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'His tap root was stronger and more tenacious than that of most of us':
Robert Semple, an Australian New Zealander

Carina Hickey*


Robert Semple is remembered as a leading New Zealand politician and a dominant figure in the labour movement between 1904 and 1954. However, Semple was an Australian by birth and always remained firmly attached to that country in a complex relationship – he was very much an 'Australian New Zealander'. Over the course of his public career Semple blurred his Australian roots, later in life deliberately reconstructing his father's convict past, treating it as a more conventional immigration story. His account of his decision to come to New Zealand was also later shaped by the requirement of gaining and holding of political power. He de-emphasised the radical context of his move to New Zealand. But Semple's origins were undeniably important to him. Whenever his health failed him he returned to Australia to rejuvenate himself. His life is a case study in the complex issue of national identity – while a proud New Zealander his grandchildren also remember him as an Australian who enjoyed singing Waltzing Matilda.


Prior to Australian federation in 1901 New Zealand was a part of a Tasman world loosely termed 'Australasia'. As historian James Belich suggested: 'until 1901 there was no such thing as a formal Australia; and to the extent that it existed informally, as Australasia or its variants, New Zealand was as much a part of it as any'.1 Within 'Australasia' the European population related to a number of imagined communities and identities centred on issues such as race and geography. A consequence of this, Belich argued, was that people could have more than one identity.2 After federation while some components of the Australia-New Zealand relationship diminished other connections persisted in areas such as unionism, radicalism and literature. James Bennett, in his study of the trans-Tasman labour movement, argued that the residue of the Tasman world survived long after 1901 particularly in the labour movement as the exchange of personnel, regular communication and mutual solidarity provided continuity and cohesion.3 Today, with many components of the Australia-New Zealand relationship flourishing it could be argued that the Tasman world is an ongoing entity and as a result many people on both sides of the Tasman have possessed dual identities. This article argues that labour movement figure Robert Semple was a classic product of the Tasman world in that he possessed two strong national identities – he was an Australian and a New Zealander. 'Waltzing Matilda', described as Semple's theme song, was played at a farewell function when he retired from Parliament.4 Therefore, it was no surprise that when he died the New Zealand Listener wrote: 'His tap root was stronger and more tenacious than that of most of us'.5 The notion of a two-fold identity as part of the community of experience in trans-Tasman labour history warrants investigation to tell us something about the issues faced by many trans-national individuals such as Semple. 1
      Concepts of identity are increasingly perceived as complex and fluid in a range of disciplines. In her biography of Flora Tristan historian Susan Grogan presented a multi-dimensional image of her subject in a series of life stories which demonstrated the various self-images she herself constructed to deal with the events and ideas of her time. Grogan argued: 'lives do not have the neat trajectory, the logic and wholeness which the biographer generally aspires to achieve but personalities, "selves" are fragmented and shifting rather than unitary and coherent'. She suggested Tristan assumed different personae to cope with different situations.6 In contemporary social psychology although Social Identity theory is most concerned with intergroup relations, two types of individual identity, a social identity and a personal identity are used in the analysis of motivational and affective aspects of the Social Identity processes. Social psychologists Worchel, Iuzzini, Coutant and Ivaldi argue that personal and social identities may co-exist simultaneously in an individual and there are many determinants for both the self and group identification including emotional and cultural influences.7 They put forward a multidimensional model of identity and argue: 'the quest for identity takes place on several stages, each varying independently along a salience or prominence dimension'.8 In discussing multiple identities Craig Calhoun suggested that identities 'can and to some extent ... always do change' and also that tension between identity was inescapable at both individual and collective levels.9 Semple's behaviour with regard to his identity was, at times, contradictory – on occasions he highlighted his Australian roots and in other circumstances, he downplayed them. This article suggests that Semple represented himself to the world in a variety of guises and identities to deal with different situations at different times. He can be seen as an example of a multidimensional identity, his changing self-representations reflecting his own changing perspectives as his quest for identity took place on various levels. 2
      Robert Semple was one of the most colourful leaders of the New Zealand labour movement in the first half of the twentieth century. The characterisation of him in New Zealand history is dominated by two personas. Firstly, he is remembered as the radical organiser for the New Zealand Federation of Labour (NZFOL, colloquially known as the Red Feds), during 1910–13. The Federation was comprised largely of trade union organisations whose militant leaders stated that between the working class and the owning class there could be nothing in common, their aim was the complete overthrow of the capitalist system. Semple, as organiser and propagandist, moved around the country leading an assault on the arbitration system and spreading the gospel of militant trade union activity and advocating the strike as a weapon of the working class. Always a dynamic, florid and earthy speaker with a powerful personality he was noted for his colourful language – eloquent phrases became known as Sempleisms. Not surprisingly he acquired two nicknames during this period of widespread industrial ferment in New Zealand. To some he was Bob the Ranter and to others, Fighting Bob – both nicknames testament to his ability to arouse audiences. Len Richardson, Semple's biographer in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, characterised him at this time as the 'Red Fed bogy man' who continually frightened employers with threats of widespread industrial revolt.10 3
      Semple often personally symbolised the union militancy. Historian P.J O'Farrell described Semple in this period as 'industrial radicalism personified',11 while Barry Gustafson said Semple was 'for a time the most prominent radical in New Zealand'.12 Semple is featured on the cover of several labour histories of the period including Erik Olssen's, The Red Feds.13 Olssen said the miners responded to Semple for 'they dearly loved a man who spoke his mind and let the chips fly where they would'.14 Although a fiery Red Fed and socialist in his earlier days, in later years Semple's political values shifted and he is remembered as someone who attacked unionists who advocated strike action, and who denounced communist union officials. 4
      Semple's second persona in the literature is as the flamboyant Minister of Public Works in the first New Zealand Labour government from 1935–49. He was first elected to Parliament in a 1918 by-election, although he did not retain the seat a year later. In 1928 he won the Wellington East seat in the general election, remaining in Parliament until his retirement in 1954. When Labour became the government after the depression the Public Works department reverted to its original role of a design and construction arm of the State. Semple, as Minister, provided his characteristic energy and enthusiasm and he was determined to mechanise and modernise his department. Richardson remarked on Semple's ability to capture headlines: 'he was at his flamboyant best mounted in the driving seat of a huge Caterpillar tractor driving straight over an old wheelbarrow and shovel'.15 This earned him the name of Bulldozer Bob.16 In her history of New Zealand's Public Works department Rosslyn Noonan said that Semple's commitment to mechanisation was unquestionable. Noonan said Semple argued in favour of mechanisation partly on humanitarian grounds: 'He spoke of transferring laborious work from the shoulders of men to the cranks of machines'.17 5
      Alongside these more dominant characterisations of Semple is a less emphasised image of him as an Australian New Zealander. It is the complex issue of his national identity that will be explored in this article. Semple was an Australian by birth and spent the first 30 years of his life in that country. While New Zealand historians have acknowledged Semple's Australian roots they have focussed primarily on his union background that provided a platform for his activism in New Zealand. O'Farrell suggested that Semple's participation in the protracted Victorian Coal strike of 1903–04 provided 'an object lesson in the elements of industrial warfare'.18 In his history of the New Zealand Labour Party Bruce Brown said: 'Semple in fact came to New Zealand because he was blacklisted after a bitter mine strike'.19 Yet the details of Semple's Australian heritage are not well known. 6
      This article examines first his family background and the circumstances surrounding his immigration to New Zealand. I then turn to how Australia features in his stories of his life. Overtime the increasing primacy of electoral politics in Semple's life resulted in him barely acknowledging his earlier union activism in Australia or New Zealand. Accounts of his early life were subtly reshaped accordingly. However, Semple always remained attached to Australia and his frequent return visits to his homeland bear witness to this attachment. The, at times, contentious issue of Semple's Australian nationality in New Zealand whereby this was used to question his loyalty and make disparaging remarks about him will also be examined. Also, some family perceptions of his identity are included as evidence of variable notions. Finally, the conclusion is drawn that although Semple became a New Zealander he just as much remained a product of Australia. However, he deployed the Australian link in various ways according to time, circumstance and political considerations as he sought to construct a publicly acceptable identity in a potentially hostile political environment. 7
      As Semple left no collection of either personal or public papers in any public repository on either side of the Tasman a large amount of primary source material was gleaned from his family. Oral history also played a significant part in the research. A series of interviews with several of Semple's grandchildren provided a large amount of information on Semple himself along with insightful personal reminiscences. In addition, I was given access to individual family collections which included private and public correspondence, photographs and newspaper cuttings. 8
   

