THE PRIME MINISTER

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 137, 6 December 1935, Page 7

THE PRIME MINISTER

A PERSONAL TRIBUTE

A;, tribute to the estimable personal qualities of the new Prime Minister (Mr. M. J. Savage) was paid this week by Mr. A. J. French, of Herne Bay, Auckland, in an interview with the "Auckland Star." Mr. and Mrs. French have been close friends of Mr. Savage for nearly 30 years; in fact he has lived with them for ■ practically the whole of the time he has known them.

"If you speak ill of a man behind his back while Mr. Savage is about, look ..out for trouble," remarked Mr. French. '

"He has kept himself poor on account of his. generosity and through the demands that people have made upon him," said Mr. French. "He is always prepared to help. Never in the years that I have known him has he once deviated from the course which he is following today. His interest in the people who need help most has always been,' and still is, paramount in his eyes. Mr. .Savage is not a Church-going man. If you ask him what his religion is, he will say, 'My religion is my duty to my neighbour.'

"Mr. Savage is very fond of music," said Mr, French. "He likes good music —not' this fox-trot business. Often we sit-in the evening and listen to the radio, but if there is any jazz stuff on he turns it off. He is, of course, a great reader. He reads every piece of literature he can find dealing with the '.Labour movement and political economy.

"I am certain that Mr. Savage has never made a promise that he did not intend to carry out. His word is his bond." .

Mr. French said that although for many years Mr. Savage had followed sport closely through the newspapers, he had never found time to take part in any game himself. On one occasion he bought himself a bowling rig-out, complete with bowls. He joined a club with the idea of playing regularly, but he had.never found time to play, because always when he was at home there was a procession of callers —and Mr. Savage would turn nobody from the door without hearing his story.