Ray Boord

Raymond Boord QSO (4 February 1908 – 29 April 1982) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.

The Honourable Ray Boord QSO
9th Mayor of Rotorua
In office 9 October 1971 – 8 October 1977
Deputy	Peter Tapsell
Preceded by	Murray Linton
Succeeded by	Ray Woolliams
39th Minister of Customs
In office 12 December 1957 – 12 December 1960
Prime Minister	Walter Nash
Preceded by	Eric Halstead
Succeeded by	Jack Marshall
7th Minister of Broadcasting
In office 12 December 1957 – 12 December 1960
Prime Minister	Walter Nash
Preceded by	Ronald Algie
Succeeded by	Arthur Kinsella
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Rotorua
In office 13 November 1954 – 26 November 1960
Preceded by	In abeyance
Succeeded by	Harry Lapwood
Personal details
Born	4 February 1908 Rotorua, New Zealand
Died	3 April 1982 (aged 74) Rotorua, New Zealand
Political party	Labour
Military service
Allegiance	New Zealand Army
Years of service	1940–1945
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Battles/wars	World War II

Biography

Early life and career

Boord was born in Rotorua in 1908 to Francis Moss Boord and Agnes Jane Boord. His grandfather being one of the first European settlers in Rotorua establishing a farm in the 1860s. Boord was educated initially at Rotorua Boys' High School and later at Feilding Agricultural High School, where he became prominent in debating and was dux of the school. He was also a talented sportsman representing Feilding Agricultural at both rugby and cricket. He then became a sheep farmer for 13 years.[1]

He left New Zealand in May 1940 after enlisting in the army 21st Battalion. He served in Greece, Egypt before being promoted to Lieutenant first class in February 1942 then seeing action in the Second Battle of El Alamein. He was wounded in action on 26 March 1943 and was also Mentioned in dispatches (MiD). On 31 January 1945 he was promoted to the temporary rank of Major before being promoted with the full rank on 19 May 1945 and was second in command of the 24th Battalion. On 5 July 1945 he was made commanding officer of the 24th Battalion and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He returned to New Zealand in February 1946.[1]

Member of Parliament

New Zealand Parliament
Years	Term	Electorate		Party
1954–1957	31st	Rotorua		Labour
1957–1960	32nd	Rotorua		Labour

Boord stood for election to the New Zealand House of Representatives for the Labour Party in Bay of Plenty in 1946, but was unsuccessful.[2] In June 1947 he was appointed assistant-national secretary of the Labour Party before becoming Labour's research officer.

In 1953, following an electoral redistribution the electorate of Waimarino was abolished and largely absorbed into Rotorua. Boord won the candidate selection for the "new" seat of Rotorua defeating Paddy Kearins.[3][4] He won the seat and represented the Rotorua electorate from 1954 to 1960,[5] when he was defeated by National's Harry Lapwood.[6]

He was a Cabinet minister under Walter Nash, and was Minister of Customs and Minister of Publicity (1957–1960) in the Second Labour Government.[7] He was also Minister of Broadcasting and oversaw the introduction of television into New Zealand. In February 1959 the first experimental television transmissions were initiated, but Boord ended them after just two weeks over concerns that they were generating too much interest form the public.[8]

Boord was expecting his appointments as Minister of Publicity and Broadcasting, due to his experience as a Labour Party publicity officer, but questioned Nash as to his selection as Minister of Customs. When asking what his duties would be (Nash had previously held the role from 1935 to 1949) Nash simply replied "Make rules and stick to them."[9] Boord later believed that Nash knew that he would have to reintroduce import licensing and wanted a minister who would not bend the rules.[10]

As a remedy for the balance of payments crisis the Labour government inherited, Boord introduced comprehensive import controls in 1958. The extremely detailed import licensing schedules were periodically worked out, specifying how much barley, chaff, flour, rennet and saccharine could be imported into New Zealand.[11] The idea was conceived at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Policy on 20 December 1957, chaired by Arnold Nordmeyer, (also attended by Jerry Skinner, Phil Holloway, Henry Lang and Bill Sutch - but not Nash) that the import controls would be the most effective way of dealing with the problem.[12]

Following the overwhelming unpopularity of the 1958 "Black Budget" Boord eased up on import controls in the 1960 budget in an attempt to regain popularity ahead of the general election later that year.[13] The ploy did not work and the government was duly defeated in the December 1960 election at which Boord also lost his own seat.[14]

Post Parliament

After exiting parliament he returned to working his sheep farm.[1] Boord remained politically involved and was an extra-parliamentary confidante of Nash. Nash even went as far as to admit in a letter to Boord that his hearing and memory had deteriorated. Boord was also one of the first people to identify Norman Kirk (then only a first-term backbencher) as a potential future leader.[15]

Boord was elected as a member of both the Bay of Plenty Harbour Board and Rotorua Borough Council. He was hospitalised after he crashed his car on into a power pole near Okere on 24 May 1971 causing bruising and a concussion.[16] Later he served as Mayor of Rotorua from 1971 to 1977. As mayor he received Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of Rotorua during the 1974 Royal Tour.[17]

Boord was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services in the 1975 Queen's Birthday Honours,[18] and in 1977 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal.[19]

Later life and death

He established the Francis Moss Boord Charitable Trust, in memory of his father, to provide funds for charitable purposes in areas including the development of public reserves and domains.[20]

Boord died at his home in Rotorua in 1982,[5] and was buried at Kauae Cemetery in Ngongotahā.[21]

Honorific eponym

Ray Boord Park in the Rotorua suburb of Westbrook is named after Boord.[22]

Notes

1. "Mr Boord dies at 74". Bay of Plenty Times. 4 May 1982.
2. "The General Election, 1946". National Library. 1947. pp. 1–11, 14. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
3. Freer 2004, pp. 33, 58.
4. Logan 2008, p. 282.
5. Wilson 1985, p. 184.
6. Wilson 1985, p. 211.
7. Wilson 1985, p. 89.
8. "Television in New Zealand; TV emerges in New Zealand". NZ History online. 21 May 2014. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
9. Sinclair 1976, p. 305.
10. Sinclair 1976, p. 304-5.
11. Sinclair 1976, p. 308.
12. Sinclair 1976, p. 306.
13. Sinclair 1976, p. 347.
14. "Labour's Ray Boord dies". The Dominion. 4 May 1982.
15. Sinclair 1976, p. 355.
16. "Ex-Cabinet Minister in Hospital". The Evening Post. 27 May 1971. p. 6.
17. "Boord dies at 74". Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune. 4 May 1982.
18. "No. 46595". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 1975. p. 7406.
19. Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 72. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
20. "Trusts ready to benefit community". The Daily Post. 19 September 2008. p. 2.
21. "Cemetery database report" (PDF). Rotorua District Council. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
22. "Rotorua, New Zealand" (PDF). Retrieved 1 February 2018.

References

• Freer, Warren (2004). A Lifetime in Politics: the Memoirs of Warren Freer. Wellington: Victoria University Press.
• Logan, Mary (2008). Nordy, Arnold Nordmeyer: A Political Biography. Wellington: Steele Roberts.
• Sinclair, Keith (1976). Walter Nash. Auckland: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-647949-5.
• Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [1913]. New Zealand parliamentary record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.