Blurring the Past

 
Robert Semple was born in 1873 near Sofala, a small goldmining town 45 kilometres from Bathurst in New South Wales. His father, John Semple, was a transported convict who had originally entered Australia as part of the British penal system. John Semple was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1816, the eldest son of John Semple, a collector of customs, and Margaret Campbell. In June 1837 John junior, whose occupation was recorded as 'silk weaver', was tried in the Glasgow Court of Judiciary on a charge of stealing a watch. He had no previous convictions, but was found guilty and was sentenced to seven years transportation. He arrived in New South Wales in 1838 and was assigned to a landowner in the Bathurst district where he worked as a shepherd – an occupation he continued after he was granted a Certificate of Freedom in 1844.20 In 1865 he married Mary Ann Ryan.21 The couple had eight children, seven of whom survived childhood: Mary Ann born in 1864, Janet born in 1867 and Margaret born in 1871; boys Robert born in 1873 and John born in 1879; and two more girls, Jessie and Clara born in 1876 and 1881.22 John and Mary Ann Semple remained in the Bathurst area for the rest of their lives, struggling for an existence on a small patch of land. 9
      Robert Semple did not publicly disclose the convict aspect of his family heritage. In a 1937 newspaper interview, he reconstructed his father's past treating it as a more conventional immigration story. He said: 'his father who had left Scotland about ninety years ago, trying his luck first at Dunedin and then going over to Victoria about the time of the Eureka stockade affair, was a shepherd'.23 Again, during the 1938 election campaign, he said his father came to New Zealand 85 or 87 years ago, but later went to Australia.24 Possibly trying to find a New Zealand connection, Semple seems to have borrowed this story from his wife's family history. Margaret Semple's parents were Thomas and Agnes McNair from Larnarkshire in Scotland. Thomas was a miner who immigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1875.25 After arriving in Bluff the McNairs settled in Matarua where Margaret was born. Following the death of Agnes in 1887 Thomas took his family to Melbourne in 1888 and settled in Victoria.26 10
      Self-protection, pride and a desire for respect were likely reasons for the construction of an identity which Semple perceived as more publicly and politically acceptable. Historian Graeme Dunstall has argued that in estimating social status in an historical context, how a man sees himself – the self-conscious label – is our most important evidence.27 When Labour won office in 1935 Semple, then a consummate politician, became a government minister. The accompanying rise in Semple's social status was probably entwined with a desire for respect that could not accommodate his father's convict connections. The lengths he went to in an effort to hide the convict legacy were occasionally extreme. Semple's granddaughter Jackie Smith recalled that during his time as a Minister Semple inherited some money from his father's family in Scotland. However, he had to return to Scotland to claim the inheritance. Fearing that his father's past would be revealed to the New Zealand public if he returned Semple did not go to Scotland and the inheritance was forfeited.28 There was nothing to be gained during the 1930s or 1940s by revealing his father's past and it could have been used by his political foes to damage his hard won reputation. Semple preferred his father's particular Australian past to remain secret to protect himself from both political opponents and any supposed dishonour which could be used to cast aspersions on his own character. 11
      While Semple may have tried to rewrite and politically manage his father's story there was no fudging over of his own Australian origins – his formative years were spent there. Nearly all of his Australian working life was spent as a miner. He began work in the Lithgow coalmines of New South Wales and throughout the 1880s and 1890s worked in numerous mining regions including Newcastle. He later moved to Victoria where he was married in Outtrim in 1898.29 By the turn of the century Robert and Margaret with their first child in tow, were living for a period in Western Australia. However by 1902 they had settled back in the town of Korumburra in South Gippsland, Victoria.30 12
      With the development of Gippsland as a coal region, new towns grew and new mines were opened. Corresponding union activity accompanied this growth and in 1896 the militant Victorian Coal Miners Association (VCMA) had been formed. In January 1903 members of the VCMA were locked out over a dispute to reduce the rate for hewing coal. Thus began a drawn-out battle between capital and labour that lasted for 70 weeks and was generally known as the Victorian Coal Strike.31 As President of the Coal Creek Miners Lodge in Korumburra (a federated member of the VCMA), Semple was in the forefront of the dispute. By May 1904 the coal companies had employed non-union labour and the strike was defeated. Many of the leading unionists, including Semple, were blacklisted and forced to leave the area in search of employment.32 13
      It is in the aftermath of the strike that Semple came to New Zealand. An entry in one of the local Gippsland newspapers still had Semple in the area on 18 May 1904.33 His whereabouts, between mid-May and September 1904, when he participated in the forming of the State Miners Union in Runanga, New Zealand, remain unknown. Efforts to trace Semple in the outwards passenger lists from Melbourne and Sydney and lists to New Zealand have proved fruitless. Pat Hickey, in his Red Fed Memoirs, said Semple came to New Zealand under an assumed name after being blacklisted.34 Semple's grandchildren were asked if they knew his travelling name, but this merely added new uncertainty. Jackie Smith suggested the name of Scott, while Rob Semple suggested the name of Saunders. However, searches in both Australia and New Zealand reveal nothing conclusive. 14
      Pat Hickey's account is probably correct. However Semple's grandson, Rob Semple, has suggested another version of his grandfather's departure from Australia. In his account Robert Semple was said to have worked in New South Wales after the Victorian strike. During a strike there strike-breakers on horseback were employed and in a clash Margaret Semple was knocked to the ground. Rob Semple said:
Grandad managed to get the offending fellow off his horse and struck the bloke on the head with a pick handle ... the fellow died ... the miners hid Grandad and raised enough money to get him out of the country to New Zealand where, once he had a job, he sent for my grandmother.35
 Margaret Semple apparently told this story to Rob after her husband's death. Rob Semple suggested that later the family returned to Australia where Robert Semple handed himself in and faced a trial. Rob's father apparently confirmed that a trial did take place in which Semple successfully defended himself and was acquitted.36 My research has discovered no evidence of a trial for Robert Semple and it is likely the incident did not occur. Other grandchildren of Robert Semple and members of his Australian family were not aware of this story.		 15
      We have already discussed an example of Semple reconstructing his past so it is possible that other phases of his life were also constructed to obscure events he wanted to remain hidden. Semple may have travelled to New South Wales after being blacklisted in search of employment or to see his sisters, but a search of the Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Argus and local Gippsland newspapers between May and September 1904 have no reports of a man being killed during any strike action. 16
      The most likely story is that Semple left for New Zealand from Melbourne probably in late May or June 1904. He may have arrived in Wellington (the destination of a large majority of the ships from Melbourne) and then travelled to the West Coast. He first appears in the New Zealand historical record in late September 1904 as the first President of the Coal Creek Miners Union in Runanga.37 A May/June arrival would have given Semple time to begin union organisation and be elected to the presidency in September. 17
      Faced with a lack of court record or any other corroborating evidence I can only suggest that Margaret Semple, who was an elderly woman when she told the story, may have misrepresented various events from a past long ago. As acknowledged by oral historian Megan Hutching: 'The strongest criticism that has been levelled at the authenticity of oral evidence is that of the unreliability of memory'.38 During his travels around Australia Semple played an active part in local unions, and union activity in different places may have become blurred by Margaret Semple. Events may have been misplaced in time. Addressing a Socialist meeting in Wellington in 1911 Semple gave a 'vivid description of the Gippsland strike ... women were sent to gaol and men bludgeoned'.39 During the Waihi strike in 1912 in New Zealand miner, Frederick Evans, was killed by a blow on the head from a police baton.40 The account of Semple striking a man could have been distorted from a memory of actual events. Hutching also argued that memory is less reliable about exact chronology or events and the story recollected by Margaret Semple does not contain any specific dates or places. It is possible that she merged time and events inadvertently but at the same time with an intention of enlivening or enhancing the identity of her late husband for her grandson. 18
   

