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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 3 (June 1, 1936)
At the Pitchfork Point
At the Pitchfork Point.
The invitation was conveyed in a telegram to the Mangere farmer; the incident has become historic. Mr. D. Stewart, of Helensville,
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and others of the Opposition party despatched the telegram. When it reached his place at Mangere he was engaged in harvesting and was on top of a stack. The message was handed up to him on the point of a pitchfork. There are classic parallels to this picturesque calling of a countryman to the affairs of the nation.
Mr. Massey in a dug-out shelter in the New Zealand lines at Etaples, France, 3rd July, 1918.
It was February, 1894, that Massey was thus invited into the Waitemata fray. His opponent was Jackson Palmer, the debonair young Auckland lawyer whom Monk had defeated. The contest was hot and close; the Mangere farmer won by a narrow majority. So, at the age of 38, W. F. Massey entered the House of Representatives, in which he was to occupy, a place continuously for the rest of his life.