Robert Stout

Politician, lawyer, and chief justice

• Born: September 28, 1844
• Birthplace: Lerwick, Scotland
• Died: July 19, 1930
• Place of death: Wellington, New Zealand

Significance: Robert Stout served as the premier of New Zealand between 1884 and 1887 and as the Supreme Court’s chief justice between 1899 and 1926. He was a progressive politician who supported education, women’s rights, temperance, and secularism in schools and public life.

Background

Robert Stout was born on September 28, 1844, in Lerwick, Scotland. The first of six children born to merchant Thomas Stout and Margaret Smith, he grew up in a family where conversations about literature, politics, religion, and science were an integral part of their lives. These discussions and debates helped shape his philosophy, and he later became a freethinker, or adherent of individualism.

Stout began school from a young age and attended local schools. In 1858, he passed the examinations required for him to train and serve as a pupil teacher in Lerwick’s parish school, with specialties in science and mathematics. After additionally learning land and marine surveying, he qualified as a surveyor in 1860.

Academic and Legal Careers

Initially entertaining the idea of putting his skills as a surveyor to use, Stout departed Scotland for New Zealand, landing in 1864 and settling in Dunedin, where he found work first as a second master, teaching mathematics, at Dunedin Grammar School and then as the first assistant master at North Dunedin District School. A cofounder of the Otago Schoolmasters’ Association in 1866, he served as its inaugural secretary.

Attracted to the legal profession, in 1867, Stout began serving as an articled clerk in a law office. After he was admitted to New Zealand’s bar in 1871, he founded the law firm of Sievwright and Stout. Eventually, he would also form a partnership with John George Findlay. Stout was active as a barrister and solicitor for decades, even while serving as a parliamentarian. He earned a reputation for his legal expertise, especially as a pleader, and was considered a top solicitor in Wellington.

In 1871, Stout enrolled in the newly opened University of Otago. He earned distinction in courses in political economy and mental and moral science. From 1873 to 1875, he was a lecturer of law at the institution. A member of several education boards and councils, he was instrumental in evolving New Zealand’s university system, played a major part in the founding of Victoria College, Wellington (later Victoria University of Wellington) in 1897, and was the chancellor of the University of New Zealand from 1903 to 1923.

Political Career

Stout first entered the political arena when he was elected to the Otago Provincial Council as the member for Caversham in 1872. In 1874, he took on the role of Otago’s provincial solicitor, a post he held until provinces were abolished in 1876. He became involved in national politics in 1875 when he was elected to Parliament as a representative for Caversham. In December 1875, he was reelected, this time as the member for City of Dunedin East.

From 1878 to 1879, Stout served as the attorney general and minister of lands and immigration in George Grey’s administration. He came to support the Education Act of 1877, which prohibited religious denominations from teaching their beliefs in public schools and provided compulsory, free education for white New Zealanders up to age thirteen. The following year, Stout, a strong supporter of women's suffrage, introduced legislation to grant female ratepayers the right to vote and serve in Parliament; however, the law did not pass. In 1878 he also helped author the Land Tax Act 1878, which imposed the first direct tax on New Zealanders.

Stout resigned from Parliament and his cabinet posts in 1879 to attend to his legal practice. During the next five years, he immersed himself in the freethought movement, becoming the president of the Dunedin Freethought Association (1880) and editor of The Echo. He returned to Parliament in July 1884 as the member for Dunedin East. The next month, Harry Atkinson’s ministry fell and Stout became premier on August 16, 1884. His ministry ended twelve days later, following a vote of no confidence. He took over the premiership once more on September 3, 1884, after Atkinson was unable to establish a government.

Stout appointed himself the attorney general and later the minister of education and named Julius Vogel his colonial treasurer. As Vogel held a great amount of power in the ministry, it is often referred to as the Stout-Vogel government. Stout used his second term to reform secondary education and to pass the Married Women’s Property Act 1884, which granted married women the right to own property, and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1886, which allowed women to work in civil service positions. Following the general elections of 1887, he lost the ministry on October 8, 1887, and was succeeded by Atkinson. He also lost his seat in Parliament and remained out of politics until 1893, when he won the seat of Inangahua in a by-election. Five years later, having subsequently represented Wellington, he retired from political life.

Judicial Career and Later Life

Stout served as the chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1899 to 1926. In addition to hearing cases, he helped to consolidate New Zealand’s statutes and orchestrated changes to the appeals process to Britain’s Privy Council. From 1921 to 1926, he served on the judicial committee of the Privy Council. Following his retirement from the Supreme Court in 1926, he was appointed to the Legislative Council.

Stout died on July 19, 1930, in Wellington.

Impact

Stout made lasting contributions to New Zealand’s educational, legal, and judicial systems. Prior to his death, he endowed a trust that helped create the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies in the 1980s. Mount Stout, a mountain in Canterbury, is named after him.

Personal Life

Stout and Anna Paterson Logan married in 1876. They had six children. Anna shared Stout’s desire for social reform and was active in the women’s rights and temperance movements.

Bibliography

Facer, Wayne. “Sir Robert Stout.” Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography,Unitarian Universalist History & Heritage Society, 9 Sept. 2003, uudb.org/articles/robertstout.html. Accessed 27 May 2020.

“Former Chief Justices.” Courts of New Zealand, www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/about-the-judiciary/role-judges/former-chief-justices/. Accessed 19 June 2020.

Gattey, Emma M. “Sir Robert Stout as Freethinker and Eugenics Enthusiast.” Eugenics at the Edges of Empire: New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa, edited by Diane B. Paul, et al., Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 195–217.

Hamer, David. “Stout, Robert.” Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, 1993. Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2s48/stout-robert. Accessed 27 May 2020.

McLean, Gavin. “Robert Stout.” New Zealand History, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 8 Nov. 2017, nzhistory.govt.nz/people/sir-robert-stout. Accessed 27 May 2020.