Kiwis lose great battler Moore

Mike Moore, who beat cancer and limited education to become New Zealand leader and head of the World Trade Organization, died yesterday aged 71.

Moore was WTO director general from 1999 to 2002 and oversaw China's entry into it. Then he was New Zealand's ambassador to Washington from 2010 to 2015.

He was in New Zealand's prime minister's job for 59 days before a 1990 election then opposition leader for three years after the Labour Party was defeated.

As a young man he beat three bouts of cancer but had been in poor health in recent years after a stroke in 2015.

He grew up in the Northland region and wanted to end his days there. But he returned to Auckland because of his health.

"Northland made him a battler," wife Yvonne said. "That drove him to become a member of the New Zealand Labour Party at 16 ... He left school at 15 but believed his love of reading and hard work would overcome a lack of formal education."

He was elected to parliament at 23 in 1972.