SIR WM. STEWARD RETIRES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1038, 2 September 1911, Page 3

SIR WM. STEWARD RETIRES.

Our Parliamentary correspondent writes as follows : —Yesterday we got news of the retirement of Sir Wm. Steward, the father of the House, who for many years has represented Waitaki in the House of Representatives. Sir William, to use his own words, does uot want to fight any more elections, and he is not so young as be was. He will take up his residence in Johnsonvil'e, a suburb of Wellington, and the probabilities are that he will be given a seat iu the Legislative Council. Sir Wm. Steward first entered the House in 1870 as member Jor Waitaki. Five years later he was defeated, but he was successful again in the general election of 1881, and he won the Waitaki seat at ten successive general elections, so that altogether he has a score oi five years iu Parliament during his first innings and thirty years iu his second innings. During all that time he has only missed one session, the short “Dreadnought session,” owing to the breakdown of a steamer. Sir William has brought forward and carried more Bills than any private member in the New Zealand Legislature. His persistency in this matter called forth those clever verses from the pen of the Hon. Wm. Pember Reeves, “ The Man with a Bill.” Sir Wm. (then Major Steward) was elected Speaker iu 1891 and help the office till 1893. He was subsequently knighted in consequence of his political services and of his holding this position.