Nationality

 
While questions remain regarding Semple's entry into New Zealand there is no doubt about his country of origin. Frequently during periods of industrial turmoil Semple's Australian nationality and the nationality of other leaders of the New Zealand labour movement was used to cast aspersions on their characters and their politics. When several of labour's leaders, including Semple, were arrested as a consequence of the Great Strike in Wellington in 1913 the conservative Wellington newspaper, the Evening Post, pointed out that in most cases the leaders arrested were not New Zealand born and suggested that their stake in the country was not very high.41 At the same time, in a letter to the editor, 'Worker out of Work' wrote to the Greymouth Evening Star:
Re Semple and Co. landed in his majesty's jail. Why should we New Zealanders born, be dictated to by the likes of them. It is time we rose up like a body and did not allow these foreigners to lead and dictate to us.42
 Although Semple himself did not respond, Pat Hickey a NZFOL spokesman contended New Zealanders were all foreigners and that foreigners had a perfect right to come to New Zealand and settle in order to earn an honest crust.43 During the 1919 election campaign the nationality of Semple, Fraser (born in Scotland), and Harry Holland (an Australian born leader of the labour movement in New Zealand), all now Labour Members of Parliament (MPs), was again used to discredit them. Bolshevism was an additional bogey that was pinned on the three men – with some justification as all had made remarks in support of the Russian revolution. Semple said: 'If I were in Ireland I would be a Sinn Feiner; if I were in Germany I would be a Spartacist; if I were in Russia I would be a Bolshevik'.44 Many objected to Semple's political views and his language – 'Anti-mug' wrote to the Evening Post attacking the Labour MPs' nationalities. He suggested that if the members of the extremist section of the Labour Party led by Holland, Semple and Fraser were supporters of Home Rule then they should return to their own countries and govern them instead of New Zealand.45 Trying to defuse the debate Semple said he had meant that whatever country he was in he would always be on the side of the working class. But the nationality issue lingered. In a heated debate in Parliament in 1925 in reply to a government MP's charge that the Labour leaders were all immigrants, Fraser responded: 'I would rather be born a man in Scotland than a jackass in New Zealand'.46		 19
      Although Semple's political opponents and the mainstream press focussed solely on his Australian nationality Semple also perceived himself as British at various stages throughout his life. Belich argued that Europeans in early 'Australasia' also saw themselves as part of a wider 'pan-British culture' so Semple's identification with a concurrent British identity is not unique.47 His Britishness had unusual manifestations. Semple had several tattoos on his body including one of Saint George (patron saint of England) and a dragon on his chest and another of an 'Australian coat-of-arms and RULE BRITANNIA on his right forearm'.48 His grandchildren said he obtained the tattoos during his early life in Australia. Semple's only brother John volunteered for service in the Boer War and lost his life fighting in defence of the British Empire so the brothers may have shared an early British patriotism. 20
      In his analysis of New Zealand's national identity Keith Sinclair argued many New Zealanders 'felt a loyalty to the British Empire and later British Commonwealth. They were still British subjects as well as citizens of New Zealand'.49 Hence, although the New Zealand nationalistic dynamic was very important to Semple and the Labour government in 1935, as seen in Labour's adoption of a degree of independence in foreign affairs, its members worked within an overarching framework which saw them bound in an allegiance to Britain. In the New Zealand Cabinet Semple, Paddy Webb, Minister of Mines, and Michael Joseph Savage, Prime Minister, were Australians. Walter Nash, Minister of Finance was from England, and Peter Fraser, Deputy Prime Minister was born in Scotland. Thus, the outbreak of World War II saw Semple and several of his colleagues in the Labour Party express their strong feelings of British kinship. As New Zealand Prime Minister Michael Savage said: 'We range ourselves without fear beside Britain. Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand'.50 Similarly, several days after war was announced Semple praised the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, in his attempts to avert war. But he said that now that the step had been taken 'our duty is to make a vow that if England goes down we go down with her'.51 In his 1948 publication of 'Why I Fight Communism' Semple echoes these sentiments suggesting his reason for fighting Communism was that it endangered the free world: 'I love my country and I fear for the freedom and liberty of the peoples privileged to enjoy the British way of life'.52 21
   

