{{Use New Zealand English|date=November 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2016}} {{Infobox officeholder |honorific_prefix = The Honourable |name = Alfred Lee Smith |honorific_suffix = |image = Alfred Lee Smith.jpg |alt = Lee Smith in 1907 |caption = |office7 = Member of the New Zealand Legislative Council |term_start7 = 18 June 1898 |term_end7 = 18 June 1905 |birth_date = 1838 |birth_place = Yorkshire, England |death_date = {{death date and age|1917|05|02|1838|df=y}} |death_place = Andersons Bay, New Zealand |resting_place = |resting_place_coordinates = |birth_name = |party = Liberal |spouse = Elizabeth Sharpe |relations = |children = |occupation = Businessman |signature = }} '''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.
==Early life== Lee Smith was born in Yorkshire in 1838.<ref>{{cite book | pages=308f | editor-last = Scholefield | editor-first = Guy | editor-link = Guy Scholefield | title = A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography : M–Addenda | volume = II | year = 1940 | publisher = Department of Internal Affairs | location = Wellington | url = https://nzhistory.govt.nz/sites/default/files/documents/dnzb-1940/scholefield-dnzb-v2.pdf | access-date = 6 October 2013 }}</ref> He received a private education, and was afterwards engaged at the London Stock Exchange.<ref name="ODT obit p6" /> He came to New Zealand in 1868 and landed in Wellington.<ref name="ODT obit p6" />
==Professional career== [[File:Donaghysropewalk.jpg|thumb|left|Donaghy's Rope Walk, a Category I heritage building in South Dunedin once owned by Lee Smith and Royse]] 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.<ref name="ODT obit p6" />
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.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Cyclopedia of New Zealand : Otago & Southland Provincial Districts |year=1905 |url=http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc04Cycl-t1-body1-d2-d43.html |publisher=The Cyclopedia of New Zealand |author=Cyclopedia Company Limited |access-date= 9 April 2016 |location=Christchurch |chapter=Sundry Manufacturers}}</ref> The company still exists today as Donaghys.<ref>{{cite web|title=Donaghys Ltd |url=https://www.donaghys.com |publisher=Donaghys Ltd |access-date=31 July 2022}}</ref> 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 {{convert|4|m}} wide, but {{convert|289|m}} long.<ref name="NZHPT 7167">{{NZHPT|7167|Donaghy's Rope Walk|8 April 2016}}</ref>
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.<ref name="ODT obit p6" /> He was one of the directors of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition that was held in Dunedin in 1889–90.<ref name="ODT obit p6" />
==Political career== Lee Smith entered public life when he stood for the newly-formed Dunedin Ratepayers' Association<ref>{{cite news |title=Dunedin Ratepayers' Association |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ODT18860828.2.21 |access-date=7 April 2016 |work=Otago Daily Times |issue=7653 |date=28 August 1886 |page=3}}</ref> in the Leith Ward for Dunedin City Council in September 1886.<ref>{{cite news |title=Election Notices |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ESD18860906.2.30.4 |access-date=7 April 2016 |work=Evening Star |issue=7000 |date=6 September 1886 |page=3}}</ref> It was his first election ever<ref>{{cite news |title=Leith Ward |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ESD18860831.2.11 |access-date=7 April 2016 |work=Evening Star |issue=6995 |date=31 August 1886 |page=2}}</ref> and he had an unexpectedly large majority.<ref>{{cite news |title=Municipal Election |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ESD18860910.2.2 |access-date=7 April 2016 |work=Evening Star |issue=7004 |date=10 September 1886 |page=1}}</ref> He retired by rotation after three years<ref>{{cite news |title=City Council |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ODT18860828.2.21 |access-date=7 April 2016 |work=Otago Daily Times |issue=8579 |date=22 August 1889 |page=4}}</ref> and did not stand for re-election.<ref>{{cite news |title=Municipal Elections |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ESD18890903.2.13 |access-date=7 April 2016 |work=Evening Star |issue=8002 |date=3 September 1889 |page=2}}</ref>
