Samuel Shrimski

Samuel Shrimski MLC
Portrait of Samuel Shrimski
New Zealand Legislative Council
In office 15 May 1885 – 25 June 1902
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Waitaki
In office 10 January 1876 – 8 November 1881
Preceded by	William Steward
Succeeded by	Thomas Young Duncan
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Oamaru
In office 9 December 1881 – 28 March 1885
Preceded by	In abeyance
Succeeded by	Thomas William Hislop
Mayor of Oamaru
Personal details
Born	1828 Poznań, Prussia
Died	25 June 1902 Lower Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand
Resting place	Waikumete Cemetery
Occupation	politician

Samuel Edward Shrimski (1828 – 25 June 1902) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament and then a Member of the Legislative Council from Otago, New Zealand.

Early life

He was born in Poznań, Prussia, where he received his initial education.^[1] He went to London in 1847, where he staid for 12 years and where he married the niece of Leopold Neumegen,^[2] a Jewish schoolmaster.^[1] Shrimski emigrated to Melbourne in 1859 and came to New Zealand in 1861.^[3]

Political career

Shrimski was the government land auctioneer in Oamaru. He was elected Mayor of Oamaru several times in succession.^[3][4]

Shrimski contested the 1876 election in the Waitaki electorate. Waitaki was first established in the 1870 Electoral Redistribution. For the 1876 election, it became a two-member electorate.^[5] Four candidates put their names forward. Steward and Joseph O'Meagher contested the election as abolitionists (i.e. they were in favour of abolishing the provincial government), while Thomas William Hislop and Shrimski were provincialists (i.e. they favoured the retention of provincial government).^[6] The provincialists won the election by quite some margin, and both became members of parliament for the first time.^[7]

Hislop and Shrimski were both confirmed in the 1879 election,^[8] but Hislop resigned on 28 April 1880 "for private reasons".^[9][10] The resulting 1880 by-election was won by George Jones, who served alongside Shrimski until 1881.^[11]

Shrimski then represented the Oamaru electorate from 1881 to 1885, when he resigned.^[12] In the 1884 general election, he defeated Viscount Reidhaven (who later became the Earl of Seafield when he succeeded his father).^[4]

He was appointed to the Legislative Council on 15 May 1885,^[13] one of an unprecedented nine appointments made by the Stout–Vogel Ministry in 1885, which inflated the council's membership to 54.^[14] He held that role until he died in 1902.^[13]

In Oamaru, he was a member of educational and philanthropic institutions. He held the offices of chairman of the educational board of North Otago, treasurer of the hospital board, and vice-president of the Otago branch of the Anglo-Jewish Association.^[3]

Death

Shrimski moved to Auckland in 1900 to be closer to other family members.^[15] After having been ill for five weeks, he died at his residence in Lower Symonds Street, Auckland, on 25 June 1902.^[15][3][16] He is buried at Waikumete Cemetery.^[15] He was survived by his wife Deborah Shrimski.^[16]

Notes

References

• Jackson, William Keith (1972). The New Zealand Legislative Council : a study of the establishment, failure and abolition of an upper house. Dunedin: University of Otago Press. 
• McRobie, Alan (1989). Electoral Atlas of New Zealand. Wellington: GP Books. ISBN 0-477-01384-8. 
• Scholefield, Guy (1950) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1949 (3rd ed.). Wellington: Govt. Printer.