Massey. Memorial “This,” said Gustafson, “inevitably brought them into conflict with Bill Massey was one of three Prime Ministers of New Zealand who other sectional interests, particularly the emergent union movement died while in office. The others were Michael Joseph Savage and “King and the Labour Party. Yet, although Massey espoused the cause of Dick” Seddon. Perhaps in posthumous recompense for their labours, conservatism, both his personal instincts and his practice while in each of them is honoured by a substantial physical memorial. office place him in a tradition of humanitarian pragmatism.” The William Ferguson Massey Memorial occupies a commanding posi- Massey became Prime Minister in 1912 after entering Parliament in tion overlooking Wellington Harbour, at Point Halswell on the tip of 1894. Shortly after his death in 1925, the Massey Burial-ground Act Miramar Peninsula. Its location was formerly a gun emplacement, was passed by Parliament, enabling the land at Point Halswell to be dating from the “Russian Scare” of the 1880s. The views from the site set aside as a burial ground for both Massey and his widow. Public and the marble-clad monument itself thoroughly justify the short easy subscriptions raised funds totalling £5,000 and the government contrib- climb up from the road that skirts the peninsula. uted £10,000. Auckland architects Gummer and Ford and consulting architect Samuel Hurst Seager were engaged to design a fitting tomb and memorial. Little is heard about William Massey these days but the fact that he was accorded such a spectacular memorial suggests that New Zealanders of his time thought he should be remembered. The late Labour Prime Minister, Michael Joseph Savage, is commemo- rated by a mausoleum and obelisk on Bastion Point in Auckland, over- looking the Waitemata Harbour. According to the biographer, Barry Gustafson, he was “one of New Zealand’s most significant politicians”. Richard John Seddon’s memorial, a column and tomb, is at the entrance to Wellington’s Bolton Street Cemetery, on the site of what was once He took control of a parliamentary opposition that, according to the Time Service Observatory. Gustafson, “had all but ceased to exist and, by force of personality and astute political leadership both inside and outside Parliament, transformed it into an organised political party. He and his party saw farmers as the developers of the countryside, the base of the economy and the personification of the young nation’s pioneering spirit. 1.