HIS LEADER'S REGRET

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 600, 3 August 1933, Page 5

HIS LEADER'S REGRET

(Press Assn.—

A GREAT FIGHTER

-By Telegraph — Copyrlght).

Westport, Wednesday. In connection with the death of Mr McCombs, the Leader of the Opposition stated to-day. — "The death of Mr. McCombs is a great shock to myself, as well as to the whole of the Labour" movement. He was one of the deepest thinkers, most effective debaters and greatest fighters the House has ever seen. Since his first remarkable victory in the midst of the industrial storms of 1913 he has figured in and out of Parliament as an unswerving champion of the working men, industrially and politically. He was most prominent in every great battle on the fioor of the House -and in the constituencies. He had a capacity for work and a tenacity of purpose that won out for him in his own. electorate in a series of determined contests. "His life's history was ons of restless energy, and his death will mean an overwhelming loss to the Labour movement as a whole and to the Labour party in Parliament in particular. The sincere sympathy of the Labour movement from the North Cape to Bluff will go out to Mrs. McCombs and her son and daughter in what must be for them the darkest hour of their lives. Those of us who were closely associated with Mr. McCombs were in a position to know the measure of his devotion as husband and father."