Complex sentence: William James "Bill" Rogers (1887--1971) was a long-serving Mayor of Wanganui, and a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council from 1940 until its abolition in 1950.
Split into simpler sentences: William James "Bill" Rogers (10 January 1887--6 July 1971) was a New Zealand politician. He was a long-serving Mayor of Wanganui, and a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council from 1940 until its abolition in 1950.