Mary Dreaver

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The Honourable
Mary Dreaver
MBE
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Waitemata
In office
19 July 1941 – 25 September 1943
Preceded byJack Lyon
Succeeded byHenry Thorne Morton
New Zealand Legislative Councillor
In office
31 January 1946 – 31 December 1950
Appointed byPeter Fraser
Personal details
Born
Mary Manson Bain

(1887-03-31)31 March 1887
Dunedin, New Zealand
Died19 July 1961(1961-07-19) (aged 74)
Auckland, New Zealand
Political partyLabour
Spouse
Andrew James Dreaver
​
​
(m. 1911)​
Children6
ProfessionJournalist

Mary Manson Dreaver MBE (née Bain, 31 March 1887 – 19 July 1961) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party. She was the third woman to sit in the New Zealand House of Representatives, one of the first two women to sit in the New Zealand Legislative Council, and the only woman to sit in both chambers.

Early life and family[edit]

Mary Dreaver was born in Dunedin in 1887, the oldest of 13 children of Alexander Manson Bain, a Scottish Presbyterian cabinetmaker and trade unionist, and his Irish Catholic wife Hanna Kiely. The children were raised Anglican.[1]

She married Andrew James Dreaver, a salesman and former boxer, in 1911 and moved to Auckland. The couple had six children. One son, Alex, was an Auckland city councillor from 1953 to 1974.[2]

Mary Dreaver taught piano and became active in the National Spiritualist Church of New Zealand, in which she was ordained as the church's first woman minister in New Zealand in 1934.[3] She was also a journalist. She wrote an astrology columnist in the New Zealand Woman's Weekly and was a broadcaster on Radio 1ZB as Aunt Maisy.[4] She was also known as a painter of watercolour landscapes under the name May Bain.[1]

Political career[edit]

Local politics[edit]

Dreaver was active in the New Zealand Labour Party from at least the 1920s, and also joined the Women's International and Political League and the National Council of Women of New Zealand.[5] As a Labour candidate she unsuccessfully contested the Newmarket Borough Council in 1927 and the Auckland Hospital Board in 1929.[6][7] She won a seat on the Auckland Hospital Board in 1931.[8][9][10] In 1933 a visit by her to the hospital kitchen and claims of long hours and "sweated labour" there aroused controversy on the board.[11] Dreaver continued as a member of the hospital board until 1944 and was elected for another period from 1950 to 1956.

She was also a member of the Auckland Transport Board from 1939 to 1944, the Auckland Electric Power Board from 1944 to 1947, and the Auckland Metropolitan Drainage Board between 1956 and 1957.[4] She was a member of the Auckland City Council (its second woman member after Ellen Melville) from 1938 to 1944 and again from 1953 to 1961.[1]

Member of Parliament[edit]

Dreaver made five attempts to enter parliament. She first sought selection by the Labour Party for the 1930 by-election in the Parnell electorate, but was beaten by Tom Bloodworth.[12][13] She next sought the Labour nomination for the 1936 by-election in the Manukau seat, but was beaten by Arthur Osborne.[14] She won selection to contest Remuera for Labour in the 1938 election, coming second to Bill Endean. Auckland West MP and prime minister Michael Joseph Savage died in 1940; Dreaver stood for the Labour nomination for the Auckland West by-election, but lost to Peter Carr.[15]

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate Party
1941–1943 26th Waitemata Labour

In 1941 she won the Waitemata electorate when a by-election was held after the death of the previous Labour Party MP, Jack Lyon.[16] She was the third woman to be elected to Parliament after Elizabeth McCombs and Catherine Stewart and the first woman from Auckland. During her time in Parliament, Dreaver introduced the Women Jurors Bill, which enabled women to optionally submit their names as prospective jurors.[1][17] The bill became law in 1942.[18]

Dreaver was defeated in the next (1943) general election, by the National Party candidate, Henry Thorne Morton.[19] After her defeat she contributed to the war effort as a recruiter for the Women's Land Army.[20]

Member of the Legislative Council[edit]

Dreaver and Mary Anderson were the first two women appointed to the Legislative Council. They were appointed by the First Labour Government in 1946 (after a law change in 1941 to make women eligible); they served to 1950 when the Legislative Council was abolished.[21]

Honours and awards[edit]

Dreaver in 1934

In the 1946 New Year Honours, Dreaver was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services in connection with recruiting for the Women's Land Army.[20]

Death[edit]

Mary Dreaver died in Auckland on 19 July 1961. She was survived by her husband (by only three months), three daughters and two sons.[4]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "Dreaver, Mary Manson". Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. 2010. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  2. ^ Bush 1971, pp. 586.
  3. ^ "Woman minister, Mrs M Dreaver". Papers Past. 1 December 1934.
  4. ^ a b c Laracy, Hugh. "Dreaver, Mary Manson - Biography". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  5. ^ "Women Emerging from the Auckland Political Scene: Introducing Mere Newton and Mary Dreaver". Auckland History Initiative. 6 October 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  6. ^ "LABOUR'S NOMINEES". Auckland Star. 22 March 1927. p. 11. Retrieved 4 May 2024 – via Papers Past.
  7. ^ "Labour Party Candidates". Auckland Sun. 30 April 1929. p. 8. Retrieved 4 May 2024 – via Papers Past.
  8. ^ "Municipal elections: Labour Party candidates". Papers Past. 18 March 1931.
  9. ^ "Hospital Board". Papers Past. 22 April 1931.
  10. ^ "Hospital Board: Committees approved". Papers Past. 17 May 1933.
  11. ^ "Hospital Kitchen: Board members action". Papers Past. 20 December 1933.
  12. ^ "Parnell By-Election". Vol. CIX, no. 75. The Evening Post. 29 March 1930. p. 11. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  13. ^ "Labour Candidate". Vol. CIX, no. 79. The Evening Post. 3 April 1930. p. 10. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  14. ^ "Manukau Seat". Auckland Star. Vol. LXVII, no. 189. 11 August 1936. p. 9. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  15. ^ "Mr. Carr Is Labour Choice For Auckland W." Northern Advocate. 26 April 1940. p. 7. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  16. ^ Wilson 1985, pp. 193, 213.
  17. ^ "First woman on a jury". Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. 2009. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  18. ^ Wilson 1985, pp. 193, 221.
  19. ^ a b "No. 37410". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1946. p. 161.
  20. ^ Wilson 1985, p. 152.

References[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mary Dreaver.
  • Bush, Graham W. A. (1971). Decently and in Order: The Government of the City of Auckland 1840-1971. Auckland: Collins.
  • Gustafson, Barry (1986). From the Cradle to the Grave: a biography of Michael Joseph Savage. Auckland: Reed Methuen. p. 280. ISBN 0-474-00138-5.
  • Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
New Zealand Parliament
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Waitemata
1941–1943 		Succeeded by
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