PARLIAMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 158, 5 June 1940, Page 9

PARLIAMENT

TRIBUTES TO LEGISLATORS. MR SAVAGE’S WORK. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, May 4. The House of Representatives this afternoon was mainly occupied with tributes to deceased legislators. Moving “That this House desires to place on record its high sense of the devoted and distinguished service rendered to New Zealand and the British Commonwealth by the late Prime Minister (lit. Hon. M. J. Savage), and the great loss the Dominion had sustained by his death and respectfully tenders to his relatives an assurance of its sincere sympathy with them in , their bereavement,” the Prime Minister (Hon. P. Fraser) said it -was difficult for members of the House who valued Mr Savage as a friend to express in mere words their sense of the loss and bereavement occasioned by his death. He referred to Mr Savage’s last official appearance in the House in 1939, when he presented the Budget, stating that it was a fitting crown to a life of service. There had never been anyone, said Mr Fraser, who had been more selfless than Mr Savage, and he had dedicated liis life to ameliorating the lot of the mass of the people. Never had there been a Prime Minister more beloved by the mass of the people. Hon. A. Hamilton (Leader of the Opposition), seconding the motion, recalled his pleasant association with Mr Savage during his 20 years of Parliamentary life. He was sorry to have lost so great a colleague. Mr Savage’s rise to the highest position in the land was a tribute to his character and ability in all his dealings with both political friends and opponents. -He had been, a gentleman in the true sense of the word and his passing had been a very great loss indeed.

The Minister of Mines (Hon. P. C. Webb) said Mr Savage’s life and comradeship were an inspiration to his friends. Not only had they lost a great statesman, but a great mate. The Minister of Supply (Hon. D. G. Sullivan) stated that Mr Savage’s real and genuine love for the people had been one of the things which had most impressed his colleagues. It was ingrained in the very fibre of his being. lit. Hon. J. G. Coates referred to Mr Savage’s great capacity for friendliness, his forgiving nature, and the charm of his personality which would be long .remembered. The Minister of Finance (Hon. W. Nash) expressed the opinion that one gained a true realisation of Mr Savage’s greatness at the Imperial Conference in 1937. Mr Savage had been mainly responsible for placing before the League of Nations conferences the vision of the people of New Zealand of a world without war. Mr Savage

had a vision far above the average, and in his death New Zealand had lost a great man. Mr P. Carr, who replaces Mr Savage in the House as member for Auckland West, in his maiden speech, associated himself with the other tributes which had been paid to Mr Savage, whose sole aim in life, lie said, had been to make things happier and easier for the people. i Others who paid tribute to the late I Prime Minister were Hons. W. E. Parry, F. Jones, F. Langstong and H. G. It. Mason also Dr. D. G. McMillan, Messrs C. A. Barrell, W. M. C. Denham, P. K. Paikea, H. E. Combs, Sir Apirana Ngata and Mrs C C. S. Stewart. OTHER TRIBUTES.

Tributes and motions of sympathy to the relatives were also paid to the late Hon. Jonathan Trevithick, M.L.C. from 1930 until the time of his death in October, 1939; Hon. Richard MeCallum, member of the House of Representatives for Wairau from 1911 to 19122, and M.L.C. from 1930 to 1937; Mr Tan Henaro, member for the Northern Maori district from 1914 to 1938; Mr J. S Dickson, member for Parnell from 1911 to 1928; Mr J. R. Hamilton, member for Awarua from 1919 to 1922 and from. 1925 to 1928; and Mr David McLarin, member for Wellington East from 1908 to 1911. The House rose at 5.58 p.m. until 2.30 to-morrow as a mark of respect to the above-mentioned deceased legislators. The Legislative Council unanimously carried a resolution of sympathy with Hon. M. Fagan who was absent from the Speaker’s chair because of illness. Resolutions recording the services of the late Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage and Hons. MeCallum arid Trevethick were carried, the majority of Councillors paying a tribute to the memory of Mr Savage. * MEMBERS’ QUESTIONS.

In the House of Representatives Mr F. W Doidgc (Tauranga) gave notice to ask the Prime Minister why, in view of the admitted need for censorship, the president of the Federation of Labour (Mr A. McLagan) was permitted on Sunday night -the facilities of a national broadcast in which lie made an. extraordinary statement that, as a prerequisite to a National Government in Britain, an incompetent Conservative Government was swept aside. Mr_ F. L. Frost (New Plymouth) stated that, m view of the loss of production due to the high death rate in flocks and herds and the limited number of veterinary surgeons available, he would give notice to ask the Minister of Agriculture whether lie would bring down legislation to license men of proven ability and experience >. to carry on veterinary work.