Abstract:
In July 1879 Sir George Grey inaugurated the New Zealand
Liberal Association, which its adherents envisaged as a 'nationwide
organisation'. Liberal Associations were founded in all
the main centres and at Thames, Westport, Hokitika, and
Invercargill. They proved to be short-lived. During the
election campaign of 1881, only the Liberal Association at
Thames was still active, and by 1884 it too seems to have become
defunct.
Grey's Liberal party was the first attempt at 'nation-wide'
extra-parliamentary political organization before the 1890s, and
its failure casts light on the nature of the political divisions
in the 1880s ...
