Walter Nash

Politician

• Born: February 12, 1882
• Birthplace: Kidderminster, England
• Died: June 4, 1968
• Place of death: Lower Hutt, New Zealand

Significance: Walter Nash was a longtime New Zealand Labour Party parliamentarian. As New Zealand’s minister of finance from 1935 to 1949 and its prime minister from 1957 to 1960, he implemented economic policies that funded World War II and aided postwar recovery and development.

Background

Walter Nash was born on February 12, 1882. the fifth of six children of Alfred Nash and Amelia Randle Nash. He grew up in Kidderminster, England, where his mother was a weaver; his father worked as a clerk and sometimes as a weaver.

Nash attended St. John’s School, where he sang in the school choir. He earned a scholarship to King Charles I Grammar School when he was eleven, but was unable to take advantage of it as his family lacked the money for the uniform.

Nash left school at eleven to work as a messenger for a solicitor in the area. A few years later, he and his family relocated to Selly Oak, where he worked as a messenger, then as a clerk for a bicycle factory, for about twelve years.

Business Ventures

Around 1906, Nash went into business for himself, selling wholesale confectioneries and tobacco out of two shops in Selly Oak. Active in the town’s social and business communities, he belonged to the debating society and social club, and he was secretary and vice president of the latter. He also served as the secretary of the Selly Oak and Bournbrook Traders’ and Ratepayers’ Association. He took night classes and read widely. Influenced by John Ruskin, he became a Christian socialist and believed in the just distribution of wealth.

In 1909, Nash immigrated with his growing family to New Zealand. He made a home in the Wellington suburb of Brooklyn, where he worked for the Jones and Ashdown tailoring company, joined the Church of England Men’s Society, and became active in church affairs. In 1913, after experiencing financial hardship due to his affiliation with the struggling Jones and Ashdown, he moved to Palmerston North and worked as a traveling salesperson for a woolen merchant and importer of cloth.

About three years later he and a partner opened a cooperative tailoring business in New Plymouth. The company was not a success, however, and he withdrew from it in 1919. He then formed several new companies, including a bookshop, in Wellington.

Political Career

Nash became associated with the recently formed, modern New Zealand Labour Party in 1916 and by 1919 he was a member of its executive. In 1918 he oversaw the establishment of the New Plymouth branch of the Labour Party. His first bid for office was for a seat on the borough council in 1919, but he was unsuccessful. From 1922 to 1932 he served as the party’s national secretary.

Nash twice attempted—without success—to win a seat in the federal parliament as the member for Hutt, in 1925 and 1928. He finally became a member of Parliament for Hutt in a by-election in 1929. That same year he ran for mayor of Wellington but was not elected. In addition to his duties as a representative, he held a seat on the Wellington Harbour Board from 1933 to 1938.

Nash won reelection to Parliament in every election until his death in 1968. He quickly became a key Labour spokesperson for the moderate contingent. After Labour’s victory in the 1935 election and the establishment of New Zealand's first Labour government, he served as the minister of finance and deputy prime minister in the governments of Michael Joseph Savage (1935–40) and Peter Fraser (1940–49). Nash’s initial challenges were to foster economic development as the country recovered from the Great Depression. He engaged in trade and finance talks with Great Britain, took control of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand after it was nationalized, and advocated extensive housing development through state-held, low-interest loans. He implemented price controls on butter and cheese and increased state salaries and pensions. As the minister for social security in 1938, he was involved in social welfare planning and discussions that contributed to the Social Security Act of 1938, which provided free health care and child allowances and established the welfare state in New Zealand.

After World War II broke out in 1939, Nash turned his attention to financing the war and addressing economic concerns. He implemented a rationing program, introduced price and salary controls, and increased taxes. At the same time, he increased family welfare benefits to provide general assistance to New Zealanders. During the war he frequently attended international conferences and meetings. He worked in Washington, DC, from 1942 to 1943 as New Zealand’s minister to the United States. He also helped direct New Zealand's war efforst on the Pacific Front as a member of the Pacific War Council (1942–44), and served as a delegate to the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944.

After Labour lost the government in the 1949 election, he struggled as the leader of the opposition. Following Labour’s victory in the 1957 election, he became prime minister on December 12, 1957. He took the portfolios of external affairs and Māori affairs. During his prime ministry, though he spent large amounts of time out of the country, Nash implemented several social welfare initiatives and introduced an industrialization development program. Labour ultimately lost the government to the National Party in the 1960 election, and Nash was succeeded by Keith Jacka Holyoake on December 12, 1960.

Nash served as leader of the opposition from 1960 to 1963, and two years later he was knighted. He died on June 4, 1968, in Lower Hutt.

Impact

Nash is primarily remembered for his economic initiatives during Labour’s first two governments, but he is also remembered for his shortcomings. Among them were his refusal as minister of customs to accept more Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, his lack of criticism regarding Britain and France’s invasion of the Suez Canal in 1956, and his failure to intervene when the New Zealand Rugby Football Union excluded Māori players from an apartheid-era South Africa tour.

Prior to his death, Nash established a fund for the Sir Walter Nash Prize, an award for the best essay on a topic about improving relations between peoples of the world, at Victoria University. A community center in Taita, the Walter Nash Centre, was named in his honor.

Personal Life

Nash and Lotty May Eaton married in 1906. They had three sons.

Bibliography

Gustafson, Barry. “Nash, Walter.” Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, 1998. Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4n2/nash-walter. Accessed 10 Apr. 2020.

Hunt, Tom. “Sir Walter Nash Documents under the Hammer.” Stuff, 14 Apr. 2015, www.stuff.co.nz/national/67731129/sir-walter-nash-documents-under-the-hammer. Accessed 10 Apr. 2020.

Mackenzie, Craig. Walter Nash: Pioneer and Prophet. Dunmore Press, 1975.

McLean, Gavin. “Walter Nash.” New Zealand History, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 8 Nov. 2017, nzhistory.govt.nz/people/walter-nash. Accessed 10 Apr. 2020.

Sinclair, Keith. Walter Nash. Auckland UP, 1976.