DEATH ON SERVICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1941, Page 4

DEATH ON SERVICE

LIEUTENANT A. 0. HULTQUIST, M.P. VICTIM TO SEVERE ATTACK OF INFLUENZA. DEEP REGRET EXPRESSED BY PREMIER. . (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Lieutenant Axel Gordon Hultquist, Labour M.P. for Bay of Plenty, has died following a severe attack of influenza while on leave in the Middle East. This was announced yesterday by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser. Lieutenant Hultquist is the second member of Parliament to die on active service, Captain W. J. Lyon, member for Waitemata, having been killed in action in Crete. “I desire on behalf of the Government and members of Parliament to express deep regret at the untimely death of our late colleague,” said Mr Fraser. “He was only 37 years of age. He had taken part in the hard campaigns in which the New Zealand Division distinguished itself against overwhelming German odds in Greece and Crete, adding lustre to the World War fame of the Anzacs.”« Lieutenant Hultquist was born in Eunbury, Western Australia, on January 22, 1904, and was a son of Major , J. H. Hultquist, a Salvation Army offi- J cer who was a native of Sweden. He I was married in 1927 to a daughter of " Mr W. Lewis. Christchurch. Arriving in New Zealand at the age of four, he began his education at a primary school, later being a pupil of the Hamilton High School and Seddon Technical College, Auckland. He played hockey and Rugby at the secondary schools, served in cadets and Territorials in Hamilton, Auckland and Christchurch, and was a good marksman. At the age of 17 he joined the Labour Party and was associated with branches in Christchurch and Auckland, being three years president of the Grey Lynn branch of the party and for four years an executive member of the Auckland L.R.C. He contested seats for the Auckland City Council in 1931 and 1933 and for the Mount Albert Borough Council in the same year. He served for three years on the Newton School committee, was a member of the Advisory Board of the Seddon Technical College for two years, and was secretary of the Auckland Citizens’ Committee of Unemployment in 1935. He was awarded the Athenaeum Medal for Oratory in 1933. Lieutenant Hultquist worked hard to promote social and industrial progress. He entered the House of Representatives at the general election in 1935, and had no difficulty in retaining the seat three years later. He was acauainted with practically every person in the large electorate and his correspondence was possibly a record for a private member of Parliament.