LABOUR PARTY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 16, 13 October 1933, Page 10

LABOUR PARTY

Mr. M. J. Savage Leader

UNANIMOUS DECISION

Mr. P. Fraser as Deputy

Bv unanimous decision of a caucus of the Labour Party held yesterday, Mr. M. .1. Savage, member for Auckland West, was appointed leader of the party in succession to the late Mr.. 11. E. Holland. Mr. Savage therefore becomes the new Leader of the Opposition. Mr. P. Fraser, member for Wellington Central, was unanimously elected DeputyLeader of the party in succession to Mr. Savage. . . ~ Mr. Fraser will retain his position of Parliamentary secretary of the party. Mr. W. J. Jordan, member for Manukau, will move from his present seat in the middle row to the front benches beside Mr. E. J. Howard, member for Christchurch South. Mr. Savage has taken the seat previously occupied by his late bench-mate and leader, Mr. Holland, and Mr. Fraser will move from the bench he has shared with Mr. Howard to sit with Mr. Savage. The nomination of Mr. Savage for the leadership was moved by Mr. Fraser and seconded by Mr. Jordan. When the formal business had been disposed of in the House of Representatives in the afternoon, the Prime Minister. Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, expressed his pleasure at Mr. Savage's appointment. He said he had been associated with Mr. Savage for a very long time, and he was sure that the relations which had always existed would continue. He was sure Mr. Savage would fill the position of Leader of the Opposition with credit to himself and his party. Applause greeted Mr. Savage when be rose to reply. He thanked Mr. Forbes and the House for the very friendly reception accorded him. He hoped to be able to play the part of a man as had his predecessor. Mr. Savage resumed bis seat amid more applause. Numerous congratulatory messages have been received by Mr. Savage, and he values none more highly than the words of a member of the late Mr. Holland’s family, who said to him last evening: "It is what dad would have wished.” NEW LEADER’S CAREER Mr. Savage is a native of Victoria, having been born bn a farm near Benalla Ju 1872. His father. Mr. Richard Savage, had a farm about 12 miles from that centre, and it was in this atmosphere of country life that the lad spent his first 14 years. He obtained the leaving certificate of the local State school, and afterward went to the night classes conducted by Thomas McChrystal.

At the age of 14 Mr. Savage took a position as shop assistant in a general store at Benalla, and continued there until the big bank crash of 1893, in which very few of the banks were able to keep their doors open. Thousands of people were sent looking for work, and young Savage, then about 20 years of age, was one of them. He moved to New South Wales, and there took work on one of the stations of Sir Samuel McGaughey, afterward a mem: ber of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, and one of the very few millionaires of Australia. A great part of his time under Sir Samuel was spent in scooping out irrigation channels, for Sir Samuel was onq of the pioneers In transforming areas in the State by the Introduction of water. The district in which Mr. Savage worked, almost uninhabited then, is now the site of the town of Griffiths, with a population, approaching 20,000. The difference has been brought about by the irrigation scheme from the Murrumbidgee. Mr. Savage found occupation with other employers also in the district until in 1900 he went to the mining town of Rutherglen, in Victoria, where a brother of his was working. Mr. Savage had not intended to stay, but before long found himself working in a deep alluvial mine at North Prentice near Rutherglen. There he became secretary of the Political Labour Council, now named the Australian Labour Party, and it was there during his six or seven years’ stay that he first met Mr. P. C. Webb. Mr. Savage was in the midst of a co-operative movement that was started among the miners, and was appointed organiser and afterward manager of a bakery and grocery store that was begun. He concluded that this was not. in his line, however, and after nine or ten months of it he was induced by Mr. Webb to come to New Zealand. Curiously enough, though his definite intention was to go to the West Coast, that is a part that he has not visited yet. Instead of that he went first to Palmerston North—after having landed in this country significantly enough on Labour Day—and was employed in one of the flax mills of Mr. George Seifert. Palmerston North kept Mr. Savage for only about six months, for after that some reference to the starting of a co-operative grocery in Auckland attracted him there. That particular venture did not come to anything, but Auckland has been his home town ever since. That was in 1907. He obtained employment in Handcock’s brewery, where the varied mechanical knowledge he had by this time acquired—he holds 'among other proofs a winding certificate under the Victorian Mines Act —was turned to good account. He became a prominent leader in the Labour Party, and stood for Auckland Central in its interests in 1911 and in 1914. being defeated on each occasion by Mr. Albert Edward Glover. In 1919 he successfully contested the Auckland West seat, which he has held continuously ever since. At that time he was national secretary of the Labour Party, but resigned the position on entering the House. It was at the 1919 election that Auckland first sent three Labour representatives to the House, the other two being Messrs. Parry and Bartram. When the late Mr. J. McCombs retired from the position of deputy-leader of the party in 1923, Mr. Savage was unanimously appointed in his place. Elected in 1919 to both the Auckland City Council ami the Auckland Hospital Board, he retired from both after four years owing to pressure of business. In 1927. however, he was successfully put forward again by his party for a seat on the Hospital Board, which lie still continues to hold. Tie revisited Australia in 1926 with three others from Now Zealand as a delegate to the conference conducted there by the British Empire Parliamentary AsS OC’nf ! <>ii. THE DEPUTY LEADER Mr. Peter Fraser, deputy leader of the Labour Party, was born in Rossshlre, Scotland, in 1884, and quite early in life lie was prominently associated with the crofters’ agitation against the private landlord system. He joined the Independent Labour Party in London in 1908. and came to New Zealand in 1910. He worked at Auckland, Wei-'

lington, and other parts of the North Island as a labourer and watersider. and joined the New Zealand Socialist Party as an active propagandist. Mr. Fraser has been an active figure in the executive of the Federation of Labour, and was national secretary of the Socialist Democratic Party, which emerged from the Unity Congress in 1913. Elected to Parliament as Wellington Central’s representative in 1919, he has held the seat , ever since, polling substantial majorities on each occasion. For several years he sat on the City Council, but was defeated by Mr. R. A. Wright in tlie contest for the mayoralty in 1923. He had his revenge this year when he defeated Mr. Wright at the byelection for the City Council to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the late Cf. F. Meadowcroft. He is still secretary of the Parliamentary Labour Party, and has often been described as its ablest member and its potential leader. His knowledge of the Standing Orders of Parliament is tlie envy of n;ost members. Social problems, including tlie care and treatment of the mentally afflicted, have been his lifelong study. At the 1928 general election Mr. Fraser was returned by a majority of 3458 v'otes, and at the last municipal elections lie topped tlie poll for the Wellington Harbour Board.