Alfred Lee Smith
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The Hon Alfred Lee Smith MLC |
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|---|---|
| Member of the New Zealand Legislative Council | |
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In office 18 June 1898 – 18 June 1905 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 1838 Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 2 May 1917 Andersons Bay, New Zealand |
| Political party | New Zealand Liberal Party |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Sharpe |
| Occupation | businessman |
Alfred Lee Smith (1838 – 2 May 1917) was a Yorkshire-born businessman from Dunedin, New Zealand. He was a member of the member of the New Zealand Legislative Council for one term from 1898 to 1905.
Lee Smith was born in Yorkshire in 1838. He received a private education, and was afterwards engaged at the . He came to New Zealand in 1868 and landed in Wellington.
In Christchurch, Lee Smith had a brickworks. When he moved to Dunedin, he had a brickworks in Kensington. He then bought an interest in the firm Royse, Stead and Smith, grain and flour merchants.
In 1881, he and William Royse bought Donaghy's Rope And Twine Company of its founder, John Donaghy, and Lee Smith became the company's chairman. The company still exists today as Donaghys. Donaghy’s Rope Walk in South Dunedin is the only rope walk left in New Zealand, and is registered as a Category I heritage building due to its unique architectural form: the building is only 4 metres (13 ft) wide, but 289 metres (948 ft) long.
Lee Smith then gained an interest in the Green Island Roller Mills and became the company's chairman. He was chairman of the Mutual Grain Agency, and from 1903 to 1915, he was a director and board member of the Union Steam Ship Company. He was one of the directors of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition that was held in Dunedin in 1889–90.
Lee Smith entered public life when he stood for the newly-formed Dunedin Ratepayers' Association in the Leith Ward for Dunedin City Council in September 1886. It was his first election ever and he had an unexpectedly large majority. He retired by rotation after three years and did not stand for re-election.
He stood in the 1890 election in the three-member City of Dunedin electorate and of the six candidates, he came last. When James William Thomson resigned from the Bruce electorate in 1892, he stood in the resulting by-election but was beaten by James Allen. Lee Smith was a man of principal and the Otago Daily Times commented in his obituary that he would have struggled in the House of Representatives to adhere to the party line, and that he was much better suited to the Legislative Council, where no adherence to party politics was required, but each issue could be discussed by him on its merits.
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