New Zealand statesman, lawgiver and poet Part 2
Dorothy – 24/05/02
In 1896 Reeves was appointed as Agent General for New Zealand in the United Kingdom. This appointment was regarded as a great honour for Reeves. As New Zealand’s representative in London he was expect to promote its interests, and with his skills as an orator he was invited to speak on numerous occasions. In 1905 the position was changed to that of High Commissioner and his salary was raised to more than the Prime Minister was paid.
Return to writing Without the pressure of active political involvement Reeves wrote more poetry. New Zealand and other poems , published in 1898, included one of his best-known poems, The Passing of the forest.
| Gone are those gentle forest-haunting things, Eaters of honey, honey-sweet in song. The tui and the bell-bird – he who rings That brief, rich music we would fain prolong, Gone the woodpigeon’s sudden whirr of wings, The daring robin all unused to wrong, Ay, all the friendly friendless creatures. They Lived with their trees and died and passed away. |
In this poem he uses powerful imagery to portray the bareness of the mountains once the forests are destroyed – images that strike a chord with the modern reader used to the sight of eroded mountainsides. He also mourns the passing of the native birds – another sentiment that has contemporary interest as wasps consume the honey dew the birds once fed on.
The Passing of the forest and other verse , published in 1925, contained A colonist in his garden , another poem which has featured in a number of anthologies. In this poem the colonist reads a letter persuading him to return to England and no longer be content to be:
| Pent by that dread and shipless sea Round lonely islands rolled, Isles nigh as empty as their deep, Where men but talk of gold and sheep And think of sheep and gold. The colonist replies: Good wizard! Thus he weaves his spell. Yet, charm he twenty times as well, Me shall he never spur, To seek again the old, green land, That seems from far to stretch a hand To sons who dream of her. |
He goes on to describe how he is rooted , firm and fast, how he hath made the wilderness to flower, how the bare plain has been changed by the trees he has planted, how his garden has grown and is full of English flowers, and how he is content in the new land.
It is ironical that Reeves writes of the bond between New Zealand and its settlers while he himself is living contentedly in England and was to make only one return trip to New Zealand in 1925-6 on behalf of the National Bank of New Zealand.
State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand 1902 This book by Reeves has been out of print for many years, but remains an authoritative discussion on the land, labour, old age pension and other radical legislation in these two countries, and includes an account of the women’s franchise movement.
1898 a productive year with three books published – poetry and history For a series being published as Story of Empire Reeves was commissioned to write a history of New Zealand. The Story of New Zealand was published in April 1898 and received favourable reviews. This was fairly short and Reeves straightaway began work on a longer version, The long white cloud – Ao Tea Roa , published in November 1898. This was a highly regarded short history of New Zealand, and remained in print until the 1950s. His career as a journalist and a politician gave him a wide background knowledge of New Zealand history and constant writing had refined and polished his prose style. His was a Liberal view of New Zealand history and is sympathetic to Maori and approving of the role of companies like the New Zealand Company which established such settlements as Wellington and Nelson.
Association with members of the Fabian Society Reeves became a close friend of Sidney and Beatrice Webb and George Bernard Shaw and other Fabians. He held strong socialist views and twice turned down a knighthood and the CGMG. Lectures he gave to the Fabian Society attracted great interest. One on industrial arbitration drew an audience of five hundred, but in his role as Agent General he did not join any political organisation.
Maud Reeves was very involved in the Fabian Society and was an active suffragist and sociologist.
A speaker in great demand Reeves was inundated with invitations from numerous groups to give lectures, mostly about New Zealand and his reforms as Minister of Labour. This meant that his reforms received wide publicity. He was also an entertaining after-dinner speaker, and Keith Sinclair in William Pember Reeves New Zealand Fabian describes him as the best public relations officer the Colony had ever had.
Reeves’s commercial role His appointment as agent general had a strong commercial emphasis, and for this he was well suited. He had good business sense and promoted the sale of New Zealand meat under that specific label. He also checked on the handling of imported meat and favoured expansion of the cool stores. He became an expert in the workings of London finance and saved the New Zealand government thousands of pounds through his scrupulous attention to detail. Prime Minster Seddon relied on his judgment and sought his advice on Government borrowing.
He was a frequent correspondent to the Times, defending the New Zealand government over its finances or his system of industrial conciliation and arbitration.
Resignation as High Commissioner and new appointments In 1908 Reeves resigned as High Commissioner in favour of a government appointee. In the same year he was appointed as a director of the National Bank of New Zealand. He was a valuable board member with in depth knowledge of New Zealand economic and political affairs. He was Chairman of Directors from 1917 to 1931.
He continued to have a keen concern for the workers and in 1930-31 during the depression he opposed the moves of shareholders to have staff salaries reduced and the pension fund cut because their dividend was reduced.
In 1908 he was also appointed as director of the London School of Economics. The Webbs had founded the school in 1895 and in 1900 it became part of the University of London. Reeves said he was appointed because they needed a practical man. He remained as Director until 1919. His main value to the school was his capable management of the finances.
Sadness in the family In 1917 Reeves’s only son Fabian was killed on active service when his plane was shot down over France while on an offensive patrol.
Greece of great interest to him Reeves saw strong parallels between Ancient Greece and New Zealand, and Greece became for him a consuming interest – his new New Zealand. He wrote pamphlets supporting Greece and denouncing the Turks and Bulgarians and helped found the Anglo-Hellenic League. He became a friend of the Greek Prime Minister and accepted the Greek honour of High Commander of the Order of the Saviour and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Athens.
Death in 1932 Reeves lived on in London until his death on 15 May 1932 at the age of seventy five.
