NEW ZEALAND LABOUR PARTY

political party established in 1916 in a merger of various socialist and trades-union groups, including the Unified Labour Party (founded 1910) and the Social Democratic Party (founded in 1913). The party grew steadily so that by the 193035 term it had become the official parliamentary opposition; and in 1935 it gained 53 seats, a clear majority, and formed the first Labour government, with Michael Joseph Savage as prime minister. It remained in office continuously until 1949 (under Prime Minister Peter Fraser from 1940) and enacted various pieces of welfare legislation, including social security, price and trade regulations, compulsory unionism, Maori protection, and other reforms but embracing only very limited socialization (of banks and broadcasting). Ideologically the Labour Party's distance from its rival, the National Party, became narrow and vague. In the next 35 years Labour was in power in 195760, 197275, and 198490.