Parliament pays tribute to Sir Basil Arthur

Press, 30 May 1985, Page 3

Parliament pays tribute to Sir Basil Arthur

By

MICHAEL HANNAH

in Wellington

“Basil’s bellow,” his warm, generous nature and fiercely pro-Timaru commitment were qualities Parliament recalled yesterday as members delivered eulogies of the late Speaker and member for Timaru, Sir Basil Arthur.

Sir Basil’s noisy, blunt, and competitive debating style were remembered by all who spoke, but perhaps most tellingly by the Minister of Energy, Mr Tizard, who had known Sir Basil for most of his 23 years in Parliament. Mr Tizard recalled the time he and the former Labour Prime Minister, the then Mr Rowling, had sat in the bench immediately in front of Sir Basil. The Timaru member of Parliament was “in full cry” in a debate, Mr Tizard recalled, and, just as he paused for breath between sentences, Mr Rowling had called out, “Speak up, lad.”

“And Basil did. His voice went up 10 decibels and I withdrew under the seat. Bill Rowling waved a white handkerchief in surrender,” Mr Tizard told Parliament. Mr Tizard sketched another side of Sir Basil he believed few were aware of.

“Basil was a worrier in a way that undoubtedly shortened his life and in a way not visible to many people,” he said.

He questioned whether many members realised how much Sir Basil struggled to keep on top of the job of Speaker they had given him after the 1984 snap General Election. Sir Basil used to bottle up his troubles, and kept the facts of three serious illnesses from even his closest colleagues. These had involved a major operation, then a “surgical accident” during an operation just before the 1981 General Election, and then his final illness.

“He used to sweat over his own personal difficul-

ties,” Mr Tizard said. Yet he could also be a great team man in every other matter. The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, opened the eulogies with a motion recording Sir Basil’s high sense of dignity and service, and Parliament’s sympathy to his family. Mr Lange said that there was something “uniquely Tirnaruvian” about Sir Basil, as was shown by the huge turnout of Timaru people for his funeral. People would remember him for many aspects of his life.

Sir Basil’s wide experience was also referred to by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr McLay, who also noted Sir Basil’s entertaining, robust, and often noisy style. The Leader of the House, Mr Palmer, said Parliament was not likely to see the like of Sir Basil again. Sir Basil had a richness of experience, he said, and had lived life to the full. He spent much time as a mem-

ber of Parliament passing on his experience to younger members. The former National Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, recalled that he was in Parliament when Sir Basil had first entered in 1962. He described Sir Basil as a tough, down-to-earth, forthright Parliamentarian, with his roots firmly in Timaru.” Sir Robert said that he had been impressed on recent visits to Timaru as Prime Minister by Sir Basil’s rapport with all people in Timaru; everyone had regarded Sir Basil as a personal friend. The member for Ashburton, Mr Rob Talbot, acknowledged that he had often sparred with Sir Basil, a role Sir Basil had relished. Yet they had developed a friendship and respect which perhaps only he and Sir Basil understood.

He was a hard-hitting and “gutsy” politician, said Mr Talbot.