Hugh Poland was a Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Ohinemuri in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

Member of Parliament

Hugh Poland represented the Ohinemuri electorate in the New Zealand House of Representatives

New Zealand House of Representatives

The New Zealand House of Representatives is the sole chamber of the legislature of New Zealand. The House and the Queen of New Zealand form the New Zealand Parliament....

 for twenty years from 1905 to 1925. (Wilson, p. 227)

Independent Liberal

Poland was a Liberal

New Zealand Liberal Party

The New Zealand Liberal Party is generally regarded as having been the first real political party in New Zealand. It governed from 1891 until 1912. Out of office, the Liberals gradually found themselves pressed between the conservative Reform Party and the growing Labour Party...

 until the 1919 election when he stood as an Independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 and was successful.(Wood, p. 100 & Bassett, p. 66) He held the seat "as miners' advocate".(A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Edited by G.H. Scholefield, Vol. 2, p. 172, 1940, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington)

Born in Tuakau

Tuakau

Tuakau is a town in the Franklin district, and is part of the Waikato Region in the North Island of New Zealand.The town serves to support local farming, and is the residence of many employees of New Zealand Steel at Glenbrook....

, Poland was a storekeeper

Storekeeper

Storekeeper is an enlisted rating in the United States Coast Guard; until 2009 it was also a United States Navy rating, the most common supply rate in US Navy vs. CS and SH and very much equivalent to the MOS 92 of the US Army...

 and teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

.(Hamer, p. 365). He served on the Ohinemuri County Council (1898–1908; Chairman 1901-5), the Licensing Committee and Education Committee (Cyclopedia of New Zealand 1902, Vol. 2, pp. 840–41)

Further reading

• Three Party Politics in New Zealand, 1911-1931 by Michael Bassett
  Michael Bassett
  Michael Edward Rainton Bassett, QSO is a former Labour Party member of the New Zealand House of Representatives and cabinet minister in the reformist fourth Labour government...
  
  (1982, Historical Publications, Auckland)
• The New Zealand Liberals: the Years of Power 1891-1912 by David Hamer (1988, Auckland University Press, Auckland)
• Ministers and Members in the New Zealand Parliament Edited by G.A. Wood (1996, Otago University Press, Dunedin)
• The New Zealand Parliamentary Record: 1840-1984 by J.O. Wilson (1985, Government Printer, Wellington)