Sir Keith’s body to lie in state on Monday

Press, 9 December 1983, Page 1

Sir Keith’s body to lie in state on Monday

PA Wellington The body of Sir Keith Holyoake, described as the greatest New Zealander of his time after his death early yesterday, will return on Monday to the place where he sat at the pinnacle of his career.

From 9 a.m. on Monday, Sir Keith, Prime Minister briefly in 1957 and from 1960 to 1972, will lie in state in the red-carpeted Legislative Council Chamber at Parliament Buildings.

This is the now-defunct Upper House from which he delivered Speeches from the Throne during his years as Governor-General from 1977 to 1980.

A guard of honour will stand by Sir Keith’s body during the lying in state. As a former commander-in-chief, Sir Keith will have two bearers from each of the Navy, Army, and Air Force.

The deputy secretary of the Internal Affairs Department, Mr Mel Smith, said last evening that the bearers would be officers.

At 11 a.m. on Tuesday he will receive a State funeral with full military honours, and then the coffin bearing his body will be taken through the streets of central Wellington to a private cremation in the northern suburb of Karori. Government officials said that the funeral service would be conducted by the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt Rev. Edward Norman, in conjunction with Dean James Thomas. Pallbearers from friends and family will walk on either side of the coffin.

Representatives of the Presbyterian, Apostolic, and Salvation Army churches will take part in the service,

Mr Smith said it was also the wish of Sir Keith’s family that the Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, read a eulogy. Sir Keith Jacka Holyoake was born near Pahiatua on Febrpary 11, 1904, one of a family of seven children. He left school at 12 but overcame the disadvantages of a limited formal education to

become New Zealand’s long-est-serving Prime Minister this century and spent his last three years in public life as Governor-General. Sir Keith, who retired three years ago, was admitted to Wellington Hospital with high blood pressure 7% weeks ago, and died just before 3 a.m. yesterday.

Sir Keith’s wife, Dame Norma, his daughters, Mesdames Diane Comber and Jenny (Keitha) Parton, and his son-in-law, Mr Ken Comber, were at his bedside when he died. “He had suffered a series of strokes, each one making him that much weaker,” said Mr Comber. “He died in his sleep. He just faded away peacefully.” Flags on Government buildings- flew at half-mast yesterday and will do so again on Tuesday, the day of the State funeral. Sir Keith was Prime Minister for 11% years. He succeeded Sir Sidney Holland in 1957, but was ousted when Labour swept to power 10 weeks later. He returned three years later and remained in office until stepping down for Sir John Marshall in February, 1972.

Sir Keith entered national politics by winning the Motueka seat for the Lib-eral-Reform coalition Government in a 1932 by-elec-tion after a farming career which included a busy involvement in rural organisations.

The coalition partners merged to ‘form the National Party in 1936. He was defeated in 1938, but returned to Parliament as member for Pahiatua in 1943 and remained there until his retirement.

He was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture under Mr Holland from 1949 to 1957 and

went on to lead the National Party to election victories in 1960, 1963, 1966, and 1969. From 1960 and until the end of 1972 he was also Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Sir Keith was made a Companion of Honour in 1963, knighted (G.C.M.G.) in 1970, and created a Knight of the Garter, the first for a New Zealander for services to New Zealand, in 1980. Dame Norma, who survives him with three daughters and two sons, was made a Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1980.

The accolade that Sir Keith was the greatest New Zealander of his time came from the Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, at a press conference yesterday morning.

Later, Parliament suspended its normal business as Mr Muldoon and other Parliamentarians of all political parties joined to offer eulogies. Perhaps one of the most moving parts of yesterday’s Parliamentary tribute, watched by the onlookers who flowed into the public galleries, came from five Maori members of Parliament.

Led by Mr Koro Wetere, the Labour member for Western Maori, they offered a waiata, a Maori lament. A little more than 13 hours after Sir Keith’s death in his family’s company at 3 a.m. yesterday, the House he first came to in 1932 was silent for a minute.

It then resolved to place on record “its high sense of the devoted and distinguished services rendered to New Zealand by the late Right Honourable Sir Keith Jacka Holyoake.”

Sir Keith’s life in words and pictures, page 19