He stood in the {{NZ election link|1890}} in the three-member {{NZ electorate link|City of Dunedin}} electorate and of the six candidates, he came last.<ref name="General Election, 1890">{{cite web |title=The General Election, 1890 |url= https://atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&cl=search&d=AJHR1891-I.2.1.6.2 |publisher=National Library |access-date=26 November 2013 |page=2 |year=1891}}</ref> When James William Thomson resigned from the {{NZ electorate link|Bruce}} electorate in 1892, he stood in the resulting by-election but was beaten by James Allen.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=MH18920507.2.18 |work=Manawatu Herald |title=The Bruce Election |page=2 |date=7 May 1892 |access-date=7 April 2016}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ODT obit p4" />
In June and July 1894, Lee Smith was the sole New Zealand delegate at the Colonial Conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.<ref name="ODT obit p6">{{cite news |title=Obituary |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ODT19170503.2.42 |access-date=7 April 2016 |work=Otago Daily Times |issue=16994 |date=3 May 1917 |page=6}}</ref>
Lee Smith was appointed by the Liberal Government as a member of the Legislative Council from 18 June 1898 to 18 June 1905 when his term ended.<ref>{{cite book |last= Wilson |first= Jim | author-link=Jim Wilson (librarian) |title= New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 |edition= 4th |orig-year=1913 |year= 1985 |publisher=V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer |location= Wellington |oclc= 154283103 |page=164}}</ref> It is believed that Lee Smith fell out with Joseph Ward over a private issue and that he did not get reappointed in 1905 for that reason.<ref name="ODT obit p4">{{cite news |title=Untitled |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ODT19170503.2.20 |access-date=7 April 2016 |work=Otago Daily Times |issue=16994 |date=3 May 1917 |page=4}}</ref> At the time, though, there was a discussion whether the Legislative Council should be elected at large, and apparently the government informed the two members whose term expired on 18 June 1905 (Jeremiah Twomey was the other member) that they would not be reappointed until the controversy had been resolved.<ref>{{cite news |title=Legislative Council Reform |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=WH19050619.2.40 |access-date=8 April 2016 |work=Wanganui Herald |volume=XXXIX |issue=11588 |date=19 June 1905 |page=5}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Dunedin Press on the Question |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=WH19050619.2.41 |access-date=8 April 2016 |work=Wanganui Herald |volume=XXXIX |issue=11588 |date=19 June 1905 |page=5}}</ref>
==Family== Lee Smith was married to Elizabeth Sharpe from Hull in Yorkshire.<ref name="ODT obit p6" /> They lived in the Dunedin suburb of Green Island when he was appointed to the Legislative Council, but they later moved to Andersons Bay. He died on 2 May 1917 at his home in Andersons Bay<ref>{{cite news |title=Deaths |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ESD19170502.2.23 |access-date=7 April 2016 |work=Evening Star |issue=16413 |date= 2 May 1917 |page=4}}</ref> and was buried at Green Island Cemetery<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dunedin.govt.nz/services/cemeteries/cemeteries-search?recordid=70604&type=Burial |title=Cemetery details |date= |publisher=Dunedin City Council |access-date=28 September 2021 }}</ref> next to his second son, Frank Lee Smith, who had died in August 1898.<ref>{{cite news|title=Deaths|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ODT18980822.2.7|access-date=7 April 2016|work=Otago Daily Times|issue=11198|date=22 August 1898|page=2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dunedin.govt.nz/services/cemeteries/cemeteries-search?recordid=70166&type=Burial |title=Cemetery details |date= |publisher=Dunedin City Council |access-date=28 September 2021 }}</ref> He was survived by his wife, who died in 1934, and his first son.<ref name="ODT obit p6" />
==References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee Smith, Alfred}} Category:1838 births Category:1917 deaths Category:Dunedin City Councillors Category:Members of the New Zealand Legislative Council Category:New Zealand Liberal Party MLCs Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1890 New Zealand general election Category:Businesspeople from Yorkshire Category:English emigrants to New Zealand Category:New Zealand businesspeople Category:19th-century English businesspeople