Ballance, John (1839-1893), was premier, or prime minister, of New Zealand from January 1891 until his death in April 1893. He was the first New Zealand prime minister to die in office. Ballance held mostly liberal views. He supported land reform, women’s right to vote, and the rights of New Zealand’s native Māori people. In 1891, Ballance founded the Liberal Party, the country’s first organized political party.
Early life
Boyhood and education.
John Ballance was born on March 27, 1839, in Glenavy, County Antrim, Ireland. The area where he was born is now part of Northern Ireland. His parents were Samuel Ballance, a farmer, and Mary McNiece Ballance. John had 10 brothers and sisters. The boy was educated at the local National School, a government-funded elementary school. Then he briefly attended Wilson’s Academy, a secondary school in Belfast, in what is now Northern Ireland.
At the age of 14, John left school and became an apprentice to a hardware dealer in Belfast. While living in Belfast, the young man witnessed religious rioting between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Partly as a result, he became committed to secularism, the idea that government and religion should be separate.
In 1857, Ballance became a traveling salesman for a wholesale hardware business in Birmingham, England. He attended classes at the Birmingham and Midland Institute, a center for adult education. He studied mainly history and politics. He also joined a number of literary and debating societies and wrote articles for newspapers.
Marriage and immigration to New Zealand.
On June 17, 1863, Ballance married Fanny Taylor (1843-1868), the daughter of a merchant. Three years later, the young couple immigrated to New Zealand. Fanny suffered from poor health, and they hoped that the climate of New Zealand would help her. They left London in April 1866 and arrived in Wellington in August. They settled in Wanganui on New Zealand’s North Island, where Fanny’s brother already lived.
In 1867, Ballance founded a newspaper, The Evening Herald, in partnership with a Wanganui printer named Archibald Dudingston Willis. Ballance became the editor and chief owner of the paper, later called The Wanganui Herald.
In June 1868, a conflict sometimes called Tītokowaru’s War broke out between colonists and Māori in the central North Island. Riwha Tītokowaru was the chief who led the Māori forces. The conflict was part of the New Zealand Wars, in which colonists and Māori fought over land ownership. After fighting broke out, Ballance helped raise a volunteer cavalry troop. He fought in the cavalry, which elected him to the rank of cornet. At that time, cornet was the the lowest rank of commissioned cavalry officer.
Ballance also acted as a war correspondent and wrote articles on the war for his newspaper. He often criticized the leadership, strategy, and performance of British forces in the conflict. As a result, the government eventually stripped Ballance of his rank. Tītokowaru’s War ended in early 1869 when a disagreement led many of the chief’s followers to reject his leadership. Riwha Tītokowaru himself escaped, and later became an advocate of nonviolent resistance to colonial land confiscations.
In 1868, Fanny Ballance died of an illness at the age of 24. Two years later, on May 19, 1870, Ballance married Ellen Anderson (1847-1935), the daughter of a Wellington architect. The couple had no children until 1886, when they adopted Ellen’s 4-year-old niece, Florence Anderson. They renamed the girl Kathleen Ballance.
Political career
Ballance became increasingly involved in civic affairs in the 1860’s and 1870’s. He helped to establish a number of community organizations. One was the Wanganui and Rangitikei Land and Building Society, an organization that offered its members loans and other financial services. He also helped to found a chess club and an Odd Fellows lodge, a fraternal organization that gave aid to its members and their families and did charitable work.
In 1883, Ballance and Willis formed the Wanganui Freethought Association. Freethought stressed that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, rather than traditional beliefs. The two men published a monthly magazine called Freethought Review from 1883 to 1885.
Member of Parliament.
In 1875, Ballance won election to the House of Representatives in New Zealand’s Parliament, representing the electorate (voting district) of Rangitikei. At that time, members of Parliament were independent instead of belonging to political parties. Ballance campaigned on two major issues, the abolition of the colony’s provinces and the provision of free education. When the British government had granted New Zealand a constitution in 1852, it had divided the country into six provinces. By the time Ballance entered Parliament, there were nine provinces. Ballance wanted to do away with the provincial governments and strengthen New Zealand’s central government. Laws passed by Parliament in 1875 and 1876 abolished the provincial governments, strengthened the central government, and reorganized the country into 63 counties to handle local government affairs.
Ballance represented Rangitikei from 1875 to 1879. In 1878, Prime Minister Sir George Grey appointed Ballance to several posts, including minister of education and colonial treasurer. Ballance won the parliamentary seat for Wanganui in 1879. In 1881, however, he lost the election by just 4 votes. It was his only political defeat. He won the seat back in 1884 and was reelected two more times, serving until his death in 1893.
In 1884, Ballance became minister of lands and immigration, minister of defence, and minister of native affairs in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Robert Stout. As minister of lands, Ballance encouraged New Zealand colonists to settle in rural areas and become farmers. One of his programs for encouraging settlement established a system of “village settlements.” Under this system, the government rented land to colonists and loaned them money to begin farming. Unlike many politicians of his day, Ballance strongly supported the rights of Māori to keep any land they still held. He withdrew government troops from areas where relations between Māori and colonists were tense, believing that the presence of the military increased tension. He also studied Māori language and culture.
Prime minister.
In December 1890, Ballance led a loose grouping of liberals to victory in the general election. He took office as prime minister on Jan. 24, 1891, succeeding Harry Atkinson. Throughout his time as prime minister, Ballance also served as colonial treasurer and commissioner of trade and customs. In 1891, Ballance united his allies to form the Liberal Federation. It soon became the Liberal Party, New Zealand’s first political party.
Prime Minister Ballance established a progressive land tax and income tax in 1891. In such taxes, the tax rate rose as the amount of taxable property or income increased. Ballance wanted his land policies to encourage large landowners to sell their undeveloped lands and to promote the development of small farms. His administration also passed the Factories Act 1891 and several other laws designed to improve working conditions for laborers.
Ballance strongly supported giving women the right to vote. He told Parliament in 1890, “I believe in the absolute equality of the sexes, and I think they should be in the enjoyment of equal privileges in political matters.” In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world to extend full voting rights to women.
On April 27, 1893, Ballance died in Wellington after undergoing surgery for cancer. He was 54 years old and at the height of his political career. Ballance was succeeded as prime minister by his Liberal Party colleague Richard Seddon, who held office for the next 13 years.
A statue of Ballance was placed on the grounds of the New Zealand Parliament in 1897 and now stands in front of the Parliamentary Library. At the base of the statue are the words “He Loved The People.” Seddon is the only other New Zealand prime minister honored by a statue on Parliament grounds.
In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the Ulster New Zealand Trust, an organization that seeks to strengthen ties between Northern Ireland and New Zealand, restored Ballance’s birthplace in Glenavy. The building is now known as the Ballance House.
