Matthew Oram

Sir Matthew Henry Oram (2 June 1885 – 22 January 1969) was a New Zealand politician of the National Party. He was the 13th Speaker of the House of Representatives, from 1950 to 1957.

Early life Oram was born in 1885 at Christchurch. His mother was May Eltham, originally from Hobart in Tasmania. His father, Matthew Henry Oram, died three months before Matthew Oram's birth. His formal education started at age 12, as he went to live with his aunt in Wellington after his mother's death. ), and then graduated MA (Hons) (maths and physics, 1909) and LLB (1912). When New Zealand declared war against Germany in 1914, Oram sold his law practice and joined the army. He was declared unfit for overseas service and served first in Palmerston North, and then at Base Records in Wellington, where he attained the rank of captain.

Oram was instrumental in the establishment of Palmerston North as a flying hub for the North Island. He obtained his pilot's licence in the 1920s and became the first president of the Manawatu Aero Club. He promoted that the club compete in the handicap section of the MacRobertson Air Race and paid half the entry fee, but ceased to support the event when his nominated pilot was not chosen. He was chairman of the Chamber of Commerce in Palmerston North.

Oram owned race horses, and in 1955, Golden Galleon won the Wellington Cup. This may well have happened in Manawatu, where Labour's Lorrie Hunter unseated Reform's Joseph Linklater by a margin of just 30 votes (2,962 votes versus 2,932), with Oram coming fourth (673 votes). In 1936, the Democrats merged with other parties to form the National Party, contributing the most conservative perspective.

When John Cobbe retired from Parliament in 1943, Oram won National's nomination for the Manawatu electorate. He beat Labour's candidate, Corporal W. H. Oliver, by a considerable margin (6,194 votes versus 3,883), with an Independent coming a distant third. Oram held the Manawatu electorate until his retirement in 1957. During his first two parliamentary terms, when the Labour Party was in government, Oram was a frequent debater and advocated for better education. His grandson, also named Matthew Oram and based in Hong Kong, shares his hobby and has racehorses.