Nash, Walter (1882-1968), was prime minister of New Zealand from 1957 to 1960. Nash was one of the earliest members of the New Zealand Labour Party, which formed in 1916. The Labour Party is a center-left political party that generally favors socially liberal policies. Nash served in New Zealand’s parliament for nearly 40 years. In the late 1930’s, as minister of finance, he helped introduce New Zealand’s social security system. In New Zealand, social security pays for public health care and provides a range of welfare benefits, including retirement allowances. From 1942 to 1944, Nash was New Zealand’s ambassador to Washington, D.C.
Early life and family
Walter Nash was born on Feb. 12, 1882, in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. He was the fifth of six children born to Alfred Arthur Nash and his wife, Amelia Randle Nash. Alfred and Amelia both worked as weavers, but the family had little money. Alfred also worked for the Conservative Party, a center-right political party in the United Kingdom. 
In 1893, young Walter won a scholarship to King Charles I Grammar School in Kidderminster. However, his parents still could not afford the extra costs of the school. Walter left school to work in the office of a local law firm. In 1896, the Nash family moved to Selly Oak, in the center of nearby Birmingham. Walter worked as a clerk in a bicycle factory and attended night classes where he studied literature and economics. He was an active member of the local Anglican church (Church of England), and remained so throughout his life.
On June 16, 1906, Walter Nash married Lotty May Eaton (1880-1961), a post office clerk from Selly Oak. Nash opened a shop selling candy and tobacco. He became active in the local social club, debating society, and business association.
Nash and his wife had a son, Clement Walter, in 1907. Their second child, a girl, died in infancy in 1908. Selly Oak soon fell on hard economic times. The young family used their saving to leave England in search of opportunities in New Zealand. They arrived in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, in May 1909. They settled first in Brooklyn, a Wellington suburb. Nash became a partner in a tailoring business.
Nash and his wife had two more sons: Leslie Richard, born in 1910; and James Archibald Delacourt, born in 1912. The family attended St. Matthew’s, the local Anglican church. Nash taught Sunday school and joined the Church of England Men’s Society. He tied his deep religious views to a strong interest in community welfare. He supported socialism. At that time, he saw community ownership of property as an answer to poverty and other social problems.
Political development
Nash supported a newly created Labour party during the 1911 elections. With his tailoring business struggling, Nash moved his family to Palmerston North, about 80 miles (125 kilometers) north of Wellington. There, he worked as a traveling salesman for a wool merchant and cloth importer. While taking courses through the Workers’ Educational Association, Nash met future New Zealand prime minister Peter Fraser.
At the time, Nash was a pacifist, a person who is opposed to war and favors settling all disputes between nations by peaceful means. Thus, he did not support New Zealand’s participation in World War I (1914-1918).
In 1916, Nash cofounded a tailoring company in New Plymouth, on the North Island’s west coast. Nash continued his activities with the church and helped organize the community response to the 1918 global influenza epidemic (outbreak). In October 1918, Nash helped to found the New Plymouth branch of the Labour Party. In 1919, he sought election to the local council but was unsuccessful.
In March 1920, Walter and Lotty Nash sailed from New Zealand to visit the United States and Europe. Nash attended the Second Socialist International Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Returning to New Zealand in January 1921, Nash was fined for carrying socialist literature into the country. At that time, New Zealand and other countries had laws restricting certain Communist and socialist organizations.
Nash opened a left-wing bookshop in Wellington in 1921. In 1922, he was elected national secretary of the Labour Party, a position he held until 1932. During this time, Nash became a member of several international councils and institutes.
Member of Parliament
In 1929, Nash was unsuccessful in a bid to become mayor of Wellington. However, in December of that year, he won a by-election (special election to fill a vacant seat) for the seat representing Hutt, a suburb of Wellington, in New Zealand’s Parliament. During the Great Depression, a worldwide economic slump in the 1930’s, Nash emerged as Labour’s financial spokesman.
In 1935, the Labour Party’s Michael Savage became prime minister of New Zealand, and Savage named Nash as minister of finance. To help rebuild the economy, Nash and the new government took control of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. They guaranteed export prices for butter and cheese and provided cheap loans for farmers and other laborers. They introduced the 40-hour workweek, raised state salaries and pensions, increased funds for education, and provided free milk in schools. To help pay for these measures, the government raised taxes on income and land.
