OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 71, 20 September 1930, Page 9

OBITUARY

SIR NEVILLE HOWSE

CAREER IN WAR AND PEACE

(Received 20th September, noon.) LONDON, 19th September. Tho death is announced of MajorGeneral Sir Neville Howse, who recently underwent a serious operation.

A dapper little man, decidedly short —spare —well-groomed, and always correctly dressed, Sir Neville Howse looked what ho was—a doctor with a successful army career behind him. Nineteen years ago he was an experienced country town practitioner of a kind plentiful enough in New South Wales country towns, which seem to_be the proper atmosphere for producing good citizens. He took an interest in everything in Orange. He was ia the militia, and year by>ear he increased his hold on the community by faithful service. Slowly but surely he climbed to a colonelcy in the Militia Medical Service. Then came war. He became A.D.M.b. before most people had settled down to the fact that a war was on. In a couple of years his was the guiding hand at Australian Headquarters in London that controlled the destinies of tht Australian Army Service. He controlled it efficiently, and gained by good, honest service the rewards a grateful King and country bestowed on him. Like many another soldier, he returned feeling that his home town was not quite big enough to keep him busy; and the election of 1919-20 found him returned to represent his district in the Federal Lower House. There he did what many anothei man with a reputation outside failed to do —made himself a reputation inside the House. He moreover took with him an inquiring truthseeking mind seldom found in politicians. He was said to be the only man on either side of the House who never dodged a question, never took cover behind a barricade of statistics. Whatever the question, he tried to answer it—whether it was against him or not. His grave courtesy as he read his .answers, his solemn statement of facts, often bald and unpleasant, made one wondor what Parliaments would be like if everyone were prepared to see the truth and respect it. Sir Neville had his faults. His gravest one as a Minister was that he could be "rattled." A gleeful Opposition loved to pour a fusillade of questions at the head of the flurried little man. But when he recognised that he was in a storm he beat his way into port. Sometimes the doctor peeped through the politician. He always gave diseases their full medical name, and he dealt with an unsparing medical hand with Spahlinger and all his works. To him Spahlinger was suspect. Ho mistrusted enthusiastic amateurs even when they had great scientific knowledge. He stood for proofs, cures, and real serums which could be handled. Withal he was a painstaking Minister, and ranked among the public-spirited citizens of the • Commonwealth of Australia. He was a captain in the Boer War, and went out, under heavy fire at Vredefort, picked up a wounded man, and carried him to a place of shelter. For that he received the V.C. He was usually at his office at 5.30 a.m., and when 'travelling to distant parts of the country he thought nothing of starting as early as 4 or 5 a.m. He declared that "no time" is the excuse of the inefficient or lazy. He was born, at Storgursey, in Somerset, the eon of the late Alfred Howse, M.B.C.S. In 18S9 ho went to Australia, and began his practice at Taree, on the Maiming Eivor, after securing his medical degrees in England and receiving his earliest training in the London Hospital. He has represented the Commonwealth at the League of Nations, and in 1925 was appointed Minister of Defence and Health. In the following year he accompanied Mr. Bruco to tho Imperial Conference. He was taken ill there, undergoing an operation, and when he returned to Australia in. 1927 he was still a sick man, and had to resign some of his portfolios; but as soon as he had recovered he took them over again, and, in addition, was behind the Government in its successful campaign in preparation for ' the .1928 General Election.