Labour Member Passes

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 97, 27 April 1939, Page 6

Labour Member Passes

Sudden Death of Mr. E. J. Howard, M.P,

PIONEER OF MOVEMENT Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. The death has occurred of Air. Edwin John Howard. ALP., Chairman of Committees in the House of Representatives, aged 71. The late Air. Howard has been member for Christchurch South since 1919. His death removes a pioneer and widely esteemed figure from the Labour movement. In January he became ill but recovered steadily. On Alonday he was operated on for another complaint at Little Company of Mary Hospital. His death occurred early this afternoon rather unexpectedly. A civic funeral'will be accorded Mr. Howard by the City Council. The body will be taken to the municipal offices early ou Saturday morning and will lie in the horseshoe of the central office until 11 a.m., when the funeral will take place. The Alayor, Air. R. AI. MacFarlane, is supervising tho funeral arrangements. Early Life in the Navy. The late Air. Howard was born in Bristol in ISGB, educated at St. James the Loss, Plymouth, and became apprenticed to an accountant at Devouport. However, he went to sea, spending his early years as a seaman in the Royal Navy. He first came to Christchurch in 18S7 and the following year he married in this city Alias Harriett Goring, daughter of Air. and Airs. Amos G. Goring, who died 29 years ago. He then became a copper, lead and zinc smelter and in ISSB ho went to Australia where ho worked as a smelting foreman for an Australian smelting company and later for the South Australian and Western Australian Governments. While in .South Australia he studied chemistry at the Adelaide School of Alines and he joined a syndicate to prospect for gold in the Alacdonald Ranges in Central Australia. After Mrs. Howard’s death in Australia Air. Howard returned to Christchurch in 1902 with his three young daughters. One died later and he brought up the two remaining girls, Miss Alabel Howard, now secretary of the Canterbury General Labourers’ Union and chairman of the reserves committee of tho Christchurch City Council, and Airs. T. Lamont, who also lives in Christchurch. Early Days of Labour. Joining the Labour movement, Mr. Howard soon became prominent. For many years he spoke, to use his own term, from tho “soap box” in Cathedral Square. From those battling days of the pioneers of Labour he graduated through every oflice in the movement until at his death he saw his party elected as Government for the second time and himself in the honoured position of Chairman of Committees and Deputy-Speaker of the House of Representatives. Another honour, that of Administrator of Samoa, was offered Mr. Howard in 1936 by the Labour Government. “This was a very attractive offer to follow in .the footsteps of generals and other gallant officers” he told the electors of Christchurch South last year, “and I felt that if 1 accepted I would have let you down.”