William Murray (New Zealand politician)


William Archibald Murray was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in Otago, New Zealand. During his time in parliament, he moved to the Waikato.

Biography

Brothers William, George and Thomas Murray arrived in New Zealand from Scotland on 16 April 1858. Initially, they all farmed sheep in the Mt Stuart and Waitahuna districts in Otago. In 1868, William Murray had a fence wire straining mechanism patented under his name. He applied for a further wire straining patent in 1877. In 1885, he applied for a patent for a vehicle engine that ran on compressed gas. The Otago Daily Times described him as follows:
William Archibald Murray, the member for Bruce, is a tall, active, restless man, with an original, daring mind, that in the days of the Caesars or Stuarts would have certainly brought him to the gallows. He has no reverence for existing institutions, no veneration for the powers that be, no fear of the most daring novelties, and no want of confidence in himself.

Murray stood in the 1869 Taieri by-election and of six candidates, he came third.
He represented the Bruce electorate from to 1881, when he was defeated by James Rutherford. When Robert Gillies resigned from the Bruce electorate in 1885 over failing health, Murray was asked to offer himself for re-election but he declined.
Shortly after the 1875 election he moved to the Piako district in the Waikato. In circa 1890, he moved to Glen Murray near Raglan in the Franklin district. Murray contested the 1891 Waikato by-election, but was beaten by Edward Lake.
At the age of 68, Murray died on 26 June 1900 at Newmarket in Auckland. He had never married.