Sir Robert StoutArticle Free Pass Sir Robert Stout, (born Sept.
28, 1844, Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scot.—died July 19, 1930,
Wellington, N.Z.), New Zealand statesman and judge who helped
unify the Liberal Party during the late 1870s; as prime minister
(1884–87) he worked to expand opportunities for small farmers. A
surveyor and an advocate of radical land reform in Lerwick,
Stout emigrated to New Zealand in 1863 after hearing of the
Otago gold rush. Finding no work as a surveyor, he became a
teacher and then a barrister and solicitor in the Supreme Court
(1871). Elected to Parliament as a Liberal (1875), he opposed
the abolition of provinces, the leading issue of the time, and
gained a national reputation. In 1878 he was named attorney
general and minister of lands and immigration under Sir George
Grey, in whose ministry he sponsored legislation restructuring
secondary schools and helped to draft the first Land Tax Act
(1878). After a five-year period of legal and journalistic
pursuits, Stout returned to po