NEW LABOUR MEMBER OF HOUSE OF COMMONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12242, 11 April 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

NEW LABOUR MEMBER OF HOUSE OF COMMONS.

London, March ■ 11.—-The election of si successor to Lord Charles Beresford as member for Parliament for the Woolwich division of London took place to-day, and resulted in a majority of 3229 for the Labour candidate, William Crooks, over Geoffrey Drage, the Unionist candidate. Crooks is a County ■ Councillor, and is somewhat of the John Burns type. ; Crooks 'is ' a working cooper, 50 years old. His father died when he was nine years of age, and he, with his mother, brothers, and sisters, was ordered into the Poplar Poorhouse, where he stayed some months. He worked at odd jobs until he was 14 years of age, when he was apprenticed to a cooper. As late as 1878 he tramped from London to Liverpool in search of work. ' He was then in the* gr 'est poverty, but before * that he had engaged actively in trade agitation. He worked hard for the dockers in the great dock strike, and became chairman, of the Poplar Board of Guardians and other local bedies. Lord Rosebery, High; Honorable Henry Chaplin, ; formerly president of the Board of Agriculture Walter Long, president of the Local Government Board, and others have long been impressed by his ability. He is a ready speaker and an indefatigable worker. His unsuccessful opponent, Geoffrey Drage, has been prominent in labour questions. He was vice-president of the International Congress on . Accidents, Milan, 1894 International Congress on Housing of Working Classes, Brussels, 1897, and International Congress si on r Poor Law and Charity, Paris, 1900, and was Conservative member of Parliament from Derby, 1895 to 1900. He has written many works on labour questions. '