FATAL ILLNESS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20604, 4 November 1941, Page 4

FATAL ILLNESS

LIEUT. HULTQUIST, M.P.

SERVICE WITH N.Z.E.F.

BAY OF PLENTY MEMBER

Nows was received in Gisborne to-day of the death in Egypt of Lieut. A. G. Hultquist, M.P., while serving with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The report stated that Lieut. Hultquist had been treated for a severe bout of influenza, and that after returning to his unit and taking up his duties again, he collapsed suddenly and died almost immediately.

He was an officer of the New Zealand Army Signals Corps, and left New Zealand with the Third Echelon for the Middle East. He took part in the campaigns in Greece and Crete, and emerged ■ unscathed from those experiences.

Since 1935, Lieutenant Hultquist had been Parliamentary representative of the Bay of Plenty seat, having won a triangular contest in that year from Messrs, J. T. Merry and H. L. Harker. The previous representative in Parliament of the Bay of Plenty was Mr. K. S. Williams, who retired in 1935 owing to ill-health and died while the campaign to elect his successor was drawing to its close.

Attention to Constituency

A man of intense industry in political matters, Lieut. Hultquist was one of the youngest, men elected to Parliament, and was noted throughout his career for the degree of attention he gave to his constituency. Prior to becoming a member of the House he had lived in Auckland, where he took a leading part in Labour Party organisation and activity, having been president, secretary and auditor of the Auckland Trades and Labour Council, secretary of the Auckland joint industrial council, president of the Grey Lynn branch of the New Zealand Labour Party, and an executive member of the Labour Representation Committee, holding the latter post for four years.

An accomplished platform speaker, he won the Atheneum Debating Society’s gold medal for oratory in 1934. He had a breezy style of public address, and supported his platform statements by a considerable amount of research, especially upon subjects relating to country constituencies. He was re-elected as the Bay of Plenty representative in 1938, in a straightout contest with Mr. W. Sullivan, Mayor of Whakatane. By trade he was an electrician, and before accepting nomination for the Bay of Plenty district he established an electrical contracting business in Whakatane.

Prior to his departure for service abroad with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Lieutenant Hultquist arranged for the work of his electorate to be shared by Mr. D. W. Coleman, M.P. for Gisborne, and Mr. A. F. Moncur, member for Rotorua. Up to the time of his sailing from New Zealand, he continued to keep in close personal touch, and subsequently he conducted a prolific correspondence with members of his electorate committee on current political issues. He is survived by Mrs. Hultquist and one daughter, to whom the deepest sympathy will be accorded in their bereavement.