Sir Keith, P.M. unlikely patrons

Press, 25 February 1980, Page 21

Sir Keith, P.M. unlikely patrons

PA Wellington Corso is still uncertain whether it has the Gover-nor-General as i-ts patron. It also does not know if it has the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) and the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) as vice-pat-rons.

They are listed as patron and vice-patrons on the organisation’s letterheads but a Corso spokesman, Mr Toby Truell, said he did nod know whether they still were.

“Last October when the Government cancelled the tax relief usually given to us, we saw news media reports indicating that Sir Keith Holyoake did not consider himself to be our patron,” said Mr Truell. "But we never heard anything about this from Sir Keith himself. Nor did we hear from Mr Muldoon or Mr Rowling. “We would like to hear from them, officially before we make any decisions about our patronage,” he said. The Governor-General's official secretary (Mr James Brown), said Sir Keith did not consider himself to be Corso’s patron. Vice-Regal patronage

of any organisation lapsed with a change in Gover-nor-General. When Sir Keith took up his position Corso had not approached him asking for patronage, therefore he was not their patron. If it were to approach him it was not known whether he would accept. A spokesman for the Prime Minister said Mr Muldoon had not officially resigned his vice-patron-age. He probably would not make any approach to Corso about the matter, but if the organisation approached him he probably would resign his position. Miss Eleanor Roy, a spokesman for the Leader of the Opposition, said Mr Rowling enthusiastically maintained his vice-pat-ronage. He felt he had shown enough support of Corso lately to make it confident of this, and did not think he needed to make a specific approach about his position. Mr Truell said the organisation would discuss the question of its patron at an executive meeting this week-end. Recommendations made would be put to Corso’s annual assembly in August and a firm decision made then.