An Australian Attachment

 
Notwithstanding the intricacies of Semple's national identity there were regular return visits and ongoing Australian connections through which Semple remained firmly attached to his native soil. Several times Australia served as a land of sanctuary – when Semple's health periodically failed him he returned to Australia to rejuvenate himself. At the end of 1911, the Maoriland Worker said of Semple: 'the strenuousness of his work in the north has overtaxed his strength somewhat, and he is in dire need of a complete rest to enable him to recuperate'.53 In February 1912, accompanied by his wife, Semple returned to Australia. The Maoriland Worker said the visit was for a well-earned rest, but also suggested that whilst in Australia Semple had been instructed to solidify ties between New Zealand and Australian coal miners and watersiders.54 Semple spent a month in the Bathurst region probably visiting his sisters who were still living in the area at that time. When he recommenced his union duties he first lectured in his hometown of Sofala and the coal-mining town of Lithgow where, as a youth, he worked in the mines.55 22
      In June 1937, when Semple was Minister of Public Works, his health broke down again. He spent a week in a private hospital in Wellington for rest and recuperation. However, only days after Semple left hospital Peter Fraser announced that Cabinet had decided that arrangements should be made for Semple to visit Australia for a few weeks with the view to aiding his recovery.56 Semple left New Zealand in early July and returned at the end of August. Before he left Semple was quoted in the New Zealand Herald: 'My nervous energy has been used up and reached the point of collapse, and I am advised that the only cure is rest'.57 After attending several welcoming functions in Sydney Semple again visited the district where he was born. He was given a civic reception in Bathurst, and in Lithgow and he again returned to Sofala where the Turon Shire council gave him an enthusiastic reception. The New Zealand Herald noted that he was welcomed back as 'one of their own'.58 The trip did appear beneficial to Semple – it was reported that he had put on nearly a stone in weight during his trip.59 He later used the success of his visit and the embrace of his fellow Australians to rebuff the 1938 opposition taunts that he had been chased out of Australia earlier in his life. He asked defiantly
whether it was conceivable that a man who had left Australia in disrepute would have been entertained, as I was on my recent visit, by the Federal parliament at Canberra and every State parliament, and no man living ever got a warmer, more loving welcome than I did in the little New South Wales mining town where I was born.60
 		23
      Australia also served as an ally in union solidarity. Prior to the 1920s Semple, believing that industrial unity needed to be applied internationally, campaigned for working class solidarity on both sides of the Tasman. In November 1909 when 12,000 miners struck at Broken Hill Semple cabled his support from New Zealand: 'Your fight, our fight'.61 With the labour movement financially exhausted in New Zealand after the Great Strike in 1913 Semple crossed the Tasman in early 1914 to solicit organising funds. His visit to Australia was viewed as essential by New Zealand labour organisations with a general election looming and the impossibility of taxing their own members who had not yet recovered from their strike efforts. Semple was successful in obtaining a loan of £1,000 from the Australian Workers Union (AWU). In thanking the union Semple said he hoped the money would go a long way in helping to politically defeat the government and said the AWU had done a notable thing in assisting to stimulate political activity in working class ranks in New Zealand.62 24
      Apart from the general ties of unionism it was also significant that Semple was a miner and there was a strong empathy amongst the miners' unions, which stretched across the Tasman. As James Bennett argued: 'In no other occupation group did the bonds of solidarity in the Australasian labour movement rival those of the miners'. The tradition of reciprocal moral and financial support dated back to the 1880s.63 Therefore, Semple was not unlike other miners whose solidarity with fellow Australians transcended national boundaries. In early 1916 a strike began at Broken Hill, and 2,500 miners were affected.64 At a conscription conference in New Zealand in January 1916 Semple made a powerful appeal for the Broken Hill miners – he moved that the conference express sympathy with the miners and pledge to solicit financial support for them. In February, when two Broken Hill delegates visited New Zealand, Semple accompanied them to meetings throughout New Zealand, delivering stirring speeches of welcome and calling for support.65 In May 1919 Broken Hill miners were locked out. By March 1920 the miners had been on strike for over ten months and appealed throughout New Zealand and Australia for assistance. The New Zealand Miners Federation appealed to organised labour and advised that Semple had been requested by the Australasian Miners Federation to tour New Zealand on behalf of their Australian comrades: 'He has agreed to do so and is therefore our accredited representative'.66 25
