LATE HON. G. W. RUSSELL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19365, 1 July 1937, Page 9

LATE HON. G. W. RUSSELL

PRESSWIAN & POLITICIAN I.OXO POLITICAL <‘.\EEET? The lion. George Warren Russell, a former Minister of the Crown ancl newspaper'proprietor, whose death ocauted' in Wellington on Sunday, aged 82 years, is survived by ' his sccon(l wife! his brother, Kir. W. If- Russell, Wellington,'six sons' and seven daughters. He was born in London and educated privately, and at the Launceston Grammar School, Tasmania 1 . He was an apprentice on the Staff of the Evening Post, Wellington, and subsequently he became a' sub-editor on the Wellington Chronicle. In 1878 lie established the' Mdna'watu Ifebald. and later became proprietor of' die Manowat.ii Times. Mr. ftjlssell also established the Waikato Times. . In 1889 lie founded the firm of Russell and Willis, printers and stationers, in Chrisfchufch. KTr."Riissell was author of “A New HCavenX “New Zealand To-c|ay,’”“A Manual of the Duties' of Life,” “Citizenship," and other works!" He was chairman of the Board of Governors of Canterbury College for several years, and was also a member of the North Canterbury Education Board and the Lyttelton Harbour Board. Entered Parliament in 1893 He first entered Parliament in 1893 as member for Riccarton, arid sat for two Parliaments 1 for that constituency. He was returned dor Avon in 1908, and sat for that electorate til) 1919. He was Minister of internal Affairs and Public Health in both the Mackenzie and National Governments, and in the latter was also for nearly a year Minister of Marino and Stamp Duties. He assumed charge of the Public Trust Office and the Government Life Insurance Departments during Sir Joseph Ward’s absence at Home. He had charge of the Jli'gh Commissioner's Office, the Dominion Museum, Government Laboratories! ‘ and was chairman of the Public Service Superannuation Board ;ind ‘ Science and Art Board, aiid president of the National War Funds Council. ' lie called and presided over (lie Town planning Conference of 1919. He was Minister in Charge of the Government Printing and Stationery Department, and other offices, and for 21 years he had full control of sick and wounded returned soldiers; and created the King George and Queen Mary Hospitals at Rotorua and I-lan-irier respectively. He acted as Deputy-Leader of the Liberal Party in 1912-13, in the absence of Sir Joseph Ward in England. On the dissolution of the National Government in 1919, Mr. Russell was unseated for Avon by Mr. D. G. Sullivan, the Labour-Socialist candidate and failed to recapture the constituency in ’-922.