Richard Oliver

Who was Richard Oliver?

Richard Oliver was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.

Oliver was the son of Robert Oliver, of Penzance, Cornwall, England, and Elizabeth his wife, and emigrated to New Zealand.

Oliver represented the City of Dunedin electorate from 1878 to 1881, when he retired. He was Minister of Public Works in the John Hall Ministry from October 1879 to May 1881. He was included in the Frederick Whitaker Government as a member of the Executive Council till September 1883, when on a second reconstruction he became Postmaster-General and Commissioner of Electric Telegraphs under Major Harry Atkinson, retiring, with the rest of his colleagues, in August 1884. On 10 November 1881, he was appointed to the Legislative Council. He resigned from that role on 4 April 1901.

Oliver married first at Penzance on 18 June 1858, Ellen, daughter of William Purchase; and secondly, at Penzance, on 19 August 1885, Louise d'Este, daughter of J. S. Courtney, of Alverton House, Penzance, and sister of Right Hon. Leonard H. Courtney, M.P., Chairman of Committees, House of Commons.