PRIME MINISTER’S HEALTH.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIII, Issue 3076, 7 November 1929, Page 5

PRIME MINISTER’S HEALTH.

BASELESS RUMOURS.

SIR JOSEPH WARD MAKING STEADY PROGRESS. Rumours of an alarming nature appear to circulate nearly every day regarding the health of the Prime Minister, while the real fact is that he continues to make steady progress towards a complete recovery (states the Christchurch Times). An example of this kind of report was a statement of a circumstantial character that Sir Joseph Ward had a seizure, the actual time being mentioned. This happened to be the moment when the Prime Minister was receiving visitors, who were pleased to find him bright and alertly interested in affairs. He followed these interviews with a long conference with the Hon. G. W. Forbes, acting-Leader of the Government, regarding the arrangements for the remainder of the session.

This morning at 8.30 o’clock, Sir Joseph Ward telephoned to his secretarial staff an instruction to arrange for an early interview with the Secretary of the Treasury for the discussion of the Finance Bill, which will be brought before the House early this week. Though his health would greatly benefit from a complete change of air, Sir Joseph Ward prefers to remain in his suite in Parliament Buildings until the session ends. Then he proposes to stay at his Heretaunga residence, near Upper Hutt, and motor in daily to transact business. These details are enumerated to support official bulletins that the Prime Minister’s health is not so precarious as to warrant the almost daily rumours of a disquieting character.

They originate mysteriously, and circulate rapidly through Parliament Building, and thus appear to gain some official semblance, though first'-hand information shows that nothing has happened to provide even the semblance of a fact as a basis.