Robert Masters

Masters was born in 1879 at Greymouth and was educated at Greymouth Boys' College. Around 1896 he moved to Stratford where he became a storekeeper with his father, Jonas Masters. He played representative rugby, and later, was a member of the Taranaki Rugby Football Union, executive. Masters was also a member of the executive of the Stratford Chamber of Commerce.[1] On 3 May 1906 he was married to Alice Gertrude Hopkins in Stratford.[2] Interested in agricultural matters, he was a member of Stratford's Agricultural and pastoral Association of which he had been both president and treasurer. He helped set up the Stratford model farm and later a member of its executive. Masters was chairman of directors of the Stratford Electric Lighting Company, until it entered the ownership of the Stratford Borough Council.[1]

Masters entered politics via local government. In 1916 he was elected a member of the Taranaki Board of Education, and became its chairman by the end of the same year.[1]

Masters represented the Taranaki electorate of Stratford from 1919 for the Liberal Party; though the result was declared void in the following year, he won the subsequent 1920 by-election.[3] Masters was a personal friend of Liberal Party leader George Forbes and the two went for daily walks together. He took on a mentoring role with Forbes for which he was mockingly dubbed 'His Master's Voice'.[4] He was defeated by Edward Walter in 1925.[5] After losing his seat he remained politically active and was involved in setting up the United Party, which succeeded the Liberal Party in 1928. Notably he was the chairman of the September 1928 convention in Wellington that launched the party's formal existence, decided its policies and where delegates elected former Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward as its leader. He also negotiated successfully to bring about co-operation with several independent MPs and candidates (such as Harry Atmore, William Polson and Charles Wilkinson) to support the United Party in the house.[6]

Masters was appointed to the New Zealand Legislative Council on 11 June 1930 and served for one seven-year term.[7] When Ward retired as Prime Minister his successor, Forbes, added Masters to the cabinet on 20 August 1930 as a Minister without portfolio.[6] In the Forbes Ministry, he was a Member of the Executive Council without portfolio from 1930 to 1931. When the United and Reform Party decided on entering in to a coalition, Forbes relied on Masters heavily for support during the tense negotiations that created the United-Reform Coalition government in 1931.[4] In the coalition government, he was both Minister of Education and Minister of Industries and Commerce.[8] At the 1931 election he was the United Party's campaign chairman. He was frequently called on to resolve selection disputes as part of the coalition agreement with Reform was to not oppose each others MPs. He had to work with the Reform leadership to make sure that in as many electorates as possible there was only one "anti-Labour" candidate to avoid vote splitting.[9]

In 1935, Masters was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.[10] In the 1953 Coronation Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, for public services.[11]

In 1957 he was appointed to the Electricity and Gas Co-ordination Board by the first National government.[12] He was also the patron of the New Zealand Federation of Wholesale Hardware Guilds.[13]

He died in Stratford on 29 June 1967, aged 88.[14] His wife had predeceased him on 27 May 1962.[15]