David McDougall

File:David McDougall.jpg

McDougall in 1935.

David (Davie) McDougall (14 July 1858 – 7 November 1943) was a United Party and an Independent Member of Parliament for Mataura, in the South Island of New Zealand.

Biography

Early life

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, McDougall came to New Zealand with his wife in 1884, arriving at Port Chalmers on 11 May on the Aorangi.

Political career

McDougall served on the Gore Borough Council and was Mayor of Gore in 1913, 1915–1919, 1921–1923 and 1927–1928. He unsuccessfully contested the Template:NZ electorate link electorate in the Template:NZ election link as an Independent Liberal, defeated by the incumbent, George James Anderson.

He represented the Mataura electorate in the House of Representatives for ten years from Template:NZ election link year to 1938, when he was defeated.Template:Sfn

In the 1928 and Template:NZ election links elections, he was elected as a United Party MP. In 1933, he had voted with Labour members in Parliament on a no-confidence motion and was then excluded from the Coalition Government caucus. In the Template:NZ election link McDougall stood as an Independent, and was not opposed by Labour. He was successful,Template:Sfn and generally voted with Labour.Template:Sfn He was defeated in the Template:NZ election link by National's Tom Macdonald.

Davie McDougall was a conspicuous figure in Parliament with his tartan waistcoat and colourful language and behaviour. John A. Lee wrote that McDougall developed a habit of "peppering his talk with humorous asides", which became part of his style as a politician.Template:Sfn

Davie McDougall "spoke out for the social and economic progress for the people he represented so well and carved for himself a unique place in New Zealand's political history". He retired to Dunedin, where he died in 1943, survived by 12 of his 13 children.