Ben Roberts (politician)

Benjamin Roberts (1880 – 17 November 1952) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party and a Cabinet Minister.

Benjamin Roberts in 1935.

Biography
New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate Party
1935–1938 25th Wairarapa Labour
1938–1943 26th Wairarapa Labour
1943–1946 27th Wairarapa Labour

Roberts was born in 1880 in Liverpool. He started work as a farm labourer at 13. He bought his family to New Zealand in 1907 and settled in Carterton.[1]

He was elected to Parliament in the Wairarapa electorate in 1935, and remained a member of parliament to 1946, when he retired.[2]

He was both Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Marketing, from 1943 to 1946 in the First Labour Government under Peter Fraser.[3][4]

Roberts died in 1952.[2] His first wife, Mary Roberts, had died in 1936.[5]

Notes
  1. Scholefield, G. H. (1951) [1908]. Who's Who in New Zealand (5 ed.). Wellington: Reed. p. 200.
  2. Wilson 1985, p. 231.
  3. Taylor, Nancy M. (1986). "The Home Front Volume II - Chapter 24 — Victory at Last". Wellington: Historical Publications Branch. p. 1224. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
  4. Wilson 1985, p. 84.
  5. "Obituary". The Evening Post. CXXII (52). 29 August 1936. p. 11. Retrieved 17 July 2015.

References
  • Gustafson, Barry (1986). From the Cradle to the Grave: a biography of Michael Joseph Savage. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00138-5.
  • Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
Political offices
Preceded by
Jim Barclay		 Minister of Agriculture
1943–1946		 Succeeded by
Ted Cullen
New Zealand Parliament
Preceded by
Alexander McLeod		 Member of Parliament for Wairarapa
1935–1949		 Succeeded by
Bert Cooksley


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