Thomas Hislop (mayor)

Hislop laying the foundation stone of the Wellington Public Library, 25 August 1938.

Thomas Charles Atkinson Hislop (1888–1965) was the Mayor of Wellington from 1931 to 1944.

He was a Wellington City Councillor from 1913 to 1915, when he resigned to serve in the Wellington Regiment in World War I. He became a Councillor again from 1927 to 1931, and then Mayor from 1931 to 1945.

He was the political leader of the Democrat Party organised by Albert Davy in 1934-35. The party was anti-socialist, but in the 1935 general election its main effect was to split the anti-Labour vote, and it disappeared soon afterwards. Mayor Tom Hislop was seen as a remote, even erratic figure, and his right-wing views regularly brought him into conflict with the wartime Labour government. But the attack on Hubert Nathan a Jew and Citizens candidate for the Harbour Board by some trade unionists resulted in the defeat of all the Labour candidates to the Council in 1941 ^[1]

In 1940 Noël Coward was on a world entertainment and propaganda tour, and at a mayoral reception in Wellington had a set-to with the Mayoress who seemed to me to suffer from delusions of grandeur .... She said to me in ringing tones that I was never to dare to sing "The Stately Homes of England" again as it was an insult to the homeland and that neither she or anybody else liked it. I replied coldly that for many years it had been one of my greatest successes, whereupon she announced triumphantly to everyone within earshot: 'You see - he can’t take criticism!' Irritated beyond endurance I replied that I was perfectly prepared to take intelligent criticism at any time, but I was not prepared to tolerate bad manners. With this I bowed austerely and left the party. ^[2][3]

Hislop was Chairman of the Wellington Provincial Centennial Council and the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition Company from 1937; the Centennial was in 1940.

He was High Commissioner to Canada from 1950 to 1957.

His father Thomas William Hislop was Mayor of Wellington from 1905 to 1908.

References

1. ↑ Wellington: Biography of a city by Redmer Yska (Reed, Auckland, 2006) page 158-159 ISBN 0-7900-1117-4
2. ↑ Future Indefinite by Noel Coward, page 185 (William Heinemann, London, 1954)
3. ↑ Wellington: Biography of a city by Redmer Yska (Reed, Auckland, 2006) pages 157-158 ISBN 0-7900-1117-4

• No Mean City by Stuart Perry (1969, Wellington City Council) includes a paragraph and a portrait or photo for each mayor.

Mayors of Wellington City
Mayors	elected by councillors George Hunter William Guyton Joseph Dransfield Charles Borlase William Sefton Moorhouse elected at large William Hutchison Joseph Dransfield George Allen William Hutchison George Fisher Arthur Winton Brown Samuel Brown John Duthie Charles Johnston Arthur Winton Brown Francis Bell Alfred Brandon Charles Luke George Fisher Francis Bell John Blair John Aitken Thomas William Hislop Alfred Newman Thomas Wilford David McLaren John Luke Robert Wright Charles Norwood George Troup Thomas Hislop Will Appleton Rob Macalister Frank Kitts Michael Fowler Ian Lawrence James Belich Fran Wilde Mark Blumsky Kerry Prendergast Celia Wade-Brown Justin Lester
Mayoral elections	Annual term 1875 1876† 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 Biennial term 1899 1901 1903† 1905 1907 1909 1910‡ 1911† 1912‡ 1913 1915 1917† 1919 1921 1923 1925 1927 1929 1931 1933† Triennial term 1935 1938 1941 1944 1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016
† Elected unopposed · ‡ By-election