OBITUARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 206, 1 September 1938, Page 12

OBITUARY.

MS. JOHN FOSTER.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Wednesday.

The funeral of Mr. John Foster, one of the pioneer members of the Knights of Labour, a secret organisation formed many years ago, took place in Wellington to-day. It is almost 50 years since Mr. Foster, who was 93 years old at the time of his death, formed the first trade union at Denniston on the West Coast. To hold their meetings, he and his companions went secretly to a rocky rendezvous on the plateau, and there, with sentries posted around a circle one mile in diameter, they laid the foundation of a movement that rapidlv grew throughout Xew Zealand. He became the first president of the New Zealand Trades and Labour Council, and was" the first president of the Denniston Miners' Union. Among the pall-bearers at the funeral were the "Minister of Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb, the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. E. Semple, and the Hon. G. R. Hunter. MJL.C, who were among his closest friends and worked with him for many years in the promotion of unionism on the West Coast. In paying a tribute to his memory to-day, Mr. Webb said the work of John Foster in laying the foundation of the Labour movement in New Zealand would never be forgotten. It was on that foundation that the movement stood in the Dominion to-dav.