Ebook: Coates of the Kaipara

In the course of his political career Gordon Coates (1878-1943) experienced the extremes of popular adulation and contempt. Handsome, young and debonair, with the common touch, he was a successful minister in the early 1920s and seemed full of promise when he became Prime Minister in 1925 on the death of W.F. Massey. Ten years later, after serving as Minister of Finance in the coalition government during the Depression, his reputation had sunk to its lowest ebb. He went on to serve with distinction in the War Cabinet, winning the confidence and respect of former Labour opponents. Dying suddenly in 1943, he left many friends and supporters, who to this day regard him as one of New Zealand's political giants.