He represented South Canterbury electorates in Parliament for a total of 34 years, before being appointed to the Legislative Council.

He served briefly on the Otago Provincial Council and was Mayor of Oamaru for three years.

[1] He emigrated to New Zealand apparently on the Mersey in 1862,[1][2] but his name is not included in the passenger list for the 25 September 1862 arrival.

[3][4] Steward married Hannah Whitefoord on 4 December 1873 at St. Paul's Church in Dunedin.

At the nomination meeting, Steward received a slight majority during the show of hands, and Macassey demanded a poll.

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).

[8] The provincialists won the election by quite some margin, and Steward lost his seat in Parliament.

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.

[12] He had not been regarded as an effective manager of the House and was succeeded by O'Rorke, who had regained his seat in Parliament.

[21] 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.

It is located beside the memorial statue for Dr Margaret Barnett Cruickshank MD.