DAWSON, JOHN (1859-1925) was born at Keighley, Yorkshire. Being left fatherless he went to work at an early age, and was thus denied scholastic advantages. He attached himself to the Primitive Methodist church and at 17 years of age he became a local preacher and at 21 years a lay evangelist. In this capacity he served for five years. He married (1883) Miss Nancy Hoyle (Keighley).

Seeking better equipment for his work he, as a married student, entered the Grattan Guinness Missionary Institute, now known as Cliff College, near Calver, Derbyshire. In 1888, under the direction of the Primitive Methodist conference of Great Britain, he came to New Zealand as a probationer for its ministry. His first charge was at the Thames, after which he served in Christchurch and in 1897 was appointed to Wellington, where he served for twelve years. For 10 years he was chairman of the executive committee of the New Zealand Alliance. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of temperance matters and of licensing legislation. He represented New Zealand on two occasions in America and once in Switzerland at the world congress dealing with alcohol. Few men have done so much as he in seeking to promote the prohibition cause in the Dominion. In 1909 he was chosen to succeed Isitt as general secretary of the Alliance, and for 16 years he laboured strenuously in his advocacy of total abstinence for the individual and prohibition of liquor for the state. He held many important offices in the Primitive Methodist church and was president in 1898. He was an ardent advocate for Methodist union in New Zealand and was elected president of the united church in 1915. He was a practical preacher, a sympathetic pastor, a tactful advocate and a capable organiser. He was superannuated in Apr 1925 and died on 13 Sep.

M.A.R.P.

Reference: Volume 1, page 115

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