MR SAVAGE’S ILLNESS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1939, Page 4

MR SAVAGE’S ILLNESS.

JX the ordeal of illness, necessitating an. operation, by which lie is now coni routed, the Prime Minister has only friends and sympathisers in New Zealand. Even those who are classed normally as his resolute and uncompromising- opponents wdl vie with his supporters in wishing him a happy restoration to health. Air Savage enjoys a wide personal popularity and has gained respect on all sides by Hie zeal and untiring devotion with which he has applied himself to his arduous public, duties —a respect that is the greater since it is not necessary to agree with him in all respects to perceive in him one who honestly desires to give true and helpful service to his fellow-men. It is to be regretted that the Prime Minister, in his state of impaired health, insisted on undergoing the ordeal of presenting the Budget to Parliament on Tuesday evening instead of delegating the task to one of his colleagues, but the facts bear witness to his courage and his sense, of duly.

Political life in this country makes exacting demands, especially upon Ministers of the Crown, and above all on the Prime Minister, upon whose time and attention unending' calls are made. Il would he tin excellent thing for all concerned if the burdens and working cares of .Ministerial office, and particularly those that devolve on the head of the Government, could be lightened substantially, but measures to that end admittedly are not easy in the conditions in which our political democracy has developed. Fortunately good hopes are entertained that Mr Savage’s withdrawal from, working activity will be only temporary and that he will be able to resume his duties, after a period of rest and recuperation, in restored health and vigour.