William Steward (New Zealand politician)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "William_Steward_(New_Zealand_politician)".

Sir William Jukes Steward (1841 - October 30, 1912) was a New Zealand politician and the first Liberal Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives.

Early life

Steward was born in Reading, Berkshire, in England, and emigrated to New Zealand in 1862, settling in Canterbury. He worked as a journalist for the North Otago Times in Oamaru.

Member of Parliament

In 1871 he was elected as Member of the House of Representatives for Waitaki. He was defeated in the 1875 election, but was re-elected in 1881. He held his seat, through several boundary changes, until 1911, when he was appointed to the Legislative Council.

Steward was elected Speaker when the First Liberal Government came to power in 1891, and held the position until 1893. He was knighted in 1902.

References

• Office of the Speaker biography

This article about a New Zealand politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.