The Press SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1974. Mr Marshall steps down

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33579, 6 July 1974, Page 12

The Press SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1974. Mr Marshall steps down

On the eve of its conference in the middle of the present Parliament’s term, the National Party is about to have a new leader. Mr Marshall has given his reasons for retirement from the post and he has done so in his own time, and on his own terms. When he first —unsuccessfully—sought the leadership of the party, just before a mid-term conference in Dunedin in 1971, Mr Marshall also took the initiative. He is a politician who is very much his own man, not always waiting to be asked, and not delaying until he is pushed. When he assumed the leadership in 1972 he was able, with complete consistency, to present himself to the party—as he had done when he entered Parliament in 1946 —as a Liberal in the classic sense of the word. In explaining his reasons for retirement. Mr Marshall presented himself as a political realist, ready to give his colleagues an opportunity to elect a more aggressive leader. That may be what they need, though few who know Mr Marshall underestimate the steel in his character. What he perhaps meant was that it does not show enough to impress the electorate. New Zealand has had a long succession of Prime Ministers who have been nothing if not robust and often “ abrasive the quality may still appeal to the electorate more than the kind of urbanity exhibited by Mr Marshall. He has pointed the way to the election of his deputy. Mr Muldoon; and there is a man who wants for nothing in the way of aggressiveness if it is called for. Given that quality in its leadership the party should now find a deputy leader who will stand in the same relationship that Mr Marshall had with his own predecessor. Sir Keith Holyoake. That deputy will probably be Mr Taiboys, an able, moderate, and moderating man. Whatever credit must go to Mr Marshall for acting according to his own judgment—and at the most propitious time, for his successor—the occasion should not obscure Mr Marshall’s long list of successes as a Minister. Few politicians in the last two decades have done their job with as much foresight, and precision, with such sense of fairness, or with the same consistent political philosophy and intelligence. He was probably ahead of his party in 1946; he is still ahead in 1974.