He was a civil and criminal lawyer 1889–1899 with a good reputation, defending Minnie Dean and John Keown on murder charges.

[4] He also served in the wartime National Ministry, holding the portfolios of education (1915–1919), justice (1917), and immigration (1915).

[5] On his retirement from the House in 1925 he was appointed as a Member of the Legislative Council, a position he held until its abolition in 1950.

[1] The family would commute to Wellington for the parliamentary sessions and their boys attended boarding school there.

When Hanan retired from Parliament in 1925, they moved to Dunedin, where by then their boys were attending university.