page_title: Gordon Coates
section_title: Premiership
hierarchical_section_title: Gordon Coates / Premiership
caption_attribution_description: English: George V and his Prime Ministers at the 1926 Imperial Conference. The conference was the sixth Imperial Conference held amongst the Prime Ministers of the dominions of the British Empire. It was held in London from 19 October to 22 November 1926. It was notable as the conference that produced the Balfour Declaration, which established the principle that the dominions are all equal in status, and not subordinate to the United Kingdom.George V (seated, centre) with Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin (United Kingdom; seated left), Rt. Hon. W.L. Mackenzie King (Canada; seated right). Standing Rt. Hon. Walter Stanley Monroe (Newfoundland), Rt. Hon. Gordon Coates (New Zealand), Rt. Hon. Stanley Bruce (Australia), Rt. Hon. J. B. M. Hertzog (Union of South Africa) and W.T. Cosgrave (Irish Free State).
context_page_description: Joseph Gordon Coates MC* PC served as the 21st Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1925 to 1928. He was the third successive Reform prime minister since 1912.
  Coates was a farmer before becoming a Member of Parliament, and he maintained a focus on farming interests throughout his political career. He was elected to Parliament in 1911, when he stood as an independent candidate. After distinguished service during World War I, he was appointed as Minister of Justice and Postmaster-General in the Reform government of William Massey; he served as Minister of Public Works and Native Affairs and became prime minister in 1925 on Massey's death.
  Defeated in the elections of 1928, Coates returned to government in 1931 as the key figure in the coalition government of George Forbes. Serving as Minister of Public Works and of Finance, he instituted rigorous policies to combat the economic depression of the 1930s. He became a member of Peter Fraser's War Administration from 1940, serving as Minister of Armed Forces and War Co-ordination until his death.
context_section_description: Coates' prominence gradually increased to the point where people saw him as a natural successor to Massey. When Massey died on 10 May 1925, Francis Bell became Prime Minister on an interim basis while the Party debated its leadership. On 30 May 1925 Coates became Prime Minister, having defeated William Nosworthy in a caucus ballot.
  Coates premiership was marked by an intention to develop the rural economy of New Zealand, from which he stemmed. To this goal, he dedicated a number of projects, such as the construction of the Kopu Bridge in the Coromandel Peninsula, which gave the local farmers better road access, and approving the construction of a Rotorua-Taupo railway which had long been sought after by settlers living between Rotorua and Taupo to open up the district.
  As the Great Depression loomed and New Zealand's economy began to deteriorate, Coates and the Reform Party attracted considerable criticism. Albert Davy departed the party to help establish a Liberal revival known as the United Party. In the 1928 general election Reform and United Party won an equal number of parliamentary seats. With the backing of the Labour Party, United formed a government, and Coates lost the premiership.
caption: Coates (Back row second left) at the 1926 Imperial Conference
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