Thomas William Rhodes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Thames | |
| In office 20 November 1911 –14 November 1928 | |
| Preceded by | Edmund Taylor |
| Succeeded by | Albert Samuel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 April 1860 Parnell, New Zealand |
| Died | 30 August 1944 (aged 84) Wellington, New Zealand |
| Political party | Liberal Party Reform Party |
| Occupation | Newspaper proprietor |
Thomas William Rhodes (25 April 1860 – 30 August 1944) was a New Zealand politician of the Liberal Party, then the Reform Party. He changed his affiliation to the Reform Party in 1915.
New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.
The New Zealand Liberal Party was the first organised political party in New Zealand. It governed from 1891 until 1912. The Liberal strategy was to create a large class of small land-owning farmers who supported Liberal ideals, by buying large tracts of Māori land and selling it to small farmers on credit. The Liberal Government also established the basis of the later welfare state, with old age pensions, developed a system for settling industrial disputes, which was accepted by both employers and trade unions. In 1893 it extended voting rights to women, making New Zealand the first country in the world to enact universal female suffrage.
The Reform Party, formally the New Zealand Political Reform League, was New Zealand's second major political party, having been founded as a conservative response to the original Liberal Party. It was in government between 1912 and 1928, and later formed a coalition with the United Party, and then merged with United to form the modern National Party.
