Harry Holland

Henry Edmund Holland (10 June 1868 – 8 October 1933) was an Australian-born newspaper owner, politician and unionist who relocated to New Zealand. He was the second leader of the New Zealand Labour Party.

Holland was born near Queanbeyan, a town in New South Wales located quite close to modern Canberra. Initially, he worked on his parents' farm, but later was apprenticed as a compositor for the Queanbeyan Times. Holland did not receive an extensive education, but developed an enthusiasm for reading. He also became highly religious, joining the Salvation Army.

In 1887, Holland left Queanbeyan to work in Sydney. Shortly afterwards, on 6 October 1888, he married Annie McLachlan, whom he had met at a Salvation Army meeting. The two were to have five sons and three daughters. In 1890, however, Holland found himself unemployed, putting the family in a poor financial position. Holland left the Salvation Army at this point, believing that its response to poverty was inadequate. He remained, however, quite strongly religious. Gradually, his political views became attuned to socialism, although this was probably more an emotional decision than a theoretical one — Holland was deeply dedicated to the elimination of poverty, but had little use for complicated economic models.

Holland joined the small Australian Socialist League in 1892. Later, he and a friend began to publish a socialist journal — in 1896, he was convicted of libelling the superintendent of the New South Wales Labour Bureau, and served three months in prison. Upon his release, the journal was moved to Newcastle for a time, but eventually returned to Sydney.

In 1901, Holland stood as a candidate for the Australian Senate and the state seat of Sydney-Lang. He was standing for the Socialist Labor Party, having rejected the Labor Party as too moderate. He did not make any significant impression. Later, in 1907, he stood in the New South Wales state election, but was caught up in strong infighting between socialist groups. Holland had acquired a reputation of arrogance and egotism, and was convinced beyond all doubt that his views were correct.

In 1909, Holland was convicted of sedition, having advocated violent revolution against capitalism during the miners' strike at Broken Hill. He was jailed for two years. He received little sympathy from the socialist movement, which considered his actions during the strike to be provocation and posturing. This embittered Holland considerably, and he suffered from serious depression.

In 1912, after his release from jail, Holland soon found himself in trouble with the law again. This time, it resulted from his refusal to register his son for compulsory military training. Rather than pay a fine, Holland left Australia and travelled to New Zealand, accepting an invitation from the Waihi branch of the New Zealand Socialist Party.

Waihi

At the time of Holland's arrival, Waihi was descending into chaos. A bitter miners' strike, the most significant industrial action that New Zealand had yet seen, was underway, and the conservative government of William Massey was responding with strong measures. The strike eventually led to the death of a miner in a shoot-out with police. Holland was encouraged by the strike, believing that it was the beginning of "class war" against capitalism. This view was not shared, however, by the New Zealand Socialist Party, which, when the strike broke out, had actually asked Holland not to come to Waihi. The New Zealand socialists, for the most part, saw socialism as a means to an end, and distrusted Holland's view that socialism was a goal in and of itself. Many New Zealand socialists resented Holland's arrogance, seeing him as a self-opinionated outsider meddling in a precarious situation that he did not fully understand.

Moderation

Gradually, however, Holland's militancy decreased. His co-authorship of a pamphlet The Tragic Story of the Waihi Strike on the strike gained him a certain amount of prestige, as did his editorship of the Federation of Labour's newspaper, the Maoriland Worker 1913–18. In 1913, a candidate of the Social Democratic Party (which the Socialist Party had merged into) was elected to Parliament with backing from the mainstream Liberal Party, and Holland was happy — at one stage, he would have condemned co-operation with any non-socialist organisation. Holland himself, however, still ran into difficulties with the law. In the 1913 waterfront dispute, he was charged with sedition, and served time in jail. This time, however, he was widely seen as a martyr, and gained considerable support.

With the gradual unification of the labour movement in New Zealand, the (second) Labour Party was founded in 1916. Holland was one of the founding members, although his opinions about the direction of the party were not identical to some of the party's other leaders. Holland believed that the Labour Party would lay the foundations for socialism, while the more moderate members of the party simply wanted to improve the wages and conditions of workers.

In 1918, Paddy Webb, a Labour MP, was jailed for refusing military service. Holland stood in the resulting by-election to replace him, and was narrowly elected. Holland was delighted with his victory, but other members of the party were less enthusiastic — Holland's majority was far lower than Webb's had been. Holland dismissed this, saying that his victory, unlike Webb's, had been for pure socialism rather than mere reform. Holland represented the Grey electorate 1918–19, and then the Buller electorate from 1919 until he died.

Initially, in Parliament Holland was not a particularly strong performer. His aggressive oratory, while suitable for speeches, tended to oversimplify issues, and Holland was frequently criticised in Parliamentary debates as an impractical ideologue. Holland's opponents successfully characterised him as applying simplistic doctrines to complicated issues, and of failing to look at a problem from all sides.

