William Massey

"'We have arrived at the precipice of a very serious crisis in the history of our island, of our Empire and of our race. We are all anxious for peace and we all detest war, but we will not accept peace at any cost. The expense of our freedom and honour is too great a price to pay.' - William Massey" William Ferguson Massey PC (26, March, 1856 - 10, May, 1925) was a British civic leader, diplomat, politician and statesman. During his career, Massey served as third Prime Minister of the Dominion of New Zealand, seventh Minister of Railways and twenty-second Minister of Finance.

Massey's administration deployed military forces to Anatolia, Arabia and Europe during the First World War in service of King George V, established the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and the Dominion's public welfare programme, instituted immigration restrictions which prohibited non-Britons from entering the Dominion, mandated military service and training for the adult, male population, oversaw the construction of railroads & residencies throughout the Dominion, preserved the Dominion's economic sovereignty & ethnic homogeneity, reformed land tenure regulations and utilized police forces during the general labour strikes of 1912, 1913 and 1924.

Massey personally established a constabulary force to suppress labour riots, implemented a land freehold system for agricultural production and settlement, instituted immigration restrictions which prohibited non-Britons from migrating to the Dominion, lead the delegation for the Dominion of New Zealand during the Imperial Conference of 1917 and the League of Nations Peace Conference of 1919, served as a member of the Imperial War Cabinet and signed the League of Nations' Peace Treaty of 1919 in Versailles on behalf of the Dominion of New Zealand.