Max Christie (politician)


Hubert Maxwell Christie , known as Max Christie, was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.

Biography

Early life and career

Christie was born in Kaiapoi in 1889, to a carpenter William Christie and his wife Sarah Jane Drabble. He had eight siblings. His family moved to Masterton and in 1914 he enlisted in the Wellington Mounted Rifles. He fought at Gallipoli in April 1915 where he was promoted to corporal, but in June he contracted gastroenteritis and was admitted to hospital in Lemnos. After a quick recovery he returned to the front in time for the August offensive. On August 27 he was promoted to sergeant before being wounded in his hand the very next day.
After his wounding, Christie was evacuated to a hospital in Alexandria before being transferred to a hospital in Birmingham, England. During his stay in England he met May Keet, whom he was to marry. He returned to New Zealand in January 1916 and was discharged upon his arrival on April 14. Christie then became a sheep shearer, then a farmer and wool buyer in Porangahau.

Political career

He was elected a member of the Patangata County Council 1929–1932. He was elected for the Waipawa electorate with the swing to Labour in the 1935 general election but was defeated in the next election in 1938.
He was likewise unsuccessful in attempting to regain the seat at a 1940 by-election.

Later life and death

Later he was appointed to many government boards and commissions, including the Loans Board, Maori Trust Board and the New Zealand Wool Board. In the 1959 Queen's Birthday Honours, Christie was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for public services.
Christie died in 1982 in Hastings.