Party leader

Shortly before the 1919 election, the first contested by the Labour party as a united bloc, Holland contested for the leadership of the Labour party. Previous Labour leader Alfred Hindmarsh had died in the influenza epidemic in late 1918 leaving the position open. His only opponent was previous party president James McCombs, who had more parliamentary experience than Holland. The caucus voted and the result was a draw, though after a draw by lot, Holland won the parliamentary leadership of the party, becoming Labour's next leader. Most historians see his victory as being due to his public profile rather than to his policies, which many in the Labour Party considered too extreme.

Holland came to personally personify the Labour Party in a way that his predecessors did not due to his superb oratory on public platforms where he could draw large crowds. He built up a core following among his caucus consisting of Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser, Bob Semple and later Walter Nash. All were to become not only loyal lieutenants to Holland during his tenure, but the most influential members of the First Labour Government following Holland's death.

In 1922 there were movements towards a proposed alliance between the Labour and Liberal parties, similar to the Lib-Lab Pact in the UK. This was in order to avoid vote splitting, particularly in marginal semi-urban electorates. Holland and the party executive began negotiations with Liberal leader Thomas Wilford about conducting a joint campaign and if successful, forming a coalition government which would set up a proportionally represented electoral system. However, the talks collapsed after Wilford demanded on holding on to office for a full term before holding an election under the new system, Holland thinking he would use this time to attempt to discredit Labour.

Leader of the Opposition

In 1925 Labour suffered a setback, losing 5 seats despite gaining 3.5% more of the vote. However, Holland became Leader of the Opposition on 16 June 1926, as a result of the Eden by-election. Labour had now surpassed the Liberal Party as the second largest party in Parliament. Following the 1928 election the results showed a hung parliament. Labour held the balance of power and chose to give reluctant support to the United Party (a renamed Liberal Party) rather than continue to let Reform govern. As a result of this Holland lost the status of Leader of the Opposition to ousted Prime Minister Gordon Coates. Holland attributed the loss to the failure of all trade unionists to support Labour, although had Labour won in 1928 it may well have been denied its long tenure of office which followed after 1935.

Labour's support for United lasted until 1931 until the Great Depression took hold. Holland disagreed with United on financial policy to combat the depression and its effects. Holland decided to withdraw support from the government and moved for a vote of no confidence, intending to trigger an election where he thought many disenchanted voters would switch to Labour. Much to his surprise, the Reform party voted with United and the two entered into a coalition denying Holland his chance to seize the initiative. An election was held at the years end and Labour improved well, but still fell short of winning Government.

As the Depression worsened, Holland began to doubt some of his convictions. At first, Holland had believed that the Depression marked the beginning of the end for capitalism, but as the economic problems continued, and many workers were cast into poverty, Holland began to question whether his theories were capable of solving the crisis. Suffering from depression, exhaustion, and ill health, Holland began to withdraw from the activities of leadership. Talk of a possible challenge to his leadership appeared, but there was not yet any willingness for an open confrontation.

In 1933, Holland unexpectedly died of a heart attack, attending the funeral of the Maori King Te Rata Mahuta in Huntly. He was given a state funeral, and hailed by his friends as a "compassionate champion of the common people". Holland had died in debt. At the time the position of Leader of the Opposition did not have a higher salary to cover the extra costs that the office demanded. Holland's son freely served as his secretary and also received help from friends to avoid being forced out of parliament on financial grounds. Holland had been receiving less money than a general labourer and the Prime Minister George Forbes approved a paid full-time secretary and a ₤600 grant to Holland's widow. He was survived by five sons and two daughters.

Holland's successor, the more moderate Michael Joseph Savage, went on to lead the Labour Party to victory in the 1935 election.He has a memorial in the Bolton Street Cemetery in Wellington, near to that of Richard Seddon, unveiled in 1937 by Savage with the inscription "This monument is dedicated to Henry Edmund Holland Leader of the Labour Party 1919-33 to commemorate his work for humanity. He devoted his life to free the world from unhappiness, tyranny and oppression."

Holland was an avid reader in his adult life due to his short time of schooling in his youth. In the South Island mining town of Seddonville, within Holland's Buller electorate, a library was named in his memory.

• O'Farrell, P.J. (1964). Harry Holland: Militant Socialist. Canberra, Australia: Australian National University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Brown, Bruce (1966). "Holland, Henry Edmund".In McLintock, A. H. (ed.). An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
• Gustafson, Barry (1980). Labour's path to political independence: the origins and establishment of the NZ Labour Party 1900–1919. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press. ISBN 0-19-647986-X.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• O'Farrell, Patrick (1983). "Holland, Henry Edmund (Harry) (1868–1933)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 8 May 2016.