Obituary: John Keir Stewart

We have just received the news of the death of another old Comrade on the other side of the world: John Keir Stewart of the Socialist Party of New Zealand. The 1914/18. war, and the unemployment which followed, played a large part in making Stewart a socialist. After he joined the SPNZ his house was always open to comrades and students of Socialism and there are many in both Australia and New Zealand who were introduced to Socialism within the warm hospitality of John Stewart and his wife Annie.

For about twenty live years Stewart was literature secretary of the Petone and Wellington Branch and only ceased his work for Socialism when illness forced him from the field. He was 73 years old when he died. The host of people who had the privilege of knowing and working with John Stewart mourn his death; they have lost a Comrade in every sense of the term.