PUBLIC MAN DEAD

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 81, 30 December 1931, Page 8

PUBLIC MAN DEAD

Hon. William Earnshaw MEMBER OF UPPER HOUSE After a short illness the death occurred yesterday morning of the Hon. William Earnshaw, M.L.C., Mr. Earnshaw was first appointed to the Legislative Council in 1913, and reappointed at the expiry of his seven-year terms in 1920 and in 1927. The funeral, which will be private, will take place to-morrow morning. i Born in Manchester in 1852, Mr. Earnshaw was trained in the 'city of his birth as an all-round mechanic. At the age of 21 years he went to America, and two years later returned to England, but only to embark for. New Zealand. Not being able to settle down he visited Australia, and then went to

America and England, but soon afterward returned to Melbourne. In 1878 Mr. Earnshaw arrived In New Zealand and worked at the Addington Workshops for two years. The 10 per cent, reduction in the wages of Government employees caused him to leave in 1881 for Dunedin, where he was engaged for several years as a brass finisher. In 1890 he stood for the Peninsula seat as a Labour candidate, defeating the late Mr. W. J. M. Larnach at a time when the Ballance Party obtained a sweeping victory over the Atkinson Government. In the 1893 general election he was returned as a representative for the city of Dunedin (the city electorates were then undivided). During this term Mr. Earnshaw was a severe critic of the Seddon administration.

Mr. Earnshaw was defeated at the election of 1896, after which he engaged in dredging in Westland. He later came to Wellington and joined the mechanical staff of the Harbour Board. He was in the board’s service until 1913. when he was appointed by the late Hon. W. F. Massey to the Legislative Council as a Labour representative. Mr. Earnshaw was married in Christchurch in 1879, and is survived by a widow and two sons—EngineerCommander W. Earnshaw, R.N.R., who is a consulting engineer in London, and Mr. V. R. Earnshaw, manager of the workshops branch of the Post and Telegraph Department. He was chairman of the council of the New Zealand Marine Engineers’ Institute for a number of years, and a prominent Freemason and Druid.