Basil Arthur


Sir Basil Malcolm Arthur, 5th Baronet served as Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives from 1984 to 1985. He was a member of the Labour Party.

Early life

Arthur was born in Timaru, New Zealand, and educated at Timaru Boys' High School. His father, a hotel proprietor, inherited the title of 4th Baronet in 1941, and Arthur in turn inherited it on his father's death in 1949. However, he showed a preference for labouring jobs, and made little of his title.

Member of Parliament

In Arthur stood for Labour in the Hamilton electorate, coming second.
In 1962, he contested two by-elections for the Labour Party: first, unsuccessfully, in Waitaki; then, successfully, in Timaru. On entering Parliament at age 33 he was the country's youngest member of parliament. He was reluctant to be called "Sir", but the Speaker at the time, Ronald Algie, said that refusing this honorific would be disrespectful to the Queen.

Cabinet minister

Arthur was both Minister of Transport and Minister in Charge of the State Insurance Office from 1972 until 1975 during the Third Labour Government.

Speaker

When Labour won the 1984 election, Arthur became Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives. He served in that capacity for one year, before dying in office of Legionnaires' disease. The then Prime Minister, David Lange recalled in My Life that Arthur was gravely ill in Wellington Hospital, and if he resigned from the member's superannuation scheme before he died his estate would get a lump-sum payment. He had to answer a question in the house, then went to hospital with a letter of resignation "only to find that he had died hardly a minute before I got there". Labour lost the subsequent Timaru by-election, with a candidate that did not suit "the conservative character of the electorate."
Arthur was the second baronet to serve as Speaker, the first being Sir Charles Clifford, 1st Baronet, although he was made a baronet some time after he had retired from politics.

Honours

In 1977, Arthur was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal.