PRIME MINISTER’S WIFE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 April 1940, Page 8

PRIME MINISTER’S WIFE

A POPULAR PERSONALITY. TAKES ACTIVE INTEREST IN PUBLIC LIFE. Mrs Janet Fraser, wife of the Prime Minister, is the first woman in New Zealand to be the wife of a Labour Prime Minister, her husband’s predecessor, the late Mr Savage, having been a bachelor. She is a well-known and popular personality in the public life of Wellington, though her main interest is looking after her husband. A grandmother for the last six years, Mrs Fraser is an extremely busy woman, and since her marriage to the new Prime Minister in 1918, she has taken a keen and active interest in many aspects of public life, notably education, health and child welfare. Her persona! mail is large, and though it is some years since she was a member of the Wellington Hospital Board, an associate of the Children's Court, and official visitor to the Mental Hospitals, she receives almost daily inquiries associated with these and other interests. She is also a Justice of the Peace. Mrs Fraser's interests are varied and extensive, and are all marked by a keen enthusiasm and an intelligent understanding. Her popularity is largely due to her sympathetic and human approach, and her simple, charming manner. She is intensely interested in the welfare of the Maori people, and is patroness of the Maori Women’s Health League. For ten years she was a member of the Wellington Hospital Board, and was also a member of the special committee set up to inquire into the incidence of septic abortion. She is a foundation member and a. vice-president of the League of Mothers, is also an honorary member of the Federation of 'University Women, and has a life-long interest in children and child welfare.

Born in Glasgow, Mrs Fraser was educated there, and became a primary school teacher before she came to New Zealand in 1910. She has always taken a keen interest in Labour politics, and it was through her association with Labour activities in New Zealand that she met the present Prime Minister. Early in her married life. Mrs Fraser showed practical sympathy for those needing help by doing valuable work during the influenza epidemic that followed the last war. Later, during the infantile paralysis epidemic, Mrs Fraser again helped, this time in the Wellington Hospital, and it was while she was working in the wards that she was elected to the hospital board. By her first marriage, Mrs Fraser has one son, Mr Harold Kemp, of Wellington, who married a daughter of the Hon H. T. Armstrong. They have one child.