Sir Robert Stout

Sir Robert Stout (born Sept. 28, 1844, Lerick, Shetland Islands, Scot.—died July 19, 1930, Wellington, N.Z.) was a New Zealand statesman and judge who helped unify the Liberal Party during the late 1870s; as prime minister (1884–87) he worked to expand opportunities for small farmers.

A surveyor and an advocate of radical land reform in Lerwick, Stout emigrated to New Zealand in 1863 after hearing of the Otago gold rush. Finding no work as a surveyor, he became a teacher and then a barrister and solicitor in the Supreme Court (1871). Elected to Parliament as a Liberal (1875), he opposed the abolition of provinces, the leading issue of the time, and gained a national reputation. In 1878 he was named attorney general and minister of lands and immigration under Sir George Grey, in whose ministry he sponsored legislation restructuring secondary schools and helped to draft the first Land Tax Act (1878).

After a five-year period of legal and journalistic pursuits, Stout returned to politics in 1884, serving as premier, attorney general, and later as minister of education. He sponsored legislation that reformed the civil service, reorganized hospitals and charitable institutions, and provided probation for first offenders. The failure of his policies to stave off economic depression led to the downfall of his cabinet in 1887, the year that he was knighted; he then again gave up politics to concentrate on his legal practice until 1893. Although Prime Minister John Ballance preferred that Stout succeed him in 1893, Richard John Seddon gained the post. A member of Parliament from 1893 to 1898, Stout was one of the founders of the Victoria University College, Wellington, in 1897. He retired from politics in 1898, finding opposition to Seddon hopeless.

From 1899 to 1926, Stout served as chief justice and was a member of the legislative council (1926–30). He also acted as chancellor of the University of New Zealand from 1903 to 1923.