Dan Sullivan (New Zealand politician)

Fairview Street Bridge, built in 1931 during Sullivan's mayoralty

Born in Christchurch in 1882, Sullivan was President/Secretary of the Canterbury French Polishers Union and National Federation of Furniture Trades Unions.

He was a councillor of the Christchurch City Council between 1915–1923 and 1925–1931, and Mayor of Christchurch 1931–1936. When Labour won the 1935 general election and Sullivan took on the heavy workload of a cabinet minister, he reluctantly resigned from the mayoralty in February 1936.[1][2][3] He was succeeded as mayor by John Beanland of the Citizens' Association.[4]

Sullivan first stood for Parliament in the 1908 election as a candidate for the Independent Political Labour League in the Avon electorate; he came fourth out of five candidates in the first ballot.[5] The 1908 election was won by George Warren Russell, who would later become a cabinet minister, and was in 1912 considered a possible successor of Joseph Ward as leader of the Liberal Party.[6] In the 1914 election, Sullivan came second out of three candidates in the same electorate, this time standing for the Social Democratic Party, the successor of the IPLL.[7][8]

In the 1919 election, Russell suffered a crushing defeat by Sullivan. As Minister of Public Health, Russell was held responsible by large parts of the population for New Zealand's unpreparedness for the 1918 flu epidemic.[6] Compared to the 1914 election, Sullivan's share of the vote increased by more than 27 percentage points.[7][9] He represented the Avon electorate in the House of Representatives for 28 years from 1919 to 1947.[10] During the 1920s Sullivan and Jimmy McCombs led the opposition to Harry Holland within the Parliamentary Labour Party caucus.[1]

Sullivan was a significant Cabinet Minister in the First Labour Government of New Zealand: the Minister of Industries and Commerce between 1935–47, Minister of Railways from 1935 to 1941 and the high-profile wartime Minister of Supply and Munitions. He was also Acting Prime Minister from April to July 1944.

In 1935, Sullivan was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.[11]

Sullivan died on 8 April 1947.[1] Sullivan Avenue in the Christchurch suburb of Woolston was named in Sullivan's honour in 1929.[12] Sullivan Park in Avonside was named for him in 1948.[13]

• Gustafson, Barry (1980). Labour's path to political independence: The Origins and Establishment of the New Zealand Labour Party, 1900–19. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press. ISBN 0-19-647986-X.
• Gustafson, Barry (1986). From the Cradle to the Grave: a biography of Michael Joseph Savage. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00138-5. (page 298 of biographical appendix)
• Mansfield, F. W. (1909). The General Election, 1908. National Library. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Daniel Giles Sullivan.

• The Hon. D. G. Sullivan, a 1936 biographical article from the New Zealand Railways Magazine
• Robin Hyde on Mr Sullivan and others in Parliament in 1925