Visitors, Telegrams, And Telephone Calls

Chronicle (Levin), 2 December 1949, Page 6

Visitors, Telegrams, And Telephone Calls

rPress AssociationJ

(Per

CHRISTCHURCH, Dec. 1. One of ,fhe highlights of Mr; S; ..G: Holland 's first day as Leader of- .tho National Party after it. had. wop.. its. sweeping victory at the polls, was 'a. telephphe eall' from the Priffie JVtinVs-' ter-^Mf prasef). ■ ^ ''The' " convershtioh Was .-on the lughest leveLof . friendtihesSj ahd we discussed what would thappen fn the next few said Mr Holland.: "Mr Praser offered every eo-ppern-tion." i,, Mr Holland will fbe in Christchurehuntil SatuTday and will hot go' to Wel ' lington until Saturday's steamer express at the earliest. He may yet spend ihe weekend at his farin, Greta Paddocks, in North Canterbury, and go to Wellington early nexf week. On Satur day Mr Holland will be at the Canter bury Joekey Club's meeting at Riccar ton. ' . After. getting to bed at 2.30 a.ms - today, the Prime Minister elect was awakened early this morning. The first telephone call was from Mr W. S. Goos man, always an early riser, and Mi Holland took it at his bedside tele. phPne. That wa^ just after 6 o'cloek. After that call Mr Holland left his t>eO and picked up the morning newspapei from the front lawn at his home ih Derby St., St. Albans. Mr Holland took Ihe newspaper baek to bed but he had little time to read it because from then on the telephone rang almost contmu opsLy. His younger daughter, Miss Loit Holland, made an early cup of .tea for the household and the telephone kept ringing for two hours after that. Mi Holland spoke to the telephone callers ajid then Mrs Holland brought hini ^ breakf ast ,ln bed — two boiled eggs. Eat ing those eggs was one of the big diffi culties of the moraing because every time he had the spoon to his mouth, the telephone rang again, Mr Holland said. Not all the calls were from New Zea land. Australian newspapers and evcn representatives of United States' news seryices were asking for statements on the election. After breakfast in bed and a bath

Mr Holland left the job of answeriag the telephone to the others and went out to relax in the garden, tending his favourite bed of gladioli. Mr Holland is kn ardent Pnthusiast on gladioli and the affairs of State ^were pushed aside while he tidied up^ljie garden plot. All the morningi while the telephone rang monotonously, there was a eonstant stream of callers at the house. Mr Holland met the first of them in hb bedroom and later anivals talked to him in the gardeu. After lunch at the Canterbury Club. Mr Holland relaxed with a game of billiards — lie did liPt sav whether he won or lost — and' frcmr -th'eti 1 on the "a'fternoon was a further round of meeting people who sought to congratulate him. and answering telephone calls. By 5 p.m. the pile of telegrams in the front room had grown to huge proportious and they still kept arriving. Then there was half ftn hour'of posing for newspaper photographers, mostlv for pic ' tures for overseas journals, dinner and private engagements in the evening. Altogether it was a busy day for a man who had not gOne to bed until after 2 a.m. Outside the house in Derby St., stood Mr Holland 's car, cfean and shining. It should liave looked cleau and shining because on polling day Mr Holland spent some hours himself doing j the cleaning and polishing. The car had Jcovered a big mileage during the election camp^ign. Mfs Holland spent the day at home — as quietly as the circumstances would permit.