Reeves, William Pember (1857-1932), was a politician, historian, and poet, who served as New Zealand‘s first minister of labor. In the 1890’s, he introduced important labor reforms, including laws that improved working conditions in factories, and the Arbitration Act of 1894, which settled disagreements between workers and employers by arbitration, the judging of a dispute by one or more impartial persons whose decision will be final and binding. In 1896, the New Zealand government appointed him as its agent-general in London.
After retiring from government service, Reeves became a leader in the Fabian Society, a socialist movement that tried to achieve socialist goals gradually through a series of reforms (see Fabianism). His books of poetry include In Double Harness (1891) and New Zealand and Other Poems (1898). His book The Long White Cloud (1898) is a major study of New Zealand history. Reeves was born in Lyttelton, New Zealand, on Feb. 10, 1857. He died in London on May 15, 1932.