      Australia also served as a source of ideological ferment and a site of organising for Semple, resulting in a periodic political reinvigoration for him. In late 1916 he crossed the Tasman to fight conscription in Australia. On 30 August 1916 the Australian Prime Minister announced that a conscription referendum would take place on 28 October 1916. The New Zealand Miners Federation received a request to send delegates to Australia to combat conscription. At their September conference they decided to send one delegate, Semple was selected and was in Australia in early October. After speaking at several anti-conscription meetings in Sydney Semple toured the district where he was born. He spoke at a crowded meeting in Bathurst and his nationality endeared him to the crowd. The local National Advocate reported: 'An intimation that the speaker was native of Bathurst was responsible for a round of applause'.67 Later back in New Zealand Semple said he was reinvigorated by the Australian no conscription vote. He said his Australian experiences 'had rekindled for him a rebellion in his soul'.68 26
      While Semple's public activity linked him to Australia he also maintained a strong connection to his Australian family. His relationship with his eldest sister, Mary Ann (who married George Knight) and her family was particularly strong. Semple was only 14 years of age when his mother, aged 45, died of complications from premature childbirth brought on by sunstroke in 1887.69 His youngest sister Clara was only six years old. Living in close proximity, his sister Mary Ann Knight became a substitute mother to the Semple family. In a recorded family history Thelma Jessop (nee Knight) said: 'Most of them called her Mum'.70 This relationship regularly drew Semple back to the district where he was born. On his return from his later Australian trips (1937, 1941 and 1948) his grandchildren recall him talking about his Australian family. They also remember Semple's sisters coming to New Zealand to visit him. Granddaughter Margaret Lange remembered going down to the Wellington wharf and meeting one of his sisters from Australia in the late 1930s.71 27
      Probably the closest family connection was with nephew Hamilton Knight with whom Semple developed both a close private and public relationship, their careers followed parallel lines. They both worked as miners and then as union officials and later became parliamentarians. Hamilton entered State Parliament in New South Wales in 1927, and when Labour came into office in 1941 he became a Minister in the State Government.72 On one official occasion in Auckland in 1945 Hamilton Knight, Minister of Labour in the New South Wales government, was greeted by Robert Semple, Minister of Works in the New Zealand cabinet.73 During the 1951 election campaign, again answering questions from the floor about his nationality, Semple said he could have 'got into Parliament in Australia – there is no question about that ... A nephew of mine is in Parliament over there – its in the blood you see'.74 Hamilton Knight also privately visited the Semples several times. Granddaughter Jackie Smith remembered, as a child, receiving a very special gift of a fountain pen from him.75 Family photographs and memorabilia in the Knight Family History Collection in Australia are testament to the strong family relationship which continues to this day. 28
      There is no doubt that Semple's Australian roots were important to him. Notwithstanding this, Semple and other members of his family, who came to New Zealand and worked in the West Coast mines, were part of a wider trans-Tasman movement of labour which contained a significant proportion of miners. As Erik Olssen suggested they were part of a larger migration: 'between 1900 and 1913 over 115,000 immigrants entered New Zealand'. By 1911 some 50,000 people of Australian birth lived in New Zealand.76 James Bennett argued that Australians constituted significant proportions of the rank and file in mining communities in New Zealand: 'by 1909–10 they represented about 10 per cent in the Buller and Grey areas of the West Coast, over 17 per cent in Waihi and 21 per cent in Inangahua'.77 Two of Semple's nephews, George Henry Knight and Hamilton Knight, came to the West Coast in 1907 and remained there for several years working in the mines around Runanga. Two other Knight brothers, Herbert and William, also spent time on the Coast. Robert Knight, a cousin from Sofala, also made his home on the West Coast.78 29
      The movement across the Tasman was however, a two-way process.79 Aside from permanent immigrants there were many sojourners as evidenced by Semple and his nephews, several of who followed his union and political affiliations. Hamilton Knight became president of the Paparoa Miners Union and became a member of a New South Wales Labour government after returning permanently to Australia in 1914. George Henry Knight, who was seriously injured in a mining accident in 1912, also returned to Australia.80 Robert Knight, who married and settled in Runanga, was president of the State Miners Union in 1917–18 and was later president of the Runanga branch of the Labour Party. He was killed in a mine accident in 1938.81 Herbert Knight was a member of the New Zealand police force between September 1911 and November 1912. Enquiries by Knight family members to New Zealand Police National Headquarters conclude Herbert either resigned or was dismissed when called upon to act in the Waihi miners' strike of 1912, as he had been a miner himself and still had sympathy with them.82 Herbert also returned permanently to Australia. Semple and his family support Bennett's argument that the labour movement was constantly reinvigorated and revitalised by movements of personnel and union ideas back and forth across the Tasman. 30

 
Figure 1
    Hamilton Knight, on left, and Robert Semple

    The date and occasion of the photograph is unknown but due to Semple's age it is probably during the 1920s.
    Source: Knight Family History Collection. Reproduced with permission.
 