In 1936 and 1937, and again in 1939, Nash toured Europe. He also visited Canada and the United States, where he met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Social Security Act 1938, for which Nash was responsible, established the basis of New Zealand’s social security system.
Labour remained in power after the 1938 elections. However, the economic recovery efforts and the introduction of social security drained much of the government’s overseas cash reserves. In December, the government introduced import controls to conserve funds. On Sept. 3, 1939, New Zealand—following the United Kingdom—declared war on Germany at the beginning of World War II. Within days, the United Kingdom restored New Zealand’s cash reserves by promising to buy the country’s entire export of meat and dairy products.
Prime Minister Savage died on March 27, 1940, and Labour’s deputy leader, Peter Fraser, replaced him. Nash became Fraser’s deputy. During the war, Nash changed his pacifist views. He believed the war against Germany and Japan to be justified.
In January 1942, Nash went to the United States as New Zealand’s resident minister and spokesman of the Pacific War Council, an organization that planned the Allied war effort in Asia and the Pacific. He traveled throughout the United States, stressing the importance of forming international peace forums after the war.
From February to April 1944, Nash attended meetings in London of the British War Cabinet, a group of Commonwealth ministers who advised the prime minister on the conduct of the war. Returning to the United States, Nash attended the International Monetary Conference. This conference drew up plans for establishing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The IMF is an organization that provides short-term credit to its member nations. The IBRD, which is now known as the World Bank, was originally created to finance the reconstruction of nations devastated by World War II. New Zealand did not join either body until 1961.
World War II ended in 1945. In 1946, Nash was officially named deputy prime minister. From 1946 to 1948, Nash attended postwar conferences in Geneva, Hawaii, London, and New York. The Labour government won reelection in 1946, but it experienced declining popularity and political problems. In November 1949, the National Party defeated the Labour Party, ending 14 years of Labour control.
In January 1951, the Labour Party elected Nash as its leader. Soon after, a waterfront dispute erupted with the national government and the ship owners on one side, and waterside workers and some trade unions—the term used in New Zealand for labor unions—on the other. While addressing a rally in Auckland, Nash tried to avoid taking sides. He said, “We are not for the waterside workers, nor are we against them.” In response, political opponents and the press ridiculed Nash. In the election that followed on September 1, the National Party easily defeated Labour.
Prime minister
The Labour Party returned to power in 1957. On December 12, Nash, at age 75, became prime minister of New Zealand. The new Labour government inherited a difficult economic situation due to a major decline in export prices. To raise government funds and discourage imports, Labour tightened import controls and introduced the so-called “Black Budget” in June 1958. It included higher taxes on automobiles, beer, cigarettes, and gasoline. The taxes were unpopular, and political opponents stoked public anger. The Labour Party’s popularity and membership declined as a result. The public gave Labour little credit for making it easier for young New Zealanders to get home loans.
Ahead of a 1960 tour of South Africa, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union chose an all-white team with no Māori members. The South African government at that time had a rigid racial segregation policy known as apartheid. Nash did not interfere with the team selections and eventually supported the union’s decision. Nash’s inaction led to protests and public disapproval from liberals, most of whom were Labour supporters.
The National Party easily won the 1960 elections. Keith Holyoake replaced Nash as prime minister on December 12.
Later years
Lotty Nash died on Dec. 15, 1961. Nash’s effectiveness in opposition declined, and pressure mounted within Labour for a change in leadership. Nash resigned as party leader on March 31, 1963.
Nash remained as a member of Parliament, and he voiced his opposition to New Zealand’s participation, beginning in 1965, in the Vietnam War (1957-1975). In 1965, Elizabeth II, queen of New Zealand and the United Kingdom, knighted Nash, and he became Sir Walter Nash. His final efforts went toward the building of a hospital for children injured in the fighting in Vietnam.
Nash died on June 4, 1968, in Lower Hutt, near Wellington. As a memorial to Nash, public donations, added to a bequest in Nash’s will, paid for the completion of a children’s ward at Qui Nhon Hospital in Vietnam.
Nash’s great-grandson, Stuart Alexander Nash, is a member of New Zealand’s Labour Party. He became a member of Parliament in 2008.
Walter Nash was an excellent debater and tireless worker. Historians praise his knowledge of foreign affairs, but note that he was not a quick decision-maker.
