David Jones

David Jones (9 November 1873 – 23 September 1941) was a Reform Party Member of Parliament in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. In September 1931, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Mines in the United–Reform Coalition Government, but he was unexpectedly defeated in the December 1931 general election. He was a farmer and involved with many farming organisations, and was instrumental in forming the New Zealand Farmers Union, which eventually developed into Federated Farmers. Outside parliament, he was best known for his involvement with the New Zealand Meat Producers Board, of which he was the inaugural chairman, and which he chaired for more than a decade.

Early life Jones was born in Templeton in 1873. His father was James Jones (1835–1922), one of the earliest settlers in Canterbury. Jones attended Templeton School. They were to have one son and four daughters. Apart from the two years in the Waikato, all his farming was in Canterbury. He remained in that role until 1931 and outside his parliamentary activities, this is what he was best known for. On election night when the results were published, Jones was ahead of Nosworthy, who encouraged his supporters to vote for Jones in the second ballot. After a recount, the situation was reversed and Jones advertised for his supporters to vote for Nosworthy, and indeed, Nosworthy was successful in the second ballot.

The next parliamentary election that Jones contested was in in the electorate.

Jones contested the Kaiapoi electorate again in the . It was a three-way contest, with Morgan Williams standing for the recently formed Labour Party as the other candidate apart from the incumbent. Jones won by a wafer-thin majority of 50 votes (0.75%).

The same three candidates contested the . This time, the situation was reversed, with Buddo having a lean majority over the incumbent, Jones, of 65 votes (0.89%).

In the , Jones stood in the electorate. Since , Ellesmere had been held by Heaton Rhodes, who also represented the Reform Party. Rhodes retired in 1925 on medical advice. The other candidate in Ellesmere was Jeremiah Connolly for the Liberal Party (who, in that year, contested the election under the label 'National Party'). Jones had a comfortable majority of 634 votes (8.57%).

In September 1931, just prior to the next election, Jones was appointed to Cabinet by George Forbes as Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Mines. The election was contested by three of the four previous candidates (Williams stood in Kaiapoi instead and was successful), and Hiram Hunter joined as an Independent Labour candidate. Connolly, who stood and an Independent Liberal that year, had a majority of 136 votes (1.46%) over Jones and was returned. Jones did not contest the . In 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.

Family and death The Jones had five children: Violet Irene (born 1900), Ellen Adele (born 1902), Millicent Eileen (born 1904), Hilda Gracey (born 1906), and David Ralston (born 1908). For a time, the Jones family lived in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr. Approximately in 1935, Jones and his wife moved to Wellington Jones retired in January 1940 and died on 23 September 1941 in a private hospital in Wellington. He was survived by his five children