 
      For Semple, a further seemingly inescapable connection to Australia was through his language. He was a dynamic speaker with a vast and vivid vocabulary of picturesque words and phrases. He always claimed that practically all his more florid expressions came from his Australian vocabulary. As a natural orator Semple often invented words if there were no dictionary ones to convey exactly what he meant. Some of his more memorable phrases were 'snivelling snuffle-busters' for people who complained unduly and impractical critics were 'spittoon philosophers'.83 Certainly some of his language did bear the stamp of his Australian heritage. When describing an unruly mob during the Waihi miners strike in 1912 Semple said: 'They got round me like a mob of dingoes'.84 However, some of his language also had a distinctly New Zealand context. Speaking in Greymouth in 1912 about the Waihi strike Semple said the local press 'didn't have the brains of a whitebait'.85 For Semple, language was probably more of an unconscious association with Australia. His own unique language may have been more to do with his natural ability to coin phrases on the inspiration of the moment and punctuate his speeches with aphorisms and witticisms rather than an Australian origin although this, no doubt, was an influence at times. 31
   

The Primacy of Politics

 
Yet the trans-Tasman dynamic may well have been especially important for Semple, certainly when compared to another prominent Australian immigrant Michael Joseph Savage.86 Throughout his life he returned periodically to Australia and the frequency of his visits sustained, perhaps even enhanced his links. Semple spent his impressionable years in Australia; he did not come to New Zealand until he was 30 years of age. This allowed time for bonds of friendship to be formed with fellow Australians and an attachment made to the land. He revisited Australia six times during his lifetime, often to very warm receptions from Australians as mentioned earlier which allowed these links to be revitalised. Not enough time elapsed between Semple's visits for any separation to become permanent whereas Semple's colleague, Michael Joseph Savage, only returned once to his homeland, in 1926, after leaving in 1907. For Savage, time did allow the separation to become permanent. As Savage's biographer, Barry Gustafson, remarked: he 'accepted the permanence of his separation from his family and his native land'.87 Savage's isolation from Australia may have been due to personal financial constraints and lack of opportunity but additionally to painful memories of his early life. All Semple's visits were funded by the organisations he represented (the NZFOL, Miners Federation and the New Zealand government) whereas Savage did not appear to have the same early opportunities as Semple and later, as Prime Minister, not the time. And although Semple also experienced early hardships, his memories may have been intermingled with happier times whereas Savage's were not. Savage simply may not have had the desire to return to Australia whereas Semple did. 32
      Although Semple did have strong ties to Australia, the increasing importance of electoral politics later in his life saw him de-emphasise some links which could have been politically damaging to him and construct a new immigration narrative. Over the course of his public career Semple was asked several times the reason why he left Australia. This issue was often raised during election campaigns when his nationality was used to try and discredit him. In 1938 opposition MP H. Kyle alleged Semple was 'chased out of Australia'. His replies show the explicit construction of politically acceptable family narratives. Semple said his reason for coming to New Zealand was that his wife was a New Zealander, born at Mataura and she pined to come back to New Zealand. He said: 'It was to please her that I came to New Zealand'.88 During the 1951 campaign, he reiterated this account: 'so she is responsible ... Don't blame me for not being born in New Zealand – I was not consulted'.89 While it is true that Margaret Semple was New Zealand born, the issue of the Victorian strike and the subsequent blacklisting was removed from the equation although it is acknowledged earlier when Semple was closer to radical union politics. In 1911 the labour newspaper, the Maoriland Worker, after sketching Semple's participation in the Victorian strike said: 'When the strike ended he was forced to leave Australia in order to obtain employment'.90 The blacklisting is also acknowledged in Hickey's 1925 Red Fed Memoirs.91 By the late 1930s it has disappeared. For example there is no reference in later political electioneering pamphlets such as a 1938 Wellington East campaign publication which simply read: 'As a young man, Mr Semple came to New Zealand in 1903'.92 The blacklisting and associated industrial action was replaced by Margaret Semple's birthright which probably did play a part in the original decision, but subsequently became the main focus. 33
      By 1938 Semple had also de-emphasised the militant aspect of his Australian and New Zealand unionism and re-formulated it as a more mainstream quest for social justice. In a 1937 newspaper interview Semple said that as a youth he began to ask why men who toiled hard received insufficient wages to feed their families: 'What was the reason for the apparent inequalities? He started to dive into literature to find out, joined a debating society, and thus was led inevitably to trade unionism.'93 Similarly, during the 1938 general election a pamphlet from his Wellington East campaign included the following:
From the beginnings of his arduous career both underground and on the surface, Mr Semple was an ardent champion of Labour and Humanity in general. 'If men must toil like this for a living, why can't the pay and working conditions be better?' was his plea. And he was never afraid to cry it from the housetops in the face of conservative authority.94
 Semple's militant rhetoric had been replaced with a language of protection and assurance by 1938. In 1911, during a strike by the Auckland General Labourers, Semple threatened general industrial upheaval in an attempt to coerce the Auckland City Council into compliance with the strikers demands: 'We have no desire to dislocate the city, but if need be we will paralyse the whole of New Zealand'.95 The Auckland Mayor, C.J. Parr, said the city needed protection against the possibility of a few rash men being able to wreck the whole civic organisation.96 By 1938 Semple projected a personal image of security to the nation's electors in the general election campaign, his message was 'Vote Semple, Vote Security'. In an election pamphlet he said: 'All that I am able to do I will do in the best interests of the Dominion ... do not forget that a vote for me is also a vote for the policy and achievements of the Labour government – Progress, prosperity and social security'.97		 34
      Later in life Semple moved away from an association with industrial action as the gaining and holding of political power became paramount for him. By the 1940s he had reversed his stance on strikes, becoming increasingly hostile to union disputes. He even turned his critical attention to Australian militants and in 1947 Semple, the one-time Australian radical unionist, attacked Australian radical unionists. In March 1947 he publicly attacked the Federal secretary of the Seamens Union of Australia, Mr E. Elliott who had travelled to New Zealand after the Australian vessel the Wanganella had run aground in Wellington. The ship had been salvaged but the crew were unhappy and went on strike refusing to move the vessel. Semple objected to these 'wrecking tactics' and criticised Elliott for interfering. The Wellington branch of the Watersiders' union objected to his comments and called for Semple to be removed from office.98 The Seamens Union of Australia denounced Semple and said his 'anti-working class statements would expose him for what he really was – a reactionary of the first order'. Semple retorted that he was a servant of the New Zealand people and 'not a tool of a clique in Australia or elsewhere'.99 35
   

