William Hughes Field was a Member of Parliament in New Zealand; first for the Liberal Party

New Zealand Liberal Party

The New Zealand Liberal Party is generally regarded as having been the first real political party in New Zealand. It governed from 1891 until 1912. Out of office, the Liberals gradually found themselves pressed between the conservative Reform Party and the growing Labour Party...

, then Independent and then for the Reform Party

New Zealand Reform Party

The Reform Party, formally the New Zealand Political Reform League, was New Zealand's second major political party, having been founded as a conservative response to the original Liberal Party...

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Member of Parliament

William Field won the Otaki

Otaki (New Zealand electorate)

Ōtaki is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate, spanning part of the coast of the lower North Island. The bulk of its population comes from the Horowhenua district, but it also takes in part of the northern Kapiti Coast, including the towns of Otaki and Waikanae, and part of Paraparaumu. The...

 seat in the Horowhenua district in 1900, but lost it to John Robertson of the Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (New Zealand)

The Social Democratic Party of New Zealand was an early left-wing political party. It existed only a short time before being amalgamated into the new Labour Party...

 (who had been nominated by the flax-workers union) by 21 votes on the second ballot in 1911

New Zealand general election, 1911

The New Zealand general election of 1911 was held on Thursday, 7 and 14 December in the general electorates, and on Tuesday, 19 December in the Māori electorates to elect a total of 80 MPs to the 18th session of the New Zealand Parliament...

. He then won it back in 1914

New Zealand general election, 1914

The New Zealand general election of 1914 was held on 10 December to elect a total of 80 MPs to the 19th session of the New Zealand Parliament. A total number of 616,043 voters were registered, of which 84.7% voters turned out to vote....

, and held it until he retired in 1935

New Zealand general election, 1935

The 1935 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's 25th term. It resulted in the Labour Party's first electoral victory, with Michael Joseph Savage becoming the first Labour Prime Minister...

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Born in Wanganui

Wanganui

Whanganui , also spelled Wanganui, is an urban area and district on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is part of the Manawatu-Wanganui region....

, Field was a lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 and replaced his brother, Henry Augustus Field

Henry Augustus Field

Henry Augustus Field was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament in New Zealand.Field was born in Wanganui in 1852 and was a surveyor and farmer....

, when he died in 1899 (Hamer, p. 339). William Field stood as a Liberal in 1900 and was regarded as a 'country liberal' (Hamer, p. 260) or 'freehold liberal' (Hamer, p. 334) and therefore it is not surprising that he moved politically to support the Reform Party over time.