Henry Fish

Henry Smith Fish (15 July 1838 – 23 September 1897) was a 19th-century New Zealand politician. For a time, he was a member of the Liberal Party. He was Mayor of Dunedin for a total of six years. Smith is remembered as one of the staunch opponents of women's suffrage.

Early life Fish was born in Pimlico, London, in 1838. His parents were Mary Ann Passmore and Henry Smith Fish, a painter. He received his education at Cave House School and from 1849 at Melbourne, where the family settled. He accompanied his father to the gold diggings in The Ovens, Nova Scotia. Afterwards, he worked in his father's painting and glazier business in Melbourne, and from around 1863, in Dunedin, to where the family relocated. They traded as H. S. Fish and Son and were based in Princes Street South.

On 31 January 1867, he married Jane Carr at Dunedin's St Paul's Church. In total, he served on Dunedin City Council for over 20 years. to 1893 when he was defeated, and from 1896 to 1897, when he died. He was replaced by Alexander Sligo.

Fish represented liquor interests in Parliament, and was an opponent of Women's suffrage in 1890–1893 on their behalf. He paid his anti-suffragist campaigners a bounty for signatures collected, but lost credibility when some signatures were found to be fraudulent.

Death Smith died of throat cancer in Dunedin on 23 September 1897.