Conclusion

 
Issues of identity are complex and Robert Semple is a case study in this complexity. Semple's own representations of both self and group identities were sometimes paradoxical but demonstrate the multiple dimensions of his life story. In fact Semple's multidimensional identity is probably a feature of a large number of the Australasian European population, both past and present. As such, perceptions of Semple's identity are variable. In New Zealand history he is remembered as a leading figure in the labour movement; however, his grandchildren also remember him as an Australian who enjoyed singing Waltzing Matilda. Granddaughter Kay Jones said: 'If I hear Waltzing Matilda – I get all choked up thinking of Grandad because he loved that'.100 Granddaughter Jackie Smith also recalled him singing Waltzing Matilda with great gusto, especially when Labour won an election.101 Although probably none of us succeed in parting with our native soil, Semple's formative and ongoing Australian experiences, the empathy amongst miners that was trans-Tasman, combined with general ties of unionism and strong family connections kept his taproot singularly tenacious. There is no doubt that Semple became a New Zealander but he just as much remained a product of Australia although the identification with and deployment of narratives surrounding his Australian roots was tempered by time, place and political expediency. 36


Carina Hickey is a PhD candidate at Massey University in New Zealand. Her thesis is a historical biography of New Zealand labour politician, Robert Semple.
<register.in.art@inspire.net.nz>


Endnotes

*  This article is based on a chapter from my PhD thesis and I would like to acknowledge the help and advice provided by my supervisor Dr Kerry Taylor. I am also grateful to the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments. [The author is not related to the Patrick Hickey mentioned in the article.]

1.  James Belich, Paradise Reforged: A History of the New Zealanders from the 1880s to the Year 2000, Penguin, Auckland, 2001, p. 48.

2.  Belich, Paradise Reforged, p. 51.

3.  James Bennett, 'Rats and Revolutionaries': The Labour Movement in Australia and New Zealand 1890–1940, University of Otago Press, Dunedin, 2004, p. 14–15.

4. Evening Post, 12 July 1954.

5. New Zealand Listener, 11 February 1955.

6.  Susan Grogan, Flora Tristan: Life Stories, Routledge, London, 1998, p. 10–13.

7.  Stephen Worchel, Jonathan Iuzzini, Dawna Coutant and Manuela Ivaldi, 'A multidimensional model of identity: relating individual and group identities to intergroup behaviour' in Dora Capozza and Rupert Brown (eds), Social Identity Processes, Sage Publications, London, 2000, pp. 15–32.

8. Ibid., p. 17.

9.  Craig Colhoun, 'Social theory and the politics of identity' in Craig Colhoun (ed.), Social Theory and the Politics of Identity, Blackwell, Oxford, 1994, pp. 9–36.

10.  Len Richardson. 'Robert Semple 1873–1955'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 7 April 2006 URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/

11.  P.J. O'Farrell, 'Politics and coal: the socialist vanguard, 1904–08' in Philip Ross May (ed.), Miners and Militants: Politics in Westland 1865–1918, Whitcoulls, Christchurch, 1975, p. 104.

12.  Barry Gustafson, Labour's Path to Political Independence, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1980, p. 26.

13.  Erik Olssen, The Red Feds: Revolutionary Industrial Unionism and the New Zealand Federation of Labour 1908–1913, Oxford University Press, Auckland, 1988.

14. Ibid., p. 20.

15.  Richardson, 'Semple'.

16. Christchurch Press, 25 February 1937.

17.  Rosslyn J. Noonan, By Design: A Brief History of the Public Works Department, Ministry of Works, 1870–1970, Govt. Print, Wellington, 1975, p. 148.

18.  O'Farrell, 'Politics and coal', p. 104.

19.  Bruce Brown, The Rise of New Zealand Labour: A History of the New Zealand Labour Party from 1916 to 1940, Price Milburn, Wellington, 1962, p. 7.

20.  Certificate of Freedom No. 44/320. I gratefully acknowledge help in researching John Semple's convict records from Dale Liepins in Canberra, Australia. Dale's original research was through the Convict Research Service, Archives, New South Wales. These records along with Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates, photographs and other memorabilia are part of a large collection of Semple/Knight family history accumulated over time by Dale and other family members including her mother, Thelma Montgomery, and her uncle, Doug Knight. For the purposes of this article these are acknowledged as the Knight Family History Collection.

21.  Certified Copy of Marriage Certificate dated 13 January 2005 in possession of author.

22.  Certified copies of Birth Certificates of Robert Semple's siblings viewed by author and held in the Knight Family History Collection.

23.  John Mowbray, 'The Real Bob Semple', New Zealand Observer, 22 July 1937.

24. Christchurch Star-Sun, 27 September 1938.

25.  The McNairs immigrated to New Zealand in 1875 on the ship Christian McAusland that sailed from Clyde on 29 May 1875 and reached Bluff in New Zealand on 30 August 1875. Passenger Shipping Lists 1875, Roll 11, Palmerston North Public Library.

26.  Thomas and his children departed from Bluff on the ship Tarawera and arrived in Melbourne on 8 November 1888. Index of Inward Passenger Lists for British, Foreign and New Zealand Ports 1852–1923, Public Record Office, Victoria.

27.  Commentary by G. Dunstall on Miles Fairburn, 'Social mobility and opportunity in nineteenth century New Zealand', New Zealand Journal of History, vol. 3, no. 1, 1979, pp. 61–62.

28.  Interview with Jackie Smith, 8 December 2004. Record of interview in author's possession.

29.  Certified Copy of Marriage Certificate dated 18 August 2004 in possession of author.

30. Korumburra Times, 27 August 1902.

31.  Peter Gardner, A Gippsland Union: The Victorian Coal Miners Association 1893–1915, Ngarak Press, Bairnsdale, 2003, p. 44.

