William Whitehouse Collins | |
Constituency Mp: | City of Christchurch |
Term Start: | 1893 |
Term End: | 1896 |
Predecessor: | Richard Molesworth Taylor |
Successor: | Harry Ell |
Term Start2: | 1899 |
Term End2: | 1902 |
Predecessor2: | Harry Ell |
Successor2: | Harry Ell |
Birth Date: | 4 September 1853 |
Birth Place: | Harborne |
Death Place: | Sydney |
Spouse: | Alice Annie Collins (née Skinner, m. 1886) |
William Whitehouse Collins (4 September 1853 – 12 April 1923) was a New Zealand Member of Parliament for Christchurch in the South Island.
Collins was born on 4 September 1853 in Harborne, Staffordshire, England and came to New Zealand in 1890. He married Alice Annie Skinner, a daughter of Ehenezer Skinner of Sydney, in 1886.[1]
Collins represented the City of Christchurch electorate in the House of Representatives from 1893 to 1896 and again between 1899 and 1902.[2] He also stood in the 1896 election, but was narrowly defeated.[3]
He was a rationalist (free-thought) lecturer and was involved with the English Secularists and obtained a diploma from the National Secular Society.[4]
The Canterbury Freethought Association was established in Christchurch in 1881 and ran until 1917. Collins left for Sydney in 1918 and died there on 12 April 1923.