Benjamin Harris (New Zealand politician)

Benjamin Harris (1836 – 12 February 1928) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in New Zealand. In 1893 he appears to have been a Liberal Party supporter.

Harris was born at Lisburn, Ireland in 1836. The family migrated to England, Canada, and Australia, before settling in New Zealand in East Tamaki in 1847. Early in his life, he had a farm in Pukekohe. With the outbreak of the New Zealand Wars, he joined the Otahuhu Cavalry Volunteers in 1861, and, as The Press in Christchurch as a contemporary source records, "for a few years subsequently galloped about slaying Maoris [sic] in the interests of settlement, civilisation, and Christianity." He returned to his farm in 1866 and married the following year.

He represented the Ramarama electorate on the Auckland Provincial Council from October 1874 until the abolition of provincial councils two years later.

He represented South Auckland electorates; Franklin from 1879 to 1881; and then the replacement electorate of Franklin North from 1881. His 1881 election was declared void in 1882, but he won the subsequent 1882 by-election. In 1884 he was defeated. He contested the 1890 election in the reconstituted Franklin electorate, but was defeated by Ebenezer Hamlin.

Harris then represented the Franklin electorate from 1893 to 1896, when he was again defeated, by future Prime Minister William Massey.

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