Paddy Kearins

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Patrick (Paddy) Kearins MBE was a Member of Parliament for Waimarino, in the North Island of New Zealand.

[edit] Member of Parliament

Paddy Kearins was the MP for Waimarino in the New Zealand House of Representatives for eight years from 1946 to 1954. He was awarded the Coronation Medal in 1953 and a MBE in 1970.

[edit] Independent

In 1953 Paddy Kearins crossed the floor of parliament and voted with the government to support the Licensing Amendment Bill (No. 2). This Bill proposed that the licensing of the King Country, part of Kearins' electorate, be subject to a referendum (NZPD Vol. 301, pp.2364-67; Cottrell, pp.24 & 30).

Later in 1953, following an electoral redistribution, Paddy Kearins' seat of Waimarino was abolished and a new seat of Rotorua established in its place. Rotorua contained much of his former electorate. However, at the candidate selection for Rotorua Ray Boord won the nomination and "Labour lost its only farming voice... sacrificed by the party machine" (Freer, pp. 33 & 58; see also Taylor, p.222).

Paddy Kearins later served as Mayor of Taihape. He died in 1974.

[edit] Further reading

• Parliament and Conscience: 1950-1972 by S.P. Cottrell (1974, MA Thesis-University of Canterbury, Christchurch)
• The Expulsion of John A. Lee and its Effects on the Development of the NZ Labour Party by B.S. Taylor (1970, MA Thesis-University of Canterbury, Christchurch)
• A Lifetime in Politics: the Memoirs of Warren Freer by Warren Freer (2004, Victoria University Press, Wellington)