Political activity

Born in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 in 1875, MacManus came to 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...

 in 1906. He was Secretary of the Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

 General Labourers Union and during World War I he served in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. John MacManus was the NZLP candidate for Dunedin South

Dunedin South

Dunedin South is a New Zealand Parliamentary electorate. It first existed from 1881–1890, then from 1905–1946 and was re-established for the introduction of MMP in 1996. A Labour Party stronghold, it has been represented by Clare Curran since the .-Area:...

 in 1911, 1922 and 1925. He was a member of the Dunedin City Council between 1923 and 1926 (see the DCC website for information on former Dunedin City Councillors) and a farmer from 1926 to 1938.

MacManus died 1950.

Further reading

Labour's Path to Political Independence: the Origins and Establishment of the NZLP: 1900-19 by Barry Gustafson

Barry Gustafson

Barry Gustafson is a New Zealand political scientist and historian, and a leading political biographer. He served for nearly four decades as Professor of Political Studies at the University of Auckland, and as Acting Director of the New Zealand Asia Institute from 2004 to 2006.-Politics and...

(1980, Oxford University Press, Auckland)
From the Cradle to the Grave: A biography of Michael Joseph Savage by Barry Gustafson (1986, Reed Methuen, Auckland)