RECORD PREMIERSHIP

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 55, 7 March 1939, Page 9

RECORD PREMIERSHIP

MR. B. S. B. STEVENS

ZEAL FOR POLITICAL LIFE

(From "The Post's". Representative.)

SYDNEY, March 3,

With six years nine months and sixteen days of continuous office as Premier of New South Wales, Mr.-B. S. B. Stevens this week surpassed the record for this state of Premiership previously held by the late Mr. W. A. Holman. He has received many congratulations on'his long and successful term of office and functions have been arranged to mark his record.

The Premier's political career began after his retirement from the Directorship of the State Treasury when Mr. Lang first became Premier and after he had quarrelled with Mr. Lang. After a time in business, he was attracted to politics and entered the State Parliament in 1927. He returned to the Treasury, where he had been a civil servant, as Assistant Treasurer in the Bavin Ministry in that year. Two years later he became Treasurer, and in May, 1932, Premier.

The Premiership began in a difficult period when depression still existed and in subsequent months the work of the Ministry was arduous and continuous. He soon developed a flair for politics and has led and kept in office a coalition party with marked success. A remarkable feature of his Premiership has been. the close association between himself and the leader of the Country Party (Mr. Bruxner). Their friendship has grown with the years. . RECIPE FOR ROBUST HEALTH. Mr. Stevens has changed little since the early days of his Premiership and despite the exacting demands of leadership his zeal for political life has not diminished. Gardening is his chief recreation and on many summer mornings he is to be found busy among the plants at his home. Ha has his own recipe for rpbust. health. He just mixes hard work with plenty "of gardening. He likes work; he likes being Premier. At official functions he drinks copious, quantities of fruit cup and does not smoke. With capacity for hard work he combines the faculty of sleeping at will. When election campaigning he has. amazed his staff by sleeping peacefully in a car travelling at 50 miles an hour over rough country roads. He plays tennis, is a good pianist, and sings oldfashioned ballads. His idea of a [ restful evening is to listen-in to oversea broadcasts. For reading he prefers; House of Commons debates to novels. And at one of the functions in his honour this week he allowed himself to be persuaded by one of the young women constituents to attempt the Lambeth Walk, finishing up by eni joying the leg-slapping and "oi-ing as much as the young folk present.