being uncouth. It happens a lot when you come from the West Coast.
It would have been an interesting time to live on the West Coast[8], if you were even remotely interested in politics. King Dick Seddon was from Kumara, by then being Westland’s MP, and arguably more importantly, New Zealand’s Prime Minister[9]. Until he died in 1906, he was a hugely influential politician[10].
Given Seddon’s propensity for ‘barnstorming[11]’ across the country, and having his home in nearby Kumara, Mary probably saw him speaking, which by all accounts would have made for a great night out. Who knows, she may have even known him, although by that time King Dick wasn’t exactly a champion of the workers.
Mary would have been about 21 when the Blackball miners, who were not far down the road from her home at Moonlight, went on strike to get a bit of extra tucker-time, in 1908. Yep, the greedy buggers wanted half an hour to eat their lunch. What was wrong with just 15 minutes, they were lucky to even get a lunch break.
Mary counted among her friends, Paddy Webb, the West Coast union leader, at the centre of the Blackball strike, and later MP for Grey and later still MP for Buller[12]. And also, Harry Holland, the MP who took over from Paddy when he was doing time[13]. Harry was the first leader of the Labour Party[14].
Conscription in 1916[15] was a touchy subject right across the country, and no less so on the West Coast. Even on the left there was disagreement[16]. But good old Mary was not having a bar of conscription[17], and got involved in the local protests against it. One of her brothers died in 1918, so he may well have been killed in that dreadful war.
Mary never married, or had children, but there are quite possibly some great-nieces and nephews, or maybe even an elderly niece or nephew still living on the Coast. And certainly some people still involved in the Greymouth Labour Party might remember Mary. It would be interesting to talk to them about her sometime.
Arohanui ki a koe
Mama Michelle
Date of PhotoBetween 1st January 2017 and 31st December 2017Map[1] ContributorRory Paterson
Blog by Westport's Michelle Lomax:
mary-anderson-photo
Mary Anderson, Labour stalwart from Greymouth, and cool chick.
How about this for something I just found out? One of the two first women appointed to the Legislative Council[1] in 1946[2], was Mary Anderson from the West Coast. Ok so she was from Greymouth, not Westport, which is a bit disappointing, but still very cool.
Mary was a solid lefty, being a founding member of the Greymouth Labour Party in 1917. She said in later life that ‘as we were always working people, my politics were for those who toiled’. Good for her!
My daughter Isabelle thinks there should be a statue of Mary put up somewhere on the West Coast to commemorate her. Not a bad idea.
Mary was born in 1887 at Moonlight[3], (which now has a population of about four, including a couple of horses and a goat), one of nine or so kids. Politics was surely in their blood, as one of her brothers became Mayor of Anchorage, Alaska[4]. And another became a member of the Washington State Legislature.
Mary’s mum was Irish, which was pretty common back then on the Coast, but her dad, was from Sweden of all places. I wonder how many other Swedes there were on the Coast at that time[5]? Not many I’m picking.
Her first home in Moonlight was a two room shack, until the family moved to town in 1910 and ran a boarding house. By then they had most of their kids, so it must have been quite a squash in that shack[6].
pike-memorial
Pike River Memorial, for the 29 men who went to work one day, and never came home.
Moonlight is a stone’s throw or two from the Pike River Memorial. I wonder what Mary would have made of the Pike River tragedy, and the way the Pike families have been treated? I can see her joining the protest with Bernie, Anna, Sonya and the other families. Certainly in spirit.
For Mary, her big moment on the national stage came when she was nearly 60. She was appointed to the Legislative Council (LC), by Peter Fraser’s Labour government, along with Mary Dreaver.
Unfortunately for both the Marys, just a few years after they got onto the LC, it was gone burgered. Yep, it was abolished in 1950. Apparently they were more in the business of rubber stamping government laws, than actually looking at them critically, and having like an opinion[7]. So they probably deserved everything they got. To get rid of it, Sidney Holland who was the PM by then, appointed 20 or so LC members as a kind of ‘suicide squad’ to vote themselves out of existence.
And just like that Mary was out of a job, and sent packing back to her home town.
Some fun facts, women got the vote in 1893, but it was not until 1919 that they were able to become members of parliament. And not until 1942 could they be appointed to the Legislative Council. Not long before they got rid of it. Hmmm.
Interestingly, although Mary achieved a milestone for women with her appointment, she was recorded as saying that she that she didn’t see herself as a representative of women while on the LC.
So hopefully she didn’t mind that despite being a founding member of the Greymouth Labour Party, she got stuck as the secretary/treasurer for almost forty years. My personal opinion is that being secretary of any committee is a very bad idea. It’s a job where you get to do all the work and have almost none of the say. Kind of like being the committee’s mother. Just saying.
seddon
King Dick Seddon, who was ridiculed in Parliament as being uncouth. It happens a lot when you come from the West Coast.
It would have been an interesting time to live on the West Coast[8], if you were even remotely interested in politics. King Dick Seddon was from Kumara, by then being Westland’s MP, and arguably more importantly, New Zealand’s Prime Minister[9]. Until he died in 1906, he was a hugely influential politician[10].
Given Seddon’s propensity for ‘barnstorming[11]’ across the country, and having his home in nearby Kumara, Mary probably saw him speaking, which by all accounts would have made for a great night out. Who knows, she may have even known him, although by that time King Dick wasn’t exactly a champion of the workers.
Mary would have been about 21 when the Blackball miners, who were not far down the road from her home at Moonlight, went on strike to get a bit of extra tucker-time, in 1908. Yep, the greedy buggers wanted half an hour to eat their lunch. What was wrong with just 15 minutes, they were lucky to even get a lunch break.
Mary counted among her friends, Paddy Webb, the West Coast union leader, at the centre of the Blackball strike, and later MP for Grey and later still MP for Buller[12]. And also, Harry Holland, the MP who took over from Paddy when he was doing time[13]. Harry was the first leader of the Labour Party[14].
Conscription in 1916[15] was a touchy subject right across the country, and no less so on the West Coast. Even on the left there was disagreement[16]. But good old Mary was not having a bar of conscription[17], and got involved in the local protests against it. One of her brothers died in 1918, so he may well have been killed in that dreadful war.
Mary never married, or had children, but there are quite possibly some great-nieces and nephews, or maybe even an elderly niece or nephew still living on the Coast. And certainly some people still involved in the Greymouth Labour Party might remember Mary. It would be interesting to talk to them about her sometime.
Arohanui ki a koe
Mama Michelle
Date of PhotoBetween 1st January 2017 and 31st December 2017Map[1] ContributorRory Paterson
Shown in this image
Location (city or town)MoonlightPersonMary Anderson
From Facebook
Editing is temporarily disabled
Cancel EditClick on the image to add
a tag or press ESC to cancel
a tag or press ESC to cancel
West Coast New Zealand History (3rd Apr 2024). Mary Anderson from Greymouth - One of the first women appointed to the Legislative Council in 1946.. In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 12th Apr 2026 00:24, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/19050