Member of Parliament Steward and Macassey contested the
1871 general election in Waitaki. At the time, the
Waitaki was a single-member electorate. At the nomination meeting, Steward received a slight majority during the show of hands, and Macassey demanded a poll. The poll was held on Friday, 3 February 1871. Steward and Macassey received 188 and 137 votes, respectively. Steward was thus returned to Parliament. The next election was held in early January 1876. Waitaki had become a two-member electorate, and four candidates put their names forward. Steward and Joseph O'Meagher contested the election as abolitionists (i.e. they were in favour of abolishing the
provincial government), while
Thomas W. Bislop and
Samuel Shrimski were provincialists (i.e. they favoured the retention of provincial government). The provincialists won the election by quite some margin, and Steward lost his seat in Parliament. Steward was again elected in
1881 to represent the single-member
Waimate electorate. The Waitaki electorate had been abolished and the Waimate electorate covered the area of South Canterbury where Steward resided. Four candidates had contested the election, and Steward was returned with a comfortable margin. He held the electorate until it was abolished in 1893. In
1893 he was re-elected to a reconstituted
Waitaki, which he held until 1911, when he was appointed to the
Legislative Council.
Harry Atkinson was the
Premier at the time. Traditionally, the incumbent speaker would keep his position, unless the election result was not in support of the incoming government. The 1890 election did not have a clear result and the incumbent speaker,
Maurice O'Rorke, lost his seat in Parliament.
Alfred Saunders, an independent MP, proposed
William Rolleston as speaker, as he had been a long-standing MP since 1868. But
Richard Seddon proposed that Steward be chosen instead, which came as a surprise, as the latter was relatively undistinguished. The house voted on the issue and Steward was chosen by 36 to 29 votes. It was the first time that the role of speaker had been put to the vote by the New Zealand Parliament. The election sealed the end of the Atkinson government, which resigned the following day. The forming of the Liberal Party marked the beginning of party politics in New Zealand. Steward held the position of speaker until 8 November 1893.
Otago Provincial Council Steward was a member of the
Otago Provincial Council from 1875 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. The 1876 mayoral election was contested against J. Falconer, and Steward had a majority of 35 votes. In 1877, Steward was returned unopposed. The 1878 election was contested by Steward and George Sumpter, and the former achieved a majority of 45 votes. In the
depression year of 1879, Steward did not stand for re-election. Steward was formally thanked at the last council meeting for the able manner in which he had led the council, and the courteous was in which he had interacted with the councillors. During Steward's term, the most significant achievement was the installation of the Oamaru water supply, which resulted in a fall of the death rate from 10.4 per 1000 population to 8.9 per 1000. Steward was succeeded by Samuel Gibbs. Gibbs had previously been mayor from 1867 to 1870 ==Death and commemoration==