In October 1888, his sermon "On the sin of cheapness", stirred many of the local community into action, which lead to the establishment in 1890 of a royal commission on sweating.

[7] Waddell's mother died when he was young and his father was largely absent, which lead to him being brought up by his spinster aunt, Jean Reid, in a farmhouse at Annaghbane near Donaghmore in County Down.

[7][5] Despite becoming a frequent truant he developed a love of reading, remaining a prodigious reader for the rest of his life, of subjects including contemporary fiction, economics, sociology and theology.

[5] After four years of working long hours he decided to follow the calling of his father as a minister which he said was due to hearing a sermon by a preacher in a country church and the example of his older brother Hugh.

[3] After being ordained at Newtownards in County Down, Waddell struggled to find employment, being rejected both for missionary service in Syria and by the congregation of Ballygrainey Presbyterian Church at Six Road Ends in Bangor.

This led Waddell to accept an invitation to join the ministry of the Canterbury Presbyterian Church Extension Association, for which he would receive a salary of £200 per annum.

Following the resignation of its previous minister, the Reverend John Gow in July 1878, St Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Dunedin began looking for a replacement.

There were claims that Gow had disgraced himself with drink which resolved the congregation to seek an exemplary candidate, which they felt could only be obtained by recruiting a minister from Scotland.

[7] At this time St Andrew's parish stretched from the lower reaches of prosperous Mornington, home to the middle-class as well as rich merchants and notable residents such as William Reynolds, seed merchants Robert Nimmo and John Blair, importer Alexander S. Paterson and drapery owner Thomas Brown – all the way down to the overcrowded slums and sleaze of the Devil's Half-Acre.

[11] Waddell threw himself immediately into the life of his challenging parish, reinvigorating St Andrews after its hiatus without a permanent minister with the impassioned directness of his sermons soon won the confidence of the congregation.

[13] On the evening of 7 July 1883 Stephenson rushed up to his wife while she was out walking in Manor Place, seized her round the neck with his left arm, and pulled a dynamite cartridge out of his pocket, which he detonated, blowing both their heads off.

Waddell believed that the Christian gospel should be actively interpreted through social justice so he responded with a number of practical church-based initiatives – the moribund Ladies Association was restructured within three years of his arrival and charged with distributing food, clothing, coal and blankets to the poor of the parish.

The sermon (of which no copies have survived), is regarded as a pivotal moment in New Zealand's labour history as it inspired George Fenwick, editor of the Otago Daily Times and the paper's chief reporter Silas Spragg to take up the issue.

[16] Chaired by William Downie Stewart the meeting agreed that a committee be formed to support better working conditions and better pay for those living on low wages.

[18][19] Chaired by William Downie Stewart, among those present in the packed hall were Winifred Bathgate, Rachel Reynolds, Otago Daily Times editor George Fenwick, politician Sir Robert Stout, mayor Henry Fish and other Dunedin politicians, unionists, business leaders and clergy including the Revs, James Gibb and J. Gibson-Smith.

[15] Following on from that meeting Waddell together with Rachel Reynolds and the country's leading female unionist Harriet Morison was instrumental in founding the Tailoresses Union of New Zealand on the 11 July 1889.

[5] In response to the public agitation stirred up by Waddell the conservative Atkinson government decided to appoint a royal commission to investigate working conditions in selected industries.

[20] The commission's recommendations were an important part of the foundation for the progressive labour and industrial legislation of the early 1890s introduced by John Ballance's Liberal party.

In an effort to help the disadvantaged children in the parish Waddell in conjunction with Rachel Reynolds, journalist Mark Cohen (1849–1928) and Lavinia Kelsey was instrumental in establishing the Dunedin Free Kindergarten Association.

Donald Stuart refused to allow facilities at Knox Church to be made available for a kindergarten claiming that he would "far sooner see the children playing in the gutters than be brought under this new-fangled Yankee notion".

[23] At Waddell's request, St Andrew's agreed to make available, rent free, the church's recently opened Walker Street Mission Hall.

[3] Waddell was so highly regarded that 700 people attended a function in Agricultural Hall on 26 April 1900 to celebrate his 21 years of service as minister of St Andrew's.

Realizing the limitations of voluntary efforts by the well-meaning middle-class women of the Friendly Aid Society, Waddell in 1901 suggested that a Deaconess be employed by the parish.

[26] Waddell overcame the wariness of the Deacons Court by agreeing to personally fund from the proceeds of a lecture series her £90 salary for a one-year trial.

Duncan's work among the poor in church's parish proved so successful, that by the end of her first year the deacons of St Andrews became her enthusiastic supporters.

[26] The Presbyterian Deaconess movement quickly spread throughout New Zealand providing dedicated women who were effectively fulltime parish social workers.

Waddell was deeply committed to overseas missions which resulted in the congregation raising £136 in 1905 to send Margaret Anderson (1877–1960) as a missionary to Canton now Guangzhou in China.

[6] In August 2012 the University of Otago's Centre for Theology and Public Issues organized a one-day conference in Burns Hall in Dunedin which celebrated the life, work and legacy of Waddell.

Rutherford Waddell and the Sin of Cheapness” its keynote speaker was Helen Kelly, president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.

Kathleen Waddell suffered from a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis and after years of being a chronic invalid she was admitted in 1917 to Seacliff Mental Hospital, where she died on 7 September 1920.