32. Outtrim News, 25 May 1904.

33. Ibid.

34.  Patrick Hickey, Red Fed Memoirs, New Zealand Worker Print, Wellington, 1925, pp. 9–10.

35.  Interview with Robert Hamilton Semple, 7 June 2006. Record of interview in author's possession.

36. Ibid.

37.  J. O'Loughlin to Deputy Registrar 26th September 1904, Registration of Industrial Unions – Coal Creek State Mine IUW, L1 Box 112 1904/528, Department of Labour, National Archives. List of officers in Rule Book: President R Semple, Secretary J O'Loughlin, Treasurer L Clevand, Executive Committee, Wm Strongman, R. Gregory, Thos Hilton, Wm Robb, Thos O'Loughlin, T. Currie.

38.  Megan Hutching, Talking History: A Short Guide to Oral History, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 1993, p. 58.

39. Maoriland Worker, 20 March 1911.

40.  Olssen, The Red Feds, p. 159.

41. Evening Post, 12 November 1913. For more discussion on the branding of 'foreigners' see Rollo Arnold, 'The Australasian peoples and their world, 1888–1915' in Keith Sinclair (ed.), Tasman Relations, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 1987, pp. 52–70.

42. Greymouth Evening Star, 15 November 1913.

43. Greymouth Evening Star, 24 November 1913.

44.  Semple cited in Brown, p. 53.

45. Evening Post, 10 June 1919.

46. New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, vol. 206, 1925, pp. 402–14.

47.  Belich, Paradise Reforged, p. 47.

48.  Return of Prisoners reported as Discharged from gaols during the week ended 24 May 1913, New Zealand Police Gazette 1913, National Archives.

49.  Keith Sinclair, A Destiny Apart: New Zealand's Search for National Identity, Wellington, Allen & Unwin, 1986, p. 107.

50.  Savage cited in Barry Gustafson, From the Cradle to the Grave: A Biography of Michael Joseph Savage, Reed Methuen, Auckland, 1986, p. 251.

51. New Zealand Herald, 5 September 1939.

52.  Robert Semple, Why I Fight Communism, Wellington, 1948. Copy in possession of the author.

53. Maoriland Worker, 24 November 1911.

54. Maoriland Worker, 23 February 1912.

55. Maoriland Worker, 26 April 1912.

56. New Zealand Herald, 24 June 1937.

57. New Zealand Herald, 6 July 1937.

58. New Zealand Herald, 22 July 1937: New Zealand Herald, 23 July 1937.

59. New Zealand Herald, 28 July 1937.

60. Christchurch Star-Sun, 27 September 1938.

61. Greymouth Evening Star, 18 November 1909.

62. Australian Worker, 5 February 1914. £1,000 was the amount Semple was instructed to raise.

63.  Bennett, 'Rats and Revolutionaries', p. 65.

64. Evening Post, 11 January 1916. The miners were demanding a 44 hour week and the abolition of the Saturday afternoon shift.

65. Maoriland Worker, 1 March 1916.

66. Maoriland Worker, 24 March 1920.

67. National Advocate, 11 October 1916, Bathurst District Historical Society.

68. New Zealand Herald, 4 December 1916.

69.  Certified Copy of Death Certificate dated 12 January 2005 in possession of author.

70.  Thelma Montomery, 'My Aunty Thelma's story', Knight Family History Collection. Thelma was the twelfth child of George and Mary Ann Knight (nee Semple).

71.  Interview with Margaret Lange and Kay Jones, 30 March 2005. Record of interview in author's possession.

72.  Information on Hamilton Knight supplied from the Knight Family History Collection.

73. New Zealand Herald, 27 August 1945.

74. Manawatu Evening Standard, 17 August 1951.

75.  Interview with Jackie Smith, 8 December 2004.

76.  Olssen, The Red Feds, p. 39.

77.  Bennett, 'Rats and Revolutionaries', p. 65.

78. Grey River Argus, 12 February 1938.

79.  Bennett, 'Rats and Revolutionaries', p. 65.

80.  MaryAnn Semple (Robert Semple's eldest sister) married George Knight and raised 11 children. Their sons included George Henry, Hamilton, Herbert and William. Details on the movements of the Knight brothers is from information supplied from the Knight Family History Collection.

81.  Robert Knight was killed by a fall of stone at Rewanui. He was 51 years old. In an article on his death the local newspaper, the Grey River Argus, said Robert Knight was 'one of the best-known men in the Labour movement of the West Coast'. Grey River Argus, 12 February 1938.

82.  Doug Knight to Commissioner of Police, New Zealand 7 January 1987. New Zealand Police National Headquarters to Doug Knight 15 January 1987, Knight Family History Collection.

83. Dominion, 1 February 1955.

84. Maoriland Worker, 16 November 1912.

85. Maoriland Worker, 1 November 1912.

86.  Other Australians in the Labour cabinet included Paddy Webb and William Parry, Minister of Internal Affairs. However, further comparisons with Semple regarding on-going Australian links are limited due to both men having no full-length biographies written about them and, like Semple, they left no collections of papers in any public repositories from which this information could be ascertained. Also, this article is sourced from my PhD research which is a biography of Semple and, although the comparing of Australian links of trans-nationals is a research topic warranting investigation, it is, at present, outside the scope of my research.

87.  Gustafson, From the Cradle to the Grave, p. 131.

88. Christchurch Star-Sun, 27 September 1938.

89. Manawatu Evening Standard, 17 August 1951.

90. Maoriland Worker, 13 October 1911.

91.  Hickey, Red Fed Memoirs, pp. 9–10.

92.  'A message to the electors of Wellington East' (Election pamphlet, 1938) Knight Family History Collection.

93.  Mowbray, 'The Real Bob Semple'.

94.  'A message to the electors of Wellington East' (Election pamphlet, 1938) Knight Family History Collection.

95. Auckland Weekly News, 2 November 1911.

96. Greymouth Evening Star, 6 November 1911.

97.  'A message to the electors of Wellington East' (Election pamphlet, 1938) Knight Family History Collection.

98. Evening Post, 5 March 1947.

99. Evening Post, 8 March 1947.

100.  Interview with Margaret Lange and Kay Jones, 30 March 2005.

101.  Interview with Jackie Smith, 8 December 2004.

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