Mr Kirk 'knew he would not see 55’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33963, 2 October 1975, Page 11

Mr Kirk ' knew he would not see 55’

t.V.Z. Pres* Association) HAMILTON. September 30. The late Prime Min* lister, Mr Norman Kirk, * was warned by a doctor in 1959 that he had an enlarged heart and would not live to 55, according to the Minister of Finance (Mr Tizard). ; Close colleagues in the ■Labour Party were aware i that he had collapsed from I strain several times in his (Parliamentary rooms during the 1957-60 Labour Government, which has a majority in the House of one. Mr Tizard, his former Parliamentary room-mate, said in Hamilton that Mr Kirk’s knowledge of his condition has spured him to insist that social reforms be implemented at a “headlong pace” in 1973. “Norm Kirk would come and say to some members of the Cabinet. ‘lt’s all right

for you people — you all expect to live to your 80s, but 1 wqn’t.’ “Then he would look at Bill Rowling and say, ‘Have we got the money to do this?’ And with his strength of personality he would carry whatever the project was through. KEPT UP IMPETUS “He kept up the impetus at a headlong pace, and this has raised expectations from people that we cannot keep up in the economic downturn,” said Mr Tizard. He said he was not criticising the late Prime Minister: the whole party would have to share the blame for setting a pace which could not be maintained. “But Norm Kirk was determined to set the pace, even though he knew he didn’t have a full span of life. “I roomed with him during his first term, and I know the reason he was turned down for military service during the last war was because he had an enlarged heart. SEVERAL “COLLAPSES” “And during the 1957-60 Labour Government he was hit very hard on occasions, and flaked out cold several times. “He was not suffering from heart attacks in the true sense, there was no violent pain. His brain just wasn’t getting its full blood supply. “One of these occasions was about 11 p.m. during an all-night sitting, and Gerry Skinner (then the Labour deputy leader) went to Nash (the late Mr Walter Nash, the then Prime Minister) and covered up for Kirk. “Skinner, who had earlier suffered a heart attack, told Nash he was not feeling

well. Nash halted the session. “DOCTOR’S WARNING” “In 1959, Norman Kirk was told by a doctor he would not live to 55.” (Mr Kirk died on August 31. 1974, aged 51). Mr Tizard said he believed the enthusiasm of the new government in 1973 and the drive of Mr Kirk “may have taken us a bit too fast in the first year. “Once a scheme is started the Government is committed to the same expenditure the next year, but this is not possible if Government income is falling. “Today, we have to be realistic and we cannot keep up that sort of pace. The three-month curb on Housing Corporation loans except to families is an example of expectations that have had to be curbed,” Mr Tizard said.